her.

Chapter One; Gone

"Noah," my teacher, Ms. Davidson called out. I looked up at her.

"Ma'am?"

"Why aren't you doing your work?" she asked. I twisted my lips slightly before looking at it.

"I need a pencil." she stared at me for a second before rolling her eyes.

"How many Gotcha points do you have?" I shrugged.

"I think 15." I said. Gotcha points are our currency here in school. For every A we get on some type of classwork, we get 10 automatically. For B's, 8. C's 5.

Also, teachers can give us Gotcha points. They can just add it to our accounts and that's it. We can spend them at the school store, and the cafeteria... on certain things. Like sitting outside. Which is where most of my points went to. I hope I get another 15 points before the end of the day. We need 30 to sit outside.

"Very well then, you only need 5 for a pencil." I furrowed my eyebrows at her.

"5 for a pencil. Just one?"

"Noah," she said. I groaned.

"Where's the store at?" I asked. She held out a pass.

"Across from the cafeteria," she said with a small smile. "And tell Shyla, Ms. Davidson said hi." I widen my eyes, nodding absentmindedly.

"Sure thing." I grabbed the pass from her and turned to the door.

"Oh, and Noah?"

"That's me." I said looking back at her. She paused, waiting for the class to stop laughing.

"Don't do anything weird." she said quietly, to the point where only I could hear her. I furrowed my eyebrows, confused. "Hurry along," she said pushing me slightly to the door.

I groaned as I got to the hallway. This class was on the opposite side of the school. The cafeteria was in the front while we're in the back. So I decided to take my sweet ol' time.

As I made it to the school store, I saw a girl sitting behind the counter with a book in her hands. As I got closer to her, she looked up at me.

"Hello." I said irritatingly. She raised her eyebrow, putting a bookmark in her book and putting it to the side.

"You have a pass?" She asked. I furrowed my eyebrows but gave it to her. She looked it over quickly before looking back at me. "What can I help you with-." She looked at the pass again. "Noah?"

"I need a pencil." I told her. She nodded then shifted, grabbing a couple of bins, putting them on the counter.

"All pencils are 5 points." She said looking down at the pencils.

"Do you have any lead pencils?" I asked. I liked using lead pencils.

"All pencils are lead pencils." She said with a small hint of an attitude. I looked up at her, as our eyes met, I noticed her eyes widen. "Sorry."

I chuckled. "It's fine..." I glanced at her name tag. "Shyla. That's a pretty name." I commented quickly. She stared at me.

"Thanks." She said, shyly.

"Where'd your mother get your name from?" I asked. I noticed she tensed up as I mentioned her mother.

"I have no clue." She said in a whisper. I stared at her. "So, do you want the pencil or no?" She asked. I looked into her dark brown eyes, momentarily getting lost in them.

"Yeah." I whispered.

"What color do you want?" She asked looking at the pencils.

"Brown." She looked up at me with a confused look on her face.