I glanced at Shaylee who was overly focused on her notes. I couldn’t tell if she was embarrassed by the whole situation, or as afraid of me as the others seemed to be. I took a deep breath, not giving myself any more time to doubt my decision.
“Sorry about that,” I said to her. “I couldn’t let Downey stick you with someone who’ll be mean to you all semester.”
“As opposed to someone who doesn’t speak to me at all or help me with the labs?” She replied.
“You’re right,” I admitted. “I was a terrible lab partner last semester. I’ll be better. See? I even have a notebook.”
I showed her my notebook and smiled proudly.
“There’s still one problem,” she noted. “What are you going to write with?”
Embarrassment washed over me as I realized that I had no pencil. I felt like an idiot. It was the first time in centuries that I actually cared about interacting with another person and I’d made a fool of myself.
“Here,” she said, holding out a pencil. “You can keep it, since I’m pretty sure you don’t have any.”
“It seems you have a pretty low opinion of me,” I said, taking the pencil.
“Not too low,” she shrugged. “You did save me once.”
She turned her attention to Mr. Downey, who had finally recovered enough to begin the lecture. I smiled to myself, please that I hadn’t completely ruined any chance of forming a good relationship with her.
The moment Jaden had pointed out that I cared, it seemed as though the wall I had built around myself since the Exodus suddenly shattered and I could feel hope again for the first time. Even if this girl wasn’t who Andrew said she was, she was giving me hope, something I never expected to feel again.
Andrew was right about one thing; I was never going to discover if the prophecy was true or not unless I got close to Shaylee. Even if she wasn’t the one everyone had been searching for all these years, she was special solely for the light she had introduced into my darkness and was in need of protection.
I did my best to pay attention, wanting to redeem myself from my behavior the previous semester. No matter how hard I tried to focus on Mr. Downey, my thoughts kept returning to Shaylee. As the class dragged on, it became obvious to me that it didn’t matter if she was the one or not. I didn’t want to stay away from her any longer.
Chapter 6
Jaden
Life passed quickly. Before I knew where the time had gone it was almost February. All of my extra time and energy was taken up by Aaron’s insane training schedule. I used the group project that I didn’t even care about as an excuse whenever Shaylee asked and she never seemed to question it.
Ever since the morning I’d pointed out Aaron genuinely cared, he’d been strangely pleasant to be around, except for when we were sparring. He was absolutely ruthless. If I had this much trouble beating him, I could only imagine what it would be like going up against a fully trained Warrior.
I entered the bathroom one day between classes and checked to make sure I was alone. I lifted up my shift and saw the deep purple bruise on my side. I had to figure out how to beat him. I was supposed to be stronger and faster than him, but somehow, I was always the one walking around with bruises.
I left the bathroom and went to class. Schoolwork seemed meaningless to me now. My life was all about being a Warrior and school wasn’t any help with that. Instead of paying attention, I spent my time thinking up new fighting strategies for my training.
At lunch I did my best to listen as Shaylee talked about the upcoming partner assignment in Italian, which she was dreading. I felt bad for her. I was her only friend. Everyone else either ignored her or outright bullied her. I wished I was being a better friend, but I didn’t know how anymore with all the secrets I was keeping from her.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about it, Shay,” I told her. “It’s the last one you’ll ever have to do.”
“I know,” she said, looking embarrassed. “I just wish everyone didn’t make such a big deal about it. It’s not like I don’t do the work or anything. I’m a good partner, but no one gives me a chance. I hate this school.”
My heart went out to her and I wished I could tell her it wasn’t her fault no one at this school accepted her. It wasn’t her fault she wasn’t one of us. It was just too bad she could never understand.
“At least I won’t be stuck with Aaron like I am for Anatomy. He’s so strange. Last semester he didn’t even speak to me. Now he answers all of the questions for the labs and then asks me weird stuff.”
“Like what?” I asked, interest to learn more about my mysterious teacher.
“Like if I enjoy the piano. Out of nowhere in between listing the structures of the limbic system he asks me about the piano. Today he asked if I prefer cauliflower or broccoli. It’s weird.”
I glanced over at Aaron and saw that as usual, he had his back to us.
“That is weird,” I agreed.
“And his notebook. He sits there and pretends to take notes, but I’ve seen what he writes down and it’s nothing helpful. Then somehow he just knows all of the answers. If I hadn’t seen a few moments of chivalry, I don’t know if I’d be comfortable at all when I’m around him.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I have no idea how you can be his lab partner if he’s so strange.”
“Well, it’s not like I have any choice. After he made such a huge scene in front of everyone about being
