Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series (25 page)

“Now, kids.” Their mother quickly silenced
them and then set a pan of steaming hot sausages, drizzled in
ketchup and a zesty barbecue sauce, on top of a wooden rack on the
table, before getting out silverware for everybody. After taking a
spot near Rowan, she glared amusingly at Ian, who was eating the
waffle. “Ian, breakfast hasn’t even officially begun yet.”

“Yeah, I know, mom,” he murmured, setting
down the half-eaten waffle. “But today, I just couldn’t wait.”

Smiling, while shaking her head at him, his
mother rang the breakfast bell.

Ten minutes later, Ian finished his
breakfast, which consisted of a helping of egg casserole, one
waffle, three sausage links, a piece of blueberry pie, and a glass
of orange juice. After brushing his teeth and sending a quick text
to Eddy asking him if he wanted to eat out with Jimmy and him
today, thinking that it’d be best to just act as if this was normal
rather than unusual, he raced downstairs, waved goodbye to his
family and Rowan, who gave him a suspicious smirk, and then headed
off to school in his shiny blue Cadillac.

As he turned into the school parking lot and
parked his car next to an orange Ford Mustang, he checked his
phone, soon reading the short text from Eddy:
yeah im fine with
that.
With so few of words, it was hard to tell whether Eddy
was mad, confused, annoyed, surprised, happy, or a combination of
those emotions. Surely, if the idea of hanging out with the fantasy
freak, as Eddy frequently called him, was so revolting, he would’ve
showed it in his reply.

Puzzling over Eddy’s response, Ian just shook
his head, realizing that he was just wasting time trying to
decipher Eddy’s emotions. He’d just have to find out when he talked
to him.

With those thoughts in mind, he headed into
the school building, pulling open the heavy school doors, before
hurrying downstairs to chemistry class. Not watching where he was
going, he sharply turned a corner and bumped into a girl he
instantly recognized … Hazel.

He blurted out a hasty apology: “Sorry,
Hazel.” Cheeks on fire, he stepped out of her bubble,
reconstructing his casual mask to hide his embarrassment.

Hazel gave him a muffled laugh. “You’re
gettin’ careless, man,” she teased him, her violet collared shirt
and nice pair of jeans perfectly complementing her natural beauty.
“Didn’t you just run into our cross country coach on Monday?”

He nodded, pained that she’d heard about the
incident or perhaps had even seen it. “Yeah, that was pretty
bad.”

Hazel laughed, then gazed at him keenly with
her light blue eyes, as if she were an astronomer discovering a new
galaxy. “Not enough sleep last night, Ian?”

“Not nearly enough,” he said, glad for the
change in topic, yet a bit disconcerted by her keen observations.
“I stayed out late again.”

“It seems you have a habit of that.” She
brushed back her long blonde hair, which fell evenly over her
shoulders, as her friends Tianna and Amanda joined the
conversation, whispering excitedly to Hazel.

Feeling outnumbered and excluded, Ian turned
hastily to leave, when Hazel tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, Ian. Wanna hang out with us this
evening?”

He hesitated, as astonished disbelief flooded
into his mind. Hanging out with Hazel and her friends? What was
going on? It couldn’t be a date, as her friends would be there too,
but that did little to console him. His premonition on Monday night
was right; something was definitely going on. She’d rarely even
said two words to him before Monday, and now she’d asked him to
hang out with her? This was getting crazy.

Gazing at her with grief, he turned his eyes
to the floor. Though a part of him was glad to turn her down, as
the situation sounded unbearably awkward, half of him sorely
regretted disappointing her. Thus, it was with much reluctance that
he finally murmured, “Sorry, Hazel, but I can’t.” His countenance
nearly matched her now darkened face. “I already told Eddy and
Jimmy I’d eat out with them at Shadowcrest Manor.”

She appeared at a crossroads, her eyes
displaying both disappointment and deep consideration. This,
however, only lasted for a couple seconds before her face showed
obvious signs of relief, a smile even reappearing on it. “I know …
this can still work. How about Tianna, Amanda, and I eat out with
you three? It’ll be fun, just the six of us; three guys and three
girls.”

Ian frowned inwardly. Was setting up such an
unpleasant event her way of having fun? If it were just Eddy and
him, it’d be bad enough, but considering how bashful Jimmy was
around girls it’d be ten times worse. Still, he couldn’t turn her
down without a good reason, despite how much he wanted to. It was
never one of his strong points. Besides, he sort of did like her.
“Yeah, sure. Sounds great. I’m sure my friends will love it.” He
smiled reassuringly, his acting skills once again playing in his
favor. At least he was honest about one thing; Eddy sure would love
it.

“Awesome! So when are we meeting?”

“Around five twenty at Shadowcrest.”

“Great. This is going to be a lot of fun.”
Hazel’s face lit up with joy as she brushed a few strands of her
long blonde hair from her forehead, tucking them behind her ear as
she had a habit of doing. “I can’t wait.”

“Me neither,” he said, fidgeting his
fingers.

She winked at him and her two friends gave
him campfire smiles. “Catch ya later.”

“You too.” He blushed, shaking his head
around lightly. What had he gotten himself into? If he kept on
hanging out with Hazel like this, it would only be a matter of time
before she asked him out on a date, and he just wasn’t ready for
that yet. Knowing that he couldn’t turn her down if she asked him
out, Ian simply hoped that it’d never come to that, or at least,
not until he was ready for it.

As she skipped away from him towards her
locker, a pleased expression on her face, her friends following
behind her, Ian caught a cold glare from Kenn, who’d been chatting
with Jeff and a few of his other friends, but had now decided to
focus on him. It made Ian sick. Turning away from Kenn’s persistent
scowl, he ran over to his locker, where he yanked out his chemistry
book in frustration. This was going to be another rough day.

Book in hand, he bypassed Spencer Gordon, the
young man who’d taken Skyler’s place in the cross country state
championship, and opened the door to chemistry class, glancing back
once at Spencer, noticing how unusually pale he looked. Perhaps it
was just the lighting, but it appeared to him that Spencer was
letting the approaching race get to him.

Whatever the case, it wasn’t any of his
concern, and he hurried into class and sat down between Eddy and
Darien, turning towards the former:

“So, Eddy,” he whispered, “how’s Skyler?”

His question caught Eddy off guard, and his
face crinkled with displeasure. “Skyler? He’s doing better; he
still hates me though.”

“You don’t know that.”

Eyes downcast, Eddy stared at his torn
chemistry book and kicked his desk hard. “Yeah, I do; he sent me a
text this morning saying how I ruined his life and how he’d never
forgive me. Does that sound
friendly
to you?”

Catching a breath, noticing Darien’s dull
face and inattentiveness, Ian tried putting a positive spin on the
message. “Well, at least he’s texting you now. That’s a step
forward, isn’t it?”

Eddy just shook his head and mumbled
inaudibly, right as the professor, Dustin Edwards, bashed the
quietness with his nasally voice:

“Today class, we will be finishing the
projects we started on Monday. Break into your groups and get to
work. You have one hour.”

Slipping off his desk, book in hand, Ian
headed over to Jimmy and William. Sliding into a desk beside Jimmy,
he asked, “So, when are you picking me up?”

“Five, remember?”

Ian rubbed his eyebrow in irritation. “Duh, I
should’ve known that.”

Jimmy turned to him, concern, like a wisp of
smoke, outlining his face. “So, is Eddy coming?”

“Yeah.” Scooting out of his desk, having an
urge to inform Eddy that the girls were coming along, he approached
Eddy and poked him on the back. “Hey, man,” he whispered. “Guess
what? Hazel, Tianna, and Amanda are meeting us at
Shadowcrest’s.”

“You’ve gotta be joking!” he interjected in
an excited voice, though fortunately not loud enough for Jimmy,
Tianna, or Hazel to hear. “When? Why? How?” His excitement was
contagious, but not to Darien, who had already turned his book to
the appropriate page and seemed to be actually reading it.

Ian, however, still laughed at Eddy’s
frenetic manner, glad that at least now he wouldn’t have to know
Eddy’s feelings about eating out with just him and Jimmy. “Calm
down. I’ll tell you later. I’ve gotta get back to my group.”

Grinning, Eddy shook his head in disbelief.
“This is awesome! I can’t believe our luck.” Then a mischievous
smirk lit up his face. “Jimmy doesn’t know, does he?”

“No.” He held out the word, pain in his
voice.

The smirk strengthened. “Great--it’ll be his
surprise.” Seeing Ian’s distressed look, and Darien’s equally
unhappy face, the first sign of life he’d shown today, Eddy tried
to justify himself. “The kid’s gotta learn how to talk to girls
sooner or later; we’re simply doin’ him a favor by speedin’ up the
process.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Guilt-ridden, knowing how
much Jimmy would hate him for this, he added sheepishly, “See ya
later.”

“You too, man.”

A thin frown on his face, Ian shuttled back
over to his desk, receiving a nasty glare from Professor Edwards,
though it didn’t bother him much; after being ambushed by the
Elayan, interrogated by an elven herbalist who hated every fiber of
his being, accused of being a spy for Tazik, and reprimanded by a
powerful king, this was nothing in comparison.

As Ian and his group members finished the
project with five minutes to spare, he handed in the pages to the
professor who meticulously scanned them over, as he did every so
often to projects he assumed would fail his expectations and have
to be redone. The whole class started watching them, waiting in
anticipation for the predicted bad verdict.

After perusing it for over a minute though,
he, showing none of the telltale warning signs that meant they’d
bombed the assignment, eventually spoke, his voice both slow and
skeptical. “You didn’t cheat, did you, boys?” Quizzical uncertainty
crossed his face, as he adjusted his large round glasses and
scratched his long nose with his short, stubby fingers, likely
wondering if this teenager in front of him were the same guy who’d
given him so much grief every day.

“No, it’s all fair, Professor Edwards.”

The professor latched onto his words, his
doubtful expressions vanishing. “Well, I’ll be my mother’s uncle.”
He laughed in such a good-natured way that Ian couldn’t resist
smiling, and his nasally voiced words further spiced up the humor.
“A+ for all of you!” Pausing, as the rest of the class looked on in
disbelief, he smiled admiringly as a father would look at his son
who’d just won the national spelling bee. “In all my twelve years
of teaching, I’ve never seen more sophisticated diagrams for this
project, nor more lucid, coherent, and invigorating
descriptions.”

Though not familiar with half of his words,
Ian got the gist of the compliment, and it wasn’t hard to see from
the bothered faces around the room that his classmates understood
the teacher’s words all too well. “Thanks, Professor. I’m glad you
like it.”

“
Like
it?” he asked rhetorically,
annoyed by the understatement. “I
love
it! Keep up the
fabulous work, young men.”

“We will, sir,” said William, involuntarily
saluting him as if the professor were a captain and he were a
private in the army, causing Dustin Edward’s happiness to deflate
like a leaky tire. Actually, it began to look like full-fledged
disgust, but they never discovered the entire effect of that
salute, because they’d all left the classroom before they could
find out.

Heading towards their lockers, they put their
chemistry books in the locker and took out their books for the next
class--Ian took out his Spanish II book and William and Jimmy took
out their macroeconomics books. All three exchanged joyful
glances.

“Did you hear him!” broke in Jimmy. “Our
project was the best he’d seen in twelve years.”

“Yeah, fantastic job, Ian.” William shook his
head in wonder. “Without your diagramming skills there’s no way
we’d have done so well.”

“Thanks, Will. Better watch those military
references, though. You know he doesn’t like them.”

“Yeah, sorry--I kinda forgot. Still, with
that grade, who cares?” William left, smiling proudly.

Putting his hand to his chin in amusement,
glad to see his grades improving, even if not in government class
yet, Ian grinned, feeling good about himself, and threw his
chemistry book back in his locker. Chemistry was more than
tolerable now--he actually enjoyed it. Now he felt he could
actually help his brother with his chem homework tonight.

As Ian’s thoughts switched from school to
Shadowcrest Manor, Jimmy slammed his locker shut, still gazing at
him with admiration. “I really enjoy working with you, Ian. I hope
we keep this same group all year.”

“Same here. Just hope the professor doesn’t
pull a fast one on us.” As Jimmy left for his next class, Ian
pulled out his red bandana and black sunglasses from his locker,
which Teresa Valdez, his Spanish teacher, actually liked, slipped
on the bandana, quickly tying it around his forehead like a
headband, threw on his sunglasses, and sauntered over to Spanish
class.

“Hey, Ian.” Eddy strode over to his friend
and caught him before he slipped into the classroom. “You wouldn’t
believe what I got on my assignment.”