Light of a Thousand Stars

7- Calliope

Theresa sighed, glancing around nervously. When she had turned to face her partner, out of the corner of her eye, he bore an uncanny resemblance to someone quite familiar... But her mind had been on her father for quite the time, dreading that she would meet him, so of course her eyes were simply playing tricks on her. Her partner just so happened to have the same black hair that her father had passed down to her, but at closer examination, she found it hard to believe that she had mistaken him for her old man.

"S- sorry," she muttered, glancing away. When she turned her head, she could feel a knot growing in her stomach as she noticed Peter Parker sitting not too far away with his back turned away from her. He was talking to his partner, who she couldn't quite see. Not another class with him, she groaned in her head. Glancing away again, she realized that she still hadn't told her partner her name. "I'm Selena," she answered quickly.

The boy next to her raised an eyebrow at her. Why did they always do that? After meeting three boys in one day, she felt slightly (not very) more comfortable around them, but she still couldn't look him in the eye. Perhaps if she did he would turn her to stone, and she honestly did not want that to happen. Her partner took a breath to speak, when havoc gripped the classroom.

The crash of a beaker hitting the floor and fracturing into millions of pieces filled the room, and a familiar voice saying, "What are you doing, web-head," just loud enough for me to hear with my sharp hearing. Surely I didn't know this person. It was like before: this was just my senses playing tricks on me.

"Peter Parker! Sam Alexander! What's going on?" The teacher cried in a shrill voice like a whistle. Slowly, I shrank down into my chair, wanting to catch a glimpse of what was going on, but trying to avoid eye contact at all costs.

"Boys! This is unacceptable! I fear I'm going to have to split you up! Peter, stay here. Sam, go switch with Jared," the teacher continued, grabbing a broom and dustpan from the closet in the corner.

A groan came from my right, and to my growing horror, my partner, or rather, my old partner, who I could only assume was Jared, slowly picked up his stuff and made his way around the broken glass.

A flare of panic rose in my chest, and suddenly my mind was a whirlwind of thoughts- I could not at any cost be partners with Sam Alexander. It was out of the question. Unacceptable.

When in danger, all animals respond with one of three options: fight, flee, or freeze. Seeing that she couldn't exactly start a battle in the middle of class, demanding that she switch partners, fight was definitely out. Neither could she up and leave class altogether, or even request a new partner without seeming suspicious. That left one option- freeze.

Before the dark haired boy could even come close to her table, Theresa had buried her face in her books, squeezing her eyes shut as hard as she could. However, she could still hear him getting closer every second.

"Ugh, that Parker kid," The boy who was Nova muttered. "Whatever. Hey, I'm Sam, by the way. Who're you?"

What was she supposed to say? 'Oh, hey! Yeah, I'm your daughter.' This was the fourth boy she had met, and by a landslide, he was the worst. And she was stuck with him for who knows how long.