Call of the Moon

Chapter Six

Elle saw Lizzie’s gaze pinned toward the front of the room and followed her line of sight. She frowned at the boy Lizzie was staring at and looked back at her friend.

Nudging her in the side, she whispered, “Forget about Deon already?”

Lizzie jumped at Elle’s nudge and looked at her friend, shaking her head to clear it. She glared at Elle for a moment in annoyance.

“Of course not,” she said, glancing back at the boy who was making his way down the aisle toward their desk.

“Then why do you keep looking at that boy?” Elle hissed, jerking her head toward him.

Lizzie gave her friend an annoyed look and opened her mouth to say something to stop her from asking more questions. Realizing what she was about to do, she snapped her jaw shut, causing her teeth to click together. She shook her head to clear it.

“I’m sorry about that,” she said, her shoulders drooping as she leaned back in her seat. “He just looked… familiar to me, and I just couldn’t place where I might have seen him before.”

Elle studied her friend for a moment in puzzlement, then smiled and said, “That’s okay. I forgive you. I can forgive you for looking at cute guys. After all, he is pretty good-looking.”

Lizzie glanced at the boy, who had sat at a desk near them and was looking through his backpack. A small smile crossed her face as she watched him.

Looking back at her friend, she asked, “You think he’s cute?”

Shrugging, Elle looked at him and said, “He’s not bad looking, in a nerdy sort of way.”

Studying him closer, she added, “I think it’s the glasses that do it. They give him a scholarly look. I like boys who look smart.”

Lizzie glanced at the boy once more and caught him staring at them, a puzzled frown on his face. She jerked her gaze back to her friend, turning her back to him. She could feel her face warming.

“See? Kinda cute, huh?” Elle said, trying not to giggle as she looked at Lizzie while glancing over her friend’s shoulder at the boy. “But you already have Deon, so can I have this one?”

“Sure,” Lizzie said, frowning.

She felt upset with her friend and didn’t know why. Shaking her head, she opened her mouth to speak again, but the bell rang, signaling the beginning of class.

Their teacher, a man with a dark beard, short dark hair, tan skin, and glasses, walked to the front of the class. He wore a lab coat over a dress shirt and dress pants.

Turning to face them, he said, “Good afternoon, class. My name is Mr. Thompson, and I will be your science teacher this year.”

Looking over the classroom, he smiled briefly at them and said, “I hope you haven’t gotten too comfortable where you are because I will be moving you around and assigning lab partners.”

The class groaned, and Elle and Lizzie looked at each other in surprise.

“Oh, no! We’re not going to be together?” Elle whispered to her, a stricken look on her face.

“Apparently not,” Lizzie said, frowning.

Everyone looked around the room anxiously as Mr. Thompson picked up his clipboard and read off the names of the students who would be sitting at each table.

Elle squeezed Lizzie’s arm and frowned as her name was called to sit with a boy named Brian Wells. Lizzie patted her friend’s arm as she picked up her books and walked to the table in the front of the room to sit next to a blonde boy with braces. She gave him a small smile, then looked back at Lizzie in dismay.

“Elsabeth Warden?” Mr. Thompson called out, looking around at his students.

Lizzie raised her hand as she looked at the teacher and stood up from the table.

“Luke Ellery?” Mr. Thompson called next, looking around the room.

The sandy-haired boy with the glasses raised his hand and stood as well.

“You two will sit there,” Mr. Thompson said, pointing to a table toward the back of the room.

Luke looked over at Lizzie with an eyebrow raised, then he waved his arm in front of him, letting her know she could go in front of him.

She walked to the table, acutely aware of him following behind her.

Setting her backpack on the side of the table nearest the wall, she sat down and said, “I’ll sit here if you don’t mind.”

Luke nodded and put his backpack on the other side of the table, sitting in the seat and leaning forward with his arms on the table. He ignored her as he watched the rest of the students sit down.

Frowning, she took her seat, looking at him until everyone else had taken their seats. Then, she turned her attention to the front of the room, looking at the back of Elle’s head class.

“Now that everyone is in their assigned seats, I want to let you know that the person you are seated with at your table is your lab partner for the rest of the semester,” Mr. Thompson told them, setting down his clipboard on his desk.

Not everyone seemed to be happy about this, as Lizzie heard a few grumbles around the classroom, but no one spoke out loud. She saw Elle glance back at her, frowning, and gave her a nod.

“Looks like we’re stuck together for a while, at least,” Luke said to her in a low voice.

She turned to look at him and was startled to see him leaning toward her, staring at her. His greenish-gold eyes were trained on her, and she blinked at him before giving her head a small shake.

“Yeah, it sure looks that way,” she told him and gave him a quick smile.

He stared at her for a moment longer, then nodded and grinned, saying, “I think we’ll get along just fine. I have a good feeling about you, Elsabeth Warden.”