Beauty of the Dark

Chapter 2

Thanks for another beautiful cover TJBoyland! (BANNER UNDER MULTIMEDIA)

          Her locker was a mess. Books were tossed carelessly, loose papers carpeted the bottom, and her history textbook was nowhere to be found. Awesome. Lucy had about fifteen minutes to find it, but she doubted it was there at all. 

          "Hey, you forgot this." Lucy looked over her shoulder to find Mr. Wolfe. Thouroughly relieved, she accepted the textbook which she must've left in his classroom. 

          She sighed, "Thanks." Lucy stuffed a few papers back in her locker, and smiled expectantly. Mr. Wolfe was still standing in front of her. "Is there anything else?" She asked awkwardly. 

          Did he even hear me? He was staring at her and Lucy certainly couldn't comprehend whatever it was he was trying to tell her. Absently, she shut her locker gently, taking her sweet time pretending not to notice he was staring at her. He shook himself out of some sort of trance. "Do you think you could see me before class?" Weren't they already seeing each other before class? And besides, things were awkward enough already. Lucy was finding she didn't care much for being around him. 

          "Uh, sure thing, Mr. Wolfe." Was it just her, or did he cringe a little at the sound of his name?

          Things seemed to be endlessly strange today. That morning she'd woken to her alarm rather than a headache, her Aunt hadn't asked her if she was okay, she'd been early to school, and now Mr. Wolfe was here. Nothing could suprise her, today. Not even if flying monkeys came after her with the Wicked Witch of the West trailing right behind them on her broomstick. 

          Mr. Wolfe paced his steps to hers as they made their way towards the History room. Don't teachers usually walk ahead of students? Lucy wondered if she was in some kind of trouble, but his facial expressions hinted nothing. 

          Instead of taking a seat behind his desk likewise to last time, he leaned against the counter on the far east side of the room. Unsure what to do, she quickly adjusted her shirt and took a seat on one of the desk tops facing him. Lucy again waited for him to say something. "So, uh, what's up?" Wasn't the teacher the one who's supposed to speak first? 

          "I'm sorry about last time." He nodded accordingly with his words.

          She shook her head, pretending it had been nothing, which of course it hadn't. No one is supposed to feel anything that deep towards their history teacher, even if those feelings had quickly passed. "Nah, I was just having a bad day." His expressions looked as though he were fighting some sort of inner war with himself. Lucy added, "Thanks for letting me talk to you about it."

          "We never actually talked about it."

          God, what did he expect her to say to that? Now he was just making things more complicated than they needed to be. "Well, I felt heard, that's all that matters right?" There was a certain snap in her voice. Couldn't he just shut up already? She wondered if there were snakes coming out of her head.

          "No, that's not all that matters. Whatever problem you have should be fixed." Mr. Wolfe stared  her down with those oceanic eyes, like a moviestar on some silly soap opera. Lucy's temper flared.  

          "Your my teacher, not my damn social worker. You don't need to fix my problems, okay? I don't need you to feel sorry for me, either." 

          "I just-," His first student, a girl, walked through the door. It must've been obvious they were having some sort of heated discussion, because a sly smile was slapped across her face. Lucy bit the inside of her cheek, angry that she was embarrassed. Mr. Wolfe forced a smile at his early student. "Good morning, Christine."