Silent Heroes: Wildcat

Chapter 19: Dark Horse

I'd like to say that I played it cool when I saw my crush from back home, standing there in the middle of a place I had never in a million years expected to see him.  I'd like to say that I kept my thoughts and feelings—which were already running on high following my rampage through the school and subsequent scolding and punishment—completely under control.  I'd like to say that I did nothing to make the situation more embarrassing than it already was.

But that would be far from the truth.

I gapped at him like an idiot for well over a minute.  Words failed me.  My heart was racing, blood pumping like fire through my veins.  My stomach was doing backflips.  But, none of this would have been obvious to Lucas.  He just saw me standing there, completely motionless, like I had been frozen in place.

Lucas frowned, fine lines creasing his forehead.  He leaned forward and waved a hand in front of my face.  "Hello?  You awake in there?  Anybody home?"

"Huh?  What?"  My body gave a little jerk.  "Oh, sorry..."  My throat was constricted and my voice came out abnormally high.  "It's just that... well umm... you're... you're Lucas."

Lucas raised his eyebrows at me.  "I'm aware of that."

"You're Lucas and you're... you're here."

His eyebrows climbed higher up his forehead.  "Is it your job to state the painfully obvious or something?"

Heat flooded my face.  I was feeling a little flustered and Lucas, staring expectantly at me with those ridiculously blue eyes, was not helping the matter one bit.

"Listen, just stay off this floor unless you're in human form, all right?  That's all I really wanted to say."

With that, he swept right past me without so much as a second glance.

"Hey wait, hold on!" I blurted.

Lucas turned and looked flatly at me.

"Don't you umm... don't you recognize me?"

"Should I?"

The question caused my stomach to squirm uncomfortably.  He didn't even remember who I was?  Had I made that little impression on him?

"But, I thought...." I paused for a moment.  "Wait, if you don't know who I am... didn't you wonder how I recognized you?"

Lucas gave a careless shrug.  "People always seem to know who I am.  I don't really question it anymore."

"We went to the same school back home," I was trying not to sound too hopeful, but I was failing miserably.  "We were in the same grade.  We had a bunch of the same classes together.  I mean, we never talked that much, but-"  I forced myself to stop right there.  I was on the verge of admitting I'd had the hugest crush on him for years.  And, all the while, he had barely noticed I was alive.  I felt like my lungs were deflating.  My stomach had come to rest somewhere near the bottom of my shoes.

"You really don't remember?"

Lucas kept staring at me, looking utterly indifferent.  Then, just when I was beginning to think this was a lost cause, I saw a flicker of recognition on his face.

"Wait, aren't you the girl that split her desk in half?"

My blush intensified about ten times.  "Err...yeah that was me."

"I do remember that.  I reported it.  You should know better than to flaunt your abilities in public."  He looked pointedly at one of the big holes in the wall.  "Can't say your common sense has improved much."