Parahuman (Parahuman Series) Page 14

  As the door of the office closed behind him Devan could hear the secretaries bursting out in dialogue about his unusual appearance…setting the tone for the rest of the day.

  Turning right Devan headed toward his first class of the day. The hallway was cluttered with students getting ready for the day, but at the moment they were all busy gawking and whispering. Ignoring them, Devan continued to class, which was only ten yards to the right.

  The assortment of smells tainting the air was overwhelming; cleaning detergents, a multitude of perfumes and colognes, the beginnings of lunch in the cafeteria, and everyone’s individual body odors. By the end of the day this building would be rank with the overflowing stench of body order.

  The five minute warning bell sounded through the halls as Devan walked through the door of his first class, World Studies. The only person present was the teacher; an extremely short male who was at least two and a half feet shorter than Devan.

  He was rummaging through some papers on his desk and didn’t bother to look up at Devan’s entrance, too accustomed to students going in and out his door.

  Devan walked up to the desk and cleared his throat. The teacher looked up and went wide eyed at Devan’s appearance.

  “I’m Devan Ferris, starting your class today.” Devan hated stating the obvious, but most people needed the obvious declared just for conversation starters.

  The teacher visibly shook himself and held out his hand, a congenial smile on his face. “I’m Mr. Mathews.” The man’s tenor was much deeper than his diminutive size would have indicated. “I like to ask my student where they would like to sit…” Mr. Mathews said with a smile, “…and then I place them where I want them despite their wishes. I don’t do it to be contrary; it just ends up being that way. Normally I stick the new students in the front of the class, as sort of an initiation, but as you are taller than average I think I will have to diverge from my usual practice and place you in the back. We don’t need people straining their necks trying to see around you. Does this seating arrangement work for you?”

  “Uh, yes,” Devan answered, knocked a little off balance a little by the man’s remarks. He was, in fact, perfectly happy with the seating arrangement.

  “You won’t have any problem seeing from the back of the room with the glasses?” The teacher asked.

  “No, my eyesight is not a problem.” Devan declared assuredly.

  “Good, good. You can take the far left corner than.” Mr. Mathews waved him off as his head bent down toward his papers again.

  Devan sat down setting his backpack under his seat. The first students started trickling in, one, then another, then five together; all staring at him. Then Laney walked in. She was with her friend Hali, and they were laughing.

  She was wearing fawn colored form fitting pants with black mid-calf high boots and a long sleeve teal shirt that reached to her hips. Devan noted the color of the shirt complemented her eyes and complexion. Her dark hair was pulled up away from her face but fell loose down her back. Like before, he felt a deep compulsion to stroke it.

  When Laney’s gaze lit on him her laughter stopped, and the absence of it bothered him excessively.

  Devan bowed his head in a show of indifference. Even though Jarrod wasn’t there Devan needed to set a precedent for their behavior. The act left tight feeling in his chest. Even though there were nine people in the classroom talking, and several people were walking about; Devan isolated Laney’s footsteps. She was headed his way, and his muscles tightened the closer she came.

  “Hi, Devan.” Laney slid into the seat in front of him―of course she had to have a seat next to him―while her friend, Hali, took the seat to Laney’s left.

  Devan gave a sigh of unavoidability, mixed with pleasure at her acknowledgement and proximity. Raising his head, he muttered. “Hello.” It was one thing to pretend indifference, but he wasn’t going to snub her.

  Laney wasn’t looking at him though; she was riffling through her book bag. He breathed in deeply, enjoying her scent.

  “Hey, Dev.”

  Devan wrenched his gaze from Laney to Hali. Dev? She was giving him a huge grin as she slid into her own seat.

  “Hello, Hali.” He returned the greeting minus the grin; polite, but cool. As Hali was associated with Laney it would be logical to alienate her as well, so as to cover all points of connection.

  Suddenly, Laney turned in her seat to face him. Devan felt like a cornered animal with her green eyes trained on him. He tried, really he did, to relocate his gaze in any direction but on her, but he wasn’t able to do it. Her gaze just drew him in.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Laney stared at Devan with a mind turned to mush. She had turned around because she had to look at him, but her brain seemed to have stopped functioning and all she could do was stare at him. She had to be looking really stupid.

  His multi-colored hair was all disheveled again, but with it being so thick it looked great. The dark t-shirt he wore molded nicely to his shoulders and biceps, and he was wearing shorts again that showed off his calves to perfection. He must have to special order those shorts because they fell to his knees and those measurements had to be hard to find.

  Hali seemed to realize Laney’s speech impediment and jumped in to save her. “So, Devan; how’s the first day of school going so far?”

  Devan’s stony features remained fixed forward in Laney’s direction as he answered the question. Her heart hurt at the rigid set of expression, but it also thumped double time at the thought that maybe he was unable to look away from her as well.

  “Archetypal.”

  One word. A big one too. Laney smirked, and her brain started functioning again.

  “So loquacious. You must take pity on our poor ears and not talk them off so.”

  Laney could almost swear that Devan was forcing back a grin. Her heart lifted. She wasn’t sure what happened last night. He was trying to erect some kind of wall, and the thought wrenched at her heart. She had made a pledge to not allow him to succeed if that was his plan. Besides being attracted to him, and she admitted she was, she sensed a loneliness to him that called to her.

  Hali snorted next to her. “Loquacious. You got that from Harry Potter. You’ve only watched it like twelve dozen times.”

  “Don’t knock the classics my young apprentice, far they will take you.” Laney retorted in her best Yoda imitation.

  “As always you are correct my Master.” Hali played along solemnly, but then she grinned. “Well, not always, more like sometimes, or even rarely. It pretty much falls to me to be right all the time.”

  “I will ignore the preposterousness of that statement.” Laney huffed grievously. Having never taken her eyes from Devan’s face…she had to see if she was getting to him…Laney was able to observe the softening of his features at the byplay between her and Hali, but just as she was starting to breathe easier his face tightened back up again and a twitch started up in his jaw.

  “Hello ladies.”

  Auuhhh, that’s why the stony face. Jarrod. Laney gave Devan a smile and didn’t turn around as she answered Jarrod’s greeting.

  “Jarrod,” Laney responded coolly; she wanted Jarrod to know that she was still mad at him for being a douche. However, she couldn’t ignore him altogether; her mama had raised her better than that. That didn’t mean she was going to smile pretty. Well…not smile at Jarrod, because she was in all actuality smiling, just at Devan rather than Jarrod.

  “Jarrod,” Hali echoed in the same chilly tone. Laney cast a quick grin Hali’s way for backing her up. Laney had informed Hali of Jarrod’s jackhole behavior and she was all on Devan’s side. BFF’s rule.

  Before anything else could be said Mr. Mathews started speaking. Laney gave one last smile to Devan whose jaw muscles still twitched. Turning to face the front Laney witnessed Jarrod, who was sitting in front of her, giving Devan an unfriendly expression; which he quickly transformed into a conciliatory smile when he looked her way.

  Jar
rod leaned in closer, whispering. “Can I talk to you at lunch?”

  Laney wasn’t going to make it easy for him. Hopefully she would have other plans for lunch anyway. Devan might need someone to hang out with.

  “How about after school?” Laney offered. Jarrod was like an annoying brother, she couldn’t just cut him out.

  “But…” Jarrod continued.

  “Mr. Dean, please face the front. You should be paying attention to me and not talking to Ms. Jennings.”

  Laney gave Jarrod the evil eye for getting her called out by the teacher. Jarrod turned to face the front, but not before looking over his shoulder at Devan and giving him a surly expression. Laney felt anger burn through her at his persistent nasty behavior.

  “I’m sure you have all noticed that we have a new addition to the class. And I’m also sure that you’ve noted and are speculating on his eye accessory. Mr. Ferris, or Devan to you all, has an eye sensitivity disorder and is required to wear those for medicinal purposes. You can put your hand down right now Mr. Davis; you do not have an ESD, so no sunglasses for you.”

  Mr. Mathews began his lecture but Laney was having a hard time paying attention, because the back of her neck was tingling like wild fire from what she was sure was Devan’s gaze. It was crazy how linked she’d become to him, especially in such a short amount of time.

  Last night when he had told her that they would only being staying a couple more months Laney heart had hurt. She had barely stopped herself from screaming, ‘NO’! She had this idea of going to Devan’s uncle to try and convince him to stay, to give Silverton a chance. But that wouldn’t seem weird or anything, some girl he didn’t know showing up and arguing against his departure.

  She felt like she was going mad from the bombardment of emotions running rampant through her body.

  Devan was so contained, holding everything tightly packed inside of himself. Last night’s talk at the waterfall had been so nice. Laney had just known that for the first time in a long time he had allowed a little bit of that wall inside of him to come down. Every time he smiled, and that laugh, it was like he was surprised it had come out of his mouth. She had felt ten feet high for bringing that happiness to him.

  But then that wall had shot right back up on the drive to her house. She could actually sense extra layers going up, like he was fortifying himself. She wasn’t sure what had caused it, but she had wanted to cry, or hit him, because of it. Then came his announcement of his imminent move, and her heart had dropped.

  She was going to have some kind of aneurism before she was seventeen.

  Laney felt a nudge in her side from Hali interrupting her musings in time to hear…“Ms. Jennings, can you join us in your corporal form for a few minutes to answer my question?”

  Laney felt her face burn in embarrassment. Not at being called out on her daydreaming, but because of who she had been daydreaming about. Not that Devan knew she had been ruminating about him, but that didn’t stop the burn of red from spreading everywhere. She hated it when she got embarrassed, there was no way she could hide it.

  “Sorry, can you repeat the question?” Laney gave Mr. Mathews an apologetic grimace. He was a cool teacher that wouldn’t hold it against her. It wasn’t like she did it all the time. She was normally very attentive in his class because he made the subject matter interesting.

  Mr. Mathews cocked an amused eyebrow at her. “We were continuing our discussion from yesterday about the long standing conflict in the East. Why do you think it is still going on?”

  Laney took a deep breath. She would at least be able to redeem herself and answer the question. “The conflict is steeped in religion and faith and has been going on for centuries. It will endure because these people believe that what they are fighting for is beyond what is tangible.”

  Mr. Mathews nodded his head as he looked around the classroom for an unwary victim. His gaze focused behind her. Laney winced inwardly for Devan. No one would appreciate being called upon on their first day at a new school, but Mr. Mathews was one of those individuals who believed the Band-Aid should be ripped off quickly rather then gently peeling it back.

  “Mr. Ferris, do you think this is a rational basis for this conflict?”

  Devan didn’t hesitate or hem-and-haw. “The manner of using physical aggression to resolve insubstantial ideals is not rational.”

  Laney couldn’t let that pass. She turned to face him. “Faith isn’t about rationality.”

  Devan’s head cocked to the right. Laney’s heart did a double thump at the adorableness of it. “So their irrational reason is an adequate cause?”

  “Faith is not an irrational reason. It’s a hope for something better.” Laney stressed passionately. She didn’t believe in the violence in the Middle East, but the passionate belief they lived their life by was inspiring in a way.

  “It’s irrational and illogical to place so much faith is something that cannot be verified.” Devan countered in composed tones.

  Laney wasn’t sure but she was beginning to think Devan was enjoying the debate with her more than his belief in the issue. Well, she wasn’t going to be the one to throw in the towel. Anyway, she was enjoying herself too.

  “Their faith is the same as breathing to them; it’s part of them…shaping their entire

  existence.” A slight indent appeared between Devan’s brows at Laney’s response, as though he contemplated the idea for a second. Laney felt a slight victory at the thought. He countered immediately though.

  “Maybe for the common people, but as for the government or those in positions of power, they’re objective is monetary gain. They manipulate the passions of the people for their own agendas. If the people were to think rationally they would realize that their faith was being exploited.”

  Laney could see that the wall Devan had put back up was crumbling slightly. His lips had softened and one corner was quirked upwards. Laney was so overjoyed that all she could do was smile, even though they were thrashing out a pretty contentious subject matter. Well, she had been thrashing, he had been all factual and logical.

  Suddenly, a snicker in the background seemed to rouse them from their bubble…a recognizable Hali snicker. They both looked around to see everyone staring at them. Two people grinning, Hali and Mr. Mathews, one scowling, Jarrod, and the rest bemused.

  Laney toned down her smile to restrained grin as she glanced back at Devan. His expression had gone back to stony. She almost poked her tongue out at him in frustration.

  “That was the most stimulating debate this classroom has seen in a while. Thank you, Mr. Ferris and Ms. Jennings, for that most thought-provoking argument.” Mr. Mathews stated amusingly. He then brought everyone’s attention back to him by assigning a two page report on the conflict and its ramifications in the United States; due tomorrow. A multitude of groans and complaints followed that announcement.

  Laney forced herself to concentrate on her paper, but all she was capable of writing was her name, date, and the title; any new noise behind her kept interrupting her thought process.

  Not that Devan made a lot of noise; for such a big guy he was remarkably quiet. There was no shifting in his seat or heavy breathing, but she was able to hear the scratching of his pencil on paper, and he didn’t seem to be having any problem at all getting words down. There had been only one pause in five minutes of writing when he had shuffled his papers to presumably start on his second page. After five minutes of writing there was another shuffling of papers and then silence. That just stretched Laney’s nerves to the breaking point wondering what he was doing.

  Because Jarrod kept looking back at her Laney had to pretend she was writing something so he wouldn’t try to start a conversation with her, she wasn’t going to get into it with him in class. And she felt like laying into him with extreme vengeance.

  After another ten minutes the bell finally rang signaling the end of class. While collecting her books Laney turned to ask Devan what his next class was only he wasn’t there. Swin
ging her head around she saw him sailing out the classroom door. Laney almost growled.

  “Those long legs of his are no match for the likes of us.” Hali remarked in her ear.

  Before she was able to make a remark to that Jarrod was standing in front of her.

  “Laney…”

  Laney held up her hand. “Jarrod, I don’t have the time right now to say everything I want to say to you, I need at least a half an hour. Then if I want to hear what you have to say that might be another half an hour. So please, let’s just put this conversation on hold until after school.” Without waiting for a reply Laney grabbed her books, hooked her arm with Hali’s, and headed for the door. Thankfully, she wouldn’t see him the next hour.

  They walked into the hall and headed toward their next class, advanced calculus, which they had together. Laney scoped the hallway attempting to find Devan. She couldn’t see any sign of him, and it wasn’t like he could blend.

  “Snap girl, way to go all dominatrix on him. All you need is a whip and some handcuffs.” Hali laughed.

  “I am still really, really mad at him.” Laney had briefly told Hali about Jarrod’s behavior last night. “He was a complete jerk last night, and then Devan informed me later that Jarrod actually warned him away from me.” Laney was still trying to process that little piece of information. Jarrod had always been a fixture in her life; annoying a lot of the time, but manageable. The idea that he was warning Devan away from her was utterly bizarre. She had to wonder if Devan had misinterpreted what Jarrod had been trying to say.

  “No way!” Hali gasped, and then she got a pensive look upon her face. “Although, I’m not altogether surprised that he did something like that. He’s been a little possessive about you lately. I’ve even gotten an occasional dirty look from him when you’ve told him you were doing something with me rather than fall into line with his plans. I’ve just blown his attitude off as Jarrod being Jarrod.”