Evanescent

Nine

"E"? Neither of my parents names start with "E" and neither does any of friends'. Chills race down my body and my mind goes fuzzy. I feel like one of the girls from Pretty Little Liars.

And what about "The Crow and the Pitcher?" What is that supposed to mean? Is it a clue?

What am I doing? I'm not just going to sit here and wonder, that never gets anything solved. I pull out my laptop and search the line.

A lot of pictures and fables come up, click.

Here's a summarized version:

A crow is dehydrated and needs water. He finds a pitcher of water but can't fit his beak far enough into the top to get any. He keeps trying and nothing works. Just as it's about to give up, the crow decides to drop pebbles into it until the water rises enough for him to drink it.

•••••

I ignore the note for a while and get my photo box to put my new pictures in. I open the box like someone might open an old sacred treasure chest.

Apparently me two weeks ago had the same ideas because I pull out a picture of my converse in the daisies. Identical to the one I just took. Along with some other matches.

But to my surprise, many of the old pictures have water spilled on them, and the ink is darker where the water is. At least I have my new ones.

•••••

The next day is Wednesday, my personal favorite day of the week. Wednesday's are just always good. They're the end of the beginning of the week and the beginning of the end of the week.

Annie and I carpool to school in her mom's white minivan. We have to take her younger brother to school too and he always plays the same movie on the little TV, Wreck It Ralph.

We're always early so the halls are empty as quieter than usual. I put in the code for my locker and swing it open. After grabbing my books, I head to class.

My third class is english. It's my favorite class because I love to read and write. The bell sends out the sharp beep of a bell telling us to start class.

"Getting right down to business today," Mrs. Dennally exclaims,", you're going to be doing a partner project comparing a character from Animal Farm to an important part of the Russian Revolution. Mrs. Dennally is a sweet older woman in her 50s with a the personality of a mother duck. Always looking out for her kids year after year. "I will be choosing your partners."

Her last statement signals a sigh from everyone. She starts to name off partners, and after about six sets," Vanessa and Asher." Wow. Really? I thought Mrs. Dennally liked me! Asher of all people.

Here's a little something about Ash, about a two months in every year he obsesses over me. Then the next month someone else, then someone else, and so on and so forth. He never really likes anyone. But the girls who are stupid enough to think he's genuine, he always ends up having fun with until they either get bored or in trouble.

So yeah, this is a little upsetting.

Grace looks at me with wide eyes, obviously holding in a laugh. I know what she's thinking. My luck, right?

He walks up to me with a stupid smirk. "Hey Nessa," he sits down next to me.

"Hey," I say. He starts to talk again but I stand up to pull out character out of the basket before I can hear what he has to say.

I walk back over, holding out tiny slip of paper with "Napoleon" on it. "We got an easy character," I say and show him the card.

We get to work writing whatever comes to mind. But it's mostly me doing the work. He just sits there talking about his shoe collection. "The other day, I got some Nike-"

"Listen, this is a partner project and there is no way I'm going to do this whole thing and let you get credit. I mean really what have you done so far?" I kind of exploded.

"Well I actually have helped you get your
Stalin-like anger flowing so you could feel more like Napoleon. Thanks to me now it will be a lot easier to do the feeling and emotion analysis!" He smiles.

Really. This doesn't bother him. He thinks it's funny. He actually thinks it's funny.  Unbelievable.

"I have to go to the bathroom," I blurt and grab a hall pass. This is what I do when I'm frustrated, because I get this way a lot. But nobody really knows because I get into the biggest stall and take deep breaths over and over. Then, I return and finish my delima with an improved attitude.

I walk back into class. "Ash-" ring ring ring. Crap. Did the bell have to ring now?  "Asher, we didn't finish."

"You're right, we didn't," he says like he knew all along, "Zöe's Kitchen at 6:00."

"Alright," I nod and walk away.

I walk to my locker, and of course Tanner is already there with his car keys spinning around his finger. "Ready for an adventure?" He says with a big goofy grin.

I'm sure the same look is painted on my face. "Always." And we walk down the hall.