"Can anyone tell me what the metaphysical aspect of a quartz crystal is?" Miss Raine asks and opened up a small notebook and wrote something in it.

Carmen is the only one that raises her hand. "Crystals amplify the mind, body and spirit. They will absorb energy from the earth, moon and sun. I know when my grandma's arthritis is acting up, she says her crystals help the pain. Before anyone gets the gumption to say she is a witch, I'd highly suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself."

At the end of cla.s.s, we each have a quartz crystal and an amethyst cl.u.s.ter, which is said to help calm the spirit. Miss Raine said that it helps with attention deficit disorder, and if we keep one in our pocket it will help us focus. The bell rang, I barely made it to the door and Caleb is standing there waiting for me. He hands me a folded up piece of paper, and he tells me not to open it until I'm alone.

Rob and Caitlyn are already at our pod when I sit down. Rob is holding up a h.e.l.lo Kitty mirror and checking his teeth, and Caitlyn is doodling as usual.

"So, tell me. Are you and Caleb in love? Please tell me you are," Rob asks dramatically.

I pull out a spiral notebook and slip my note inside so I can read it when things settle down in cla.s.s. Rob is leaning across his desk waiting for me to answer his question. "You don't beat around the bush do you?"

"No, so tell me...are you?"

One beat, two beats, three beats...breathe in, breathe out. "I think so." I say, but inwardly I wish he'd leave me alone.

"He has perfect lips, I bet he kisses wonderfully." He looks at me for a moment, before his attention is taken to the front of the cla.s.s.

Mrs. Jones starts tapping her foot in annoyance. "As you can see on the work table, I have 32 copies of The Innocent Man. I want everyone to come up and take one. Silently, I want you to read the first three chapters. When you have finished, I want you to return the book and then I want you to write down how you feel about the story. Two pages, single s.p.a.ced. When you're done, come up and get the book and continue reading."

Someone asks why we can't keep the book; instead of returning it and going back to get it again.

"This is an exercise on how well you remember the characters, the plot, and the way you felt as you read it. I don't want anyone to thumb through the book to remember, I want you to work from your gut. Our life is filled with people telling us stories; it will be up to us, what we remember, how we felt, and if it's truth or fiction." Looking around the room, she smiles. "Has anyone in here read anything by Mr John Grisham before?"

He's one of my favorite authors, and I've read all of his books, including this one. I don't raise my hand, in my attempt at blending in. No one admits to reading his books.

Rob wouldn't shut up so I never had a chance to take a look at my note.

Chapter 12. Jealousy is Ugly.

For once, I'm in the hallway waiting on Caleb. I stood outside of his cla.s.sroom and can barely see him, but I finally do. He is there, and a girl with bright green barrettes and curly red hair is talking to him. She keeps touching his arm and throwing her head back in laughter as if he's the funniest person on earth. My teeth clench and my blood feels like it's on fire. I've never experienced anything like this...jealousy. I'm seriously jealous of some girl because she is paying attention to my boyfriend. Get a grip, I tell myself.

Caleb looks up and sees I'm standing in the hallway. She follows his gaze and gives me a fake smile. They say a quick goodbye and he comes over to walk with me to the cafeteria. "Hey beautiful, how was cla.s.s?"

I try to pretend it didn't bother me, but it did. I hated her hand on him, and I hated the way she laughed. I hated that he didn't tell her to stop touching him. I hate the way I feel.

"What was all of that about?" My eyes meet his, and he knows I'm jealous.

"That was nothing, trust me, you ready for lunch," he asks.

"Why was she touching you? It isn't like she can't keep her hands to herself." I feel the New Yorker in me rearing its ugly head. "Why didn't you stop her?"

"Jessie, you're being stupid."

I refuse to take his hand as we walked towards the cafeteria. "Stupid? You think I'm being stupid? You can't answer a simple question, and you're calling me stupid. You can eat lunch alone." I storm off to get in line.

"Women!" I hear Caleb say loud enough for me to hear him.

Amber runs over and grabs a tray, getting in line behind me. "Where's Caleb?"

"I don't know, and right now, I don't care." I grab a slice of lemon cream pie and a sweet tea as I slide my tray to the register.

"You're going to have some type of sugar induced coma if you eat all of that. Suicide by lemon pie is a sticky way to go." She grabs a chocolate brownie and some chocolate milk. "Mine has milk, that's healthy. Why are you mad at Mr Charming?"

"I don't know. Some girl kept touching him, and he didn't try to brush her off or anything. My mom would say I have the green eye monster in me."

We walk to the table we've sat at all week. Thorne is sitting there with a bag from a fast food restaurant and eating fries.

"h.e.l.lo ladies," Thorne says.

Amber practically throws her food on the table and nonchalantly scooted her chair closer to him. "Hey...Miss Perfect is fuming over a fight with Caleb."

"I'm not fuming, I'm just a little p.i.s.sed off."

"Sorry, she isn't fuming...p.i.s.sed off is a totally different category." Amber shoves a ma.s.sive bite of brownie in her mouth.

"This girl had her paws all over him, and he didn't do anything about it. I know that sounds dumb, but there was something about the way she looked at him."

"Yeah, that is dumb. Was he pawing back? Did he act like he has something to hide? Or did you forget to wear your big girl panties today?" Thorne asks. Amber practically shot chocolate milk out of her nose as she choked on what he said.

"Whatever." I know they're right. We've never had a fight before, what if he breaks up with me? What if he decides it would be better being with another girl and just being friends with me?

"Where's the tramp at? Do you know who it was?" Amber asks as she looks around the room.

"I don't know her name. I've never seen her before. Her hair is red and curly, she has green barrettes holding it back. Before you ask, yes she's pretty. Not as much pretty as she is cute. She'd probably look better without her braces.

Amber clamps her hand to her mouth and moans out an "ohhhhhh."

"Do you know who it is? What does ohhhhhh mean?"

Thorne shrugs his shoulders. "I'm new here; I don't know any of the girls other than you two."

"It sounds like Meredith, you better hope not. She's a hoe like no hoe you know."

"What do you mean hoe?"

"Don't tell me you didn't have hoes in your old school. She likes s.e.x, she tells everyone who will listen, about her desire to sleep with every guy in our cla.s.s. Guys love her, why wouldn't they..."

I stop her before she had a chance to finish the sentence. "I'm not worried about that, Caleb wouldn't go mess around with anyone."

Thorne laughs out loud. "He's not a saint. Any guy that has it flung in his face non-stop is bound to give in eventually."

"Caleb isn't like that, he's a good guy."

"Caleb might be a good guy, but he's not blind. I'm just sayin' you shouldn't push him away. You might be pushing him into the wrong hands." Thorne said skeptically. "I'd find out more about this girl and figure out what her motive is. If her quest is the entire cla.s.s, he might just be a notch in her bedpost."

"Ewwww, that's horrible Thorne."

"Are you listening to me? He isn't that way," I said.

Thorne set his cup of tea down on the table and leaned back in his chair. "I didn't think he woud, I was trying to make you think about what kind of guy he is. Give him a break. As a matter of fact, here's your chance."

Caleb approaches the table, and I see the hurt on his face. "I'm sorry, that was dumb of me." I say trying my best not to show how pathetic I feel.

He pulls me in and kisses my forehead. "Are you okay? You seemed really on edge earlier."

I let out the breath I'd been holding. "I'm fine. I feel terrible you didn't sit with us for lunch."

"It wasn't that bad. I had a chance to sit with Brad and Michael, they're twins and don't have many friends here at the school."

Amber shoots me a thumbs up.

"I need to turn in my permission slip. Can we go see the weight lifting coach?"

Caleb shakes his head yes, and we turn to leave when we hear Thorne.

"Hey, slow up, I need to turn in my slip too."

"He's taking weight lifting?" Caleb whispers to me, I whisper yes back to him.

A chair squeals across the floor behind us. "Oh for cripes sake, I guess I'm going to take weight lifting too. I feel so d.a.m.ned left out. If I get hurt, it's all on you!"

Caleb and I laugh as Amber joins us in the hallway.

"Some kids had asked me when we'll be getting together again to practice what we did at my house. I was thinking tomorrow night would be good. I sent a text to my dad, and he said it was OK with him. He's going to text your grandma and have her to come over and help. We can go see a late movie when everyone leaves."

"I think that would be perfect."

"What's going on? Are you having a party or something?" Thorne smiles and smoothes chapstick on his lips.

I avoid his gaze, knowing that if I don't, I'll blush and give away our secret. I can not imagine Amber liking Alaska.

Caleb gave him a short overview of what happened at his house two weeks ago. We all agreed that it would be beneficial to have a refresher, and now that we know more Tamers, we can have more people show up.

"Let's give the lovebirds a few minutes alone, they're practically conjoined twins." Amber waved as she happily walked away with Thorne.

The coach for the Weight Lifting cla.s.s wasn't there, but we all left our permission slips in the clear box on the door.

"C'mere," Caleb pushed on the door, and it opened to the weight room. He pulled on my hand and I followed him into the locker room. The smell of sweat and the sound of water trickling from the showers gave it the Stephen King bogeyman feel. Across the room was another door. "I want to show you something." I giggled as we ran through the room; my reaction is to laugh when I'm scared. The door opened easily, the smell of chlorine practically knocked me off my feet.

"Wow, a pool? I didn't know we had a swim team."

"I don't think we do, that's what's strange. They use the pool for scuba diving lessons and survival skills. Look how deep it is. I've never seen a pool that deep before. There isn't a shallow end either."

We stopped for a second, and he turned me to face him. "Jess, why were you so mad?"

Because some crazed hoe was trying to make moves on my man. "I don't know, instinct I guess." Because she's pretty and has that cute bouncy red hair. Ugh!

He drapes his arms over my shoulders and puts his forehead to mine. "You're all that matters to me, you're the most significant reason for my life. This is for real, not something I'd screw things up to be with the school hoe."

I laugh nervously. "So you know she's a hoe?"

"I know, but not first hand or anything." He pulls me into a hug. "Jess, when I said I love you...I meant it."

Before I can respond, his lips are on mine. Chlorine wafted all around us, but we were somewhere else. We were in our reality. His tongue, silky smooth in my mouth. My heart is beating faster than a marathon runner. His hands, strong and gentle, stroking my lower back. A moan escapes my throat, I pull back and look into his eyes, and I see my reflection. He leans in and kisses my neck, and I melt into him. The memory exchange from him to me...was him seeing me in my school uniform. He'd felt happy and proud that I'm his girlfriend. He has access to most of my memories, we don't know why I only receive his memories when we kiss. Sometimes it would be of him and his mom and sometimes it was things like picking out underwear to wear for the day. I've never shared that bit of trivia with him.

"Eh, hem. Students aren't allowed in here without a teacher. The way you two are pawing at each other, I'm making a logical guess you're unsupervised. You should be ashamed of yourselves, practically making a baby at school. That's what's wrong with kids today, they think it won't happen to them. Before you know it, you'll be a statistic and be an unwed mother. You need to think with your brains."

"Thank you for the pep talk, we'll leave. Sorry to disturb your work day. Just for your information, I know two teenaged moms, and they are devoted parents and exceptional students. Just because some people make the wrong decision doesn't mean they've ruined their life. I'd never make that decision, but you're acting as if they're serial killers, and they're not." I tug on Caleb's hand. "Let's go, we'll be late."

We run to the locker room, the guy is yelling behind us that we're going to slip and fall. "That must be the maintenance man that everyone was talking about last year. His wife went off the deep end and stabbed the neighbor in the front yard. She is in the loony bin, and he takes his frustrations out on the students."

"As long as he doesn't know who we are and doesn't report us, he can be grumpy."

Chapter 13. Grandma.

"Jessie! Come on, we're going to the Wal Marts for refreshments for your friends."

Grandma is standing in the living room with her Seven jeans, red stilettos, and red v-neck t-shirt, not a man on this planet would call her grandma. She may not resemble a grandma, and she might even be s.e.xy, but she is all grandma on the inside.

"Stilettos for Wal Mart? Are you trolling for a husband?" I snag my purse, and we head out to her BMW. She bought a SUV last month, but she said it makes her feel old. The bad thing about taking her car is the size. We can only pack a few bags in the trunk of her two-seater.

"Do you honestly believe I'd run off with someone I met in a discount store?" We both broke out in laughter.

"Not really. Have you ever thought of Mr Gabe? He's pretty good looking, for a dad."

"Really? I haven't noticed...okay, so what if I did? I don't think he'd want to go out with an old fool like me."

"You're not old, and he isn't a kid. He's in his late forties, and you're in your mid fifties. It takes a ten year span to call you a cougar."

"You're sweet. He's still mourning the loss of his wife. I remember what I was like when your grandpa died. It took me years before I could even talk about him."

I lean over and change the station. "I get it. I wouldn't rule him out though. You two have a lot of fun when you're together. Both of you know what it's like to lose someone you love so much."