Parahuman (Parahuman Series) (16 page)

    
“Hello, Hali.” He returned the greeting minus the grin; polite, but cool. As
Hali was associated with Laney it would be logical to alienate her as well, so
as to cover all points of connection. 

    
Suddenly, Laney turned in her seat to face him. Devan felt like a cornered
animal with her green eyes trained on him. He tried, really he did, to relocate
his gaze in any direction but on her, but he wasn’t able to do it. Her gaze
just drew him in.

CHAPTER TWELVE

    Laney
stared at Devan with a mind turned to mush. She had turned around because she
had to look at him, but her brain seemed to have stopped functioning and all
she could do was stare at him. She had to be looking really stupid.

     His
multi-colored hair was all disheveled again, but with it being so thick it
looked great. The dark t-shirt he wore molded nicely to his shoulders and
biceps, and he was wearing shorts again that showed off his calves to
perfection. He must have to special order those shorts because they fell to his
knees and those measurements had to be hard to find.

     Hali
seemed to realize Laney’s speech impediment and jumped in to save her. “So,
Devan; how’s the first day of school going so far?”

     Devan’s
stony features remained fixed forward in Laney’s direction as he answered the
question. Her heart hurt at the rigid set of expression, but it also thumped
double time at the thought that maybe he was unable to look away from her as
well. 

     “Archetypal.”

     One
word. A big one too. Laney smirked, and her brain started functioning again.

     “So
loquacious. You must take pity on our poor ears and not talk them off so.”

     Laney
could almost swear that Devan was forcing back a grin. Her heart lifted. She
wasn’t sure what happened last night. He was trying to erect some kind of wall,
and the thought wrenched at her heart. She had made a pledge to not allow him
to succeed if that was his plan. Besides being attracted to him, and she
admitted she was, she sensed a loneliness to him that called to her.

     Hali
snorted next to her. “Loquacious. You got that from Harry Potter. You’ve only
watched it like twelve dozen times.”

    
“Don’t knock the classics my young apprentice, far they will take you.” Laney
retorted in her best Yoda imitation.

     “As
always you are correct my Master.” Hali played along solemnly, but then she
grinned. “Well, not always, more like sometimes, or even rarely. It pretty much
falls to me to be right all the time.”

     “I
will ignore the preposterousness of that statement.” Laney huffed grievously.
Having never taken her eyes from Devan’s face…she had to see if she was getting
to him…Laney was able to observe the softening of his features at the byplay
between her and Hali, but just as she was starting to breathe easier his face
tightened back up again and a twitch started up in his jaw.

    
“Hello ladies.”

    
Auuhhh, that’s why the stony face. Jarrod. Laney gave Devan a smile and didn’t
turn around as she answered Jarrod’s greeting.

     “Jarrod,”
Laney responded coolly; she wanted Jarrod to know that she was still mad at him
for being a douche. However, she couldn’t ignore him altogether; her mama had
raised her better than that. That didn’t mean she was going to smile pretty.
Well…not smile at Jarrod, because she was in all actuality smiling, just at
Devan rather than Jarrod.

    
“Jarrod,” Hali echoed in the same chilly tone. Laney cast a quick grin Hali’s
way for backing her up. Laney had informed Hali of Jarrod’s jackhole behavior
and she was all on Devan’s side. BFF’s rule. 

    
Before anything else could be said Mr. Mathews started speaking. Laney gave one
last smile to Devan whose jaw muscles still twitched. Turning to face the front
Laney witnessed Jarrod, who was sitting in front of her, giving Devan an
unfriendly expression; which he quickly transformed into a conciliatory smile
when he looked her way.  

    
Jarrod leaned in closer, whispering. “Can I talk to you at lunch?”

     Laney
wasn’t going to make it easy for him. Hopefully she would have other plans for
lunch anyway. Devan might need someone to hang out with.

     “How
about after school?” Laney offered. Jarrod was like an annoying brother, she
couldn’t just cut him out.

    
“But…” Jarrod continued.

     “Mr.
Dean, please face the front. You should be paying attention to me and not
talking to Ms. Jennings.”

     Laney
gave Jarrod the evil eye for getting her called out by the teacher. Jarrod
turned to face the front, but not before looking over his shoulder at Devan and
giving him a surly expression. Laney felt anger burn through her at his
persistent nasty behavior.

     “I’m
sure you have all noticed that we have a new addition to the class. And I’m
also sure that you’ve noted and are speculating on his eye accessory. Mr.
Ferris, or Devan to you all, has an eye sensitivity disorder and is required to
wear those for medicinal purposes. You can put your hand down right now Mr.
Davis; you do not have an ESD, so no sunglasses for you.” 

     Mr.
Mathews began his lecture but Laney was having a hard time paying attention,
because the back of her neck was tingling like wild fire from what she was sure
was Devan’s gaze. It was crazy how linked she’d become to him, especially in
such a short amount of time.

     Last
night when he had told her that they would only being staying a couple more months
Laney heart had hurt. She had barely stopped herself from screaming, ‘NO’! She
had this idea of going to Devan’s uncle to try and convince him to stay, to give
Silverton a chance. But that wouldn’t seem weird or anything, some girl he
didn’t know showing up and arguing against his departure.

     She
felt like she was going mad from the bombardment of emotions running rampant
through her body.

     Devan
was so contained, holding everything tightly packed inside of himself. Last
night’s talk at the waterfall had been so nice. Laney had just known that for
the first time in a long time he had allowed a little bit of that wall inside
of him to come down. Every time he smiled, and that laugh, it was like he was
surprised it had come out of his mouth. She had felt ten feet high for bringing
that happiness to him.

     But
then that wall had shot right back up on the drive to her house. She could
actually sense extra layers going up, like he was fortifying himself. She
wasn’t sure what had caused it, but she had wanted to cry, or hit him, because
of it. Then came his announcement of his imminent move, and her heart had
dropped.

     She
was going to have some kind of aneurism before she was seventeen.

     Laney
felt a nudge in her side from Hali interrupting her musings in time to
hear…“Ms. Jennings, can you join us in your corporal form for a few minutes to
answer my question?”

     Laney
felt her face burn in embarrassment. Not at being called out on her
daydreaming, but because of who she had been daydreaming about. Not that Devan
knew she had been ruminating about him, but that didn’t stop the burn of red
from spreading everywhere. She hated it when she got embarrassed, there was no
way she could hide it.

    
“Sorry, can you repeat the question?” Laney gave Mr. Mathews an apologetic
grimace. He was a cool teacher that wouldn’t hold it against her. It wasn’t
like she did it all the time. She was normally very attentive in his class
because he made the subject matter interesting.

     Mr.
Mathews cocked an amused eyebrow at her. “We were continuing our discussion
from yesterday about the long standing conflict in the East. Why do you think
it is still going on?”

     Laney
took a deep breath. She would at least be able to redeem herself and answer the
question. “The conflict is steeped in religion and faith and has been going on
for centuries. It will endure because these people believe that what they are
fighting for is beyond what is tangible.”

     Mr.
Mathews nodded his head as he looked around the classroom for an unwary victim.
His gaze focused behind her. Laney winced inwardly for Devan. No one would
appreciate being called upon on their first day at a new school, but Mr.
Mathews was one of those individuals who believed the Band-Aid should be ripped
off quickly rather then gently peeling it back. 

     “Mr.
Ferris, do you think this is a rational basis for this conflict?”

     Devan
didn’t hesitate or hem-and-haw. “The manner of using physical aggression to
resolve insubstantial ideals is not rational.”

     Laney
couldn’t let that pass. She turned to face him. “Faith isn’t about
rationality.”

    
Devan’s head cocked to the right. Laney’s heart did a double thump at the
adorableness of it. “So their irrational reason is an adequate cause?”

    
“Faith is not an irrational reason. It’s a hope for something better.” Laney
stressed passionately. She didn’t believe in the violence in the Middle East, but
the passionate belief they lived their life by was inspiring in a way. 

     “It’s
irrational and illogical to place so much faith is something that cannot be
verified.” Devan countered in composed tones.

     Laney
wasn’t sure but she was beginning to think Devan was enjoying the debate with
her more than his belief in the issue. Well, she wasn’t going to be the one to
throw in the towel. Anyway, she was enjoying herself too.

    
“Their faith is the same as breathing to them; it’s part of them…shaping their
entire

existence.”
A slight indent appeared between Devan’s brows at Laney’s response, as though
he contemplated the idea for a second. Laney felt a slight victory at the
thought. He countered immediately though. 

    
“Maybe for the common people, but as for the government or those in positions
of power, they’re objective is monetary gain. They manipulate the passions of
the people for their own agendas. If the people were to think rationally they
would realize that their faith was being exploited.”

     Laney
could see that the wall Devan had put back up was crumbling slightly. His lips
had softened and one corner was quirked upwards. Laney was so overjoyed that
all she could do was smile, even though they were thrashing out a pretty
contentious subject matter. Well, she had been thrashing, he had been all
factual and logical.    

    
Suddenly, a snicker in the background seemed to rouse them from their bubble…a
recognizable Hali snicker. They both looked around to see everyone staring at
them. Two people grinning, Hali and Mr. Mathews, one scowling, Jarrod, and the
rest bemused.

     Laney
toned down her smile to restrained grin as she glanced back at Devan. His
expression had gone back to stony. She almost poked her tongue out at him in
frustration.

     “That
was the most stimulating debate this classroom has seen in a while. Thank you,
Mr. Ferris and Ms. Jennings, for that most thought-provoking argument.” Mr.
Mathews stated amusingly. He then brought everyone’s attention back to him by
assigning a two page report on the conflict and its ramifications in the United
States; due tomorrow. A multitude of groans and complaints followed that
announcement.

     Laney
forced herself to concentrate on her paper, but all she was capable of writing
was her name, date, and the title; any new noise behind her kept interrupting
her thought process.

     Not
that Devan made a lot of noise; for such a big guy he was remarkably quiet.
There was no shifting in his seat or heavy breathing, but she was able to hear
the scratching of his pencil on paper, and he didn’t seem to be having any
problem at all getting words down. There had been only one pause in five
minutes of writing when he had shuffled his papers to presumably start on his
second page. After five minutes of writing there was another shuffling of
papers and then silence. That just stretched Laney’s nerves to the breaking
point wondering what he was doing.

    
Because Jarrod kept looking back at her Laney had to pretend she was writing
something so he wouldn’t try to start a conversation with her, she wasn’t going
to get into it with him in class. And she felt like laying into him with
extreme vengeance.

     After
another ten minutes the bell finally rang signaling the end of class. While
collecting her books Laney turned to ask Devan what his next class was only he
wasn’t there. Swinging her head around she saw him sailing out the classroom
door. Laney almost growled.

    
“Those long legs of his are no match for the likes of us.” Hali remarked in her
ear.

    
Before she was able to make a remark to that Jarrod was standing in front of
her.

    
“Laney…”

     Laney
held up her hand. “Jarrod, I don’t have the time right now to say everything I
want to say to you, I need at least a half an hour. Then if I want to hear what
you have to say that might be another half an hour. So please, let’s just put
this conversation on hold until after school.” Without waiting for a reply
Laney grabbed her books, hooked her arm with Hali’s, and headed for the door.
Thankfully, she wouldn’t see him the next hour. 

     They
walked into the hall and headed toward their next class, advanced calculus,
which they had together. Laney scoped the hallway attempting to find Devan. She
couldn’t see any sign of him, and it wasn’t like he could blend.

     “Snap
girl, way to go all dominatrix on him. All you need is a whip and some
handcuffs.” Hali laughed.