Between the Lives - By Jessica Shirvington Page 0,54

side and kissing me quickly. ‘Sounds good. Tell Lucy and Miriam to come along too.’

I nodded and he planted another brief kiss on my lips just as my math teacher walked past, clearing his throat.

‘In class, Sabine.’

‘Sorry, Mr Barlow.’ I blushed.

Dex, however, looked thrilled at being caught and lingered long enough to earn another reprimanding stare from Mr Barlow.

In class, Lucy didn’t even bother to feign paying attention.

‘I can’t cope with this. We have eight tables of seven and every other table has ten. Every way I try to rearrange it, the possibility for a complete breakdown of room harmony presents itself.’ Lucy flapped her table plan at me, looking desperate.

Lucy was head of the graduation committee, which meant she was in charge of the seating plan for graduation dinner. It wasn’t like our prom – we’d had that a month ago – but it was just as important. Graduation was everyone’s day. The smart students were acknowledged properly, the socialites once again had the opportunity to flaunt their connections, and everyone got the chance to finally confirm which colleges they would be attending. And last but not least, we got to parade around with our boyfriends and girlfriends for the last time – all while looking fabulous.

I glanced over Lucy’s shoulder at her table plan as Mr Barlow made a last-ditch effort to get control of the class. He suggested we call out random mathematical problems and jointly solve them for a bit of fun.

‘Here.’ I pointed to her plan. ‘Can’t you put this table together with this one and break that one into two, like this.’ I pointed out the people to keep together and who to separate. ‘Then you’ll just have Sahara left, and she could sit on table sixteen, which would bring that up to eight.’

Mr Barlow cleared his throat behind us.

‘Sorry, sir,’ I said.

‘Oh my god, that’s totally brilliant!’ Lucy shrieked, oblivious to the fact that her outburst earned me yet another stern look.

‘Perhaps you have a suggestion for what the class could work on, Sabine?’ Mr Barlow asked.

I swallowed, looking at the whiteboard. There was an advanced trigonometry equation already up there. Math was not my strong suit.

‘Oh.’ My mind was racing. When I opened my mouth I didn’t seem to be able to control what flew out. ‘Er … two numbers where the sum is twenty-six and the product is one hundred and sixty-five, sir.’

I expected Mr Barlow to snap at me for wasting everyone’s time, but instead he broke into a smile.

‘Just the thing we need in our final week – a little bit of lateral thinking. Well done, Sabine. Okay, class, how about it?’

I walked out of math with Lucy singing my praises and the first answer on Ethan’s to-do list.

I had planned to sneak away with my laptop at lunch, hoping to find out what language was on Ethan’s list, but Lucy intercepted me in the hall.

‘Where are you going?’

‘To the sports field,’ I said vaguely.

‘Absolutely not. You can’t! I need you. If I don’t get this table plan finished during lunch and the order of service finalised by the end of today, I won’t be able to go to Mixons tonight.’ She pouted. ‘You have to help me, Sabine! Noah is going to be there! And I heard he still hasn’t invited anyone to the graduation dinner.’ She threw me a plaintive look.

I smiled and sighed. Despite my dire need to be elsewhere, there was a girl code of conduct when it came to these things, and Lucy deserved to turn up to graduation on the arm of the hottie she’d been drooling over for the past two years. Mixons, the popular seniors’ hangout, was the perfect opportunity to make something happen.

‘On one condition,’ I said, hoping I’d still have enough time to get my final answers as well as get my car back and go to Mixons.

‘Anything!’ she chirped.

‘If I help you get everything done and Noah is there tonight, you have to promise me you’re actually going to ask him to go to the graduation dinner with you.’

‘But –’

I cut her off with a hand in the air. ‘Those are my conditions, take or leave.’

She glanced down the hall to where Noah was looking delicious, leaning against his locker and joking around with Dex and Brett. They really would be a beautiful couple, and I was sure I’d caught him checking her out when he thought no one was looking. She took a deep breath and scrunched