Call of the Moon

Chapter Four

“So, out with it!” Elle hissed as she leaned toward her friend when they sat down at their desks. “What’s up with you and the new guy?”

 Lizzie flushed as she glanced at her friend, then shook her head and stared down at her desk as she said, “Nothing’s going on. We’ve just been talking.”

 After a moment, Elle leaned closer, her eyebrows raised, and asked, “And?”

 Lizzie glanced at her again and gave her friend a shy smile as she said, “We’re going to hang out after school tomorrow.”

 Elle squealed so loud, Lizzie covered her face with her hands and sunk down into her seat with a groan. Elle slapped her hand over her mouth, her eyes wide as she looked around at everyone staring at her. She gave them a sickly smile and waved before slumping down in her seat, covering her eyes with one hand.

 “God, you are so embarrassing!” Lizzie hissed to her, shaking her head and trying not to smile.

 “But you love me anyway,” Elle hissed back, giggling.

 “I have such a goof for a best friend,” Lizzie moaned, putting her head in her hands.

 “Takes one to know one,” Elle shot back, grinning at her.

 The two girls broke out into giggles just as the bell rang to signal the start of class. They tried to keep quiet as the teacher, Mrs. Patrick, stood in front of the room to introduce herself. 

 “Welcome to seventh grade math, everyone,” she said, looking around the classroom. 

 Her gaze landed on Lizzie and Elle, trying to suppress their laughter. She stopped her introduction to glare at the two girls, which only made them giggle even more. 

 “We’ll wait until you two ladies can compose yourselves,” Mrs. Patrick said, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at them over the rims of her glasses.

 Lizzie nodded, holding her index finger up. She closed her eyes and covered her face. 

 Elle managed to choke out, “Thank you,” before dissolving into another fit of giggles. She looked down at her desk as she tried to contain her laughter. 

 After another minute, in which Lizzie had to stare at the clock on the wall to calm down, and Elle had to put her head in her arms on her desk, they finally calmed down enough to pay attention.

 “Sorry about that,” Lizzie muttered, looking down at her desk.

 “Year, sorry,” Elle echoed, looking away from Lizzie.

 Mrs. Patrick glared at them for a moment longer before clearing her throat and continuing to go through the first day of class introductions. Lizzie and Elle didn’t look at each other for the rest of class. 

 After class, the two girls went their separate ways, promising to meet up for lunch after the next period. 

 “See you in the cafeteria,” Lizzie called after her.

 “I hope they have decent food here,” Elle called back. 

 “Me too,” Lizzie said as she turned the corner of the hallway. 

 On her way to her history class on the second floor, that same scent from earlier caught her attention. She whirled around, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. Too many people crowded the hallway for her to identify the origin of the scent. Frowning, she continued on to her next class, still trying to figure out what the scent was. 

 Sliding into her seat, she looked around, but didn’t see any new people in this class. She paid attention as best she could, but the scent and its origin stayed in the back of her thoughts.

 After that class ended, she finally had to go to her locker to put the books she’d collected during the morning classes into it. As she neared her locker, she saw Elle standing in front of the locker next to hers, smiling. 

 “Looks like we’re together,” she said, pointing to her open locker. 

 Lizzie grinned and bounced up and down on her toes. 

 “Yes! I’m so happy our lockers are next to each other,” she said, clapping her hands.

Then she dug the combination of her locker out of the pocket of her backpack and unlocked the door, opening it wide. 

 “Let’s get our books inside and head to the cafeteria,” Elle said, putting her books on the shelf. “My arms are killing me.”

 “That’s only because you didn’t get a backpack,” Lizzie said, taking hers off so she could open it and put her books in her locker. “You thought you wouldn’t look cool enough for seventh grade with a backpack.”

 She looked around at the other students putting their books into lockers from their backpacks and added, “I think you are one of the few who didn’t bring a backpack.”

 Elle sighed as she shook her arms out and said, “I bought one, but I wanted to see what everyone else was doing before I decided if I wanted it or not.”

 Shutting the door to her locker, she added, “I’m bringing it tomorrow. There’s no way I’m lugging all these books around in my arms all day.”

“I don’t blame you,” Lizzie said. “They weigh a ton in my backpack. I can only imagine carrying them around all day.”

 “We also need to bring stuff to decorate our lockers,” Elle said. “I can’t imagine going through the entire school year looking at the inside of this dull, grey locker. It needs some sprucing up.”

 “I agree,” Lizzie said. “Let’s make them look cute! That way, we can almost look forward to coming to the school every day.” 

 “I’m not sure anything would make me look forward to coming to school,” Elle moaned as she shut the door to her locker.

 “I did say almost,” Lizzie told her, giggling. 

 Shutting her locker, she froze as she inhaled the now almost familiar scent. Her eyes darted around the lockers as she looked frantically around, trying to pinpoint where the scent was coming from.

 Suddenly, her gaze locked with the eyes of a tall, sandy-haired boy wearing glasses. He stared at her for a moment before he gave her a smile and darted around a corner.