Remembrance (The Transcend Time Saga) (3 page)

“You bet I did!” he answered pumping his fist in the air in excitement. He walked over and joined me on the beanbag, slinging his arm around my shoulders. He was still sweaty, but I tried to ignore it as I rested my head on his chest, noticing that his arms were firmer than they were in the beginning of summer because of his intense workouts. “It was pretty much a given that I would get it,” he continued, "but it’s good knowing it’s official.”

“That’s awesome, Jere,” I said, looking up at him and smiling to show him I meant it. In that moment, he was back to the same Jeremy I knew growing up. Excitable, fun, and relaxed, he looked down at me with those blue eyes that were as familiar as the back of my hand. “I had a feeling you would get it.”

“Thanks, Liz.” He leaned closer and rested his forehead against mine, the sweat from his hair matting on my skin. The slight movement caused the pencil to roll out of the crease of my sketchbook, and it fell to the floor. “What're you drawing?” he asked, moving his hand down to the book in my lap. Despite knowing that I didn't like anyone seeing my drawings before they were completed, he grabbed it before I could respond and lifted it out of my reach.

“You don’t want to look at that…” I pleaded, reaching forward to try getting it back. I was unsuccessful. “It’s not even close to finished yet.”

He ignored me and pulled it closer, examining the sketch. “This is different from your other stuff,” he said, squinting as he looked at it.

“Different how?” I asked, even though I knew he was right.

“You normally draw scenery.” He rotated the book in his hand, continuing to study the image. “Did you have some strange assignment to draw yourself in medieval clothes?”

“It’s not medieval,” I said, a little harsher than necessary. “It’s what people wore in the early nineteenth century when
Pride and Prejudice
was written. It’s the first book we had to read in my English class.”

“Weird.” He looked at me like I’d lost my mind and shut the book, handing it back to me before standing. “But anyway, what do you say we go to dinner to celebrate my victory?”

Even though I was tired, I smiled in agreement, allowing him to pull me out of the chair. I wasn’t about to ruin his good day by whining about how terrible mine was, and my mom wouldn’t mind if I went to dinner with Jeremy instead of eating with her. Unlike some of the other kids my age, I’d never been the type to get into trouble or make irrational decisions, so I was pretty much allowed to do what I wanted.

I packed my books in my bag and decided that for Jeremy’s sake, I would pretend everything was the same as it had always been. It pretty much was, minus his recent attitude change and the new table at lunch. But it was impossible to deny the biggest change of them all—that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to get Drew Carmichael out of my head.

However, judging from his actions today, I doubted he felt the same.

CHAPTER 4

Drew ignored me for the next two weeks. Although maybe “ignored” wasn’t the right term. Is it possible to ignore someone if you don’t know them in the first place? It’s not like one conversation meant we were friends. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was going out of his way to avoid speaking to me. He always came to first period right before the late bell and sat as far as possible from Chelsea and me. It was the same in French class—he was always the last one there, rushing in before Mrs. Evans began the lesson. I lingered around Jeremy’s desk and talked with him before class, walking to my seat just before the bell to avoid any unnecessary interaction with Drew. Well, it was more like a lack of interaction, since he didn’t seem to notice my existence.

When I did sit in my assigned seat next to him, my skin prickled like it was absorbing a radioactive force emitted from his body. There were times when I felt like he watched me out of the corner of his eye, especially when I stumbled over my words when Mrs. Evans called on me to answer a question. When I walked around school or ate with friends in the cafeteria, I could always tell when he was near, like I was tuned into a frequency that picked up waves in his presence. I tried telling myself it was nothing but a high school crush and I would get over it, but I knew my feelings for him weren’t something I could turn off like a light switch, no matter how hard I tried.

* * *

“
In general, the quizzes were good
,” Mrs. Evans spoke in French as she walked around the room, handing back the pop-quiz she’d sprung on us earlier that week. “
The average was an A-, and most of you received grades in that range.”

She looked at me for a second longer than the other students before placing my quiz facedown on my desk. Slowly lifting the corner of the paper, I peeked at the grade written on the top. A bright red D stared back at me, laughing at my near-failure.

A slight movement on my right caught my attention, and I glanced over to catch Drew sneaking a quick look at my grade. I shoved the quiz into my bag so he couldn’t see it, but the sunlight from the window shined through the paper, making the red ink visible from the other side. No one else cared enough to try to peek at my grade, but the concerned look in Drew’s eyes let me know he’d seen it, and he turned his attention to the front of the room without saying anything. My cheeks flushed at the fact that he knew how poorly I’d done, and not wanting to be more embarrassed than I already was, I blinked away tears of frustration and prepared to focus on the lesson for the day.

“
As you know, the reading from last night discussed vacations
,” Mrs. Evans began in French. “
So let’s hear about some vacations you’ve been on and anything interesting you
saw or learned
.”

Lindsay Newman, a girl I’d only spoken to a few times who sat in the middle of the room, started the conversation by talking about a recent trip she went on to Italy. Just like the other private schools in the area, admission to Beech Tree wasn’t cheap, and it wasn’t unusual for students to vacation out of the country. However, instead of listening to people discuss their vacations, I thought about the quiz, trying to calculate how much it would affect my final grade in the class.

“
Élisabeth
.” Mrs. Evans disrupted my thoughts, causing me to jump a bit in my seat. “
Have you ever taken a vacation to a foreign country and had an interesting experience
while there
?”

I paused to translate the question in my head, catching the words “interesting,” “experience,” and “vacation.” There were a few words in the middle that I didn’t understand, but not wanting to embarrass myself by letting everyone know I wasn’t paying attention, I decided I got the gist of it enough to answer.

“
Two years ago I went to Hawaii
.” I spoke quickly, wanting to get the focus away from myself as soon as possible. “
We went on a helicopter ride and saw the volcanoes
.”

Mrs. Evans looked baffled, and a few students began laughing—Jeremy included.

I looked around, confused. “What?” I asked in English, wondering what was so funny about helicopters and volcanoes.

“Hawaii’s a state,” Jeremy said, not making an effort to contain his laughter.

“Yeah,” I said, still unsure what the problem was. “I know.” 

“But you just said your vacation to a foreign country was to Hawaii.”

A foreign country—those must have been the French words I didn’t understand enough to translate into English. The entire class looked at me like I was an idiot, and I glanced at Mrs. Evans for help only to find her laughing right along with them, although she tried to control herself when her eyes met mine.

“I just didn’t know the French words for foreign country,” I explained, hoping everyone believed me.

Jeremy laughed again. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

I nearly threw my pencil at him in frustration. “I know Hawaii’s a state,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “I just misunderstood the question.”

He smirked in disbelief, and I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of this later. I was beginning to re-consider switching out of AP.

When class ended, I left without waiting for Jeremy. It wasn’t long until he caught up with me.

“You never told us how your trip to the foreign country of Hawaii was,” he said with a laugh, entertained by my embarrassment.

“You know I didn’t actually think that.” I looked at him in annoyance, pleading for him to let it go. Arguing about this was stupid.

“Sure you didn’t,” he drawled, leaning closer towards me. “Anyway, how’d you do on that quiz?”

I took a step back. “I did fine,” I lied, not meeting his eyes.

“I got an A-,” he jumped at the chance to brag about his grade. “But don’t worry too much about what you got. It was one quiz. It doesn’t matter that much.” He stopped in front of one of the English rooms for his next class, which was on the way to the science wing where I had genetics. “I’ll catch you at lunch,” he said, seeming to have already put the Hawaii incident behind him. 

I started to walk towards my next class, but didn’t get far before hearing someone calmly say my name.

I recognized Drew’s voice before I turned around. He leaned against the cement wall, both hands inside the front pockets of his jacket. “I know you don’t think Hawaii’s a foreign country,” he said with a smirk, like he was proud of himself for being the only other person in the class who believed me.

I stopped walking, confused about why he decided to talk to me after pretending that I didn’t exist for the past few weeks. “Really?” I asked, walking towards him and resting my hand against the wall. “Because everyone else seems to think I do.”

“I believe you,” he repeated, standing close enough to me that I could see the small flecks of gold in his eyes, made darker by the lackluster lighting in the hall. I waited for him to say more, but he stared down at me, waiting for a response.

“That makes you the only person who does.” I shrugged, glancing at the ground before looking back up at him.

“I can help you with French,” he offered, catching me by surprise. “If you want.”

I paused, wondering if I heard him correctly. “Thanks,” I said, playing with the strap of my bag. The offer was tempting, but Jeremy wouldn’t be happy if he found out I was spending time with Drew. “But I think I might just switch out of AP.”

“Come on.” He leaned in closer, causing that whole electricity over my skin thing to happen again. “I know you’re smart. If you practice a little, you’ll blow everyone away.”

I tried to focus on the conversation and not on how there were only inches between us, positive that my heart was beating loud enough for him to hear. “I’m pretty hopeless in French,” I said, my voice steadier than I expected. “But if you want to try helping me, I’ll think about staying in the class.”

“You’re not hopeless,” he said, his eyes softening as he spoke. He hadn’t looked at me that way since the first day of school. “And even though I probably shouldn’t help you, I will.”

I looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean that you
shouldn’t
?”

“Just that Jeremy might not be happy,” he said with a small smirk. “He seemed threatened when we talked on the first day of school. Not that I care about that, but I wouldn’t want to cause problems between the two of you.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t see Jeremy offering to help,” I pointed out, feeling bad about the words the moment I said them.

“So,” he said, a mischievous smile forming on his face as he leaned closer towards me. “When are you up for the first study session?”

We were standing so close that I could feel his breath on my cheek when he spoke, and I ran through my schedule in my mind. “Jeremy drives me to school on Fridays, so I’ll be in the back of the library tomorrow until he gets out of soccer practice,” I said, telling myself that there was nothing wrong with getting help outside of class. It wasn’t like we were going on a date. It was just a tutoring session.

He looked at me quizzically. “You just wait around for him to drive you home?”

“Just on the days when he doesn’t have workouts in the morning,” I said in defense. “It’s a good time to get homework done. Or to read.”

“Whatever you say.” The halls started emptying and he glanced at his watch, which looked more expensive than anything the other students had at Beech Tree. “I know you probably want a break from school after what happened in French, but as much as I’m up for ditching my next class, I’m guessing that’s not your thing.”

I jerked my head up in surprise. “How do you know I wouldn’t be up for ditching?”

“Just a guess.” He smirked. “If you’re up for it, my car’s outside.”

I paused, considering what to do. I’d never skipped before, but my lab partner in genetics was also in my French class, and I wasn’t in the mood to further defend my knowledge of world geography.

“Actually,” he spoke without waiting for my response. “Forget I asked. You should go to class.” Without waiting for me to answer, he started walking down the hall. “But I’ll see you tomorrow,” he called over his shoulder before turning around the corner.

* * *

“You’ll never guess what happened in chemistry,” Chelsea said, dropping her trigonometry book on the desk next to mine and sitting down. She always came straight to class to make sure she had enough time before the first bell to rehash the recent conversations she’d had with Drew. It was hard to smile and nod as Chelsea talked about him, but at least I was feeling better about the French quiz after Hannah helped me figure out how much the D would impact my final grade while we were in drawing. It wasn’t as terrible as I’d thought, and as long as I started to do better on quizzes and tests, my grade shouldn’t suffer too badly. I was also glad that Hannah believed me when I told her I didn’t think Hawaii was a foreign country.

“Let me guess,” I said, returning to Chelsea’s question. “It has to do with Drew?”

“We’re going to the movies on Saturday night!” she squealed, leaning forward in excitement.

I dropped my pencil in shock. “He asked you?”

“Well…I asked him. And I sort of said I was going to the movies with you and Jeremy and didn’t want to be a third wheel,” she sneaked in, fidgeting in her seat. “You’ll come, right?”

“Sure,” I said, keeping my voice level. “I’ll have to ask Jeremy, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

She barely let me finish my sentence before speaking again. “This will be so much fun!” She beamed. “Thank you so much. Next time you need me to do anything, I’m there. Not that I wouldn’t be otherwise, but you know what I mean.”

“Anytime,” I said, the word sounding strained as I spoke it. Out of all the guys in school, of course Chelsea had to go for Drew. She was clueless about my feelings for him, but it was impossible to not be irritated.

I picked up my pencil and started doodling on an empty page of my notebook, trying to clear my thoughts of everything involving Drew and Chelsea.

“Are you okay?” she asked. I must not have been doing a good job at hiding my feelings.

“I’m fine.” I smiled in a way that I hoped was convincing. “I just got a bad grade on my French quiz, and it’s bothering me a bit.”

“One bad quiz grade won’t destroy your average,” she assured me, shaking her head like it wasn’t a big deal. “It was only a quiz, and you’re really smart. I know you can do well.”

The guilt hit immediately. “Thanks,” I said, knowing she meant it.

For the rest of the class, I couldn’t forget the conversation I’d had with Drew earlier in the day. Technically I wasn’t doing anything wrong by having him tutor me, but it felt like I was going behind Chelsea and Jeremy’s back. And I still couldn’t figure out why he offered to help me in the first place. Perhaps he wanted to ask about Chelsea, since our being friends must have come up in one of their conversations. However, I doubted that was the case—Drew didn’t seem like the type to fish for information when he was interested in a girl—he would probably just go for it.