Page 7 of Finding Her
“What’s your name?” I asked. Somehow, in all the commotion yesterday, neither of us had introduced ourselves, and I wasn’t going to let him know that I already knew his name even though he hadn’t given it to me. I didn’t want him to think I was some stalker. He still just stared at me and I smiled right back. If he wasn’t going to talk, I was happy to fill the silence.
“Well, my name is Poppy Wade,” I said. “You might know my sister, Ivy Wade. She doesn’t go to school here, but her boyfriend is this famous singer, so a lot of people know her. Not that you look like the kind of guy to be into boybands, but then again, I don’t judge people by their appearances. My old roommate, Saylor, she doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would be into boybands at all, but she’s obsessed with this other one, Minute to Midnight. Have you ever heard of it?”
He didn’t even blink. He just stared at me, with slightly narrowed eyes like he wasn’t sure what was going on. It was a common expression I saw when I started talking to people. Ivy told me I could come on a little strong, but I thought it was the best way to break the ice.
“Saylor’s a horseback rider,” I said. He clearly wasn’t interested in discussing music so I figured I’d try another topic. “Have you ever ridden a horse?”
He looked just as perplexed as before, but then he shook his head ever so slightly. Actually, calling it a shake of the head probably wasn’t accurate. He just kind of jerked his head to the left a little bit in a way that I think was supposed to be a no. Either that or he was trying to tell me to get lost, which would seem just as likely from him. But if he couldn’t be bothered to open his mouth and tell me to leave, then I wasn’t going to listen.
Honestly, even if he did tell me to leave, I wasn’t sure I’d listen anyway.
“Neither have I, but I want to learn,” I continued. “I didn’t know there was an equestrian club last year or I might have considered joining it. I think it could be pretty cool, don’t you? I mean, except that I’m a little scared of falling and breaking a bone, but at least that would get me out of gym, right? Anyway, I?—”
“Okay, everyone,” Mrs. Dixon called to all of our attention.
The boy’s face remained mostly emotionless, but I was pretty sure I saw a glimpse of relief in his face. I smirked and decided right then that I wasn’t going to let him get away without saying a word to me this whole gym period. The two of us had to stick together as the only non-freshmen in the class, after all, even if we did get off to a bad start yesterday.
“Today, we’re going to be doing some pair exercises, so find a partner,” Mrs. Dixon said.
Immediately, the light bulb went off in my brain. I spun to him and said, “Partner?”
And for the first time, I saw emotion on the boy’s face: absolute dread.
CHAPTER 7
bear
No.No, no, no, no, no.
I refused to be partnered up with the sunshine girl. It was bad enough that she had come skipping over to talk to me before class even started, but now she wanted to stick by my side for the whole period?
No.
But… Was there any ideal partner in this class? Poppy was going on about something else now, but I tuned her out and looked around the room. Most of the pairs of girls around the room were whispering and giggling with each other—a fair number of them looking atme—but maybe there was one who wasn’t partnered up yet. Some freshman girl who would be scared of me.
Not that I made it my mission to scare young girls or anything.
“Now, everyone, introduce yourself to your partner,” Mrs. Dixon said, as if everyone wasn’t already talking. But when I spared at a glance at Poppy, she raised her eyebrows, clearly telling me that I was supposed to be talking to her right now. But she didn’t look angry, just expectant, as her brown eyes shone at me.
“Bear,” I said, then turned away again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her bewildered expression. Then the next thing I knew, she was ducking around my arm so she could come to stand in front of me. She was a persistent one, wasn’t she?
“What’s a bear?” She asked. I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. This year was already off to a bad enough start, I wasn’t going to make it worse by getting detention for yelling at some poor, defenceless girl in gym class.
“It’s myname,” I said, as calmly as I could manage. When I opened my eyes again, her face was all scrunched up in confusion.
“What kind of name is Bear?” She asked.
“It’s short for Barrett.”
And for some reason, that made her look absolutely bewildered. “So your name is Barrett, then?”
Why was she so obsessed with knowing my name? All she needed to know was that I went by Bear, did she really need my full legal name on top of that?
“No,” I said tersely. I didn’t want her going around calling me Barrett, so I had to give her some answers. “It’s Levi.”
Her face scrunched up even more, her glossy lips twisting into a frown. “Then where did Bear come from?”
I prayed for strength. “My name is Levi Barrett, known as Bear. It’s based on my last name.”
