The astronomy classroom was packed with people by the time I got there. Some of the people I recognized from my class. Others I’d never seen before. Hold on. Let me take that back. I had seen them. With my town’s population being a mere glitch above 1,000, I’d basically seen everyone who lived here. I just didn’t know most of their names.

I headed up to my table that I sat at during class.  Aislin was already there, wearing a pink fur trimmed coat. The same pink fur also trimmed her gloves and the top of her boots. She kind of reminded me of a big, pink bunny. I tried not to laugh.

I was really loosing it, wasn’t I?

She was texting on her phone, but glanced up as I sat down. “Hey Gemma.” She smiled.

The polite thing for me to do would be to smile back. Or at least asked her if she was feeling better since she’d been out sick for the last few days, but right now, polite was not in my vocabulary. So I muttered a grumpy, “Hey.” Then sank back in my chair and stared down at the table.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

I opened my mouth to say…well, who knew what would have come out considering the mood I was in. I didn’t get a chance to speak, though, because Alex showed up and that was that.

“What took you so long?” Aislin asked him, flipping her phone shut.

Alex’s eyes stayed glued on me as he lowered himself into the chair. “I found Gemma running around lost out in the parking lot and had to help her out.”

I scowled at him. “I wasn’t lost.”

A smile threatened at his lips. “Oh really.”

“Yes really,” I snapped, and closed my eyes, trying to pretend he wasn’t there and that the yellow-eyed creatures weren’t real. I tried to imagine that I hadn’t found Sophia and Alex discussing…whatever the heck it was they’d been discussing. That there was no list of dates tucked away in my pocket. I tried to pretend I was just a normal girl whose life made sense.

Problem was, I’d just seen the monster right outside. And that piece of paper with the list of dates on it was practically burning a hole in my pocket. Plus, the jolt of electricity shimmying up and down my back made me hyperaware that Alex was close by.

Still, I kept my eyes closed until I heard a loud clap. Then I sighed and opened my eyes back up.

Mr. Sterling was standing behind his podium. He wasn’t dressed in his normal teacher attire, instead sporting jeans, sneakers, and navy blue coat. A black baseball cap covered his bald head.

He quickly took role and handed out a packet of papers to each table. Then everyone filed outside to the bus.

I bounced up and down, freezing and nervous as I waited in line to get on. I didn’t see a single sign of anything yellow and glowing, except for the bus’s lights. I wasn’t going to let my guard down, though. I was going to be very careful and stay close to someone at all times.

A first for me, but hey, this was my life we were talking about here.

By the time I got on the bus, every single seat had someone in it. Great. Where was I supposed to sit?

The little orange lights on the ceiling spotlighted down on me, and I felt like such a loser, standing there searching for someone to sit by. I’d never talked to anyone besides Aislin and Alex. And Aislin was already sitting by some guy wearing a black beanie. My only other option was to sit by Alex because, of course, he was sitting alone.

As I deliberated whether or not sitting by him was an option, I walked by Kelsey Merritt. She was sharing a seat with Anna Miller and Sarah Monroe, all of them donning white coats and pink scarves like they were eight-year-old triplets or something.

Kelsey smirked up at me. “Lost?” she asked vindictively.

I should have known what was coming next, but I was too distracted with the whole where-should-I-sit dilemma, and didn’t notice when she stuck her leg out into the aisle right in front of me. I had very little time to react. I stumbled clumsily over her boot, but fortunately, for the sake of face planting it onto the ground right in front of everyone, I managed to brace myself on the back of a seat.

“You’re such a Loser.” She snickered.

The urge to slap the smirk right off of her face welled up in me like a bubbling volcano about to erupt.  I felt the prickle poke at the back of my neck like it was giving me the go head. At least that’s how I chose to take it. I lifted my hand, preparing to strike. But before I could swing it down, a set of warm fingers caught me by the arm. Electricity glittered my skin as Alex dragged me to his seat.

I glowered at him, but deep down—and I mean way deep down—I felt grateful. I mean, what would hitting her have solved? Nothing, except for me probably getting suspended from school.

Still, I felt the need to protest. “I didn’t need your help.” I jerked my arm away from him.

“Now we both know that’s not true.” He smiled arrogantly. “What were you planning on doing exactly? Hitting her?”

“No,” I lied.

He stared at me, unconvinced.

I folded my arms across my chest. “Well, so what if I was? She would have deserved it.”

He laughed and shook his head. “You and your temper.

“I don’t have a temper,” I argued, which yes, I know, was a lie. I did have a temper. A big one. And it seemed to be getting bigger by the minute. But I couldn’t help it. My emotions only got unleashed a couple of months ago. Of course they were going to be a little intense.

“I beg to differ,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.”

Then we just stared at each other. Through the sounds of people talking, I thought I could make out Aislin’s laugh.

“You know,” he said, leaning back in the seat, “we were getting along pretty well the other day. It seems like such a shame for us to start fighting again.”

I turned to face him. “The only way that’s not going to happen is if you tell me what the heck you were talking to Sophia about.”

“I can’t,” he said simply.

“Why not?”

“Because I just can’t.”

“That’s it? That’s your answer?”

He nodded. “It’s the only answer I can give you.”

I threw my hands in the air exasperatedly. “But you’ve told me absolutely nothing.”

He actually looked a little sad. “I know.”

The bus jerked forward and the lights went out. It got dark. Really, really dark.

And then, we were off.

I turned away from Alex, tried not to think about the fact that I was about to break the promise I’d made to myself to never go back to the mountains, and let the gentle buzz of sparks lull me into a semi-relaxing state until the bus was pulling into Star Grove, a small park that resided at the bottom of the foothills. It was surrounded by tons of trees, and I suddenly wished I’d gone home. After what had happened in the parking lot, I should have jumped in my car, drove back to my house, locked the doors, and never left the house again.

But instead, here I was, sitting in a bus that had taken me up to the forest. All because I'd let myself get distracted. If I hadn’t been so caught up with attempting to get the truth out of Alex, maybe I’d have thought things through better and jumped off the bus before it pulled away.

But I didn’t. And now I was stuck on a bus next to Alex. I wished he’d just tell me what was going on. I wished I could trust him. It would have been nice to have someone I could trust and be able to confide in about the yellow-eyed monsters. Yeah, it was a nice thought. But it was only wishful thinking. And whether wishes were made by blowing out birthday candles, or on a shooting star, they never came true.

In a large, plowed-out area, in the center of Star Grove, telescopes were scattered about. As soon as we stepped off the bus, Alex darted off to the closest one. But Aislin protested, insisting that if we went up front then we’d have a “better view.”  I’m not sure if I understood her logic, but I didn’t argue because the closer to the front we were meant the farther we were from the trees.