Leap of Faith

Day Twenty-Three

*~*~* Cate *~*~*

“So, I think I’m going to change my physics project,” Liam Lexton announces when he meets me by my locker at break time. I stop shoving books into my locker and look at him with a murderous glare. I swear, if looks could kill, he’d be dead a million and one times over by now. “I’m doing this for your benefit.”

I’m not sure how it’s in my benefit that Liam’s throwing away a week’s worth of work so I just huff, pick up my satchel and close my locker before walking away. I hear Liam groan before his footsteps chase me down the hallway. When he finally catches up with me, he throws his arm around my shoulder and pulls me into his side. My bust up wrist crushes between our bodies and I yelp from the pain shooting up my arm. Liam glances down to see what’s wrong and promptly moves away when his eyes fall on the wrist strap.

“Sorry,” he apologizes quickly. “So, yeah, this physics project? I want to do rainbows.”

I stop in my tracks and laugh at the seriousness etched on Liam’s face. Wait, he’s actually being serious? “Rainbows?” I blink up at him when he nods. “You want to do rainbows?”

Liam nods. “It’ll be easier for you to photograph a rainbow than capture the Mpemba Effect in once frame. Like I said, Cate- I’m doing this for you.”

I roll my eyes at him but find myself agreeing with his new project. As Liam walked me to my third period class he described his theory and set out his project meticulously. I had to wonder when he had chosen to change direction because he’d outlined his rainbow proposal almost to perfection. He talked me through the physics of reflection and refraction and gave me a copy of the method he was going to use to create his very own rainbow in the laboratory. By the time we got to my classroom door, I’m pretty sure I’m ninety-nine percent impressed with Liam’s project outline.

“Can we plan a lunch date?” Liam asks as he stuffs his crumbled up method notes into the back pocket of his jeans. “I need you to look over my research and tell me if it’s ok.”

I step out of the way of other students as they try to enter the room. “I can’t today,” I tell him. “Anyway, you don’t need me. You’re really smart, Liam, and you’ve obviously put a lot of thought into the project. I’ll take a look if you really want me to but you’ve got this nailed, Liam.”

“But…”Liam shrugs. He mulls over my words for a moment, then nods and breaks out into a smile. “Maybe you’re right. Thanks for having faith in me, Cate.”

When Liam leaves I enter my class and take my usual seat. I diligently take notes and answered any question that came my way as I counted down the minutes until lunch. Georgie had cornered me this morning at my locker and demanded that we go off campus for lunch. She assured me that it would just be us two and that her dad had Ok’d it, and she was adamant that we ‘talk.’

I hate the word ‘talk.’ It means that I’ll actually have to talk… I’m more of a listener than a talker.

The lunch bell rang at midday and I headed straight for the student’s parking lot. I drove myself to school this morning, which was weird. Since coming back from winter break I had become accustomed to having either one of my family members drive me to school, or have TJ chauffeur me around. I beeped open my father’s SUV and climbed into the driver’s seat. I sent Georgie a quick text telling her where I was and waited until she came running out of the admin building waving two passes at me.