Beckoning Light (The Afterglow Trilogy #1)(7)
Author: Alyssa Rose Ivy

“Cool.” I wondered why he was telling me about his party.

“You’re definitely invited,” he added, probably realizing I hadn’t picked up on that part. He gestured to Anna. “You, too, obviously.”

“Really? Great, we’ll be there,” Anna answered before I could think of a way out of it. With a cute older brother and an invitation to a senior party, I must have seemed like a winning lottery ticket to Anna. Fantastic.

“Sounds like fun.” I tried to muster some enthusiasm.

“It’s still hard to believe I have a class with you,” Liam said, as Brian and Anna walked toward the locker rooms.

“Yeah, I think Kevin even forgets I’m not a little kid anymore, so I’m not surprised.”

“My guess is that Kevin wants to think of you as a little kid. He’s always been pretty protective, you know?”

“Ha, I guess that’s one way to view it.”

“Well I guess we better go before we’re late to our next class.”

“Yeah, see you around.” I hurried into the locker room.

When I caught up with Anna, she went on and on about how cool it was that Brian had invited us. I was just surprised at how nice Liam had been. I wondered whether he was being nice because he wanted to or because Kevin had asked him to. It was hard to tell but, either way, the year looked like it might even be more awkward than I had predicted. I also figured the party invitation was part of Kevin’s make-me-cool campaign. I really wished I could slug him.

Biology turned out to be a great class. I got to share a lab table with Rachel, another girl I remembered. It turned out that she was dating a basketball player and had heard from Liam that I was coming back. I worried that her boyfriend was the guy who had been pushed aside by Kevin, but she told me he played center. Lunch came after biology, so we walked to the cafeteria together.

“I usually sit with my boyfriend and his friends at lunch. They’re all seniors, but you might know some of them because they used to be friends with your brother.”

“You sure I can sit there? I really don’t mind going off on my own,” I said, not sure whether the invitation was just to be nice.

“Are you crazy? Of course you should sit with us,” Rachel responded, sounding genuinely happy.

Rachel pointed out the table, and I saw that there were several other students already there. I was feeling better about sitting there until one guy shifted, and I saw that Liam was also seated at that table.

Liam looked up, and his face immediately broke into a smile. “Hey, Charlotte. What? Are you following me today?” I didn’t think it was possible to be as mortified as I had been the night before—wrong.

“Hey, yeah, looks like it.” I tried to play it cool but wondered if I could possibly go sit at another table.

“Well, I guess if I couldn’t have Kevin in my lunch period, at least I get one Calloway, right?”

I realized that moving to another table would probably be too weird. “I guess so.” I took a seat near the end of the table.

“Hey, guys, this is Charlotte, Coach’s niece,” Liam announced.

“Oh, yeah?” one of the boys said. “Coach was pretty excited that you and your brother were moving back. He’s a pretty cool uncle, I bet.”

“Very cool, I’m lucky.”

As I ate my lunch, I kept quiet, which wasn’t hard because Rachel was pretty absorbed in her boyfriend, Mike, and Liam had gone back to talking to some of the other girls. The quiet time didn’t last long, though. Before I could finish my lunch, James sat down next to me.

“Hey,” he said.

“Oh, hey, James. This is Charlotte,” Rachel said quickly, when she noticed him sitting next to me.

“We’ve already met. We’re partners in English.” James smiled, but didn’t mention that we were only partners because he volunteered me.

Liam glanced over at me, but then went back to his conversation. I tried to act really interested in my lunch, but James kept asking me questions about Alaska, like how cold it was, clearly just trying to make conversation.

The afternoon went much like the morning, and soon I was walking into my last class, orchestra. I waited in the front of the room for Monty to finish talking to a violinist. I listened to the familiar sounds of students tuning their instruments and felt more comfortable than I had felt all day. Once the violinist walked away Monty turned to me. “Hi, Charlotte. How’s your day been?”

“It’s been fine.” It really had been better than I expected.

“Well, I set you up in the last stand in the cello section. I assumed you would be okay in last chair until our first lesson when I can evaluate your playing.” I could tell Monty was holding in a laugh because cello was something in which I excelled. I would likely wind up in one of the first chairs eventually.

“Perfect.” I figured there was no need to rock the boat on the first day.

Monty walked with me to the instruments at the back of the room and pointed out a cello. “This isn’t as nice as the one you have at home, but I didn’t want you dragging yours in every day.” It definitely felt funny to have him as a teacher, but it was nice to see such a familiar face after an emotional day.

“Thanks, Monty. Wait. I mean, Mr. Winthrop.” It felt so strange to call him that.

“You’re welcome. See you after class,” he said, and returned to the front of the room.

I set up the music on my stand, tightened my bow, and checked my tuning as I waited for class to start. I wondered if Liam still played bass. I suddenly wished I had asked Monty.

“Well, fancy meeting you here.” I looked behind me and saw Liam setting up his bass.

“Quite a coincidence.”

“I’ll admit I knew I would have this class with you, so I can’t really say that you followed me here.” I noticed that Liam was smiling faintly as he adjusted the music on his stand.

“No, it wouldn’t really be fair to say that,” I responded casually. I really hoped he wasn’t that sick of me already.

“So, do you realize I have more classes with you than Kevin? I only have math and English with him.” He sounded disappointed at not seeing Kevin more.

I didn’t know what to say. “Yeah, weird.”

“Well, I guess there are worse people to have in your classes,” he joked.

“A few, probably.” Somehow it was easy to go along with Liam’s joke, definitely easier than having a real conversation.