The trip

I watched four volleyball games running simultaneously, recalling how many injuries I had sustained and inflicted as a result of playing volleyball, I felt faintly sickened.

Finally, the final bell rang at last. I strolled slowly to the office to return my paperwork. This time, the rain had drifted away, but the wind was still strong, and colder. I had my arms wrapped around myself.

When I stepped into the warm office, I almost turned around and stepped back out.

Behold, Alessandro Demetrio stood at the desk in front of me. I recognized again his tousled bronze hair. He did not seem to notice the sound of my entrance. I stood clasped against the back wall, waiting for the receptionist to be free so I can be attended to.

He was contending with her in a low, and desirable voice. I hastily picked up the gist of the argument. He was trying to trade from sixth hour Biology to another time, any other time at all.

I just could not just believe that this was all about me. It had to be something else, something that happened before I entered the Biology room.

The look on his face must have been about another irritation entirely. It was unthinkable that this stranger could take such an abrupt and intense dislike on me.

The door opened again, and the cold wind abruptly gusted through the room, rustling the papers on the desk, whirling my hair around my face.

The girl who came in merely stepped to the desk, she placed a note in the wire basket, and walked out again. But Alessandro Demetrio's back was still stiffened.

He turned slowly to glare at me, his face was absurdly gorgeous, with piercing disgust filled eyes.

For an instant, I felt a rush of genuine fear, raising the hair on my arms. The look only lasted a second, but it had me chilled more than the freezing wind outside the room. He turned back to the receptionist.

"Never mind, then," he said quickly in a voice like velvet. "I can see that it is difficult. Thank you so much for your help."

And he turned on his heel without another glance at me, and disappeared out the door.

I went meekly to the desk, my face was white for once instead of red like the other times, and I handed her the signed slip.

"How did your first day go my dear?" the receptionist asked me with so much care in her expression.

"Fine," I lied with my weak voice.

She did not look convinced, but I did not care instead.

When I got to the truck, it was almost the last car in the parking lot. It seemed like a haven, already the closest thing to home I had in this damp green hole.

I sat inside the truck for a while, just staring out the windshield blankly. But soon I was cold enough to need the heater, so I swiveled the key and the truck engine roared to life. I led the way back to Klaus's house, battling tears the whole way as I went home.

The next day was nicer and terrible. It was nice because it was not raining yet, though the clouds were so thick and dark. It was easier because I already knew what to anticipate of my day.

Antonio came to sit beside me in our English class, and he also walked me to my next class when our English class was over, with Chess Club Ulrich staring at him all the while.

People did not look at me quite as much as they had yesterday. I sat with a big group of people at lunch that included Antonio, Anar and Ulrich, and several other people whose names and faces I now remembered.

I started to feel like I was treading water, it's much fare than drowning in it.

It was worse because I was so exhausted, I still could not sleep with the wind sounding around the house.

It was terrible because Mr. Varner called on me in Trig when my hand was not raised and I had the wrong answer.

It was dismal because I had to play volleyball, and the one time I did not cringe out of the way of the ball, I slammed my teammate in the head with it.

And it was painful because Alessandro Demetrio was not in school at all.

All morning I was dreading lunch, worrying about his odd glares. Part of me wanted to engage him and demand to know what his issue was.

While I was lying on my bed without able to sleep, I even imagined what I would say if I had confronted him.

But I knew myself too adequately to think I would really have what it takes to do it. I made the frightened lion look like the terminator.

But when I stepped into the cafeteria with Annar, trying to keep my eyes against sweeping the place for him, and failing completely, I saw that his four siblings of sorts were jointly sitting at the same table, and he was not there with them.

Antonio blocked us and led us to his table. Annar seemed exhilarated by the attention, and her friends quickly joined us.

But as I strived to listen to their easy chatter, I was terribly feeling uneasy, waiting nervously for the time he would arrive.

I hoped that he would simply avoid me when he came, and prove my skepticisms false.

He did not come, and as time passed I grew more and more tensed up.

I strolled to the Biology class with more confidence, when by the end of lunch, he still had not showed up.

Antonio, who was taking on the virtues of a golden retriever, walked faithfully by my side to our Biology class. I held my breath at the door, but Alessandro Demetrio was not there either.

I exhaled and went to my seat. Antonio followed me up, speaking about an upcoming trip to the beach.