Sentinel

Chapter 13: Rearranging

I was barely able to get any sleep worrying about Ronan. And when I did sleep I had nightmares that fled a soon as woke up, leaving a feeling of helplessness in their wake. Needless to say I was dead tired when it came time to get up for class. Still, I managed to slide into the desk next to Henry five minutes before class started, which, for me, was quite impressive.

"Morning, Skylar. You look terrible," Henry commented, blunt as ever.

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

"Procrastinated too much on your homework?" He guessed.

"Yeah," I lied. "You know what they say, 'don't do today what you can put off until the wee hours of tomorrow morning.'"

He balanced his pencil between his upper lip and his nose. I don't know what prompted the action but Henry was prone to such random gestures. "That's not a good way to start the semester." His words unseated the pencil causing it to fall from his face but he caught it and placed it back on the desk.

"Alright, mom, I'll do better next time."

"That's my girl. Now let's compare answers."

I pulled out my homework but we only got half way through before the professor called for our attention.

My sleepiness made it hard to focus and I kept forgetting to take down notes. When I realized my pencil had stopped moving, I'd race to get the notes down before the professor erased them but failed a few times and had to look over at Henry's, which were framed by random bits of song lyrics, making it hard to decipher what was actual notes.

By the end of class, I was really aching to take a nap.

"Ava wanted me to tell you that she is having lunch at The Spoon," Henry told me as we exited the classroom.

The Spoon was one of few places you could get food on campus outside of the cafeteria. It was also the favorite because it allowed students to use innuendos like "Do you want to Spoon together?" or "I'm planning on Spooning tonight, how about you?" or "I hate Spooning by myself".

I did want to Spoon with Ava but I had also planned on trying to meet up with Will to see how Ronan was doing. I weighed my options and decided I would just go over to Will's after class.

When I entered The Spoon, I easily spotted Ava. She was seated by the wall and was messing with her smartphone as she absentmindedly chewed on a fry.

She looked up as I hung my backpack on the chair across from her.

"Hey, beautiful," she said, grinning, a nice contrast to Henry's greeting. "I'm glad you came."

"Me too," I said. "Let me grab some food and I'll be right back."

Matching Ava, I bought a hamburger and fries with a coke.

"So," Ava said as soon as I sat down. "I got my invite to your birthday party. When did you get so close to Brynn Brighton? That's really nice of her to host your party."

Brighton? I was pretty sure that was Will's last name. Are they related? "We actually only met a couple weeks ago. How do you know her?"

"She's an anthropology major too, so I've had a few classes with her."

As if on cue, I spotted Brynn as she walked over to join us, carrying a slice of pizza and a salad.

"Do you mind if I sit with you guys?" She asked. I could hear the nervousness in her voice as if we actually might turn her down.

"Go right ahead," Ava replied happily.

"Thanks," Brynn grinned back, relieved.

"We were just talking about Sky's party," Ava informed her.