Evolution (Evolution Series Book 1)

Chapter 2

My first class was chemistry. I quietly opened the door, praying that I could slip into my seat without Ms. Drake noticing I was late. To my luck, I made it over to my seat next to my BFF, Chelsea, without Ms. Drake noticing. She was busy preparing the chemicals for the day’s lesson—it looked like I wasn’t the only one unprepared for class.

Chelsea took the chance to grill me about the events of yesterday. “So, I guess you’re still alive?”

I gave her a ‘what the hell’ kind of look.

“Chrissy was telling everyone that she heard from someone that you died in a car accident last night,” Chelsea said, answering my unasked question.

“And you believed her?” I asked sceptically.

Chelsea gave a little laugh. “I don’t believe anything that girl says anymore.” She shook her head, obviously thinking about how much Chrissy had changed over the years.

We had all been best friends for years—that ended soon after Aiden transferred to our school. It turned out Chrissy thought she was a better match for Aiden and tried everything she could do to break us apart. I just couldn’t believe that she would throw away our friendship over something so silly.

“What really happened?” Chelsea asked, her eyes gleaming. She was always eager for a good story.

I tried to play it cool. “Nothing much. It was just a minor car accident—”

“Minor accident, my butt!” Chelsea cut me short. “Ben said that he saw your car on his way home from the gym last night. He said that it was a write-off!”

It was just my luck that Ben had seen the car. Ben was one of Aiden’s friends, and there was no way that I would be able to convince anyone that he was lying. For all I knew, Aiden had been giving him a lift home from the gym, and that was how he ended up at my house last night. That kind of made sense, because I hadn’t planned to see him ’til today, and he didn’t exactly explain why he had come over so late. And I was pretty sure my mum hadn’t called him.

All I could do was go with the facts and try to minimise the gossip. “All I got was a small cut on my head.” I pointed at the gauze.

Chelsea’s eyes dropped with disappointment.

“They released me from hospital almost straightaway, and then I went home, Aiden came over….” I trailed off as I watched Chelsea’s eyes gleaming once again as another thought popped into her head.

“Ooh. Do tell.” Chelsea was sitting on the edge of her seat, her head resting in her hands, waiting eagerly for me to divulge any juicy details.

“Oh my God! Is that all you think about?” Thanks to her non-existent love life, Chelsea seemed to live all her romantic fantasies through me.

“Ah-ha, so there is something you’re not telling me.”

I shook my head, bewildered by her persistence. “You really need to get your own love life. And before you say anything else, nothing happened last night. Okay?”

Chelsea sat there staring at me. “I know you’re hiding something. You’ve got that look on your face.”

“What look?”

“Ladies, please!” Ms. Drake snapped. “Class is not the time to be discussing your love life—or lack thereof.” Ms. Drake gave one of those demeaning smiles to Chelsea. “Now, if you don’t mind, we’ll get back to the reason we are all here today,” she said, turning her attention back to the rest of the class. “We are already behind schedule.”