Turning ✔️

Chapter 2. School

Luckily for me, I easily caught myself and played it off like nothing happened, looking back over to where he was standing with his friends. He didn't seem to notice my stumble. Although my face was deep red in embarrassment, I'm sure. I heard a muffled laugh from behind me. I whipped around to see it was only Eleanor.

"Shut up," I muttered.

"I'll see you later bro," was her only response as she dashed off to where all of her friends were. I scurried into the front doors of the school, making sure not to embarrass myself any further. I strolled down a few different hallways before reaching my locker and dropping off my backpack. I stood by my open locker for a minute as I waited for the bell to signal that it was time to start school. I took a deep breath and slammed the locker door shut and headed towards my first class.

I didn't really need anything for my first class as it was art. We were working on our independent projects and I was painting a forest landscape. It was a scene that I would see more and more frequently in my dreams, just as I had last night.

A lonely gray wolf hovered in the shadows, barely visible against the shadowy cloak of the forest. Its copper eyes were a prominent feature on its face. The trees were striking against the almost purple starry sky, which was lit up by a luminescent full moon.

In the dream, I would find myself in these woods walking around seemingly trying to find something. I would walk and walk for what seemed liked miles before reaching the point in my painting. Each night when I arrived here, I would see the wolf and it would stare back at me before we would slowly walk towards one another. As we would inch near, the dream would almost instantly end and I would wake up as frustrated as the night before.

It wasn't that I was scared of the dream, but it was something that definitely plagued my thoughts. What on earth could it even mean? It had to mean something if I'm having a reoccurring dream like this, right? Before long, the bell rang meaning class was over and time to move on to second period, English. I hadn't done too much work on my painting, but it was getting closer to being done. I put it away and headed out into the hallway to go to my locker.

At least I get to see Will in this class, I thought to myself with a slight smirk coming to my lips. He was actually in a few of my classes, it definitely made my day better. I swiftly got my books and glided down the hallway to my English classroom. I was pretty early as it was only a few classrooms over from where my art room was. I sat down at my seat and pulled out my notebook and a pen signing my name in the top corner.

Nathan Stewart.

The rest of the class soon also piled into the classroom, except for Will. Where was he? I sighed internally hoping today wasn't one of the days where he decided to be too cool for school and skip with his friends. The bell rang about a minute later, which seemed to answer my question. He isn't here.

I've always wondered where he went off to when he skipped. It wasn't all the time that he did it, but usually, it meant he would disappear for the whole day. The class went by without any other problems and soon it was over and time for Calculus. This was all the way across school, so I had to run to my locker quickly and dash over to the classroom on the other side of the school. I ended up coming in just after the bell ran, out of breath from the voyage over here.

"Glad you could join us, Mr. Stewart." Ms. White said as she was finishing up writing what today's assignment would be on the whiteboard. The class giggled lightly and I could feel my face immediately blushing. "Well take your seat, I was just about to pair everyone up to work on this assignment in teams of two and you make us an even number."

I hurriedly headed over to my seat, realizing that Will was actually here. I glanced over at him in the seat to my left and found myself looking at him for a little too long. Stop staring at him! I focused back on Ms. White who was now reading out the pairings until I heard my name called.

"Nathan Stewart, you will be with William Harper."

My eyes went wide for a second before I regained my composure and turned towards Will. He was already scooting his desk closer to mine with a smile on his face.

"Hey Nathan," his husky voice breathed out. My heartbeat accelerated as he got closer. How could he look even better up close?

"H-h-hi Will." I stuttered out quietly with my voice cracking slightly. Great, why do I have be so awkward!?

"So, we have to do this whole page in our textbook." He said pointing with his pen down to the book. "Did you want to split the problems up or we could both do them and then compare our answers?"

The way he looked into my eyes while he was talking to me was so distracting. His green eyes had a gleam in them like he had more than just the math assignment on his mind. I glanced down at the book and saw it wasn't too many problems to solve.

"Um, I think we should both do them and compare our answers. That way we can be more sure they are correct." I said with a slight smile tugging at my lips.

"Sounds good to me," he replied with a smirk.

We began working on the different equations and quickly finished before most of the rest of the class, leaving us about 10 extra minutes of class. We both did well in this class, so it was a great pairing on Ms. White's part. Remind me to thank her one day for pairing us up together all the time. Maybe she knew my secret. If she did, she never let on.

"So...do you have any plans for this weekend?" Will asked suddenly.

"Oh, well...yes actually," I said. For once I had plans. Not that your birthday is really anything special when you don't have that many friends. Usually, my mom and my sisters would go out for dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant in town.

Will didn't say anything for a moment, raising an eyebrow, looking at me as if he was waiting for me to continue.

"Care to elaborate?" He said curiously.

I let a low chuckle before responding. "Yes, it's my birthday." I finally said running my hand through my hair nervously.

"Well happy early birthday to you," he said with a wide grin showing his perfect pearly whites. "How old will you be turning?"

"Thank you. I'll be turning eighteen on Saturday. What about you? Do you have any big plans for this weekend?" I said shyly trying to bring the conversation back to him, glancing into his eyes before quickly bring my gaze back down to my desk.

"Nope." He said, his full lips popping at the p. "My parents are going out of town, so I get the house all to myself." I wondered where in town he lived, it mustn't be too far since we live in a town with a population of about 800. Everyone knows everyone here.

Why was he even asking me what my plans were? Did he want me to hang out with him or something? No way would William Harper ever want to hang out with me. He was probably just being friendly.

Before I could respond, the bell rang signaling it was lunchtime. I noticed Will looking over at me still. His face sloped into a slight frown before quickly brightening up with a smile.

"Hey, do you want to sit with me at lunch?" He asked in a low voice.

WHAT?? This isn't happening. This is not happening right now. I could feel my jaw drop before I quickly adjusted, clenching it shut. I didn't know what to say as my mind raced a mile a minute, trying to think of an adequate response.

All of a sudden, his face turned back to a frown. "If you have plans already, it's okay, you don't have to."

It was then my turn to frown. I took too long to answer, now he thinks I hate him. I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and this time I responded quickly.

"It's not that..."I started. "I-I-I just don't too well with new people," I quietly admitted to him, my face blushing.

"Well, how about we sit with just the two of us then?" He said with a hopeful glimmer in his eyes.

What could it hurt, I thought to myself. I nodded slowly, raising my eyes to meet his. What is happening? Am I in an episode of the Twilight Zone right now?