Taking her at her word, Falon nodded. “No splitting up, okay.”
“Fine.”
They peered into every class, finding nothing of interest. Ari was ready to give up halfway down the hal since there was no buzz of Jinn energy at al, and then her feet stopped her in the open doorway of a classroom. The room was ful of easels and art supplies, and every wal was covered in carefuly mounted artwork that ranged from realy good to completely, unidentifiably bad. However, the colorful room wasn’t what had gotten her attention.
It was him.
He stood leaning over his desk, writing on a post-it before slapping it on top a pile of papers. As if sensing her presence, he glanced over at the door and then straightened. It was him. This was definitely the guy, but, there was no Jinn energy radiating off of him.
He smiled, a confused, polite stretching of the lips. “Yes? Can I help you with something?”
His brown eyes were warm and so human. He was probably in his forties and dressed the exact opposite of what Ari expected from an art teacher—a sweater over a shirt and tie, slacks, polished loafers. Short hair. The art teachers she had known had used their style as an expression of art as wel.
“Ari?” Falon whispered beside her, that one word filed with concern and confusion.
“I’m sorry,” Ari finaly managed to form words. A little flustered, she looked down at the schedule in her hands. “We’re new. We thought we had art now but clearly not.” She gestured to the empty class. “Not today.”
“Okay.” He smiled again, buying her lie. “Wel, I’m Mr. Shepherd, but I let you guys cal me Sam. Welcome. I look forward to seeing what you two can do with a piece of paper and a pencil.”
Returning his friendly grin, Ari shook her head. “Oh I wouldn’t.” And after giving him a little wave of goodbye, she grabbed Falon’s arm and bolted out of there, feeling like the world’s biggest dumbass.
“What the hel was that?” Falon growled, her pretty face pinched. “You had my blood pumping and ready for a fight.”
“I could have sworn I felt something from him in the hal. But then… there… nothing.”
“Wel, now we’re late for class. Check the signal on your radar, Ari. Jeez, so far you suck at this.”
“You know, I never realized it before but you can be realy mean for such a cute person.”
“I’ve always been mean.” Falon waved off her suggestion that she was anything else. “And I am not cute.”
Ari glanced at her schedule as Falon took off towards the east wing of the school. According to this, Calculus was west side, first floor. She started backing up from Falon, a smirk on her lips. “Cute as a button! Al the black,” She waved at Falon’s skinny jeans and black Big Bang Theory t-shirt, “Not fooling anybody, Snow White.”
Falon’s mouth dropped open a little, aghast. Then just as quickly she shut it. Scowling playfuly, she gave Ari her favorite insult. The middle finger.
Ari was stil laughing when she got to class.
Her Calculus teacher wiped the smile off her face as he tore her a new one for being late. Apparently being a new student counted for nothing.
Stupid high school.
***
Lunch period couldn’t have come fast enough. Ari realy hoped they found their Jinn soon, because she didn’t know how much of repeating high school she could
take. It was something that she was done with. She’d made peace with the end of her high school career before summer and now she knew why. She’d outgrown it.
Running for her life this summer had only made her disconnection to it even greater.
Ari shook her head at herself as she stroled along the main halway towards the front entrance where she knew Jai would be waiting for her. She had to stop being such a whine. This was what she wanted. An assignment. Wel, be careful what you wish for, right. Ari snorted and then shook her head again. She probably looked like a crazy person, but she didn’t care.
She was about to see Jai.
Footsteps pounded behind her and a shadow fel over her. Not Jinn.
Glancing up into the cute face of some tal, dark haired student, Ari gave him a wide-eyed, ‘do I know you?’ look.
He smiled down at her, reminding her a little of Nick. “Hey, um, you’re new right?”