The class quieted down as a scraggly, hunched man walked through the door. He went to the front of the room and set his books down with a thud.

Kara leaned over and whispered, "That's Professor Flinch. He's the science teacher. He doesn't like kids much…"

As if to prove her right, the man snarled in a scratchy voice, "Alright you little brats, let's get this class over with. Stop your mingling and sit with your lab partners." Students begrudgingly got up from their seats and shuffled to different tables. Kara stayed put and I had nowhere to go. The teacher noticed. He stalked up to us. "You two! Did I not say that you were to get with your partners?"

"Cole's absent again, Mr. Flinch," Kara said. "I can't sit with him if he's not here."

"Fine. But you!" He whirled upon me. "I'm sure your partner isn't absent as well!"

"I don't have a partner," I said.

"Don't give me that!" he sneered. "I assigned everyone a lab partner at the beginning of the year."

"I wasn't here at the beginning of the year."

"Look kid, I'm trying to start a class here, so I don't care if you don't like your partner, get off your keister and go sit with them!"

I growled at the infuriating man. By now we'd caught the attention of the other students. Not that I cared. In fact, it gave me the opportunity to make myself known to the school. I suddenly got to my feet. Putting on my best mask of shock and apology, I grabbed his hand. "Beg pardon, Professor! I'm so sorry! I didn't realize your condition!"

"Wha-? Huh?" He stuttered, completely at a loss.

"How inconsiderate of me!" I continued, playing up the melodramatic guilt. "I feel totally awful! You should have said something!"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, trying to shake me off.

"You should have told me straight away, sir! I would never have been so insolent had I have known."

"Known of what?"

"Your condition, sir," I said simply.

He tore himself out of my grasp. "I have no condition!"

"No?" I said, pretending to be taken aback. "I'm sorry, Professor. I had thought for sure you had to be partially deaf or hard of hearing."

"Whatever for!?"

"You seemed to have not heard me earlier," I said, my eyes cold and my tone that of annoyed seriousness. "I said I wasn't here at the beginning of the year."

He seemed almost surprised by my gull. "Why you-"

I cut him off, tossing him the scrap of paper that had my time-table printed on it. "My name's Adam. I'm starting today. If you were too ignorant to check your roster, I'm sure the date of enrollment on my schedule will prove I'm telling the truth. But if you're really stubborn, I'm sure Principal Alnar will vouch for me. He and my dad, who are old friends by the way, just finished finalizing my paperwork this morning. Are we clear now?"

Flinch scanned and rescanned my sheet, clearly looking for some mistake or error to prove me wrong. When he couldn't find one, he slapped the paper onto the table in frustration. He glared at me. "It seems you are correct. Welcome to the class, Adam," he said my name with as much venom as he could.

"Thank you," I said perhaps a little too much condescending cheer. "I look forward to it."

His glower only made me feel better about myself. "You'll work with Kara today. I imagine Kid Cole won't be coming."

I smiled cheekily. "Yes, sir."

He skulked back to the front of the class.

Kara leaned over to give me an incredulous smile. "Talk about a silver tongue! You were almost done for."

"What can I say?" I grinned. "I've got charm."

"More like luck. I'm pretty sure if you hadn't have mentioned that Alnar was friends with your dad, Flinch would have tanned your hide!"

"But I did and he didn't," I said, leaning back in my chair. "I think it's safe to say I'm going to be his new favorite student."

Kara snorted.

I learned through the period that she was incredibly smart for her age. All these terms and procedures I had never heard before, she understood perfectly and even managed to quickly whisper easy definitions and explanations to me while Flinch wasn't looking. She was like a super computer for biologists. I wished I had her brain.

The bell rang and the period ended. I had officially made it through a class with only one close call. A personal best.

As we packed up our things, Kara said, "Next period is lunch. If you want I can show you around."

"If it's not too much trouble," I said, smiling gratefully.

She gave me teasing, pointed look. "That will likely depend on if you can keep out of it."

I smirk. "I make no promises."

We left the classroom and meandered through the halls towards the main entrance. Students brushed past us in an excited hurry. They all seemed to be heading somewhere behind us. "Where's everyone going?" I asked Kara.

"The cafeteria. The mess hall is at the back of the school."

"And we're not going there because…?"

"Because while the food there is alright, I've got something better." She pulled a large food container from her bag. "I figured we'd eat first, and then I'd show you around later."

"Sounds good to me. I'm starving!"

We made it out of the school and looked around for somewhere to eat. Kara pointed to a little stone gazebo off the courtyard between dorms. "Why don't we sit over there?"

She set the container on one of the benches and sat down. The gazebo was a perfect spot. The roof kept the hot sun off and the lack of walls let a refreshing breeze rustle our hair.

A heavenly aroma wafted through the air as Kara opened the lid of the Tupperware. It drew me closer and I sat beside it, gazing longingly at the food inside. "What is that?"

"A little something my friend whipped up. She's a fantastic cook!"

"I'll vouch for that if smell is any indication."

"Why not just rely on taste?" Kara asked, passing me a plastic fork. She shoved it into my hands when I seemed reluctant to take it. "Help yourself. There's plenty here. Mel always seems to make too much."

"Mel?"

"My friend. She's the one who made this."

"Oh."

"Just dig in, will you? You're drooling."

I didn't know if I wanted to eat anything that this "Mel" cooked, but in the end by stomach won out. The food was so good I completely forgot how pompous the girl seemed. Instead all I could think about was how I wanted her to be my personal chef. Though my brain still held some hostility. It came out when I asked Kara, "If she's your friend, then how come she's not having lunch with you?"

"Normally she does. She makes a great big batch of food and we all have a picnic somewhere on the school grounds. But today's Monday and she has cheerleading practice during most of lunch."

"Who's 'we'?" I asked through a mouthful of food.

"My brother, Mel and our other friend Seth. We grew up together. We're really close and we try to get together whenever we can. But on Mondays, we have to go our separate ways. Mel has cheerleading, Seth's got football, and my brother Erik tends to spend the lunch hour in shop class."

I swallowed. "Don't you do anything? Sports or cheerleading?"

"Nah," she said with a sad smile. "My legs don't let me. I got into an accident when I was little and they wound up semi paralyzed. I can't control them well."

I dropped the forkful of food I had back into the container in surprise. "Then how do you…"

"Walk?" she asked. "My big brother is an inventor. He spent half a year working on these boots I'm wearing. He's tried to explain to me how they work, but all I understand is that they let me use my legs. He says that they're breakable though, so I stay out of athletics."

"So what do you do for fun?"

"I enrolled into some art classes after the incident. I sketch and paint when I'm bored. My boyfriend keeps me company too, when he's not busy."

I quirked an eyebrow. "You've got a boyfriend?"

"Yup! His name is Rion. We met a few years ago."

"Maybe you should have brought that up a little sooner," I teased. "What if I thought that your friendliness was a form of flirting and I've fallen for you?"

"You're so full of it, Adam," she laughed. "I can tell for a fact that you don't like me like that."

"Oh yeah?"

"I can see it in your eyes. You're not interested in me. You've got someone else you fancy." An involuntary blush crept up my face, proving to Kara that she was right. "I knew it. Common spill! What's her name?"

I sighed and mumbled to myself, giving up on food as my stomach was suddenly doing flip-flops. "If only I knew."

Today is my birthday. I'm 19 years old now!

As a present, leave me some reviews.