Twilight (Book 1 of The Shade Hunt Trilogy)

Chapter Two: Jack Iverson

Let me get this straight before I start. I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON JACK IVERSON. He's a great guy. He's nice, funny, interesting, and an awesome friend, but do NOT ever make the mistake of thinking he's my crush or boyfriend. Ever.

Okay. Moving on.

I get to Science and Mathematics early, and I discover that Julie has a twin brother named Jack. He looks pretty much like Julie, except that he has no freckles and his eyes are green-gray. I know that Julie is my roomie and a great person, but Jack seems to connect with me better. We're well into an interesting conversation about cats versus dogs when the teacher for Science and Mathematics comes in. She starts with a typical greeting.

"Hello, class. My name is Mrs. Watson, and I am the freshman Science and Mathematics teacher for this year. I know that this room is very high-tech, but please refrain from touching the technology unless I give you permission to. Now, some of you do well in this subject, while some of you don't. I will do my best to adjust accordingly."

Then she asks everyone whose main or secondary is STEM to move to one side of the room and everyone else to move to the other side. Then she gave everyone a diagnostic test on math, biology, chemistry, physics, and computer science. I, of course, have no idea how to answer any of the question. (Exaggeration. Do not take seriously. I actually knew about 75% of it, which is a lot by my standards.)

I notice that Jack is on the other side of the room. I'm guessing the people on that side have a harder diagnostic test, since I can see him frowning and shaking his head.

~~~

Finally, the period's over, and we're released for lunch. Julie, Jack, and I sit at the same table.

"So, you chose the STEM category, huh?" I ask Jack.

"Yeah. It's my secondary. My main's LLH. I want to learn more about historical people." He doesn't sound quite as excited as I would expect someone who's talking about their favorite subjects to sound.

"Oh. Well, what's your next class?" I ask Jack.

"Me?"

"Yeah."

"LLH."

"You don't sound very excited."

"He just likes history. He pretty much sucks at everything else in LLH," Julie explains.

"Well, most people are like that. For example, I'm in LLH, but only because I'm good at foreign languages. I'm okay at history, but literature? You'd laugh if you saw my writing." He just shrugs, and I can't think of anything else to say.

"Are you good at STEM?" I finally ask.

"Only technology and science. I suck at math. Even Julie there is good at all sports." He sighs.

"Except for basketball," Julie tells him. I can tell it's a lie.

At this, Jack glances at Julie smugly and adds, "and acting."

"Excuse me! I do not suck at Drama! Just because you know that I don't suck at basketball and I suck at lying doesn't mean I suck at acting!"

I don't say anything, but really, I'm laughing inside so hard that my stomach hurts. I don't have any siblings, so I've never experienced sibling rivalry for myself, but I've witnessed several incidents of it, this being one of them. Jack, no longer glum about his lack of skill in Languages, Literature, and Math, argues back. I bet they would've continued to bicker for a few hours if the bell didn't ring.

[A/N] I'm reading this, and I feel like it's a little weird and awkward. Any comments/suggestions?