The Reaper

Chapter 7

This may sound odd, but Janice had a strange way of walking.

I mean, she walked normally, but she was constantly on the lookout for something. Her eyes darted around the halls, traveled vertically over the other students, and constantly looked over her shoulder to make sure I was still in one piece. She became alert at the slightest sound. She was watching for an enemy that wasn't there, but one that also could appear out of nowhere at any moment.

"Miss Cholain's class is this way," I said, pulling her down the two hundred hallway.

"I knew that," Janice muttered, but it was evident that she did not know that.

"Right," I muttered, entering the English classroom.

I sat next to Ben, who's eyes immediately drifted to Janice. "Who's the chick?" he asked, leaning over his desk.

"Foreign exchange student," I lied.

Ben raised an eyebrow, "Where's she from?"

"Canada?" I replied, hoping it would explain her American esque accent.

Janice stared at me from behind the textbook she was currently holding to her face. Her gaze landed on Ben, and I remembered that I should probably establish that my friend was not an immediate threat to my existence. "He's cool," I whispered, "you can stop staring at him now."

Janice sighed, but went back to whatever she had been doing with that textbook. A few minutes later, Miss Cholain entered the classroom, leaving a trail of graded homework papers behind her. As soon as she got to her desk, she went back for the stray papers, clearly embarrassed.

"Now, class, let's begin. I have to say I was...disappointed in your essays, to say the least. I asked for four paragraphs, and half the class only gave two,".

Ben sunk down in his seat, telling me he was one of the two paragraph culprits. I sighed at his embarrassment.

"And you, Mr. Lamosci. I asked for four paragraphs, not four pages."

I shrugged, "each page contains one paragraph, Miss Cholain. I don't see the issue."

"A paragraph does not take up an entire page," she said, "four to ten sentences, we've spoken about this,"

I pulled out my phone, searching paragraph on Google, "A distinct section of a piece of writing, usually dealing with a single theme and indicated by a new line, indentation, or numbering. I see nothing about a sentence limit, Miss."

Miss Cholain groaned, giving up her argument. Of course, I was right, but I would never say it out loud. That would be bragging, and bragging about one's intelligence only makes them seem cocky and stuck up.

"Why is Cholain so stuck up?" Ben whispered.

I shrugged, "I don't know. Now pay attention."

Ben rolled his eyes, but looked towards the front. I was surprised, usually it took effort to get Ben to pay any sort of attention to the teacher. I shrugged, turning my attention to the front of the classroom.

Miss Cholain cleared her throat, pointing to the whiteboard. Written on it were two sentences, both extremely similar to each other. The first read Billy and me both love chocolate. The second said Billy and I both love chocolate. Immediately, I knew which one is the correct sentence.

"Now, which sentence is correct?" Miss Cholain asked.

I didn't raise my hand right away, just to see if any one else had the answer. After a few moments of silence, Janice raised her hand. "It's the second one." she said.

Miss Cholain nods, "and can you tell us why?"

"Because if you take out the words Billy and, the sentence reads I love chocolate, which is an actual sentence. However, if you do the same to the first, it becomes Me love chocolate, which is incorrect unless you are an infant."

I was surprised for the second time this period. I hadn't expected Janice to know the answer, and be able to give such a clear and concise explanation as to why her answer was correct. It was amusing, really, how she had a complete grasp on the rules of English, but was baffled by a chocolate chip cookie.

It seemed that Cave Girl had a lot to learn, but she already knew a lot as well.

Authors Note: Sorry that this one is really short. Honestly, it's a filler chapter, and it will likely be edited a lot or scrapped by the time I revise and edit the finished story.  I promise that the chapters will be longer once I can start writing the main action.