Blackbird

.Blackbird"................".......................

     It strange how quickly I start to feel odd, almost nauseous. I touch my forehead, but the temperature is normal. What the hell is wrong with me? Am I getting sick? My knee bounces under the table nervously as I push the chicken on my plate. 

    
   Less than five minutes ago the boy from this morning, sat down right at the table, sat down right next to me and told the table he'd broken up with his girlfriend minutes before. Everyone at the table had cheered and shot questions at him. 

     "She was getting on my nerves and was being way too clingy. Dmitri, remember  at the first student government meeting how she just waltzed in and sat on my lap like nothing." Everyone shook their heads disappointedly. I even found myself frowning, even though I had yet to know the boy or the ex. 
       "I could never be alone. Ever. So I did what I had to do." He shrugged. Everyone laughed at his 'whatever' attitude. 
    "Well congrats man. We should celebrate your single-hood, then" Blaine said enthusiastically. He high fives Milo.

         "Yeah and we have some new additions to the Xavier twin club, so they should come too." Charlotte says.  The boy turns to my sister, then his gaze slides to me. 
      He stares at me.  I start feeling nauseous again. Suddenly his eyes get a glint of recognition.
    
       " Sorry, 'bout that. I'm Kaito, but everyone just calls me Kai." He gives a friendly smile to both my sister and I.

      "Cool name. I'm Robin." She returns the smile.
         
      He looked at me again, but I can't help but gaze at his eyes, then his long nose, then to his full lips. Silence blanketed the table. Then it clicked. They were waiting for me to introduce myself to Kai. I felt my cheeks grow warm. I was caught gawking at him.

     "I- I'm Lark." I stammered as my cheeks burn hotter. He gives a breath taking smiles. It only took that for the atmosphere to get awkward.

       "They're our neighbors." Erin says trying to break the awkward spell.

      "You are?" Robin asks.

      "Yeah. We live two miles away from you. My mom goes over there, like all the time." 

      "Is your mom Mrs. Gabrielli?" Erin nods. "Oh my gosh, they are like best friends." Robin claps her hands in delight.

      "I wonder why mom didn't say she had granddaughters?" Erin's eyebrows furrow.

      "She did, but you thought they were probably five." Blain explains and shakes his head.

      "Oh." She nods. "But you know what that means?" She says excitedly. "They can stop eating all my chips when they come over, and just go to your house instead." Erin gives a high-as-a-kite like smile. Everyone laughs.

       "Hey so what classes do you have?" Charlotte asks us after the laughter dies down. 
         We compare our schedules with the rest of the table. I have music theory with Charlotte, Erin, and Milo. English with Milo and Sakura apparently. Japanese with Blaine. 

       "What do we have together?" Kai asked. I compare our papers. My eyes grow ass wide as saucers.
      "You were in my English class?" I ask unbelievingly. 
 
     "Yeah. You were late."
      I look back at the paper. Not only do we share English together, but the afternoon classes also. The topic turns to dorms. The more I talk to these people, the more comfortable with them I am. They all share similar interests. Like Milo and Blaine for example, are complete and utter geeks. I didn't join in and tell them though.Milo was talking as much as Blaine about the Legend of Zelda and comic books.
   
      The lunch period ends too soon to continue our conversation and I stand up and start walking out, when a hand catches my arm. 

       "I'm the only one with the same chemistry class with you. I'll walk you so you don't get lost." Kai explains while pulling me to the right direction of the science buildings. Yep, I am so lost on this campus. I don't even protest to his help.
  
     "You like the school so far?"
     
      "Yeah, it's nice." I answer simply as we stroll down the path. 

     "This morning. You alright?"He said suddenly.

     "Uh,what?"
   
    "You fell down pretty hard." He rubs the back of his neck nervously.

     "Oh! Uh, yeah I'm alright. I'll probably bruise pretty bad though." I scowl. He frowns.

     "Sorry." 
   
    "I'm joking. I'll be fine, I'm a big girl. And you already said sorry." I smile sincerely. 
   
    We walk in the building and into the classroom.
  
   "Kai, dude, sit next to me." A boy calls out from a lab table.

   "I'm already sitting with her. Sorry Owens." He calls back. It dawns on me a second later. He wants to sit with me. Only because it's my first day, I tell myself before I get too excited. He's only being nice. But really a really attractive guy has never ever gone out of his way to sit next to me. Ever.
      
     "The teacher for this class is new and I heard she's only twenty two." He tells me. I try to avoid eye contact and fidget with the hem of my skirt.

     "That rhymed." I smiled
  
     "Yeah it did."  He chuckles. I offer a small smile. 

      Crap what do I say now. I'll look rude I don't say anything. Then it'll be awkward silence and -oh gosh what do I say. 

       "Uh, nice buttons," I point to the pins on his backpack. I almost do a face palm. Nice buttons? Really? 

      I look closer and see names and little illustrations; The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen. Theres a whole bunch of other buttons with words and names  and designs I don't quite know. I wonder what it means.

      "Thanks. You listen?" He says randomly.

      "To what?" His expression looks almost surprised at my answer.

    "They're all my favorite bands." He points to one.  "You've never heard of them."

   "No." I look examine all the buttons One yellow one says 'Never Mind the bollocks here's the Sex Pistols. 

    "Seriously? Not one? He says unbelieving. 

    "Uh, no. Should I?" I look at one with four different silhouettes going across mid -stride. He looks dumbfounded and shakes his head slowly.

    "You, my friend, are musically deprived." He frowns. I shrug.

    "I don't listen to music much." I admit.

     "Then why are you in music theory?"
   
     "I need two music credits, and there's one. So I might as well get over with it." I shrug again. 

      "Maybe I can-"He starts. But a voice cuts him off.

    "Good afternoon sophies!" A young woman early twenties at most saunters in. She passes around a syllabus. "I am your chemistry teacher, Ms.Lennon. No I'm not related to John Lennon, but I admit that would be sweet." The class laughs a little, but I don't get it. Who's John Lennon?  "I'm twenty two, just graduated with my second masters and going for my PhD. I went here too, but I graduated about seven years ago." 

      My eyebrows shoot up. This lady must be a genius. She was really young and she's already going for a PhD.

      "Enough about me though. I want to know about you guys. This is chemistry. What we all need to do before we start doing cool stuff Is make sure we all have good chemistry. I don't want someone "accidentally"  pouring flammable chemicals in people's  hair. It has happened before. Not a pretty sight."  She passes a sheet of paper around. "So I made up this little questionnaire. On this you will see fifteen questions. Surrounding you are fifteen people, including me. You will ask one question per person. Just to make this clear this will be counted as your firsts test grade, if you look at your syllabus. Tests count as seventy percent of your grade." She smirks. "Get to it!"

     "Lark," Kai looks down at his paper. "What is your full name and birthday?"
   
    "Lark Serena Castillo. January ninth." He jots it down.

       "Your middle name is Serena?" I nod. "Like Spanish for mermaid?" I nod again. "That's cute." He smiles. That feeling reappears and I turn down to my bag And find a pencil.

     "Same question." I say not looking up

   "Kaito Apollo Lakewood. December 25."

    "Your birthday is on Christmas?" He shrugs.
 
     "It's an excuse for people to be cheap and only buy me one present."

    "That sucks."

    "It certainly does." He frowns. Someone goes up to him and asks a question. I turn and begin asking others questions. 

                              ♩ ~ ♫ ~ ♪ ~ ♬ ~ ♫ ~ ♪ ~ ♬

       "How was your day?" Robin asks as we ride home on our bicycles. We're pretty close to the farm now.

      "It was alright." I say easily.

     "Really. Just alright." Her voice is questioning.
 
    "I guess." 
     
     "Uh huh. So you weren't flirting with Kai?" She says suspiciously.

    "Uh, no. Actually, I wasn't " I pedal slower. She had to be the observant one.

    "Yeah, sure." She rolls her eyes.

     "What about you?" I wag my eyebrows.

     "What about me?" 

     "I saw you making googly eyes at Dmitri. You were a tomato when he got close to you before lunch. Don't think I didn't notice that." I smirk as her checks turn pink and she turns away. Her phone rings that moment. She picks it up.

         "Hello? Hi 'buela. . . Yeah it was fine. . .Yeah. Yeah. . .She's right here. . .Yeah. . . We're gonna be there in five minutes. . .Yeah, okay I'll tell her. Bye." She hangs up.

       "Abuela told me to tell you that she called your phone twice, but you didn't pick up." Robin put the phone in her pocket. I check my own and don't feel it there. 

      "Robin, wait! I need to look for my phone." I stop and look through my backpack. Nothing.

      "Awe, Fu-"