How the Heart Beats

My next class went by the same as it always did. Seb and I had second period art together. He was a genius artist and I was alright, but I was in a higher level class, on account of my being older. The only reason we had the class together was because our school’s art program was severely underfunded, so anyone who decided to advance beyond Art 1 ended up in the conglomerate class that included Art 2, 3, 4, and AP. It didn’t help much that not many students pursued art classes after taking the mandatory Art 1 course. I wasn’t terribly interested in art, but I was good at it, and it was a rather decent waste of my time every day.

After art, I had lunch, which I shared with Nick, Katie, and Seb, which was a nice coincidence. Our lunch shift was based on what third period class we had. All three of us were on first because we all had English. Nick and I had class together, which was nice. He and I got along fairly well, so it was always favorable to have someone on my side in the same classroom. Especially when that classroom consisted of four kids from opposing clans. As I got into the lunch room, I sat at my usual table. Seb only sometimes sat with us, which was fine with me. He spent most of lunch doing homework and studying the maps of the battles anyway, so he wasn’t much for conversation, not that he ever was. That day, his nose was swollen and bruised from my punching him the night before. It was funny every time someone asked.

I wasn’t terribly surprised when he’d sat down until of course I saw that he had no maps, notebooks or schoolbooks with him. He never seemed to take a break, but that day, all he set down on the table was the cafeteria lunch. Seb always bought a lunch and never even touched the thing. I didn’t understand what he thought he was accomplishing by pretending the so called food held any appeal to him; it wasn’t like anyone actually for a second thought he was human, but I found it was easiest to not question him. He caught me eyeing his lunch and laughed, offering some of it up to me.

“No thanks. I think I’d rather kill myself.” I chuckled and took a bite of the apple I’d brought for my own lunch. I needed to eat actual food, but Seb was a Vampire, so he only fed on blood. Well, that and tea. I never understood why, but he drank a lot of tea, even though he didn’t need to. I, on the other hand, needed to drink blood and eat human food, which was convenient because I was raised on the stuff. He smiled a little and pushed the slop around on his tray, entirely disinterested. Nick and Katie sat with us in their normal places, Katie chattering about her classes to Nick, who was finishing some last minute work for English before class began.

“No work today?” He asked Seb, eyeing the mostly empty space curiously. Seb and Nick were fairly close friends, so things weren’t terribly formal between the two; unlike they were with Seb and some of the other members of the army.

“Nah. I figured we all work so hard that I could take a little break. Plus, after what I saw last night I’m confident in the people I’ve picked for my army.” Seb nodded toward us slightly, not removing his gaze from the food. I got the feeling he was planning something in his head, but figured I was probably just paranoid after my dream and shrugged it off.

“How’s your day going so far, Shadow?” Katie asked and I looked toward her, shrugging as I thought back to history and Tawny, who I spotted sitting at a small circular table by herself. Apparently we were on the same lunch shift.

“Boring as usual. Art’s always relaxing. And there’s a new girl in my history class who got seated in front of me. She’s weird, but we didn’t talk much. Otherwise, it sucks like normal.” I looked at my apple and took another bite, hoping that she wouldn’t talk to me if my mouth was full. I was exhausted and only going downhill from there. Nick smiled as he heard my mention of a new girl. He was always interested in any possible prospect of sex and women, which Seb wasn’t fond of, but it amazingly enough didn’t seem to make Nick any more vulnerable and he was always focused when it came to the war, so we mostly let it slide.

“Is she cute?” He asked quickly, grinning so hard I thought he was going to drool on his notebook.

“I mean… I dunno. You know I don’t have feelings like that.” I lied and rolled my eyes. For all he knew, I didn’t. The ones I had were only for the one person and they were still developing. “But she’s on our lunch shift, you can check for yourself. She’s the girl with the black hair, sitting alone over there.” I nodded in Tawny’s direction and took Nick’s notebook from him as he looked. I frequently looked over his homework, but it was entirely out of curiosity. I knew mine was done right and half the time his wasn’t, so I sometimes gave him tips on what to do, but usually just wanted to see how wrong he was on any given day.

“You’re seriously not interested in her?” My eyes didn’t leave Nick’s paper as he spoke. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I was definitely not interested in Tawny.

“You analyzed last night’s reading totally wrong. The tone of that poem most certainly was not ‘depressing as fuck’. Really, Nick. We’re seniors. You should at least know by now that the tone is how the author feels, not you. Plus, that poem wasn’t even depressing. You must’ve read it all wrong.” I sighed, not responding to his question. Nick was a pretty good fighter, but when it came to academia, he was pretty lost. I was always astonished that he’d made it as far as he did. I found myself even more amazed that he wasn’t failing our AP Literature class.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I think I’m gonna go talk to her.” He waved his hand dismissively at me and I rolled my eyes, setting his paper back atop his notebook. There was no helping him when he’d rather chase after girls. I shook my head and decided to watch him saunter toward Tawny, wondering how that was going to work out for him.

“That girl’s not human, is she?” Seb asked as he looked over his shoulder at Nick and Tawny. The human girls tended to fall for Nick’s charms more than any other species.

“Nope. I didn’t talk to her for long this morning, but I don’t imagine Nick’s her type, either.” I shrugged casually, watching as Nick spoke to Tawny. I didn’t have much desire to hear how the conversation was going. I was sure I’d hear all about it anyway.

“Well, that ought to make for an interesting show.” Seb’s voice alluded slightly to his curiosity, but it didn’t change much from his usual monotone. Just as Seb spoke, I saw Nick’s hand reach toward Tawny’s semi-exposed cleavage. I shook my head, but didn’t look away; sure this would end poorly for him. I was right. Within seconds, Tawny had yanked his arm away from her and was seemingly about to break it. She proceeded to mutter something to him and push him to the ground. When he walked back over, I clapped a little.

“Good going.” Katie rolled her eyes. I hadn’t even seen her turn to watch. Nick looked down in shame and I smiled.

“You lasted longer than I expected, if that helps any.” I smiled from beneath my mask and chuckled a little. “What’d she say?” I took another bite of my apple and waited for him to relay the information.

“She basically told me that if I ever spoke to her again, she’d beat me with my own arm and then wouldn’t give it back afterwards.” He rubbed his arm and frowned a little. “And also that she has a girlfriend, so I need to leave her alone.” I laughed and shook my head, standing and tossing my apple core in the garbage. I wondered momentarily if Stella was Tawny’s girlfriend, but then decided she wasn’t, since Stella was in another relationship that only just ended.

“You would chase after a girl who’s not only taken, but can also kick your ass,” Katie scoffed and shook her head. When Seb and I both chuckled at her comment, Nick glared at her hard.

“Like you’ve never liked someone who’s totally uninterested and unavailable.” She shot him a look that would’ve made his head explode if Katie had the ability to make it happen. Nick smiled and looked down at his lunch, saying nothing else. He appeared to be satisfied with himself. I didn’t understand what he was talking about, but apparently Katie did and that was enough for him. The four of us sat in silence for a few more moments until the bell rang again and we all got up to leave.

“I can’t believe I struck out so hard. It would’ve been nice of you to tell me she wasn’t human!” I laughed and shrugged, shaking my head at Nick’s foolishness as the incident replayed in my head.

“I thought you could tell. Plus, I don’t do that many nice things. You win some; you lose some, that’s life. Now stop whining, we’ve got to get to class. I fixed some of your homework for you while you were talking to her, by the way.” I handed him his notebook and walked off toward class ahead of him. I didn’t need to hear him thank me for what I’d done. It wasn’t an act of kindness, but rather something to occupy my time. I trudged up the crowded stairwell and made it to English quickly enough, taking my seat and pulling out my work without a sound. I couldn’t help but wonder about the meaning of Nick’s words to Katie. After pondering for a moment, I shrugged and decided I didn’t care, looking up as my English teacher began passing back graded assignments.