Light of a Thousand Stars

9- Calliope

Theresa smiled faintly, staring down at her lap. Quickly, she glanced to her left, without turning her head. Mayday- or rather Madeline- was watching her carefully. "Uhm, hey," the brunette started. "T- Selena, right?"

Slowly, she nodded, opening her mouth to reply. Like, why was she here? Had something gone wrong? Just before I could, the black haired girl sitting in front of me added, "And I'm Lorietta! And this is Eva! You're Madeline, right? Nice to meet y'all!" She gestured to the girl next to her, who waved casually.

Theresa's eyebrows drew together, and she glanced at Mayday again. She must be here, in the past- or the present?- for a very good reason. Or it meant something very bad had happened. Or was about to happen. Like, maybe Theresa had screwed up and made it even worse in some parallel dimension. Or maybe she died and wasn't about to finish her mission. Either way, they had to converse somewhere in secret- but where? As her eyes flitted around the room, they finally landed on something useful- or rather two things.

Her hand shot up, which received a few questioning glances from the girls just in front of her. When the teacher didn't lift her eyes, she waved her hand around hoping to attract her attention. "What do you need?" One of the girls, Eva, whispered.

I sighed. "I need to use the restroom," I lied, glancing at Mayday, hoping she knew where I was going with that. Her head moved ever so slightly. Hopefully it meant she knew what was going on.

The other girl, Lorietta, shrugged. "When Mrs. Forrest doesn't pay attention to class, she doesn't pay attention. Even if someone was dying, she wouldn't lift a finger. Unless, of course, there was a safety drill. She'd get fired if she didn't participate in those. Anyways, I would just go," she explained. Theresa nodded her thanks, not bothering to say anything else. The less interactions, the less people would notice when she left.

As she stood up to go collect one of the two bathroom passes by the door, she noticed Mayday rising to follower her out of the corner of her eye. Sighing, her shoulders relaxed a little knowing that soon she would know what in the world Mayday was doing. Or if she had died in some parallel universe. However, when she opened the door, her heart plummeted. Just outside the door were hundreds of chattering students, filling the hallways like ants. She groaned, glancing around. Okay, maybe there weren't hundreds, more like one class, but it still meant that they couldn't talk in the hallway. As she slowly making her way to the bathroom, hoping Mayday would appear behind her, she didn't notice the boy dashing down the hall until it was too late.

They collided, and Theresa took a step back, the breath knocked from her body. "I- I'm sorry," she muttered, watching as the boy face-planted on the ground, catching the attention of several other students working in the hallway. Her face was already growing red from the attention ,and it didn't help when she recognized the boy who was now on the ground.

"Oh, uh, uhm- hey!" She said to Evan as he rose, gathering together a few papers he had dropped. Quickly, she leaned down to help him, accidentally elbowing him in the arm. "Sorry!" she cried again, grabbing a blueprint of some kind and handing it to the boy.

"Oh, Selena! Fancy seeing you here!" he chuckled, his face oddly red. Had he gotten sunburned? "I had actually just finished up showing new kids around."

She nodded, glancing away before his wonderful blue eyes could meet hers. "Oh, good," she muttered, not quite sure what any other girl would say in her place. Her mind flew in circles, and suddenly she remembered what she had told him before. She liked to read, right? "I'm just heading to the library," she informed him.

His eyes lit up. "You are? That's great! I mean, me too. Want me to show you where it is?" Her heart completely stopped, and she was just barely able to glance behind her. Where in the world was Mayday? She had to talk to that girl... And she couldn't go to the library with Evan. But if she didn't, it would probably be suspicious, and he had seemed actually happy that she was going.

For a moment, it passed her mind that maybe he was using his teenage boy mind tricks to force her to separate from her friend, but who was she to resist powerful magic like that? "Sure," she agreed, letting Evan lead her to the library, and away from Mayday.