Emerald Eyes

Chapter 13.

A/N

                Just to avoid confusion and so everyone knows for sure, we’re back to Daniella’s point of view.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn’t even a full hour after I rejected Lucas that I realized our assignment probably would be easier if we worked together. And I really, really wanted to work with him. It had been so hard for me to tell him no. But if I was around him any more than necessary, we might have a repeat of last night. And as much as I wanted that, I couldn’t have it. What kind of a person finds out her sister is in a coma and then, just a few days later, starts running around kissing boys and laughing? A terrible person. I was a terrible person because it was so easy for me to just forget about Alyssa whenever I was around Lucas. So I resolved to stay away from him as much as possible. It wasn’t fair to Alyssa for me to just forget about her and be happy.

                But, thinking about how rude I’d been to Lucas before, I felt horrible. And it would be harder to make a good argument for the debate if I didn’t know what Lucas’ argument was going to be. My resolve was wavering more and more with every excuse my brain made.

                By the end of school, my resolve had completely crumbled. I’d convinced myself that it would be fine to just study. I could control myself; I wasn’t going to just jump him if I saw him outside of school. And besides, Alyssa wouldn’t want me going around kissing boys and forgetting about her, but I was sure she’d be fine with me just doing my schoolwork.

                After school, I saw a flash of black through the swarms of escaping kids and headed toward it. Lucas was heading toward his car, swinging a black lanyard with keys around on his finger.

                “Lucas?” I said once I was close enough for him to hear me. He turned around with a very surprised expression on his face. “Maybe I will take you up on your offer. I could use someone to compare notes with.”

                Lucas flashed one of his signature sharp smiles. Sure, it was hot. But now that I’d seen a real grin from him, this sharp, chewed-off one just didn’t seem all that amazing anymore.

                “Okay. When are you free?”

                “Well, Mr. T wants our basic arguments by tomorrow, so could you do it today?” I blurted out the words and then bit my lip. I so was not used to just casually making plans with people.

                “Yeah. Do you want to just head to the library now?”

                I nodded, so we parted and went to our vehicles. Ten minutes later, we both pulled into the lot at our public library. We didn’t really speak until we’d grabbed any books that we wanted and were seated at a table next to each other.

                I sat down with my laptop and two books on human cloning. Lucas did likewise. There was a moment or two of awkward silence.

                “So, what cons do you have so far?” Lucas started awkwardly.

                “Well, when they tried to clone that sheep, Dolly, there actually wasn’t just one sheep. A ton of ‘Dolly’s’ died before they actually got it right. I could talk about the dangers involved in that and how many people we’d be willing to kill before we got it right on humans.” I could do schoolwork, no problem. It was when people tried to talk about me that I got all awkward.