Empathy

Chapter Four

The rest of the school day had me with my head down, navigating my way to my new classes for the semester. I was avoiding all and any contact with my peers, afraid of what I would get from them.

As if it wasn't enough that I had to deal with adult emotions, but also the hormonal ones that many people my age deal with. I did not want to feel intense lust every time I entered the damn school. I still had one more year to go before I got away from these people. I just had to make it until then.

I had found my seat in the back of every classroom with my teachers giving me pitying looks. Great, the one emotion I didn't want to see or feel. From myself or others.

I had only a few classes with Luna and Peri, them being Creative Writing and Chemistry, both classes I was decent at, with Creative Writing being more my forte than Chemistry.

I hadn't seen Gemma all day, thankfully, but I did have Aiden in five of the six of my classes. He sat next to me in all of them, or at the very least, in my vicinity. I found it odd he would want to be near me, but I didn't think too much of it. He would give me his heart melting smile every time he made eye contact with me, his hazel orbs boring into my own brown ones.

After school, Luna drove Peri and I to a local coffee shop where they both got salted caramel Frappuccinos and I a milk chocolate hot chocolate with a slice of New York style cheesecake. It was their treat, even though I did offer Luna gas money on the way back home. She just shook her head, refusing to take the money. And that was the end of that conversation.

Afterwards, Luna dropped Peri off at home first and then me.

"So how was the first day?" Uncle Mickey asked, his face huge on my computer screen.

Uncle Mickey was Mom's younger brother who lives in Duluth. He works as a graphic artist for a production company. His parents and Mom weren't thrilled when he told them what he wanted to do with his life because it didn't make the most money and they thought that creativity shouldn't be used as a career. He didn't care, he just wanted to do something he loved. Plus, he did some jobs on the side that made enough money for him to live in a nice apartment.

To do this day, I'm fairly certain that him wanting a job he loved wasn't the entire story why he, Mom, and my grandparents didn't get along. There was more there, I could tell. I just didn't want to bring it up until I knew for sure.

I rolled over on my back as I looked at my uncle, the sheets on my bed crinkling as I did so. My eyes were drawn to his forehead on the screen, making it look bigger than it actually was.

"It was fine, Mickey. Nothing special happened today. Just a whole lot of pitying looks from staff and students alike," I reported. His eyebrows furrowed in apology. Even though I loved my uncle and I didn't see him often, it was nice to see his expressions rather than feel them as if they were my own. It was nice to be able to talk to him through Skype with my new ability now.

"I'm sorry, Vel. But you got to know that this kind of thing doesn't happen to people your age or your father's," he told me gently. He straightened up his posture in the screen. "The people around you just want you to be okay." I scoffed.

"Sure, Mick." I snorted unattractively, a hint of sarcasm running through me. "Who are the people in this situation? These so called people have no idea who I am. I'm sure my peers and teachers care about little, old Marvel Vayle," I remarked, a bitter feeling rising in my chest as I spoke the words that were eating at me since Dad died.

"Marvel, people care a great deal about you. What makes you unique is what allows people to care about you." He crossed his arms over his chest in my computer, the sleeves of his dress shirt catching on the dark hair on his arms. "But enough about the staff and students, tell me more about this Aiden guy," Mickey said, a softer expression on his face now.