Chasing Spring(13)

I ignored him and glanced toward Kimberly.

She was fidgeting with something in her purse. “Oh, I’m not sure. Didn’t she just move back to town?”

“Yeah, on Saturday.”

She zipped up her purse with a forceful tug. “I can ask around if you want?”

I shrugged, trying to think of a good excuse for why I’d care about Lilah’s love life. “Yeah, I just hate that kid, so if he's going to be hanging around her house, I’d like to know.”

She nodded, still not meeting my eyes, and I wondered if I’d made a mistake. Kimberly and I had dated off and on the year before, but we'd been friends—just friends—for a while. Asking her for help with Lilah probably wasn’t the smartest move, but I needed to know.

…

AP Physics was my last class before baseball practice and the teacher, Mr. Jenkins, had a way of making the forty-five minute period stretch on for what felt like hours. I walked into the classroom and arced my empty water bottle into the recycling bin near his desk. It landed smoothly inside the bin, but Mr. Jenkins still glared at me over the top of his 80s-style reading glasses and pointed his finger at my desk.

“Find your seat, Mr. Matthews.”

Apparently he hadn’t found a personality over winter break, which meant the last semester of his class would be just as unbearable as the first.

I turned to join Connor at our table and then froze when I saw Lilah standing in the back of the room with her arms crossed and her eyes pinned on me. I hadn’t seen her all day, not in the morning assembly or in the hallways between classes. I smiled. She’d avoided me all day, but apparently she and I would be in the same sixth period for the next few months.

Our physics class was set up so that everyone worked in pairs. Each pair shared a small black table, which explained why Lilah was standing by herself: she didn’t have an assigned seat yet. I dropped my backpack on my chair and then glanced around the room. Mr. Jenkins had paired us up the semester before, so unless someone had dropped the course, Lilah would have to work alone or join a team of two.

“Edward, stop staring and sit,” Connor said.

I ignored him and headed back toward Mr. Jenkins’ desk. He pretended not to notice me at first, but I cleared my throat, and finally his gray hair tilted back and his annoyed stare met mine.

“How was your winter break, Mr. Jenkins?” I asked with a smile.

He narrowed his eyes. “Go back to your seat, Mr. Matthews.”

“Actually, I wanted to ask you if Lilah Calloway could join Connor and me at our table? Since there’s an odd number and all.”

Connor groaned and a few students laughed. I kept my focus on Mr. Jenkins as he leaned to the side to look at Lilah standing in the back of the class. It looked like he’d only just realized she was back there. He studied her and then glanced back at me, trying to work out my angle.

I widened my smile and shrugged.

“Lilah, pull a chair up to their table,” he said, returning his attention to the work on his desk. “You’ll work with Chase and Connor this semester.”

“Uh, actually, I can just work alone,” she protested with a calm, firm voice.

Mr. Jenkins sighed and shook his head. “No. We work in pairs in this class, or in your case, a trio.”

“But I was in AP Physics at my old school. I’m sure I can manage on my own.”

He closed his eyes, pulled the glasses from his face, and massaged the skin beside the bridge of his nose. “Please, just do as I ask.”

The subject was closed.

I smiled and turned to face Lilah. Her bright eyes were furious. Every student in the class had turned to watch her and a deep blush spread across her cheeks and neck. I pulled a chair from the corner of the room, shoved Connor toward the window, and dropped the empty chair on the other side of mine.

She waited until the final bell rang and then she took the seat beside me, positioning herself on the chair so that she was as far away from me as possible.

“Is this your idea of a joke?” she whispered as Mr. Jenkins stood to begin that day’s lesson.

I pulled out my notebook and shook my head.

“No joke. My plan is to win you back one physics problem at a time.”

Connor laughed. “Does this make me Jacob?”

Lilah ignored the both of us as Mr. Jenkins started drawing out an equation on the blackboard. For the first time I could remember, I was excited to be in Mr. Jenkins’ physics class.





Chapter Seventeen


Lilah





I knew from years past that Chase had baseball practice after school Monday through Thursday, so I didn't bother waiting for him after the final bell rang. I put my headphones in, pressed play on my iPod, and broke through the crowded hallway until I reached the side door of the school. I pushed it open and inhaled a deep breath of fresh air.

On days like that, when winter was retreating and I could finally feel the sun again, it was hard to remember why I hated springtime so much. That crisp air should have held possibilities, but I’d take one step into spring and the sad memories would fling back into my thoughts so hard I'd have to pinch my eyelids closed to control the residual pain.

My mother had been a chameleon and for seven years she’d worn one appearance: mother. She had fit the role so well it was hard for me to wrap my head around her being anything but perfect. Before I was seven, my memories of her were all good and happy—what they should have been. Maybe that's why it had blindsided me so much when one day she’d packed her bags and explained that she couldn't live with us any more. She didn't want to be married, she didn't want to be a mother—she wanted her freedom.