Dead Awake by Jack McSporran

Author:Jack McSporran [McSporran, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inked Entertainment

Math had never been Lenna’s strong point. To her, Pythagoras sounded like an infection that required a doctor’s appointment. Besides, she couldn’t see what the big deal was about triangles. Give her English class over math any day of the week. Heck, she’d even take a trip to the dentist instead of suffering through a whole period of equations and formulas.

At least now she knew where she could find Trey, and hopefully that would lead her one step closer toward solving a very different kind of problem. If only she knew who was in the equation. Unfortunately for her, there wasn’t a formula for getting the answers she needed.

Everyone trickled into the classroom, all of them about as excited for the next hour as she was. She took a seat at the back.

Ms. Pearson walked in with her usual vacant expression and matronly pastel blue suit, ready to bore them to tears, but it was the person behind her that caught Lenna’s attention.

Damien entered the room. Ms. Pearson spoke with him for a second and gestured to the empty seat next to Lenna.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as he walked up to her desk. He was dressed in head-to-toe black, in a stylish-but-not-trying-to-be kind of way. He smelled of rainy days and mint shower gel.

He pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. “Going to class.”

“For what? To give me more bad news?” Ever since she’d first laid eyes on him, things had gone from bad to worse.

“Nope.” Damien leaned back and pointed at the chalkboard as Ms. Pearson started her class. “Just here to learn.”

Lenna had assumed that Damien was older than she was. “Aren’t you a senior?”

Damien shrugged. “Yeah, but I’m a flunk in math.”

They sat in awkward silence for a while, listening to Ms. Pearson talk about something that went over Lenna’s head. She felt very aware of the boy beside her, his presence making her uncomfortable. The normality of it all didn’t fit with him.

He leaned toward her as Ms. Pearson put up something on the board that everyone else in the class started to write down. “Listen, I’m sorry about yesterday.”

“Which part?” she whispered as the class fell silent.

“If I’d known you had no idea you died, I wouldn’t have just said it like that,” said Damien, mouth twitching like apologies weren’t his thing.

“Quiet in the back, you two,” called Ms. Pearson without turning around. She had the whole “eyes in the back of her head” all teachers had. It was like they all got a set when they graduated university.

Damien took no notice of the woman. “Anyway, I’m sorry. I guess it was kinda rough finding out about things the way you did.”

“You think?” Lenna said.

Damien stayed quiet, running an index finger over the cartoon devil someone had etched into the wood of the desk.

“While we’re at it,” she said, “stop following me around.”

“Lenna, I didn’t know you’d be here,” replied Damien.

“And stop calling me ‘Lenna’ like we’re friends,” she hissed.

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