Inciting Investigations

Chapter 10

Birdy Anders

“Hello…Earth to Birdy.” She saw a hand waving in front of her face and turned in annoyance to Badger. He just smiled at her and said, “There you are. C’mon, we need to get back to work.”

She turned back to her computer screen and tried her absolute hardest to focus on what the website said. She was trying to do research for the presentation they had to do on mythical creatures, but she was having trouble focusing on any of it. This was all about mermaids, so it was a bit odd for her to be zoned out when thinking about something like this. Usually, she would be thinking about nothing but mermaids and would love a huge project like this. However, at that moment, it only seemed like the biggest annoyance to ever exist.

The reason was that she had much much more important things that she could be pondering on and researching. That was most definitely not math but rather a little side project that she had elected to begin herself…in secret. She knew that her schoolwork had to come first, though. So she continued to sit there and try to keep her mind entirely focused on mermaids.

It was no use. It really wasn’t. Her brain just wouldn’t hook up correctly or something for some reason and make her think about her schoolwork. All that she could get her mind to focus on right then was the idea of the board that she had hidden under her bed and the incognito tabs hidden on her phone and computer where no one could see them.

Her fingers itched to switch over to one of those tabs really quickly, not for super long or anything. It would only be a couple of minutes to satiate her thirst for knowledge, and then she would be able to go back to schoolwork. But she didn’t do that for two reasons.

One, she knew that if she looked at that stuff for even a singular second that she wouldn’t be able to tear her eyes away. Two, she was still in her classroom, and therefore, it was way too risky to open tabs that were as sketchy as the ones she wanted to look at were.

She glanced over at Badger for a moment to see the vehemently taking notes at a surprisingly fast pace. She guessed that it wasn’t surprising, considering what she had found out two nights ago. Though, she wasn’t sure if he really was using his power or if he was just quick at taking notes. It truly could’ve been either and frustrated her that she didn’t know.

She considered asking him, but that idea was quickly diminished in a matter of seconds. She was in a classroom, and she reminded herself that for the millionth time in just that thirty minutes, she had been in that room. She had promised to keep his and Julian’s powers a secret, even though she didn’t even really like the boys. But still, asking Badger out loud in the middle of class if he was using his powers or not probably would have the opposite effect of no one finding out. She could write it down, but she never knew who could get their hands on that one small slip of paper. So she just sat in her pool of curiosity.

Her knee was bouncing, and her fingers were tapping lightly on the desk while her other hand was occupied with twirling her pen in the air. She sat zoned out for a little while, thinking about theories. Wondering where he could’ve gone or what he could’ve been doing at that very moment while she sat in a classroom being absolutely useless in finding him.

“Badger, Birdy. I do hope you’re both working over there.” Mrs. Hohn’s voice carried over the class, and Birdy blushed in embarrassment as everyone’s eyes turned to her and her partner briefly. She responded quickly, “Of course, Mrs. Hohn. We’re both working.”

“Well alrighty then, just make sure to keep it that way, you two.” She looked over her tiny glasses at the two of them before looking back down at her desk, away from the pair.

Birdy sat up straight and decided to try harder to focus. Mrs. Hohn was one of the few teachers that she really cared about how they thought of her. The older woman had always been kind to her even when she was struggling in her classes and gave her a lot of extensions when Cyrus first came home. She had told her that she needed to spend as much time as possible with her brother, not working on assignments that could just be graded later.