Lunar Secrets

I sighed as yet another new kid was introduced to the class, his name already passing right over my head as I turned my attention to the view outside the window. For the past few months, family after family has been moving into our town, causing quite a stir in our town. Some land tycoon had bought almost 3,000 acres of land at the edge of our town and now we had all these families moving in. The weird thing is that they all seemed to know each other well.

“Ashlyn Green!”

I snapped my head up to my calculus teacher, Mr. Ortiz, and winced at the hard look he was sending me.

“Since you seem to know everything, why don’t you help Blake here catch up with this class?”

I frowned, but nonetheless nodded my head, watching as the new kid took the seat next to me in the back. Taking his seat, he glanced at Mr. Ortiz before turning to me, a small smile on his face as he held his hand out. “Hey. I’m Blake Hale.” He greeted softly.

I stared at him for a moment before taking his hand. “As you probably know, I’m Ashlyn Green.”

“So where are you exactly in this class?”

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, looking up front where Mr. Ortiz was putting up the day’s notes on the board. “Apparently we’re learning about derivatives.”

He gave me a crooked smile, shaking his head slightly. “You’re definitely not the brightest in the bunch, are you?”

I feigned hurt, placing a hand over my chest. “I’ll have you know, I’m getting a B in this class.”

“Like I said, not the brightest,” he teased, sticking his tongue out. I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t fight off the smile that crept on my face.

“Well-“

The bell suddenly rang, cutting me off mid-sentence. I sighed, packing my things up in my bag before turning to Blake. “Well, see you later?” He nodded his head and gave me a final smile before he turned and left the class, quickly joining up with a group of guys who were waiting right outside the class. I frowned, hating how the group was staring at me before I scurried away to my next class.

English and history passed by in a blur and I was soon standing in line at the cafeteria, looking at the choices for something suitable to eat.

“Hey,” a familiar voice said as a hand clamped down on my shoulders. I jumped, spinning around to look up at Blake’s amused face. I just rolled my eyes before looking back at my choices, finally decided on a simple fruit salad and a tuna sandwich before walking over to my usual table. Of course, Ben followed after grabbing his own food and promptly took the seat next to me. I raised my eyebrow at this. “Why are you sitting here?”

He rolled his eyes as he popped a chip into his mouth, waiting a few moments before answering my question. “We’re friends, so I decided to sit with you.”

“Friends?”

“Yup. We’re friends now and if you don’t like it, suck it up.”

I sighed in mock annoyance, but couldn’t keep the smile of my face as I watched him attack his food. I snapped out of my slight daze as a tray clattered on the table across from me and I smiled as I saw my best friend staring questionably at Blake.

“Hey Kat,” I greeted the brunette. “This is Blake, today’s new kid.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kat greeted him with a small smile.

“Same to you,” he said, standing up and picing up his tray. “Sorry to just ditch, but some of the guys wanted to play some basketball before next period,” he said before turning to me. “I’ll see you later Ashlyn.” With that, he sauntered over to the trashcan, dumping his tray before heading out of the cafeteria. I turned back to look at Kat, who had an eyebrow raised. “No, I don’t like him,” I told her, answering her silent question as I popped a strawberry into my mouth.

“Well, he sure is fine,” She said, winking at me while I just rolled my eyes.

“Eh, I’ll give him a 7,” I said, smiling over at her as she shook her head.

“Definitely a 9.”

We looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. After we managed to gain control over ourselves, Kat turned to me. “Did you hear from coach about the meet on saturday?” she asked, picking at her food while occasionally taking a small bite. I shook my head, waiting for her to continue. “Well, I overheard coach talking to Melissa about how a scout was coming to look for potential athletes. Anyone participating in that meet has a big chance at getting a full ride scholarship.”

My smile grew before flipping into a frown. “But isn’t Melissa picking who’s participating? Because there’s no way I’m competing if she’s picking the runners and such,” I said, thinking back when I had beat Melissa in every sprinting event possible last year during our last track and field season, before she became the captain. Even though I beat her fair and square and she is definitely the better long-distance runner, she never quite forgave me for “humiliating her in front of the guy’s team.”

“That’s the best part. Coach told Melissa that she has to hold at least two competitions for each event and take the top three people from each event to play so that they only send the best of the best to this event.”

I grinned at the news, eager to get to practice today. “We’re definitely competing on Saturday,” I said to her.

She laughed before a mischievous glint came to her eye. “Maybe I should invite Blake to come watch the meet on Saturday.”

I laughed, throwing a grape at her and I laughed harder as the grape hit her right between her eyes. She grumbled under her breath, though her smile betrayed her. “Speaking of Blake, did you see the other new kid that came today?”

I shook my head, though I wasn’t all that interested in hearing about another new kid.

“I’m surprised. He’s caused quite a stir already.” She said as she grinned at me. “Apparently he was sent to the principle’s office five minutes into first period for mouthing off to Ms. Harris and then sent to the office a second time after a teacher caught him threatening someone.”

I raised my eyebrow at her news. “You’re lying.”

She quickly shook her head. “No, no. It’s all true. Well, at least I know the second part is true. I was there when the teacher was yelling at him to go to the office. But I got to say, for a bad boy, he’s really cute.” I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

“He sounds like a dick.”

Kat’s lips twitched into a smile before her eyes widened. “There he is,” she said, using her chin to point to the cafeteria doors. I craned my neck as subtle as possible to look at the newcomer and almost choked at the person standing there. Standing well above 6 feet, his bronze skin matched perfectly with his hazel eyes and black, shaggy hair. A white tee barely clung to his torso, giving me just a peak at his muscles as dark levi’s hung on his hips.

“Wow,” I mouthed, turning red as I heard Kat’s soft chuckles. “Told you he was hot.” I grinned at her. “He still sounds like a dick.”

I turned to look back at him, but was surprised when my eyes connected to his. He seemed to be searching for something, his eyes seeming to almost penetrate into my thoughts. After what seemed like hours, he tore his gaze from me and continued on walking to the lunch line.

“What was that?” Kat asked me. I let my gaze linger on his body for just a little while longer before turning back to her.

“I don’t know.”

She sighed, shaking her head before looking at her watch. “We better go though. Class is going to start soon.”