Lost in the morning flux of students, Len had tried one last time to see where Erik had went, but she could not find him. She let out a sigh, gripping onto her messenger bag's strap, and eased her breathing a little more once the teen traffic had slowed in the halls.

   The bell for homeroom rang out loudly and she headed over to room 424. She stuffed her class schedule back into the front zippered compartment of her bag. Just as she had brought her bag back to her side and readjusted her sheer green top, she spotted Erik out of the corner of her eye. He was walking over to room 424 as well.

Her silenced heart began beating anew, flouncing and overtaken with anticipation. She took a deep, cleansing breath and entered her homeroom.

   Erik had taken a seat in the far right back corner of the room next to the large windows facing the school's lawn. As more students walked into the room, Lenore knew she had to choose where she wanted to sit and fast.

   She removed a strand of her short hair that had gotten stuck in her purple lip gloss and straightened her back. Looking out the windows as she passed students that had already settled, she stepped up to the seat in front of Erik's and sat down.

   Len regretted her choice right away. She wanted to look at Erik but now doing so would be impossible without him knowing what she was trying to look at. She squeezed her eyes shut in annoyance and set her bag down onto the floor underneath her chair.

   "Psssssst."

   She almost jumped in her seat at the sound of his voice. Quickly gathering up the pieces of her hyperactive heart, she coolly turned to face him.

   "Hi."

   "So few words, Lenore," Erik gave a small grin and with one swift movement put his long golden strands that fell on his face behind his ears. Len courageously looked him in the eyes, and lingered there for longer than a few seconds.

His eyes mirrored the bright blue of the clear summer sky outside. She broke her gaze, with hesitation, and then looked out the window.

   "I wish I was back at home right now," she said.

   "I wish I was outside."

   "Alright, everyone! Good morning," a teacher addressed the now packed homeroom. She had to speak over the giggles, squeals and teasing remarks in the air.

"Please lower your voices! My name is Mrs. Henley. Morning announcements will begin soon." With that she slumped down into her chair at the front of the room and blew into her Tervis before taking a sip of her hot black coffee. She turned on the television set that was mounted on the wall behind her, adjusted the volume, and tightened her cardigan over her thin frame.

   The talking heads of a senior boy and a junior girl soon shone on the television, but only about half of the students were actually watching the announcements. The other half were in whispered conversations or checking their phones.

   Lenore had a cell phone but she generally kept it off. Her Uncle Andy had not even gotten a cell phone until after her parents had passed away so that he would know straight away of any emergency involving the children. His disinterest in smart phones and tablets and the like rubbed off on her.

   Lenny did have a laptop, though. She cherished it. It made doing her homework and expressing her thoughts much easier. Also, she could make journal entries and have them password protected. Uncle Andy insisted she kept her webcam covered with electrical tape, though. He did not like the thought of anyone sneakily peering into his young niece's private life. He also made Juliette do the same. Jude had never wanted a computer or a laptop. His iPhone was his electronic mistress.

   "Why do you want to be back at home?"

   "To help my sister around the house. We really wrecked it over the weekend."

   "Oh. You had a party?" Erik leaned in a little closer toward Len. He smelled of sandalwood and ocean waves.

   "No. My brother and I can get pretty messy. My uncle can, too. We're total slobs."

   Erik furrowed his brows, "So you do not live with your parents?"

   "They died when I was nine years old."

Lenny had been so accustomed to saying that sentence. It just rolled off her tongue with ease. She no longer cared if her lack of emotion distressed whomever she told. Five whole years had passed since Michael and Rose died. Instead of hurting and suffocating herself with sadness, Len chose to not feel anything at all about it anymore.

   She detected that Erik had moved his hand toward her, as if to comfort her, but then he drew his hand quickly back inward and then crossed his arms in front of him. He lowered his head onto his arms and tilted it to one side. Some strands of his hair fell over his shoulder and onto the desktop beneath him. His eyes looked up into Lenny's.

   "What happened to them?"

   "Car crash. Late at night."

   "I am sorry."

   Len could detect a new sheen over his sky blue eyes, but she ignored it and looked down at her hands in her lap instead. Erik leaned backward onto his chair.

   "Have you seen Stranger Things?"

   "Yes," she smiled. "I binged-watched the entire season with my uncle. Twice."

***

Len's first morning of her freshman year was going extremely well. She knew she would be able to easily breeze through her classes. She was a lot smarter than she had led her teachers on to believe in the eighth grade. Certainly, her teachers blamed her past when noting the gradual demise of her grades and her lack of interest in extracurricular activities.

Honestly, Lenore was simply unenthusiastic about her studies. It was not because she was depressed, it was because she did not want to have so much of her headspace reserved for worrying about pleasing teachers and making the very best of grades. She preferred to have the intellectual freedom to think and feel what she wanted and when she wanted.

   She held on to an overall average that placed itself somewhere between the low B and high C range. She was content with that and had no aspirations to bring it up any higher now that she was in high school.

Erik and Len had looked over their schedules together before leaving homeroom. Unfortunately, Erik was enrolled in mostly honors classes, so there was no chance of seeing him again in a classroom. She hoped she would see him at lunchtime, though.

   Sure enough, she spotted him walking out of the cafeteria with a water bottle in his hand just as she was about to go outside onto the lawn to eat her lunch. Erik caught sight of her as well. He walked towards Len and, as the distance between them lessened, she fixed her eyes on his black Converse sneakers.

"Hello, Lenore. Would you like to have lunch with me outside?"

"Sure. I was just about to go out there."

Erik opened the door for her, and they made their way through the many students strewn all over the lawn. Some sitting and eating, others sprawled out and chatting, and some even actually asleep, using their backpacks as pillows, with their arms protecting their faces from the late August sun. They found a vacant area by the sidewalk leading to the parking lot and sat down.

"My Honors Chemistry teacher has the craziest hair! It's super frizzy. She looks like Frankenstein's Bride," said Erik as he sat down and then took a yellow and gray bento box out of his backpack. He set his lunch down on the grass in front of him and took off his long-sleeved flannel. He lifted up his toned ams and gathered his hair into a knot at his nape.

Len admired his angular cheekbones and bright eyes before asking, "No way. Mrs. Schwartz?"

"Yes! You know her?"

"Yeah. She used to teach sixth grade science at the middle school. Her hair is really scary, isn't it?"

   Erik's bento box contained a leafy green salad with chopped cucumber, grape tomatoes, and chickpeas. He also had some crackers, hummus, and blackberries. She gave him a smile as she brought a spoonful of the corkscrew whole wheat pasta salad Juliette had made the other day. It was dressed in olive oil and apple cider vinegar and topped with green onion, black olives, red bell pepper, spinach and hemp seeds.

   "That looks good. Did you make it yourself?"

   "No. My big sister did. She loves to cook and prepare meals. I love looking up new recipes for her to try."

   "That is very nice. It looks delicious. I prepare and cook all my own food. I eat mostly plant-based and my father does not."

   "I've been vegan since I was ten. I don't like the idea of any creature suffering for my benefit."

   After finishing the berry he had popped in his mouth, Erik drank from his water bottle and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

   "I feel the same way. My older brothers make fun of me for eating this way. They love gorging themselves on cheese pizzas and sausages dipped in ketchup."

   "Do they live with you?"

   "No. They all live back in Denmark. One is married and they are expecting their first child. The other is in uni studying business and marketing."

   "How did you and your dad end up in Blanesville, Georgia?"

   "Well, it is a long story."

   "We've got time." Len started to peel one of the tangerines she had packed in her lunch bag.

   "Okay. Here goes... " Erik set his bento box and fork back onto the grass and brought his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs. "My father works in Atlanta as a consultant for marketing strategy, whatever. Do not ask me what that is. I do not particularly care or want to know. I had to come with him when he moved here, of course. I begged my brother, Rasmus, in uni, to let me stay with him, but then he ended up getting an apartment with his girlfriend. My mother lives in Toronto with her fiancé, but they are always traveling.

   When we first moved here at the beginning of summer, he feared it would not be a good idea to get a place in the city, so he bought a house by the lake here in town instead. The house is massive like his ego. He is trying to keep this wild boy out of trouble."

   Erik tilted his head forward, turning his bright eyes into a deep sapphire. His full lips creased into a playful smirk and he wiggled his blonde brows for added effect.

   "You can't be any more wild than my brother, Jude."

   "Oh?"

   "Yeah. He sleeps around with girls and likes to party. He's been staying out late a lot and he really pisses our uncle off sometimes."

   "Hmm," he dipped a cracker into some hummus, "I do not like to sleep around. I do like to party. And I do stay up late pretty often."

   "You speak English incredibly well."

   "It is not uncommon for the youth of my country to speak English well." He dipped another cracker into some hummus before adding, "Watching a lot of Netflix over the summer surely did not hurt, either."

   Lenny was just about to finish up her pasta salad when Erik placed his hand on her forearm. She was amazed at how such a simple touch could send an intense ripple of need straight through to her heart. A sweet and fluttering ache. This feeling was new and exactly what she was hoping for but not anything she had imagined.

   She certainly did not imagine it with someone like Erik. Len looked into his eyes and waited for him to say something. A flicker of a smile graced his mouth before he spoke.

   "Would you like to go out with me sometime, Lenore?"

   She looked down at his hand that he still had not removed from her arm. She wanted to lift it up and hold it in hers.

   "Yeah. I'd like that."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Hello, sweet reader :)

What did you think of Lenny's first day of school?

I like keeping things simple for lunch--homemade sweet potato fries and steamed broccoli is a favorite of mine. How about you?

I have so much planned for Lenore and Erik. They will be spending a lot of time together.

Thank you for reading my story. Please vote and comment. I really enjoy hearing from you!

XO,
Leanne