TheFallenStarBookSeries1 by Jessica Sorensen Page B

leap from my seat and bang my knee on the desk. Not to mention, I’d had my cheek resting on my arm, right where my studded bracelet was fastened, so now there was a sequence of dots indented into the side of my face. Which in no way made me look like a bigger dork, let me tell you. Add the humiliation factor with the giant bruise on my knee, and I felt awesome.
    I know, I know. I sounded very whiny. But I was having a very bad day so cut me some slack, would you?
    My next stop was astronomy. I arrived early and the classroom was empty. The emptiness immediately made me feel uneasy. Goose bumps sprouted all over my skin as I hung my messenger bag over the back of the chair and sat down.  God, I was so tired. I needed a nap.
    As soon as the first person entered, I rested my head on the table and let my eyelids slip shut. But moments later, a warm tingly sensation shot up my arms and reverberated down my back.
    “Tired?” Alex remarked. I heard a chair slide out and then something landed on the table not too far from my head. His backpack, I assumed.
    I didn’t say anything. Nor did I look at him. I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with him.
    He didn’t say anything else to me, and I didn’t raise my head up until class had started. That’s when I realized Aislin’s chair was vacant.
    “She’s not here today,” he said, noticing the direction of my gaze. He was wearing a black shirt, the sleeves pushed up to his elbows. He looked good. He always looked good. Too bad he was such a jerk. “She has the flu.”
    “Oh.” I frowned. So it was just him and me? Well, today ought to be fun. About as fun as watching a two hour special on fungi growth (And yeah, I’ve actually had to do that before). Aislin acted as our mediator. With her gone, I could only imagine how well the next forty-five minutes was going to go. I take that back. I actually could since we’d been forced to work together once before. And need I remind you how well that went—with me and Alex getting lectured by Mr. Sterling.
    “You don’t need to look so upset about it.” A smirk threatened at his lips. “I’m not that bad to be around, am I?”
    Afraid of what might come out of my mouth, I kept it shut.
     
     
    Ten minutes into class, Mr. Sterling received a phone call. After he hung up, he made an announcement that there was something urgent that needed his attention, and he was going to drop off the class at the library to get a head start on our projects.
    I considered ditching. Going home and taking a nap. But I couldn’t muster up enough courage to go through with it. Mark Scholy and Dean Edwards did. They ducked out as soon as Mrs. Bakerly stepped away from her desk. But they very rarely showed up for class as it was. And they didn’t have to worry about a group of freaky yellow-eyed monsters showing up to kill them.
    “So what do you want to work on first?” Alex asked me after we’d picked out a table to drop off our things at.
    I hung my messenger bag on the back of a chair. “Doesn’t matter to me.”
    He took his cell phone out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. “Well, it doesn’t matter to me either.”
    We both stood there, mulling over what to do next, and I caught him staring at my eyes. Not into my eyes—at my eyes. Typically when people stared at them, they were awestruck by the shocking color of violet, which bugged me.  I knew the color was strange and everything, but staring is rude. However, the way Alex was looking at them erased my normal ping of annoyance, and made my insides melt like hot butter.
    Then, of course, he had to open his mouth and ruin everything. “Maybe you should go home and get some sleep. You look tired .”
    He might as well have told me I looked like hell.
    I shot him a scowl, turned my back on him, and marched off toward the bookshelves. Not necessarily to look for a book, but to get away from him.
    He followed after me. “I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I was just suggesting