Vitality | Elementals 1

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Kailani

"Are you ever going to tell me what's bothering you?" I asked Lincoln as we walked to our English class. "It has been a week since you started acting so distant and I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine," Lincoln said. "Really."

"That, I don't believe," I said. "Is it bad?"

"No," Lincoln said. "Just....confusing, I guess. Kailani, I promise I'm fine. I just want to figure things out alone."

"Okay," I said. "If it gets too much for you to handle alone, just remember that I'll always be here for you."

"I know," Lincoln said, giving me a faint smile. "Thanks."

We got to our English class and immediately sat down at our desk. There was a seating plan, so Lincoln and I weren't sitting beside each other. In fact, him sitting beside Wendy in this class is what got them to know each other better.

Shortly after the class started, our teacher, Mrs. Hunt, gave everyone a short story and told them about a project we were going to be doing with a partner. We had to rewrite the short story, keeping the key details of it to see if we truly understood what they were.

As soon as she told us we were now able to choose our partner, I looked over at Lincoln. He looked at me and pointed to Wendy, signalling he was going to work with her this time. I gave him a smile and nodded.

That was a first. He never partnered up with Wendy, no matter how many times I said it would be fine if he did.

On the downside, I now didn't have a partner and I barely talked to anybody in this class. I barely talked to anybody in the school.

I noticed that the principal walked through the door, a boy following him. The principal talked to Mrs. Hunt for a bit before leaving the class, the boy staying.

Mrs. Hunt then walked over to me. "Kailani, do you have a partner yet?" she asked and I shook my head. "Would you mind working with Simon here for the project? He's new to the school."

"Sure," I said, so Simon sat down beside me.

"What exactly is the project?" Simon asked.

I showed him the short story. "We have to rewrite this, keeping all the key details to see if we actually know what they are," I said. "Here, quickly read it."

Simon took the short story and read it over, quicker than I thought. "Okay, this should be easy," he said.

I opened my notebook and grabbed a pencil from my bag. "So, are you new to Ladera Grove?" I asked.

"Yeah," Simon said. "I just moved here on Saturday."

"How do you like it so far?" I asked.

"It's nice," he said. "It's peaceful and beautiful. Out of all the places I lived, this is probably my favorite so far."

"Have you moved around a lot?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah, you can say that," he said.

The two of us got started on the project, planning exactly what we had to keep in the story and what we wanted to change. When the class was over, we decided to meet in the school library so we could get ahead of the project since Mrs. Hunt told us we weren't going to get that much class time.