Starbright (The Starbright Series) (20 page)

             
“Seth Smith?” she questioned shyly.

             
“Mmm-hmmm,” I
answered in awe that this secretary was as unnerved as everyone else seemed to be by Seth. Mrs. Sadler was notorious for her quick temper and lack of patience, especially when it came to the student body.
I
had worked very hard
to stay under her radar, but I
was positive Seth wouldn’t have to try nearly as hard as
I
did to get away with
late arrivals and absences
.

             
“Pleasure to meet you, Seth Smith,” Mrs. Sadler practically giggled.

             
“Thank you, you too,” Seth replied, giving her that big smile that seemed to work on every
single female
so far.

             
“Let me just see if I can’t find you your class schedule, alright?” Mrs. Sadler continued to coo
and then walked back to her computer
.

             
I
turned
my
back on the voyeuring
secretaries and leaned
against the tall counter. “Most of your classes will be with
me;
this is a really small school
.
There are
only
thirty-two
of us
in the whole class
.”

             
Seth nodded,
his amber eyes piercing mine with gratitude. I wondered if he was
anxious to get out of the awkwardness of the office and onto class
, or if this whole experience was an unwanted nightmare
. School was never something he had to think about before. Jupiter always tutored him, and with only a year and a half left before he could focus completely on Warrior-training, he
probably
hadn’t thought he would ever need to worry about it. But with the change of circumstances and his unwillingness to leave
me
by myself
, high school and him
would soon become old friends.

             
Mrs. Sadler stumbled through finding Seth’s papers and then walked him in circles explaining them to him so many times. By the time she finally released
us
for class she had to write
us
a pass because the bell rang several minutes ago.

             
“So this is high school?” Seth asked on
ou
r walk to Government.
I
had been right, we
had most of
our
classes together,
except during the period where I went to
choir, Seth
opted
for
weight lifting.

             
“This is it,”
I
agreed. “Super exciting, right?”

             
“So far,” Seth laughed.

             
“Actually, I really like it here,”
I
admitted
, dropping
my
voice lest the rest of the student body
hear my confession and believe I
was delusional. “Everyone’s really nice and we all seem to get along. The community is
really small, but we’ve all known each other since forever so we didn’t really have any other choice but to like each other
.”

             
“Well, that’s a relief,” Seth laughed again.
I didn’t know what his preconceived notions of high school were, but a small farming town was nothing like what they aired on TV and I thought he would feel better knowing that
.

             
I
showed Seth to Government and introduced him to
our
middle-aged, frazzled teacher, Mrs. Trinker. Her short hair stuck up
frizzy and unruly
, and at least one side of her blouse was always untucked from her too-tight pencil skirt. Mrs. Trinker acknowledged the both of
us
kindly before letting
us
find
our
seats by Tristan and Piper, who despite not getting along always sat next to each other in an effort to share
me
.
I ignored the hateful glances between
them;
just thankful Mrs. Trinker at least seemed immune to Seth’s charm.

             
The rest of the morning
followed in the same pattern. I helped Seth move from class to class, introducing him to the monotonous tones of scheduled high school
. Seth
seemed to
actually enjoy
school, he really liked learning from different teachers and
everyone was really nice to him, especially the girls.

             
That was a shocker….

             
By lunch,
I
decided Seth was adjusting well to school and the other students seemed to be adjusting to the phenomenon of having a new student grace the halls and the blinding attractiveness that wasn’t found in the average male.
Or at least
I
hoped so.
The sooner t
he student body moved on from o
gling Seth, the sooner I could feel better about unleashing him on the human population.

             
“Does everyone at this school play basketball?” Seth a
sked, sitting down across from me
with a heavy, full tray of food.
Even in the dim lighting of the cramped cafeteria, I could see I failed Seth in explaining the do’s and don’ts of school lunch. I
liked to eat too, but
I
could not understand three helpings of mystery loaf and instant mashed potatoes from the cafeteria buffet line.

             
Maybe
I
should have warned Seth about the menu.

             
“Pretty much,
” Piper answered. “E
veryone at this school plays every sport. There’s nothing else to do in this one-horse town.”

             
“You don’t even know what that phrase means,”
I
laughed tossing a French fry at
Piper’s
f
ace
.
She
swatted it away and then
picked it up and reached across
me
to dip it in her ketchup/mayo mixture and pop it in her mouth.

             
“So I’m going to be the only one in the stands for your basketball game tomorrow night?” Seth asked, scooping up a bite of meatloaf with a healthy topping of
mealy
mashed potatoes and neon gravy.

             
“No, there’s some art geeks and band nerds that will be there too just because there’s nothing else to do,” Piper offered sarcastically.

             
Seth didn’t know any better so he relaxed while shoveling his fork in his mouth.

             
“Piper, if you weren’t so afraid of disappointing your parents you would
be
one of those art geeks!”
I
defended Piper’s social status insinuation.

             
“Not true!” Piper rebutted. “
I just simply can’t deprive the world of my fantastic three-pointer!”

             
“Or your middle block,”
I
offered
helpfully
. “Besides, even the smiley faces you try to draw look evil.”

             
“Bleh!” Seth interrupted
our
giggling practically spitting out his last bite of food. “What is this?” he asked after forcing himself to s
wallow
.

             
“That is mystery meat,” Tristan explained, sitting down
across from
me and
squeezing my hand
familiarly with his
hand
. “And Stella should have warned you not to even bother with that….” Tristan eyed Seth’s plate with the first form of sympathetic camaraderie
I
noticed from him and
my
heart swelled just a little with the hope of
a future friendship between the two boys
.

             
“I didn’t know he was going to take three helpings of it!”
I defended my
self, holding up
my
plate of French fries and offering them to Seth.

             
“The color of the gravy should have tipped me off,” Seth grumbled while Rigley and Lincoln joined
us
at the table
next to Tristan
.
Our table had a very strict, unspoken rule and that was that boys sat on one side of the table and girls sat on the other. Seth was breaking the rule by sitting next to me, but being the rebel I was couldn’t make myself care. It was weird we still segregated ourselves….

             
“Do you have a thing for radioactive sauces?” Rigley asked, eyeing Seth’s plate with everyone else.

             
“Apparently,” Seth muttered. "Where are those chocolate chip pancakes when you need them?” He grabbed a fry off
my plate, shooting me
a grateful smile.

             
“Do not bring those up if you want
me to share my fries
,”
I
warned.

             
“
Oh no,” Tristan gasped. “You didn’t
eat
her pancakes did you?”

             
“You
ate
her pancakes!” Piper chimed in, offering a horrified expression and a jingling hand over her heart.

             
“I didn’t know they were such a big deal!” Seth held up both hands
in surrender
, laughing.

             
“Which is why he was forgiven,”
I conceded
valiantly. “This time….”

             
“Careful Seth, once when I spent the night and Annabelle made them for us, I took one too many thinking it was perfectly fine to be, you know…. hungry,” Piper explained dramatically, “and Stella didn’t talk to me for a week. Not until I made my mom drive over to Annabelle’s and beg her to make a special batch for Stella just so she would stay my friend.” Piper waved her fork around while she told the story and her lips pursed together in an expression that promised she was serious.

             
“She’s lying to you Seth, don’t believe her,”
I promised seriously
and then added as a warning, “But seriously, don’t take my pancakes again.”

             
“Hello, Tristan,” a sickly sweet voice called from the other side of
Piper
. “Is this a new recruit for the basketball team?” Bree Henry asked innocently.

             
Ugh. Bree Henry.
Not that I completely disliked her. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. My position on
E
arth required me to love all of humanity…. But if I had been allowed just one human to place outside of the love I had to unconditionally give to this planet, she would definitely be my first choice.

             
“Hey, Bree,” Tristan replied casually. “
This is Seth. Seth this is Bree.” Tristan made an uninterested gesture between the two so they could be considered formally introduced and I swallowed my irritation.

             
“Hi Seth,” Bree cooed, flipping her highlighted hair over her shoulder. “So you are another one of Tristan’s recruits?”

             
Both Tristan and Seth laughed at that. “I’m not a recruit,” Seth explained shooting Tristan a sideways look. “I’m not even here to play basketball.
I’m just a regular student.” He shot Bree his charming smile and I had to take a sip of my water
to keep from making a face
. If only we shared a telepathic communication…. I could have assured him, she wouldn’t take much effort to charm
at all
.

             
“I don’t think there’s anything regular about you,” she purred with that gross voice she was always talking to Tristan in.

             
Rigley snickered across the table and Piper and I held back our laughter. I wanted Seth to form his own opinions about Mead and make his own friends so that he didn’t always
feel like he was
tied to me, but I might have to warn him about the biggest flirt in school.