Chapter 38

Mr. Mansfield acts as though I don’t exist for the next half hour. I pull out my calculus book and start reading. I’m seven months late for this class, so I need to catch up. I plow through the first two hundred pages while he writes figures on the board, including both numbers and letters, and asks questions about them. Kids raise their hands and answer, or sometimes no one does and Mr. Mansfield calls on someone.

I look at the clock and offer up a silent prayer that class is almost over. Thirty-five minutes of calculus is enough to last me for a long time. I only have a week to make my decision, and studying calculus isn’t exactly how I thought I’d spend it.

“Psst, new girl,” Noah hisses. He points at the chalkboard.

“Excuse me?”

Mr. Mansfield clears his throat. “I beg your pardon Rebecca, but I called your name twice and you didn’t answer.”

Of course I didn’t, because I don’t think of myself as Rebecca. “I apologize, Mr. Mansfield. It’s been a busy few days.”

“No problem. Do you know the answer to my question?”

At my blank look, he elaborates. “What’s the derivative?”

“I’m sorry, but I—”

“I’m not trying to put you on the spot on your first day, but I am supposed to assess your knowledge level to make sure you’re in the right place.” He points at the board. “Do you know the derivative?”

“Uhh,” I glance at the figure and then back down to my book. Nope. I have no idea. “I guess not.”

“That’s okay. We have a test in here tomorrow. Depending on how you do, I’ll make a recommendation to Mrs. Nelson about your placement.” Mr. Mansfield glances to my right. “How about you, Mr. Wen?”

Noah nods. “Sure.” He glances my way. “The derivative of a curve at a point is in the slope of the line tangent to that curve at that point. Therefore, the slope is determined by considering the limiting value of the slopes of secant lines.”

“I didn’t ask that,” Mr. Mansfield says. “I asked what the slope is on this problem.” He taps the blackboard.

Noah winks at me. He was helping me figure out what was going on. “The tangent line that passes through your function has a slope of twenty-three over four.”

“That’s correct, Mr. Wen. Nice work. You run your mouth too much, but at least what eventually pours out is typically correct.” Mr. Mansfield looks at the clock. “Alright, class dismissed for the day. Homework for chapter nine is due tomorrow. And don’t forget to show your work—that’s the point in here, after all. Remember that on tomorrow’s exam.”

I stand up and head for the door. When I pass Mr. Mansfield’s desk, I can barely make out his whisper. “Welcome, Your Majesty.”

I whip my head back around, but Mr. Mansfield is looking over papers as though he never said a word. Frederick’s standing guard conspicuously just outside the door. I start toward him, but Noah grabs my arm before I make it two steps. One of the guards, Titus, strides my way, looking ready to eviscerate Noah, presumably for touching me without my permission. I shake my head and he pulls up short.

I yank my arm back from Noah before any of the other guards chop off his hand. I try to ignore the hurt look in his eyes.

“Thanks for your help in there,” I say to soften the blow of reacting to his touch like he’s carrying the plague.

“Mr. Mansfield’s actually a great teacher,” Noah says. “He really is probably just trying to figure out where you should be. The tenure board is giving him a hard time because he didn’t go Ivy League for his graduate degree, so he’s a little cranky with anyone he perceives as entitled. Which is pretty much all of us.”

“Well, I appreciate your help. Calculus isn’t exactly my strength.”

“What is?” he asks.

“I’m not sure if I have one,” I say.

Noah snorts. “I doubt that very much. Where are you headed next?”

I glance down at the paper Mrs. Nelson gave me. “I have physical education next, and I hear the gym is quite a hike from here.”

“Oh, I have PE next, too,” Noah says. “We can walk down together.”

“Great,” I say, “thanks.”

“Should be a fun day. I hear we have a new PE coach today.” Noah lifts his eyebrows. “The last one was caught with one of the students.”

“Caught doing what?” I ask. “Was it bad?”

Noah laughs. “You’re cute.”

The half-evian male from class catches up to us. He’s a little taller than Noah, with shaggy blond hair.

“This is Logan,” Noah says. “He tries too hard, but he’s actually a pretty good guy.”

“Nice to meet you,” Logan says. He holds out his hand, but instead of shaking mine when I put mine in his, he lifts it to his lips and kisses my fingers. “Welcome to Trinity.”

I yank my hand away and roll my eyes. “Thanks.” I wonder if he knows who he is, and by extension, who I am.

We exit the main campus and walk with a half dozen other students behind the school. I notice one of the guards headed our way and glare at him until he stops.

“So what do you like to do in your free time?” Logan asks.

“Oh heck no,” Noah says. “First, don’t pain us with your attempts at flirting. And second, I already called dibs.”

“You can’t call dibs on a person,” Logan says. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Standard shotgun rules still apply among friends.” Noah smiles, but I notice several guards are now following us, and I’m not sure where they came from.

Under my breath, I whisper to the guards, “Back off. You’re starting to stand out.”

“Did you say something?” Logan asks.

“Oh no, just talking to myself.” I blush, and I’m not faking. I shouldn’t have spoken quite so loudly. I know Logan’s half-evian, so I need to be more careful. “But maybe a little less talk about weapons, with all the new guards around.” I listen for Noah’s heartbeat as he walks along, but it’s normal. Much faster than an evian beat, and less steady. He might have some evian blood somewhere along his line, but not near as much as Logan. His hair’s too straight and his heart’s too weak.

“Weapons?” Logan asks. He looks confused.

“I said shotgun rules apply,” Noah says. “That’s what you say when you want the front seat and someone else is driving. You don’t say that in Hawaii? You can call shotgun as soon as you see the car.”

I raise one eyebrow. “So I’m the car in this scenario?”

Noah opens his mouth to respond, but then closes it with a click. Smart kid. We stop in front of heavy, solid wood doors set in a tall building with a stone façade.

“So is this it?” I gesture at the entrance.

Noah pushes the doors open with an exhalation of air. “Yeah, but you’re on your own getting to the track.”

I follow him through the doorway into a wide hallway that opens up to the left and right.

“You’ll head right,” Noah says.

“Why?” I ask.

“Uh.” Logan clears his throat. “That’s the girl’s side. We change clothes for PE here, unless you were planning on going for a jog in those boots.”

I glance down at my feet and shake my head.

“Good call.” Noah points left. “Logan and I go this way to the boys’ locker room and we’ll meet you in the gym.” He gestures toward the wall.

I head for the girls locker room alone, missing Lark, and Ni’ihau, and my mom. Noah turns back and waves at me before I duck inside. If he were evian, I’d be worried he heard my heart do a tiny cartwheel.