The Derivative Ring

Chapter 6

At school on monday, I was finally starting to get caught up in all my classes. I was starting to make friends, with some of the few people who weren't terrified to talk to me because I was a part of the Ring. There was a girl in both my Spells and my History class who was really nice and didn't seem to treat me differently. I knew I didn't have any friends in Potions class, but by the time third period came around I was in such a good mood it didn't matter. About ten minutes into the class there was a knock on the door. I was focusing on my work and didn't look up to see who it was until I heard Mr. Fulton say, "You transferred into this class?"

And a male voice said, " Yeah, I just started last week so they made an exception for me."

I looked up to see Anthony Crowley standing at the front of the room.

"Okay, no problem," Mr. Fulton said. "We were just about to start doing some experiments in partners, and as it works out Lindsay just started this class too and she'll need a partner. You can take a seat by her."

I tried not to panic as Anthony walked over and sat in the empty seat beside me.

"Hey, I'm Anthony," he said, and when I forced myself to look over at him I noticed he was holding out his hand as if he expected me to shake it.

Are you kidding me? Surely the introduction was just for show, there was no way he couldn't know who I was. But I forced myself to shake his hand anyway and managed to say, "I'm Lindsey."

If I had any doubt about him knowing who I was, it was gone when I looked over and saw him looking just as uncomfortable as I felt. Was I supposed to say something to him? Or was I just supposed to sit here in an awkward silence while we were supposed to be working together?

After class I would just have to go to Mr. Fulton and tell him I couldn't be partners with Anthony. It kind of surprised me that Mr. Fulton hadn't realized in the first place. It was no secret who Anthony was just like it was no secret who I was, and the events that happened between our two circles in the past were very talked about in Salem Falls.

Luckily we didn't have time to start the experiment that class, so when the bell rang I quickly packed up my stuff and headed out of the class to meet the boys.

"He's in my class!" I yelled as I walked up to the three of them.

"Who is?" Adam asked.

"Anthony!"

"What? You're kidding right?" Ben asked, putting his hand on my arm.

"No. Even better, he's now my lab partner. He sits right beside me."

All three of the boys shared confused and concerned expressions.

"Did he say anything to you?"

"He introduced himself and shook my hand, he pretended as if he didn't even know who I was. But I could tell he was just as uncomfortable as me."

"Why would he act like he doesn't know you?" Ben asked.

"I have no idea. But I'm going to Mr. Fulton next class to see if I can switch partners."

"Wait, that might be a bad idea," Adam said, which earned a confused glance from the other three of us.

"What are you talking about? I thought our plan was to stay clear of Anthony until we knew more about why he's here."

"Yes, and we might never find out why he's here if we just sit back and wait for the answers to come to us. If he's going to pretend as if he doesn't know you, maybe you could do the same and figure some of it out."

"And she's the one we have to sacrifice to do the dirty work?" Ben jumped in, getting protective.

"Right now she's in the perfect position to get some answers from him, and we know we can count on her and trust her. How could we come up with something better?"

"I'm also the one with no real magic," I said.

"You have magic, you just don't know how to fully use it yet," Ben replied.

"Yeah, and all you guys have your special powers that make you even better with magic," I replied. Nate had found out that his gem was a diamond, and his special power was being able to see the future. On certain conditions. "I'm not that good with magic yet and my special power is seeing ghosts, how the hell is that supposed to help me?"

"That's why I'm not letting you do it."

"Ben, come on," Adam said. "The only time they'd be talking would be in the classroom. He's not going to try anything there. If he tries to talk to her outside of school we'll make sure we're around. If it's needed, we can get Nate to keep an eye on it. If it does get really bad, I can interfere with his thoughts." Controlling peoples thoughts was Adam's special power, but he only liked to do it if it was completely nessecary. You could change the outcome of a persons whole life by changing just one thought. "And you could take him, anyway."

Nate finally spoke up after listening to everyone else put in their opinions, like usual. "I gotta agree with Adam," he said. "It could turn out bad, but we can easily handle it if it does. It'd be worth it."

Ben turned to me. "Are you okay with this?" He asked. "If you want to do it then we will, but if you don't then we all drop it now."

I took a moment to think about it. This could really help is figure out why Anthony is back, if we don't do this we could never know. And Adam was right, as long as I kept the conversations with him in the classroom then there was almost nothing to be scared about. It was a big risk, but it's a good idea.

"I'll do it," I said finally.

I could tell that wasn't the answer Ben wanted to hear but he nodded his head anyway. "Alright, we'll do it. But I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"I know, I'll be okay."

"You're going to have to fill us in on everything that happens, okay?" Adam said. "Even stuff you think might not matter, we'll need to know it all. We got your back on this, alright?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I can do it."

We had been congregating in a circle in the hallway for over ten minutes. The halls were empty now, everyone else had made their way to the cafeteria. Ben slung his arm around my shoulders as we made our way to get some lunch.

******

authors note: sorry about posting another short chapter! Writing has been slow lately and i'd rather give you what i've got so far than wait until its longer. Hopefully the chapters will be getting longer! Let me know what you guys think so far!