Read Haven from the Storm (Storms of Life #1) Online

Authors: Sarah Dosher

Tags: #Contemporary

Haven from the Storm (Storms of Life #1) (6 page)

BOOK: Haven from the Storm (Storms of Life #1)
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“Excuse me, what?” I thought I felt my throat closing. Why me? I didn’t understand why I was being tortured. I didn’t know if I could face him every single day…I
couldn’t
see his face every day.

“Sweetie, what little color you did have has completely drained from your face, so don’t try to fool me by saying there’s nothing between the two of you. Actions speak louder than words and I’m not blind.”

“Whatever. I don’t care where he is or what he’s doing. I’m only focused on…”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Better things to worry about. I hear the same sob story every time I mention any boy’s name to you. So please, save it.” She held her hand up, cutting off our conversation.

I nodded my head as we pulled into the school’s parking lot and went our separate ways. Before she was even out of sight, she hollered my name and ran toward me.

“Sorry sweetie, you know I love you. I just wish you’d let other people see how great you are instead of hiding all the time.” She reached out and wrapped her puffy, hot pink clad arms around me, but I didn’t return the hug. I just nodded and walked away as fast as my legs would carry me.

 

 

My class schedule was actually perfect this semester. My first hour homeroom was AP - Advanced Placement - English with the nicest teacher in the entire school. I’d had Mrs. Straub for English every year since the eighth grade. She was nice to all the students and allowed me do my work without forcing me to be involved.

For the next three class periods I had the same science teacher, Mr. Roberts. He taught my AP Science class as well as the following hour of AP Science Lab, and I was assigned to be his teacher’s assistance for fourth hour.

Science and photography were my favorite subjects because they came easy to me. Mr. Roberts was a great teacher that made science almost as fun as photography, but photography was my true passion. My photos always came out looking grainy and rough, but that was how I viewed the world and that’s what my photography was - a peek through my camera at the way I viewed the world.

My three afternoon classes would be completely focused on my photography. I had journalism, where I mostly took pictures of school events for the yearbook, then two free class periods where I could focus on my independent study topic. It was overseen by my journalism teacher. My topic idea centered on my desire to document the aftermath of the disaster in Kolby and self-publish a book full of my photographs with a description of the town before and after the tornado.

First hour AP English was nothing exciting. I got a short nap in while Mrs. Straub was discussing the finer points of contemporary literature. Our assignment was to choose one novel of literary merit to read and defend our choice through class discussion and a writing assignment. The whole hour was spent discussing what novel to choose. I already knew my choice:
The Sea of Tranquility
by Katja Millay. Since I pretty much had it memorized, it would be an easy assignment.

After making a quick stop at my locker to switch books, I was ready for my AP Science class. I was always the first student to arrive since I didn’t feel the need to make the ten minutes between classes my own form of happy hour. I was looking down as I entered the room and saw shoes step in front of me. I looked up into familiar dark eyes as I collided with a hard body.

I turned to walk toward the front of the room and smacked into someone that was almost knocked down by the force of our collision. I reached to catch them and saw it was a short girl with long, blonde hair. Once we were both steady on our feet I looked down into her blue, stormy eyes.

Lily.

She quickly pulled away and hurried to the back of the room. Mr. Roberts said hello to her and started telling me his plans for the AP Science class this semester.

I was starting my semester of student teaching at Kolby High School. I knew Lily went to school here and I would see her, but I guess I never really thought about what it would be like if she was in my class. I was going to like this. It would give me another excuse to be near her and from the way things were going, I’d need all the help I could get.

The bell rang and Mr. Roberts started class.

“Good morning, clever scholars. While I hope you had an enjoyable holiday break, I am ecstatic to see your inquiring minds back where they belong.” He gestured for me to join him in front of the class.

“This gentleman is Mr. Haven. He will be with us this semester, completing student teaching for his bachelor’s degree in Science Education. I hope he can further enhance your learning experience while we, in turn, assist him in his educational endeavors. Today he will observe my distinguished teaching methods and your behavior as students from his desk at the rear of the room.” He waved his hand, effectively dismissing me.

I smiled at the students and headed back to my assigned desk at the back of the classroom so I could begin my observation of Mr. Roberts teaching methods. I tried my best to suppress an eye roll since some of the students were still watching me. However, one student had her head buried in her textbook, trying her best to ignore my presence, but I’d be sitting about a foot from her desk and facing her.

She wouldn’t be able to ignore me for long.

While Mr. Roberts did an annoyingly efficient job at detailing this semester’s syllabus to the class, I found myself mostly observing Lily. She was as beautiful as I remembered. Her skin was a few shades lighter than mine. I remembered how she hated her skin color. She always wanted her skin to be darker, like mine and Easton’s. Everything about us was darker than Lily - our eyes, our hair, our skin. She was perfectly blessed with light eyes, light hair, and even lighter skin. It never helped when someone would comment on how she looked like a porcelain doll.

She turned her body sideways so that her back was to me. I was staring at her hair and realized I’d reached out to run my fingers through the long, straw colored pieces draped over her shoulder. What was I doing? I felt her body jump under the weight of my hand bumping her shoulder. I tried my best to make it look like I was brushing something off her black shirt. I turned my attention back to Mr. Roberts for fear I might continue to stroke her hair if my mind wasn’t occupied with something else.

Since there was no lab to accompany his long winded review of the next five months of classes, Mr. Roberts had the class read the assigned chapters from their textbooks during third hour. He gave me a textbook and had me
acquaint
myself with the current topic. After the bell rang, Lily didn’t leave the room with all the other students. Instead she walked to Mr. Roberts’ desk and started to place her bag under a small desk at the end of his. He said something to her and she nodded, picked up her backpack, then left the room. Mr. Roberts saw me watching and walked toward me.

“Lily’s my best student so she’ll be our teaching assistant this semester during fourth period. I’m going to have the two of you go to the library so you can discuss the material we covered last semester and get an idea of how the class runs. Then you can start to prepare lesson plans.”

Score! My luck couldn’t get any better.

“Great idea, Mr. Roberts, I think that will be very helpful,” I replied.

“Good. I like your enthusiasm, Mr. Haven. That kind of attitude will get you far in life.” He patted me on the back. “Lily has already headed to the library so why don’t you join her. We have lunch period after this class, so feel free to occupy your time as you see fit and I’ll see you back here promptly at 12:10.”

The library hadn’t changed since I’d graduated and I was amazed that some tables still sat in the exact same locations with the same worn plastic chairs that were yellow, red, and blue. Lily was sitting at a large table at the back of the room with her head hidden in her science book. I headed in her direction, but stopped at a table I knew had my name carved into it.

Dean and Easton, Class of 2008.

I ran my fingers across our names as I remembered the day we skipped class just to sneak in here and put our mark on the place we’d called home for so many years. I remembered Easton flirting with the library aide while I used my pocket knife to quickly scroll our names into the wood. I felt an ache in my chest at how much I still missed my friend. Lily cleared her throat, pulling me from my thoughts.

“I’m making notes on last semester. If you give me about twenty minutes, I’ll have them ready and you can be done with me,” she stated harshly.

“Lily, it’s okay. You don’t have to write everything down. You can just tell me. Most of what you covered last semester I’ve already experienced, so I don’t need much detail.”

She shook her head. “No thanks. This won’t take long.”

I didn’t understand her reluctance to speak to me about something as simple as this, but I’d let her continue writing her notes. She handed me a page with notes covering the front and back. I glanced at it and saw that she’d noted all the chapters with the activities completed in the lecture and labs for most of last semester.

“Thanks, Lily. This will be very helpful.”

She didn’t reply; she just kept making notes. After another ten minutes passed, she scooted a couple more pages of notes to me, closed her book and stood up from the table, walking toward the exit.

“Lily, wait. Can’t we talk at all?”

She didn’t stop walking. In fact, I think she might have sped up. I stared the doors she had just gone through for a few seconds, trying to decide the right course of action. She obviously didn’t want to speak to me, but I had so many things I wanted to explain. I finally decided to chase after her. I was an impatient man and I couldn’t sit by and watch her disappear from my life again. I rounded the corner coming out of the library, but I didn’t see her anywhere so I rushed down the hall and passed the girls restroom. I figured she was hiding in there, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. I know she had her reasons for hiding from me, but I
would
get my chance to talk before I’d allow her to write me off completely.

I retreated to the administration office and was greeted by a face I recognized, which wasn’t exactly a good thing.

“Well hello there, Dean Haven. You’re looking very well,” Mindi said as she winked at me. I immediately felt my skin crawl.

“Hey, Mindi. I didn’t know you worked here.”

“Yup, you’re looking at the new high school counselor. I was a teacher last year, but was moved to counselor this year.”

“Well that’s good to hear, congratulations.” I tried my best to look happy for her and not like I was about to tuck my tail and run - which I was.

I walked further into the room, ready to get what I came for and leave. Mindi moved from behind the large counter separating the room into two spaces, the official side and the side for students and visitors.

“Oh, Dean, I was glad to hear you would be here this semester. I haven’t seen you in forever,” she reached out and ran her hand down the length of my blue tie.

“Yeah, college was a crazy time for me. Sorry about that.” I reached up and adjusted my tie with the hope that she would take her hand off of me. All I accomplished was making her move her hand to the side and onto my chest. “I actually came to see if I could get the locker number of one of Mr. Roberts’ students. She’s helping me catch up on last semester’s work.”

“Of course, Dean, you’re one of us now so you can access any information about the students that you need. Here, I’ll show you how.” She laced her hand with mine and led me to a computer at the back of the room. “All you need to do is access the student information on this computer. It has all their demographic information as well as schedule, locker number, that sort of thing. If you ever need any additional information you just let me know and I’ll be more than happy to help you.”

BOOK: Haven from the Storm (Storms of Life #1)
12.08Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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