of all the stars

c2

The first three periods of the day went by relatively fast.

They typically do on the first day. Then after that, the time seems to never pass.

Ki sat in fourth period tapping her red pen on the black table top in the Chemistry lab as she waited for the bell to ring to start class.

And almost as if she willed it through her imagination, the three familiar rings went off on the loud speaker.

"Alright so uh, hi fourth period! Hope you all have survived the day thus far, I'm Mr. Cerone, this is Chemistry 1. If you're not in the right class I suggest you probably go find it." He smiled, clapping his hands together in front of the white board.

Ki liked him already. He wasn't too broodingly annoying, and actually seemed like he might take interest in the topic he was teaching. His demeanor seemed like something Ki could get behind.

"So I guess we'll start off with attendance then, yes?"

There were a few hesitant nods across the classroom that Ki witnessed from her table in the back.

"Alright, John Alder?" He said reading the first name off his clipboard.

"Here." A muffled voice sounded from the front.

Ki took this process as an opportunity to write herself notes in the palm of her hand.

He said another name that Ki didn't pay attention to as she uncapped her pen.

She pressed the red pen up to the base of her thumb and started to write her homework for Algebra down, when the door opened very subtilely.

Ki looked up from her hand and was met with the tall figure in the front of the room.

"I'm sorry for interrupting, I have no idea where I'm going, is this Chemistry with Cerone?" Her voice was a little anxious as she directed her attention towards the teacher.

"Yes it is! Have a seat."

"Awesome, first class I've gotten right today." She smiled as she started to walk in to the classroom.

Ki found herself studying this unfamiliar face as it walked across the room.

Her skin was a gentle tan color, leaving a near perfect complexion. She had long brown hair that was curled and tucked behind her ears, but a few shorter hairs strung down besides her eyes.

As she walked down the aisle that Ki was sitting in, Ki could see she walked with her shoulders forward, trying to tone down her hovering dominance as she was already taller than most of the other girls in the class.

She stopped at the empty table next to Ki in the back and threw her shoulder bag down on the floor.

Ki allowed herself to glance over at her for a minute. The first thing she noticed as she watched this girl up close, was the dark blue shade of her eyes. They were huge, or maybe they just looked that way from the mascara she had on. Ki couldn't tell, she rarely found herself using makeup.

"Ki-zah-keera Ko-kay-shie?" Mr. Cerone sounded out very slowly at the front of the class.

Ki heard a snicker from Taron in the middle of the classroom as he butchered her name.

"Here." Ki raised her hand in the back, quietly. "You can just call me Ki."

"Alright then Ki, sorry about that." He adjusted his glasses.

"No problem, happens all the time." Ki looked down at the table top in front of her.

"Aloric Lantea?"

"Here."

Oh, so he butchers that and then completely finesses Aloric's name?

Whatever.

Aloric's a dumb shit anyways.

"Lyra Meclane?"

The girl that just sat down raised her hand, focusing her divided attention now towards the front.

"That's me." She said, smiling with half of her mouth.

"Alright, hi." He checks another name off his list.

Ki brought her gaze away from Lyra.

She must be the new girl.

Hopefully Taron and his band of idiots hadn't made her too uncomfortable yet.

Ki began to finish what she was writing on her hand earlier when she got a light tap on the shoulder.

She looked up confused. Then she turned to see the person wishing her attention. It was the always smiling face of the new girl beside her.

"Hey! I'm sorry to bother you, do you maybe have like a pencil I could use? I left mine in the library earlier..." Lyra whispered, almost seeming a bit embarrassed.

Ki looked at her like a deer in the headlights. She was still in shock that someone even talked to her within the first ten minutes of class.

"I'm sorry... what?" Ki quickly realized she was staring, shaking her head away from Lyra in order to avoid awkward eye contact.

"Oh I was just asking you for a... you know what... never mind." Lyra sheepishly shrunk back in her chair.

"Wait! No I didn't hear you..." Ki whispered back, leaning towards Lyra.

"Oh! Sorry." Her head shot back up. "Do you have a pencil I can borrow?"

"I've got an extra pen..." Ki suggested, pulling out the black one she had tucked behind her ear.

"Perfect." Lyra smiled.

Her smile was contagious. Ki found the corners of her own mouth turning upwards as she held the pen out to her.

"Thanks."

"Yeah. Don't worry about it."

Lyra turned back down to the notebook in front of her, and Ki decided it was probably time for her to do the same.

She slid her smaller notebook out of her stack of things and opened up to the first page.

"Okay, so I'm hoping you guys can memorize the first 10 elements by Friday? Does that sound reasonable?" Mr. Cerone was setting down a notebook on top of his own desk as he spoke out to the class.

Ki didn't even realize he had stopped doing attendance.

But she nodded her head mindlessly in compliance as she wrote the assignment down in the margin of her notebook.

So far, homework didn't look like too much of a pain. That's good.

"So first one... does anyone know it?"

Silence.

"Big ol H. Element 1."

More silence.

"Come on guys... someone...."

A brave soldier raised her hand.

"Hydrogen?"

"Yes." Mr. Cerone sounded way more excited than he should've been.

It made Ki laugh a little inside.

Maybe Chemistry would be fun this year.