Fighting for Power (Howl of the Elements: Book One)

Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Logan rested his head on top of the small wooden desktop in front of him. English class always bored him, and usually he could barely keep his eyes open. The teacher, Ms. Woodbury, would always give him a look of pure annoyance whenever she would see him, but she knew better than to try to send him to the principal's office. Instead, she just showed obvious pleasure in handing him his tests back with a capital 'F' written in bold red ink.

Just as he was about to let his eyes drift shut, there was a loud thump across the room followed by bursts of giggles throughout the classroom. Jerking his head up, his eyes came into contact with an unbelievable scene. He attempted to rub his eyes with the back of his hands, but the view didn't change. It wasn't a dream.

There, holding the door half open, was the dark haired beauty that had been avoiding him like the plague the past couple of days. The area in front of her was covered in papers and Ms. Woodbury was flat on her butt in the middle of it all, her face showing a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to knock you over," Layla's sweet voice carried across the room to his ears.

Trying to stand herself back up, Ms. Woodbury shot Layla the evil eye, "Maybe now you will learn to knock before disrupting my class. What do you want?"

"And maybe now you will have learned not to stand in front of doors. My name's Layla, and I'm pretty sure I'm your new student. Nice to meet ya."

This drew another wave of laughter from the fellow students, and Logan found himself also smirking at Layla's sarcastic comment. The smirk was short lived, though.

There was a loud bang when Ms. Woodbury slammed a couple books onto her metal desk. The classroom fell into an eerie silence as her face contorted into a look of hatred.

"You may think that because you are one of them that you will get away with whatever you want, but I will let you know that it is surely not the case. I know you are not a true Hadan, and I am not afraid to make the rest of your school year in this class difficult for you. I would suggest you restrain yourself from speaking to me that way again," she said in a snippy voiced as she folded her arms across her chest and flared her nostrils.

Taking a step forward, Layla shut the door the rest of the way and cocked her head to the side, "For your information, I am not, nor will I ever be, one of them. I am my own person, and I would prefer to be addressed as such. I tend to speak my mind. That's just the way I am. If you have such a problem with that then I guess it will be you who will be having the difficult year, not me." She strode forward even more until she was standing right in front of Ms. Woodbury, not once showing any sign of nervousness, "Now that we have that cleared up, where do I sit?"

Logan didn't even give the teacher a chance to respond before waving his hand in the air and shouting, "There's an open seat next to me back here! It's all yours."

Snapping her head to find that familiar voice, Layla spotted him flashing her his sparkling teeth. Her facial expression went blank even though her emotions skyrocketed. Irritation confusing itself with longing. Looking for a way out of this predicament, she searched through pimply faces, girls twirling their hair, snapping of bubble gum, winks from one-skinner boys, and a couple of genuine smiles for any other open desk. Somehow, she had came up empty. At the school in her hometown there was always extra seats available in every class, but then again her pack didn't kidnap people from others'.

Adjusting her book bag on her shoulder, she reluctantly gave in and trekked across the faded linoleum to the empty desk. Logan waggled his eyebrows at her and she scowled in return. Secretly wishing she could disappear, she slumped down in the chair as she kicked her bag underneath the desk. This was turning out to be the worst first day of school she has ever experienced.