Chasing Starlight 💫

11. New Boy

Will:

"Home Economics is this way," said Principal Wallinger, pointing to the hallway on his left. He frowned at Will. "You don't strike me as the cooking type. Are you sure you don't want to transfer to something else? Now's your chance..."

"I'm sure," said Will, trading an uneasy look with Sasha. The closest either of them had come to using an oven or a hotplate was when they'd watched Jasper in the kitchen. They had Lücan to thank for their choice of subjects. The Head Sepheri had purposely forgotten Sasha's enrolment form last Friday just so he would have an excuse to go back and hypnotize the principal into matching their timetables with Ash's. Actually, he blamed Ash for choosing these subjects in the first place.

"Your father taught you physics and cooking? Impressive."

"It's Lücan," snapped Will, hating that the principal could make such an oversight. No one could replace his real father. "And yes, he taught me." A lie, but Will was too annoyed to give this man the truth.

Principal Wallinger squinted up at Will, his friendly demeanor gone. Will wasn't about to endure a lecture, not about his father, and so he reached into the principal's mind only to discover that Sasha was already pulling the last few sentences from the principal's head. When it was done the principal glanced around the hallway, dazed.

Thanks, Sash, said Will, sending her a grateful smile.

She placed a hand upon his back. Told you—you need me.

Maybe. A little.

"Now, where were we...?" Principal Wallinger asked.

"I believe you were taking us to the Home Economics room, Sir?" Sasha smiled.

"Oh, yes. Righty-o, then."

As the principal took off down the hallway students shifted out of the way, huddling in groups by their lockers. Will wondered if they were intentionally avoiding eye contact with the principal in the mismatched suit, because the second the principal had passed students on both sides of the hallway they began looking around again. Girls smiled at Will. There seemed to be an abundance of them. Smiling back, he guessed they could spot a new boy a mile away, like their radars were set on new blood. The boys' radars were clearly tuned differently, eyeing Sasha like she was a swimsuit model strutting down a runway. Grumbling, Will stepped closer to her, remembering each of their faces for later. If it wasn't for Principal Wallinger's presence, Will would have probably been in a fight about now. No one looked at Sasha like that. No one. It didn't help that Sasha made a point of smiling at each and every one of them. His first reason not to like school.

Will had never been inside a school before. After years of guarding Ash from the outskirts of the school grounds, he'd always wanted to know what it would be like to sit in one of those classrooms and learn from the different teachers, or have more than four classmates. Now he was starting to miss Lücan's grueling lessons in the library on Lyrethan, the tutorials in the galaxy dome, the marathon running sessions at dawn, and the sparring and dance training in the ballroom. To be honest, the dance training he could live without. With Sasha being the only female Sepheri that left Alründ, Theo, or Flynn as dance partners, neither of whom wanted to dance the girl's part. Another reason for Ash to return home.

Principal Wallinger stopped at a crowd of rowdy students by the last classroom. He cleared his throat several times before he piqued their attention. Will spotted Ash at the back of the group. Her eyes might have been on the principal, but whatever Emmy and Lara were whispering had Ash giggling. Lücan would never tolerate that kind of behavior in his classes. Just another hint that their worlds were nothing alike.