Ember Igniting

Chapter 3

(the next day at school)

"Ember, you should totally dye your hair blonde!" Tabitha cried exasperated. I rolled my eyes and grinned mysteriously, just like Tabitha always does. Earlier in the day, Tabitha had complimented my shoes-Score! Now it was time for lunch and we were walking to the cafeteria, arms linked. Just then, Tabitha's boyfriend Chris came up and put his arm around Tabitha's shoulders. His fingers brushed against my arm and I looked up at him startled. He caught my look and smiled flirtatiously. I quickly looked away. Over the last few weeks Chris had been flirting with me and Tabitha didn't know. I didn't want to be a bad friend...so I never said anything. We sat at our usual spot at table 1. The reason the "populars" sat at table 1 was because it got called up first to get in line for food. Not that the food was good (Tabitha and I usually got salads). The bad thing about table 1 was nobody else could sit there, only the "populars".

Tabitha, Addison, and I were chatting, nibbling on our identical salads, and gossiping.

"Em, I told you- you should have bought that dress! We could've looked super-hot together at the dance!" Tabitha's voice rang out faux whiny.  Ah, yes. The dance. The dance that was supposed to celebrate the end of the year. I wasn't really excited about it since I didn't have a date. The dress Tabitha had picked out for me was a little too slutty for my taste.

"I know. But did you see how short it was?!" I retorted back. She rolled her eyes just as Chris sat between me and Tabitha. She brightened when she saw him and gave him an air kiss before she went to the bathroom with Addison. Popular girls never went to the bathroom alone. That meant me and Chris were basically alone. Together. Alone. FREAKING OUT NOW. He just kept staring at me. Then, as if this would charm me, he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

"You're so beautiful. Ya know that?" Chris said smoothly. My heart sped up. Mostly because of fear. If Tabitha saw, she'd claw my eyes out!

"W-what about Tabitha?" I stammered out. He shrugged.

"What about her? I can like more than one person...right?" As he said this, he sidled up closer to me.

"Ummm..I have to...go...get more toilet paper!" I practically screamed, then jumped up and speed-walked out of that lunchroom. Where I bumped into none other than...Tabitha.

"Oof. Hey watch where-" then she recognized me."Hey, are you okay? You look really pale." Tabtiha's cold demeanor instantly became a caring friend.

"I..have to go..." I stumbled away with tears forming behind my eyes and two concerned friends calling after me.

Through the rest of the day I avoided basically everyone.

But then, something strange happened in math. Mr.Mosho, my teacher, called on me for the answer to a really hard problem. I think he must have been in a bad mood because he never calls on people that don't have their hand raised. But the strange thing was that I knew the answer to the problem. It went like this:

Mr.Mosho: Ms.Clark? Is that your name? You never raise your hand, so I wouldn't know.

That aroused a few giggles, even from Tabitha.

Me: Um, yes.

Mr.Mosho: If Car A began a journey from a point at 9 a.m., traveling at 30 miles per hour. At 10 a.m. Car B started traveling from the same point at 40 miles per hour in the same direction as Car A. At what time will Car B pass Car A? Can you answer this problem?

Without hesitation I replied: 1:00 p.m.

Everyone turned to stare at me as if I were some kind of math genius. Even Mr.Mosho seemed impressed. For some reason, I just knew the answer even though I was in an easy math class and surprisingly not good at math...until now. Maybe I was a math genius.