Always

Chapter 1

Only fifty four minutes left, I remember thinking as I absentmindedly clicked my pen. That's twenty seven minutes split into two separate parts. Only nine minutes six times. I can do nine minutes. Mr. Walker, my science teacher for this semester was going over natural selection once again. Yes, I understand that it's an important concept to know and study yet I don't think it's necessary for a student to be relearning something every single year something they initially learned in the fifth grade. Especially at my age. However my guidance counselor suggested that this would be the best option to receive more science credits. I mean it is only one semester after all. Just one more year, I remember thinking as I drag my pencil over the page, the simple doodles of imaginary space creatures coming to life. I'm not sure how anyone takes this class seriously. Anyone except Cassidy Finch, my seat partner. She's been taking heavy notes ever since class began half an hour ago. I never knew a person could need so many notes over a topic drilled into your brain since middle school.

"-and Ashton Imrie," I hear Mr. Walker call aloud. I set my pen down on top the notebook, unsure of what to do. I continue to sit there for a few more moments till a blond boy with a black lip ring pulled up a chair in front of me, spinning it around so he could rest his forearms on the back of the chair. He wore a red flannel shirt over his broad shoulders, his skinny jean covered knees lightly hitting the edges of my desk. I stared at him with wide eyes, never before seeing the boy before now.

"I'm Luke, Luke Gallows. I just transferred here yesterday from California. I'm told that we're supposed to be working on a science project together?" I look past the kid's quiffed hair at the whiteboard behind him. Sure enough there was an assignment written in green expo marker for a science project scheduled to be due in two weeks. As I squinted to look closer I noticed that the note was surrounded by tons of smiley faces around it. I've known Mr. Walker for several years now from the different sciences classes he teaches here at Everett High School and let me tell you, this man isn't that happy. Ever.

I move my head to look over at the other end of the room, my seat partner scribbling aimlessly in her notebook, taking the occasional glance at me every few minutes. Her partner must have left her already. Not at all a record by any means.

"So what's this project even on?" I asked, popping a piece of watermelon gum into my mouth, offering the boy a piece. The blond shrugged and turned around to face to board once again. At least we have 'spacing out while Mr. Walker is teaching' in common. I read the board quickly and went back to my drawings. I take a peek over at Luke, still trying to read Mr. Walker's writing style. It mainly consists between English, Hindi, Mr. Walker's native tongue, and another language that I have no idea of what it could be. If I had let Luke carry on trying to figure out exactly what Mr. Walker was trying to say we'd probably be here till midnight or later.

"We have to make an evolutionary chain of the world's first animals to the ones we have currently along as describe the events on how Charles Darwin determined natural selection and adaptation." I stated blantly. Just because Mr. Walker assigned us partners doesn't mean I have to be nice to the kid. For all I know this isn't even a project with partners and he, just like every other boy who just discovered what sex is, is attracted to other people, in this case females. The kid nods and opens his mouth to say something else when the bell rings. I unzip my backpack, throwing notebooks and pencils inside.

"Goodbye Miss Imrie," Mr.Walker said from his desk. I waved my hand a single time, my index, middle and thumb pointing outwards and continued to the hallway. Weaving in out of the many people of Everett High School, I finally made it to my gold and blue painted locker. Or more specifically, the one right next to it.

"Hi Ashton," my sister, Harper, exclaimed gleefully, wrapping her arms around me tightly. I tried my best not to let Harper know how much human contact disgusts me, though her being my twin sister you would have thought she would have known by now. Thankfully, she let go relatively quickly. "Are you ready to go home?" she asks without taking a breath. I nod my head slowly. "Great! Let's go!" she states boldly, her locker slamming shut. Here's the thing about my sister and I. We're fraternal twins, born six minutes apart on September 12th and, trust me, those six minutes have had a big difference on the two of us. She's a dirty blonde with waist length wavy hair. I have short brown hair that I personally cut every three weeks because I can't stand how long and thick it gets. I hardly talk at all and yet she talks so much that after a while you zone her out and begin to wonder if you've gone deaf because she'll still be talking to you. She's super artsy and into gymnastics while I keep to myself and in my school's state classified drumline as top bass drum. Yet, against the odds, people still get the two of us confused or don't even know the two of us are twins at all.

"Come on slow poke hurry up," Harper whines as she grabs onto my hand and begins to pull me outside. Somehow in just a few minutes the two of us have made it onto the main service road, just about to cross. The light changes, the two of us beginning to walk across. Harper is going on and on about some monkey or whatever it was she saw online earlier that day. Out of the corner of my eye I spot a car speeding across the road and into the intersection. My hand springs across my sister's chest, stopping her in her dead in her tracks.

For a second the world stops. Or perhaps it's just my breathing. The two of us hurry across the remainder of the road, trying to spot the license number of the vehicle yet they were too far away to be seen from where we were standing.

"Stupid teen drivers," I mumbled as I pulled my backpack up over my shoulder, hurrying the rest of the way home.