Soul Searcher by D.M. Richardson (novel24 .TXT) 📕

“Oh hello, can I help you?”

“I’m Rayne” he gave me a blank look. All of the teachers were supposed to be aware that this was my first day. I handed him my sheet of paper. “Rayne Nyght I’m supposed to be starting your class today.” he took the paper from me and squinted at it. It occurred to me that he might have been looking for his glasses when I walked in. The glasses that were perched on top of his head. I cleared my throat and he looked at me. I tapped the side of my head. He reached up and touched his glasses. His face flushed and he propped his glasses on his nose. He looked at the paper in his hand and he got a look of comprehension.

“Oh yes you’re the f-” my face fell and he quickly amended “transfer student.” His face flushed again at his close slip up. We both know what he was about to say. Foster kid. If he had finished the word he would have branded as a target for everyone in the school. They would find out eventually, they always do, but by then they will already think I’m odd so it wouldn’t matter as much. At worst they would assume that that was what was wrong with me. He stumbled to compensate for his almost mistake. “Yes I remember now. I read your file and your notes from your previous physics teacher. He said you were a very intelligent young woman. Always kept up with your homework and excelled at the tests.” I raised my eyebrows at him. He wasn’t just scatter brained he was also not very skilled with people. At my look he shut his mouth before he said anything else. “Well it’s a pleasure to have you. I’m afraid everyone must be partnered for labs, and there is only one other without a partner. You’ll sit at the table with him.” he handed me a text book and pointed to the last table in the back to the left. I looked where he was pointing. It was the same guy that had been staring at me in my last class. Luckily he had his sunglasses back on. I walked back to the table and took the chair on the right. The teacher introduced us. “Rayne this is Zeke. Zeke this is Rayne.”

We gave a nod in acknowledgment and turned our attention back to the teacher. Well he did but I looked at my textbook. It was the exact same one I had at my last school. I couldn’t help but to smile a little. I really enjoyed physics and by the time I was transferred I was left alone a lot. So I spent my time as no sane teenager would. I had read every chapter up to twenty and had completed each problem leading up to it. I was set in this class probably for the entire year if I wanted.

I pulled my book back out and judging from the physical way that I was aware of Zeke I pulled out my mp3 player to help me ignore him. I leaned back in my chair and propped my knee against the table and opened my book. I managed to ignore Zeke in varying degrees throughout the hour. Though his presence was a constant disturbance in my concentration. I don’t know why I was so aware of him. He wasn’t the first guy I had ever been partnered with, and he wasn’t going to be the last. I was usually very good at ignoring people. You might say I excelled at it. But his presence was always in the back of my mind. His proximity a constant distraction.

Zeke

She sat there next to me as though I didn’t exist. She was leaned back. Her knee propped against the table her leg swinging slightly. Not a reaction I was used to from girls. Her headphones emitted a slight sound though I couldn’t place. She looked totally engrossed in her book just as she had in our last class.

I hadn’t missed the smirk when she looked at the textbook. Just as I hadn’t missed the fact that she wouldn’t look at me if I didn’t have my glasses on. In fact she hadn’t looked anyone in the eye at all that I had seen. She kept her eyes trained on the floor the way someone with bad self esteem would. But she held her body in a manner that exuded confidence. An extreme contradiction and the thing that caught my attention.

I wished I could just reach over and touch her. Find out her secrets. What made her the way she was. To the untrained eye she was the epitome of calm. But I was always good at noticing the little things. Like the way she seemed to mess with her braid when something was bothering her. Like for example someone staring at her like I did most of last hour. And the way her legs were never still. Almost like she was ready to bolt at a moments notice. The way her hands were always fidgeting either messing with her hair, or tapping her fingers, and more often than the others the way she messed with the ring on the middle finger of her left hand.

I looked at the ring. It had a small thin band of silver that wove intricate designs around an onyx stone. She messed with it the most when she was deep in thought. Twisting it around her finger, but always returning it to the right position. It was obviously something that she had worn for a long time.

She had long dark hair plaited in a braid that reached the middle of her shoulder blades. She had an olive skin tone and the darkest eyes I had ever seen. She wore a baggy t-shirt obviously meant for a man with blue jeans underneath. Almost as though she were trying to look as ordinary as possible. Her clothes fit so that it showed very little of her body. Making it difficult to tell whether she was chubby or thin.

As I watched she pulled the braid over her shoulder and tugged on it lightly. She felt me staring just as she had in our last class. I couldn’t help the smirk as I turned to look at the front of the class again. I really should have been paying attention. This was the only class I had trouble with. I flipped open my book to the right chapter. I didn’t bother trying to listen to the teacher. I couldn’t learn that way so I started in on the problem I had left off at.

After the fifth time of erasing and starting over I was pretty sure I had the right answer. Movement caught my attention and I glanced to my right. Rayne was looking at my paper and shaking her head slightly. I raised an eyebrow at her. The only part of my eyes that could be seen over my glasses.

She rose to my challenge and leaned forward putting her book on the table words down to keep her place. She grabbed the pencil out of my hand and pulled my note book out from under my hand to her. She grabbed a calculator out of her bag and looked at the book. When she found the problem I was working on she paused. I watched as her eyes skimmed the page and she set to writing. It took her only a couple seconds and she pushed the notebook back to me with the pencil sitting on it. I looked at what she had written.

She had copied the problem shown in the book. Then solved it in a neat column. Her handwriting was small and neat. Next to the answer she had written three words, trace it backwards. I did as she said and realized my mistake. It took me ten minutes to finish the fifteen problems I had left following her example. A personal best.

The bell rang and I watched her stand and head out the door. I hoped I had more classes with her. She was intriguing. I continued on to my next class hoping I would be able to concentrate.

An hour later I walked into the lunch room. I scanned the room then realized I was looking for her. I walked to my friend’s usual table. It was on the left second to the last table in the impossibly square room. I sat down and waited. I didn’t eat school food. I found it inedible.

I didn’t have to wait long for my friends to show up. All three of them walked in joking and shoving each other. They were a bunch of morons, but you couldn’t find more loyal friends. Jason was the smallest and the most picked on. He was the last to join our group. Courtesy of us saving his ass from a few boys twice his size. Frank was the largest. Built like a bulldozer. He was about six five with shoulders about the width of the most standard door frames. He was also the kindest. He didn’t like saying a bad word about his most hated enemies. William was average. Average in everything he did. An average six feet, an average build, average brown hair, average grades.

The came up to the table and Jason plopped down in his seat. He always sat with his back to the forever empty back table. Frank pulled his out and turned it so it faced the majority of the room. He always sat in the seat closest to the door. Will plopped down in his directly across from me. I always kept my back to the wall so I could see everyone. I liked to know everything that was going on. I suppose that’s why I was interested in the new girl. She presented a challenging mystery.

I looked up at the door just in time to see her walk in. Several people turned to look at her. Including my friends.

“Hey there’s the new girl. Any of you know anything about her?” Will asked. Jason was the first to answer.

“She’s in American history with me. She never said anything and the teacher didn’t introduce her.”

“I haven’t seen her yet. But everyone’s talking about her.” Frank said in his soft voice. Sometimes I wondered if he softened his voice intentionally so he wouldn’t seem quite as intimidating.

“She’s not in any of my classes, but Donna is. She sits in front of me in algebra. She was bitching at her friends. Apparently she had tried to talk to the girl, and she just looked at her like she had some kind of disgusting disease, then turned and walked away.”

Donna was the Barbie clone. Homecoming queen, head cheerleader, big boobs, fake blonde hair. The works. She slept with any guy she thought she had to to get her crown. She tried it with me once and got the preverbal smack down. Ever since she flirted with me every chance she got. To her I was the one she couldn’t have and it drove her crazy.

“Her name’s Rayne.” I said and they all turned to look at me with varying degrees of surprise. I never participated in their student gossip. I new that each of those people they loved to talk about had a past and a personality. Even if they all weren’t gems.

“How in the hell did you find out more than we did?” Will asked with a fair amount of indignity. I lifted a shoulder.

“She’s my physics partner.”

“Good maybe then she can help you pass the class.” I gave him my middle finger and they all laughed. Although I had had the same thought