Ember met me in the corridor outside my Maths classroom. Despite the awful half an hour that I'd been forced to endure, seeing her waiting for me made me smile gratefully.
"How was that?" She instantly asked, face beaming expectantly.
"Well, I'd already learnt the stuff in that lesson, the class is basically a Maths cult, and I ended up sitting next to Eric," I said it all in one breath, and then it was done. I wasn't feeling in a particularly chatty mood, though who could blame me?
"Oh," she responded simply.
The bell rang, meaning it was the start of break. The shrilling of the bell made the yellowy lights above us flicker, as if the energy required to direct hundreds of teens around a high school was all-consuming.
We walked on in silence for a few minutes, navigating our way out of the building while the younger grades yelled at one another and shoved their way through the crowds. Their blissful ignorance was something I hadn't experienced since I was bitten; the mundane lives they would lead would always be enviable to me.
Stopping my thoughts, Ember asked, "What did Eric say to you?"
"First of all, why does it even matter? Considering you don't like him, or maybe you do..." I paused and she began to protest, but I cut her off, "And secondly, believe it or not, there wasn't that much conversation."
There was zero conversation other than:
"Can you lend me an eraser?" — "A what?" — "An eraser... You know, that erases pencil." — "Oh, you mean a rubber. American dipshit."
Well, him calling me an American dipshit was said under his breath. Little did he know that every single one of those six syllables was crystal clear to me.
"I do not like him," Ember replied quietly. Despite the subdued tone of her voice, there was a fury behind those dark blue eyes — there always was, merely waiting to rise at the right opportunity.
"I know... Look," I sighed, cursing myself for being a jerk, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."
"It doesn't matter." She shook her head, before lowering her voice once again, "I get it all the time." I still heard her, like she knew I would.
I followed her as she walked off to a group of friends sitting on some benches. I could tell from a mile off that not one of them was supernatural, and so I highly doubted Ember was that close with them. It seemed like she hung out with them whenever Wednesday and Al weren't around.
Eric was there, but as soon as I arrived, just seconds after Ember, he pulled Ember to one side to talk to her.
Great, now I have no one to talk to.
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Uncomfortably, I stuck my hands in my pockets and waited for someone in the group to start a conversation. But it didn't look like it was going to happen, so awkwardly, I said, "Umm, hey..."
