Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series (3 page)

As Darien glared angrily at him, Eddy,
standing beside Ian, turned sharply away from him and put a firm
hand on Ian’s shoulder. “I wanna switch you teams.”

Ian faked his best disappointed face, a
little surprised by his friend’s words. “
Really
? I’m with
William and Jimmy; it’s not much better than what you’ve got.”

Sparks leapt from Eddy’s eyes. “Yeah right!
You know I have it way worse than you.”

“But I thought you hated Jimmy?”

“Hate?” He emphasized the word. “No, I don’t
hate the fantasy freak; I just think he’s really weird.”

The words fell painfully on Darien’s ears.
Apparently, his life’s story had made little impact on Eddy.
Glistening with anger, he sighed deeply. “You just can’t get enough
of insulting people, can you, Eddy?”

Eddy bit his lip in annoyance, facing Darien
again. “Hey, he deserves to be teased. He spends hours every day
sword fighting and arching. What kind of normal kid does that,
huh?”

Ignoring him, Darien glanced at the clock in
the room and then at the professor who wore a disgruntled frown,
likely wondering when they were going to return to their assignment
that everyone else was already busily working on. A semi-troubled
look on his face, Darien muttered, “Hey, Eddy, I’ve gotta get to my
group now. Catch ya later,” before turning around rigidly and
heading over to his pretty teammates.

As soon as he’d sat down next to Hazel and
Tianna, who were discussing with enthusiasm what to do for their
project, Eddy turned towards Ian, a pitiful look on his face. “So,
you wanna help me out, man?”

Ian shrugged, smiling faintly. “Not
really.”

Eddy’s face contorted, as he gave up trying
to persuade Ian, likely knowing how stubborn he could be. “Fine,
but don’t go begging me for help when you need it.” Staring at him
crossly for several seconds, he dragged his feet towards Jasmine
and Alan, a grieved expression singed onto his face, a malevolent,
animalistic glint in his eyes.

Only bearing to watch Eddy for a few more
seconds, Ian quickly strutted over to his group.

After a rather awkward introduction, Ian
trying to make some small talk, the tense atmosphere almost
instantly lightened, and he found himself engrossed in conversation
with them, surprised by how normal and interesting they were: Jimmy
Ivans wasn’t half as peculiar as he’d judged him to be, and his
jokes actually made him laugh; and William Martel, not to be
outdone, had an extraordinary gift of analyzing people and copying
their accents, speech patterns, and body movements.

His impersonation of Dustin Edwards was
hilarious--made even funnier by the fact that he did it whenever
the professor’s back was turned.

The twenty minutes they spent together went
by too quickly; they did far more talking than actual work, yet
they somehow still managed to finish the Bohr model assignment
consisting of drawing the shape of the orbitals and writing how
many electrons were in each of the first four shells.

Upon completing it, Ian heard the professor’s
loud nasally voice take command of the classroom again.

“Well, that’s all for today. Hold onto those
projects--you’ll be finishing them on Wednesday.” The professor
glanced down at his notes, a jubilant expression on his face, and
then raised his voice above the noisy stampede of students picking
up their books, scooting out of their desks, and hurrying to leave
the classroom: “Tomorrow we’ll be discussing collision theory,
sub-orbitals, and valence electrons. See you all then.”

However, the students simply ignored him as
nobody cared to know what was coming for them the following day.
Who knows why he felt he had to inform them?

As Ian exited the classroom, nearly the last
one out except for Eddy who had begun cleanup duty, he headed over
towards his locker when he felt a hand alight on his shoulder--it
was Hazel’s.

Her mouth curved innocently. “Hey, Ian--so
you comin’ to my party tonight?”

A blush swept across his face; this was news
to him. “Sure. When does it start?” She could take her hand off
anytime now.

“Seven. You’d better be there.” Removing her
hand from his shoulder, her light blue eyes aglow with playfulness,
she twirled her blonde hair between her fingers, adding, “I’ll be
watching for you.”

His cheeks grew even redder. “Thanks,” he
murmured, not knowing what else to say, as he nervously tapped his
fingers against his blue jeans.

Hazel smiled tenderly. “See ya,” she said,
before turning around, skipping over to her friend Tianna, and
whispering something into her ear that made her friend laugh. Ian
didn’t catch it, nor did he care to, but from the look of it, they
were talking about him--and he’d barely said anything. Girls.

Backing away from them, trying to recollect
his thoughts, he stood confused and unsettled. Hazel was a mystery.
He’d liked her ever since last year when he’d gotten put into the
same group as her in speech class; but whenever he tried talking to
her then, she always seemed distracted and bored as if he were the
last person on earth she wanted to spend time with.

Yet that was not at all how she seemed now.
For once, she actually appeared excited to see him. Whatever had
made her become so friendly, he suspected that Darien was behind
it, as his friend had just been in her and Tianna’s group. Though
he didn’t know what his friend could’ve possibly said that had made
her actually interested in him, nothing else really seemed to fit
right now. He’d have to talk to Darien about it later.

Walking down the long hallway, away from
Hazel and her friend, Ian reached his locker and shoved his
chemistry book back into the crammed space, thoughts about Hazel
still swarming his mind. He didn’t know how he could handle this
new Hazel. Just thinking about their previous conversation made him
embarrassed. Try as he might, he just couldn’t shake it off.

As uneasiness gripped onto his heart, his
chemistry partners came up beside him.

“Hey, Ian,” said William, smiling, as Ian
shut his locker and turned to face him and his friend Jimmy. “Do
you have plans this evening?”

Shoving away his thoughts about Hazel’s
apparent interest in him until a more opportune time, Ian focused
intently on William’s words and frowned inwardly; not only did he
hate turning down people, but even more so, he felt bad bringing up
something that he knew his new friends weren’t invited to. “Yeah.
There’s a party at Hazel’s.”

“Hazel’s?” questioned Jimmy curiously, edging
his way into the conversation, a blush spreading across his face
upon just mentioning her name. It was a well-known fact that Jimmy
was petrified of females, at least ones that were young and
cute.

“Yeah,” Ian repeated. “She personally invited
me and I promised I’d come.” He paused and shuffled his feet on the
black and white tiled floor, adding hesitantly, “I can’t back down.
It’d make me look like a liar.”

“And it’d make you really unpopular,” said
William, smirking. “Turning down Hazel’s a death sentence; every
guy knows that.” Popping a lemon Warhead into his mouth, he
grimaced at the tart flavor, yet still managed to add, “How about
sometime else then, like tomorrow?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

As William’s face grew lighter and he was
just about to respond, suddenly, Shawn Evalise appeared from
seemingly out of nowhere and snaked towards them like an Australian
hunter. Dusty brown hair flopping on his forehead like bunny’s
ears, well-formed grin surfacing on his smooth face earning him the
title of class clown, and calm green eyes emerging like sleepy
frogs awakening, Shawn slapped Jimmy on the shoulder as he shouted:
“Hey, Romeo! Where’s your Juliet?”

Before Jimmy could think up an answer to this
bizarre question, Shawn had already left towards the vending
machine, smiling ecstatically, leaving Ian in shock. Although Shawn
always had a knack for making an entrance, and his disappearing act
could outclass a magician’s, this was something else. This was just
downright weird.

“What was that about?” asked Ian, stifling a
chuckle.

“Nothing,” said Jimmy evasively, unhappiness
blanketing his face, his eyes mere curtained windows. “It’s just
Shawn.”

As Ian tried in vain to interpret Shawn’s
words and Jimmy’s vague response to his own pointed question,
William’s teeth shattered the Warhead, as he replied somewhat
hesitantly, “Ok, great. See ya in English class.”

“You too,” replied Ian, as Jimmy, looking
like a ghost of himself, headed over to his next class like a
defeated warrior returning from battle. It seemed Jimmy couldn’t
even take a little joke from Shawn, one that was actually quite
funny.

Just shaking his head at Jimmy, Ian refocused
on Hazel’s party, as he strode over to the nearest water fountain
and quenched his thirst.

Though it was true that Hazel had invited him
to a party at her house before, that was to her old house, which
she and her parents had moved out of during the summer. Her new
house, three times as big, a real-life mansion from what he’d seen
while driving past it, had a state-of-the-art exercise room, a
tennis court, a bowling alley, a skateboard ramp, and plenty of
other things. He couldn’t wait to see it for...

“Hey, man,” mumbled Eddy, his somber frown
chilling Ian’s joyful spirit. “What’s on your mind?”

“Uh … not much.” He shifted the focus to his
friend. “Finish sweeping already?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t do a very good job.”
Sighing, Eddy sank his head towards the ground, a whole barrage of
unpleasant emotions taking their turns on him. Gloom was playing a
symphony on Eddy’s face and depression was the conductor.

After watching him for a while, uneasiness
growing inside him, Ian broke the silence, bewildered over his
friend’s downcast spirit, something that he rarely witnessed:
“What’s wrong, Eddy?”

“It’s about Skyler.” His shoulders sagged.
“Ever since the accident he hasn’t said one word to me.” Defeat
seething from his eyes, he continued hesitantly, “In chem class he
wouldn’t even look at me. I only caught his eye once, and that was
when he was gloating over the fact that his group partner, Jason,
was way cooler than either of mine.” He scowled. “And the sad thing
is, even with only one partner, I’d say he’s still come out on top
by a long shot.”

Ian let his words sink in, before replying,
“That’s horrible, Eddy.” Shaking his head, he frowned
sympathetically, pressing him for more information. “So, how’d he
break his ankle anyway?”

His quivering lips showed his inner turmoil.
He took a deep breath before beginning: “Well, we were both
skateboarding having a great time, when he told me he wanted to do
a kickflip off the largest ramp. Of course, I told him it was
foolish, but did he listen? No way; he wouldn’t be Skyler if he
did.” Shaking his head in agony, he shrugged stiffly, each movement
appearing to inflict him with the pain of a wasp sting, before
adding with distress, “When he flicked the board with his feet, it
got away from him and he landed on his right ankle.”

Vultures swooping through his conscience,
Eddy paused. “What am I gonna do, man? He hates me."

Ian stuffed his hands into his pockets
anxiously, as the coach’s venomous words suddenly replayed in his
mind, seeking to engulf him. With great effort, he tore them out of
his thoughts and refocused on Eddy. “Stop blaming yourself,” he
finally said, an edge of worry in his voice. “Skyler’s just mad he
can’t go to state, so he’s taking it out on you.”

Eddy devoured his words, taking his statement
a step further. “Mad wouldn’t even begin to describe it. He was a
wolverine.” A small smile crept onto his face. His frown melted
away. “But, yeah, you’re right. I should stop beating myself up.
It’s not my fault he got injured. I mean, I warned him, but he just
didn’t listen.” Reflecting over his own words, Eddy breathed out a
sigh. “I do feel kinda bad for him though.”

“So do I, but I’m sure he’ll get over
it.”

“Yeah.” As if Ian’s words were healing
ointment, Eddy soon reverted to his old self, a fine grin now
painted onto his face. “So are you ready for the party or what,
man?”

Ian heartily welcomed the new topic, a smile
crossing his face at his friend’s quick recovery. “Of course. It’s
gonna be awesome.”

Eddy drew forth a bottle of gel. “Yeah, I
hear ya. You can’t be prepared too soon.” He squeezed a blob of
white gel onto his short spiky brown hair and ruffled it up, more
for laughs than anything. A few classmates looked their way and
just shook their heads, amused.

“I guess not.” Ian chuckled. “So do you know
how many are invited?”

“Yeah. Darien told me she invited over
twenty-five people.” Pausing briefly, he shoved the small bottle of
hair gel back into his pocket and looked at Ian, his eyes
brightening, a smirk creeping onto his face. “And since the party’s
at her house, I imagine most will show up.”

“Who wouldn’t?” asked Ian rhetorically, as he
glanced at the clock on the wall, checking how much time he had
left until his next class. “Her house is amazing; it’s a
mansion.”

“Yeah.” He laughed, as he tucked his long,
dangly shoelaces into his sneakers so he wouldn’t accidentally trip
on them. “How rich do you have to be to afford that?”

“Pretty and rich.”

He laughed at Ian’s joke. “You got that
right.”

Still laughing, Eddy spotted Alan sprinting
closer to him. His laugh immediately changed from innocent
amusement to devilish mischief. Hypnotized, like a cat distracted
from his routine meal by a mouse, Eddy fixed his gaze on his
target.

As Alan approached, Eddy, with perfect
precision acquired from years of practice, suddenly stuck out his
leg and tripped him, shouting, “Watch where you’re goin’,
punk!”