Wind Warrior (7 page)

The chapter was predictably dry reading and
he found himself re-reading the same paragraph two to three times
before he fully absorbed the material. Glancing up at the clock,
Xander saw the glaring green of the digital numbers reading just
after midnight. Sighing, he turned the first textbook back to the
first chapter and pulled out his homework questions.

“
What is the longest
railroad in the world, connecting Moscow to Pyongyang?”

He flipped forward a few pages to confirm
his answer. As he ran his finger down the page, his eyes fell on
the Trans-Siberian Railway. Grabbing his pencil, he copied down the
answer. For a moment, Xander’s eyes fell back to the textbook
before he looked back to his homework and prepared to answer the
second question. He immediately noticed something wrong with the
answer he had copied down.

Xander picked up the paper so that he could
see it more clearly through his weary eyes. Despite his mind
screaming that the answer should have read “Trans-Siberian”, his
eyes told him the truth.

“
Trans-Sammy Railway?”
Xander read, dumbfounded.

He flipped his pencil around angrily—glad he
chose to answer the questions in pencil rather than pen. He erased
the answer and wrote down the correct one.

Xander’s eyes fell on one
of the homework assignments he had already completed and he let out
a loud groan. The top answer started with “Sammy-economic evolution
during the early 20
^th
century…”

Panicked, he pulled up another random
sampling of his homework. Her name appeared in nearly every answer
he had completed.

“
General Sammy Jackson led
the Confederate…”

“…
which was later renamed
Thailand from the previous Sammy…”

“…
the article was clearly
written with a Conservative Sammy…”

Xander dropped the stack of papers back onto
the coffee table and rubbed his cheeks. The sensation against his
growing beard was the only thing that confirmed he wasn’t
experiencing some horrible nightmare.

“
I just met her two days
ago,” he moaned. “Now I can’t stop thinking about her. What is
going on?”

Xander dreaded every step he climbed toward
the lecture hall. He wasn’t necessarily passive-aggressive but he
didn’t like confrontation if it was avoidable. Unfortunately, he
knew he couldn’t avoid it when it came to Jessica. It was one of
her personality flaws that had always kept her in the
“pseudo-girlfriend” category, rather than him committing fully to
their relationship.

He opened the back door to the room and saw
Jessica’s sorority sisters seated close together near the front of
the room but he didn’t see Jessica. Turning at the back row, his
heart dropped quickly in his chest. There sat Jessica directly
beside Sammy. Though they looked deep in conversation, Xander could
easily read Sammy’s pained expression.

“
Hi ladies,” he said
disarmingly. He managed to keep a calmer exterior despite his
jittery nerves.

“
Hi sweetheart,” Jessica
said. Xander immediately felt like he was walking into a trap.
“Pull up a seat and join us. I was just getting to know the new
girl.”

With Jessica’s attention firmly on Xander
and her back to Sammy, Sammy held up a piece of paper with the
words SAVE ME printed in big letters across the page. Xander
stifled a smile at the pleading sight.

His mirth disappeared when he looked at
Jessica. He didn’t see the flirtatious girl he’d known since
freshman year. All he saw in her eyes was the overbearing sorority
girl who was used to getting her way. The sight of that blatant
arrogance made Xander irritated.

“
What are you doing,
Jessica?”

“
I’m not doing anything.
The new girl and I were just discussing what you and she talked
about all during class on Friday.”

Xander felt the hairs rise on the back of
his neck. “First of all, her name is Sammy. You can at least fake
civility and actually call her by her name. And second of all, it’s
none of your business what we talked about.”

“
I’m sorry,” Jessica said
as she stood from her chair. “I didn’t mean to offend your
girlfriend.”

“
She’s not my girlfriend.
She’s a friend who happens to be a girl. But you know what? Right
now, you are sure not acting like my friend and I’m not entirely
sure I want you as a girlfriend.”

Jessica’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Are
you breaking up with me?”

“
I can’t break up with you,
Jessica. We’ve never officially went out. You sit in the back of
the room with me and flirt all day and then ask for my notes
because you can’t be bothered to take any. As for the other part,
about you being a friend who’s a girl, yeah, I guess I’m ending
that too.”

“
What’s gotten into you?”
Jessica asked, genuine hurt reflected in her surprised expression.
“This isn’t you.”

“
Maybe it’s just time
someone told you the truth.”

Xander mentally recoiled as Jessica flinched
from his verbal barrage. While he couldn’t condone the way she was
talking to Sammy, she was right about his attitude. He normally
avoided confrontation like this but the sight of Sammy being
harassed by Jessica made him want to be the knight in shining armor
that rode to Sammy’s defense.

“
Fine,” Jessica sneered,
her eyes glistening with tears. “Then maybe you can take her to the
spring formal instead!”

Jessica shoved her way past him. Instead of
turning toward her sorority sisters in the front of the room—all of
whom were turned around and watching the scene unfold—she slammed
open the back door and left the lecture hall.

Xander sighed in frustration and collapsed
into the seat Jessica vacated, directly beside Sammy.

“
She seems nice,” Sammy
said softly.

Despite his mood, Xander found himself
smiling. “Yeah, she’s swell.”

They sat in silence while the room fell back
into its normal rhythm. Slowly, all the other students turned
around and returned to normal conversations before the professor
arrived.

“
Thanks,” Sammy said
finally.

“
For what?”

“
For standing up for me.
Don’t get me wrong—I can handle myself just fine. It’s just… it’s
just nice to have someone stand up for you. You really are a nice
guy.”

“
It’s all a façade,” Xander
joked, his humor hiding the concern he felt for the way he talked
to Jessica. She may be self-centered but she didn’t deserve his
condescension. “I’m just a normal college guy who’s trying to get
into your pants.”

Sammy elbowed him playfully.

“
I’m sorry,” Xander said.
“You didn’t deserve to be pulled into the middle of our
problems.”

“
Is there still an ‘our’
with you two?”

Xander looked over his shoulder to the
closed door. “No, I guess there really isn’t. I’m not entirely sure
there ever was.”

“
You shouldn’t have broken
up with her for me.”

“
What makes you think that
was all for you?”

Sammy arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.
“Of course it was. All I’m saying is that you just met me. You
don’t even know me yet, not really.”

“
Are you an axe
murderer?”

Sammy stared intently into his eyes. He
could see the mischievous sparkle glistening. “I don’t use an
axe.”

“
Then so far so good. I
guess the only solution left is to get to know you better.” He had
to steel himself before asking the question he’d wanted to ask
since meeting her last week. “Maybe you’d like to go to dinner
sometime?”

“
I was thinking of
something a little different. I was thinking that Jessica was right
and you should ask me to the spring formal,” she
offered.

She quickly looked away, slightly
embarrassed. Xander found the mix of brash confidence and coy
modesty even more intoxicating.

“
I’d love to take you to
the formal.”

Her smiled broadened in relief. “Then it’s a
date.”

Xander returned her smile as his mind began
to race. He didn’t pay attention to a single thing the professor
said during the lecture that day.

The White Halls Convention Center sounded
far more remarkable than it truly was. The building, much like the
rest of the town in which it resided, was anticlimactic when seen
up close. Standing outside the glassed entryway, Xander thought it
looked far more like a high school gymnasium. In a town like White
Halls, however, there weren’t a lot of better options when hosting
an event as large as the spring formal.

The event was themed—Alice in Wonderland, as
Xander noted from the myriad of posters and banners hung around the
building—but he wasn’t dressed for a part. He had rented a dark
grey suit and tie, though the tie had been intentionally left
behind in his car.

Other students filtered past him while he
waited for Sammy. They wore assortments of bunny ears and stovepipe
hats with hand-drawn playing cards stuffed into ribbon bands around
their brims. A few girls arrived in the traditional blue dress with
white apron, though the sheer number of homegrown Alices made the
outfit far from special. There was one remarkable Queen of Hearts
that entered but she was really only remarkable because the outfit
left little to the imagination. Some strategically placed hearts on
the Queen of Hearts were the only solid pieces of fabric on the
whole ensemble.

Xander waved to a few friends he recognized
as they entered. Some of the men had dressed up as well but most
were variations of the Mad Hatter.

He admired the costumes as an excuse to keep
his mind busy and stop waiting impatiently for Sammy to arrive.
Since their class together on Monday, he had thought of little else
but her. Sean had even remarked at his lack of focus when
experimenting with his new powers.

Xander reached up and scratched his stubbly
chin. Not two weeks before, he had discovered the ability to
control the wind. Yet even that seemed to pale in light of his
infatuation for Sammy. Xander wasn’t a stupid man. He could see
that something was wrong. He had never been the type to grow
infatuated with anyone. Even his attraction to Jessica had always
been tempered with logic and common sense. Common sense had been
the first thing to go when he met Sammy.

His attraction to her, he hated to admit,
bordered on something supernatural.

Before he could follow that train of thought
any further, his eyes saw a flicker of luscious blonde hair. Sammy
wore a dress of layered lace that fell just above her knees. The
upper part of her dress hugged her body like a corset before
billowing again at the sleeves. Her milky skin flowed from the
dress as she moved. Xander couldn’t take his eyes off her.

As soon as she saw him, a smile broke across
her face. She hurried up to him, slipping past the other couples
that slowly moved inside the convention center. Stopping just
short, she placed her hands behind her back and smiled sheepishly
up at him.

“
Do you like my
dress?”

Xander’s mouth moved but he couldn’t find
the words. “You look amazing,” he finally stammered.

Sammy blushed. “I wanted to go with a more
contemporary Alice, something a little different from the blue and
white.”

“
Mission accomplished,” he
said. “You look ready to dive down a rabbit hole.”

“
Maybe we can just start
with a drink and dancing.”