Counting Our Stars • Tyler Joseph •

Chapter 2

• Claire •

The next morning, Claire found it very difficult to recall the events of last night after leaving her house. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she lay in bed. She knew she had to get up and start getting ready for class that morning.

With a heavy sigh, Claire pushed back her comforter and sat up, stretching her arms above her head with a massive yawn. She stood up and grabbed the outfit, a lacy white blouse and dark jeans with black flats. From atop her desk chair. She turned the bathroom light on, the bulb emitting a soft hissing noise above her.

Once she had showered and gotten ready for class, Claire headed out the door. She had only began classes a month ago but it still felt weird to say she was a freshman in college. She had only finished high school last May. Things seemed to becoming a seamless blur around her.

• • •

Sliding onto her stool, Claire slung her backpack onto the floor before unzipping it and retrieving her Biology notebook. She hated Biology but it was a required course for all majors. Flipping her notebook open to a blank sheet of paper, she patiently waited for the professor to start class. The door opened with a slight creak but it wasn't the professor. Claire merely glanced the person's direction as the person hurried to the lab table behind Claire. She faced the front again and sighed to herself as the professor came into the classroom.

"good morning class. Today you all will be paired up with someone I have chosen to pair you with." Mr. Russo announced as he looked at a sheet of paper on his table.

He had called most of the students' names by now and Claire was anxious to know who she'd end up with.

"Hutcherson and Joseph." Claire was trying to mentally picture a face in the classroom that matched the last name, she gave up in a matter of seconds and decided to sit and wait as the other students began to seek out their assigned partners. The task was to figure out which traits one partner shared with the other. Simple enough and they were given two weeks to create a presentation on what they found.

A screech came from the stool next to her broke her from her thoughts. She looked over at the boy who had created a wide gap between them just by pulling his stool to the opposite end of the table. Deep brown eyes the color of choclate met hers. And for some reason...they seemed vaguely familiar but why?

"Hello, I'm Tyler." The boy, Tyler, had a smooth but quiet tone that made him seem as if mumbling was natural for him.

Claire couldn't pull her gaze from him. "I'm Claire." Her words came out in a soft whisper and she couldn't understand why she was so mesmerized by such a normal interaction.