Dark as the Night

68

First period ended and after a ten-minute break, everyone was back in their seats for their Human Biology lesson. The low hum of teenage socializing filled the room until Mrs. Reynolds, the science teacher, set down the bakery cup of coffee she'd been sipping and cleared her throat.

"Good morning, class. It took us a little longer than planned to do our unit on the nervous system last term, and I didn't get a chance to give you a research project before finals, so group up into threes and let's get started. The new addition to the class means there should only be one pair this time."

The students started shuffling around, changing seats and forming groups. Odessa glanced up as James walked by her, heading toward Mina. She looked over at Tai and met his eyes. Just as he opened his mouth to say something, Lydia turned around in her seat and tapped the table in front of Odessa.

"Odessa! You should join Amanda and me. It's usually just the two of us, but now that you're here, we can finally be triplets!" she gushed. Odessa glanced at Tai and saw him smile ruefully, nodding toward Lydia. She smiled nervously at the other girl, then stood and followed Lydia to the front row, where Amanda waited. I cannot attach myself to Tai, she silently chastised herself. Or I'm going to end up turning into Mina.

"Thanks," she said to the other girls. "I wasn't really sure what to do. I'm not used to group work."

Lydia pursed her lips thoughtfully. "That's not really true, though, is it? You're always with James and Tai, right?"

"We had to get to you before Tai could keep you all to himself," Amanda smirked. "It's time those boys shared you with the rest of us."

Odessa's eyes widened in mild surprise. "How did you know I hang out with them a lot?"

Amanda cocked her head as if to say, 'really?' "Everyone knows," she explained. "It's a small camp and it's not like you're invisible. We've seen you around with them, but they haven't deigned to introduce us until now. Tai kept making excuses that you're 'still adjusting,'" she lowered her voice in a mockery of Tai's deeper one while making air quotes and rolling her eyes. "But really, it's been almost two months, right? How long does it take to get used to a place?"

Lydia shook her head. "But you have amnesia, right? I can imagine it has been difficult to adjust. I don't really blame them. And I don't blame you for clinging to the first people you met, especially since they saved your life."

"You know about that, too??" Odessa groaned.

"Small camp, remember?" Amanda replied.

Odessa reeled at the realization that everyone seems to know her business, even without having met her. And the implication that they all thought she'd been clinging to James and Tai... It wasn't a pleasant idea.

"So, about this project," she hedged, hoping to change the subject. "Like I said, it's my first time doing a group assignment, so I'm not exactly sure what's going on."

A look of shock passed over Amanda's face. She recovered quickly then turned her notebook and pointed to the assignment that had popped up on the screen. "It's pretty easy. First, we pick a topic we think we understand well enough to present, so that we don't have to research it too extensively. At least, that's how we do it." She motioned between herself and Lydia.

"I heard that you scored high in your human biology placement, so you probably already know a lot about the nervous system, right?"

Odessa wasn't even surprised at this point. Amanda seemed to know an awful lot for their having never met before. "How do you know what I scored?" she sighed.