Nomads

Chapter 21

Through the rest of the week, Mara's days began to fall into a routine. In the mornings, Luca would pick her up early in the morning and they'd go somewhere to read and pray together. She liked that he took her to a different place each day; he knew the little town of Fallston, Rhode Island like the back of his hand. She enjoyed learning more about his hometown and the places he loved most about it.

After that, they would go to school together. If they were early, they'd hang around in the library with Amir or by the main staircase with JJ –who had recently worked herself up to being able to hold a conversation in front of Luca without having a mental breakdown. Five minutes before the bell would ring, Luca would walk her to class.

Then the school day would officially start.

First she had English, with Sarah, who managed to make a class she would have otherwise enjoyed unbelievably miserable. Then she had art class, which was relatively unremarkable. After art was Spanish, which she shared with Mason (though he didn't acknowledge her much since he was too busy flirting and goofing off), and after Spanish was lunch.

Lunch was spent, for Mara, in the library with Amir and JJ. Luca spent his lunch in the cafeteria with his idiot friends who still hadn't completely made up with Amir. And even though it took a lot to convince Luca not to spend lunch with her, Mara had managed to do so. It was helpful for her, as she got a break from being bombarded with stares in the fairly empty library as well as being able to get to know the two friends she'd made.

After lunch was French and after that Mara had Stat and Prob, which she shared with Julia. To her credit, though, Julia kept her interactions to a suspicious glance every now and again. After that was History, which was shared with Maggie, who paid her no mind. And after that was Gym.

At the end of the school day Luca would either take her home or take her somewhere with a relaxed atmosphere for them to work on homework together. She was always home by six so she could get to at least see a little bit of her aunt, and she would have her quiet time with the Lord and go to bed.

All to wake up the next day and do it all over.

Throughout the week, all of Luca's friends had gone up to Amir individually and apologized for the way they had treated him. Every time, Amir would tersely reject their apology at first, but they were persistent. Eventually, Amir conceded to giving them a second chance (mostly because Mara had aggressively encouraged him to) and by the end of the school day on Friday, they were all somewhat on speaking terms.

Mara was glad that Amir and his friends were close to fully making amends, but she couldn't help but feel a little nervous about what would come next. She didn't want to try to insert herself into their friend group only for them to have another falling out with one another, and she knew that Luca would refuse to let her eat lunch without him now that Amir had forgiven everyone.

Who was she kidding? What Mara was truly dreading was having to spend time with all of Luca's friends, at the same time. Sure, she saw them in the halls and in some of her classes, and she could handle whatever they threw her way. But Mara couldn't help but feel as though being surrounded by them would feel suffocating and stressful.

She really didn't want to be under the intense scrutiny of Luca's incredibly loyal friends who had yet to view her as anything other than a threat. But then again, they wouldn't stop giving her those suspicious looks until they got to know her.

It was all a lot to handle, and just the thought of spending an excessive amount of time with them made her feel restless.

And of course, when Mara made her way out of the main doors of the school and toward that garish statue of Columbus, she spotted Luca standing there surrounded by his friends.