The other students all turned to look as Lenore walked into the Biology classroom behind Victor and Fiona. Their eyes lingered a little too long as things clicked together in their heads. Lenore dropped her head and pretended not to notice, wishing she could just slip into a spot at the back, out of sight, without talking to anyone—but that wasn't an option.

Victor and Fiona gave her a wave as they went to find their own seats, but she went to the wide lab table at the front of the class, where the teacher sat.

According to the timetable still stuffed into the pocket of her hoodie, the teacher for this class was Mr. Platz. He was seated at the front of the classroom, the whiteboard at his back, slashing at a stack of worksheets with a red pen. He was well dressed and wore stylishly thick-framed glasses that hung low on his large, hooked nose.

Lenore hovered at the edge of the desk, waiting for him to notice her.

"Just a moment," he said, not even looking up.

Lenore swallowed hard, wishing she was anywhere but here. She could feel the eyes of the other students. Whispers scattered around the room, and Lenore wondered if they were talking about her. Probably. She began to shake, and a small voice in the back of her head told her to turn and run and forget it all—screw Biology, screw school, and screw Eden.

But then she noticed Victor, who was sitting in the second row next to some guy who was resting his head on his arms. As if he could tell she needed the encouragement, he gave her a thumbs up.

It helped. She flashed him a quick smile, shook off her shakes, and stood her ground.

Finally, Mr. Platz put down his red pen and looked up. Before she could introduce himself, his watery blue eyes widened in recognition, and she knew there was no reason to bother.

"Ah," he said. "So, you've finally decided to join us."

Lenore swallowed. She didn't know how to respond to that.

He didn't need her to. "Since you've missed the first week and a half, you're a little behind," Mr. Platz continued, turning to the cupboards that ran along the wall beneath the whiteboard. He dug out a textbook and handed it to her. "But I can find some extra credit work if you want to make up the marks, so just let me know. Now," he dropped his voice, "I'm not going to make you introduce yourself. Not much point in that, I figure."

Lenore could still feel the press of stares on her. "P-Probably not."

Mr. Platz nodded knowingly. Lenore was starting to like him.

"Unfortunately," he said, "you make the class an odd number so you won't have a lab partner," he said, his mouth tightening into a line.

"I can manage." Not having a partner didn't bother her. Biology wasn't her best subject, but she expected it'd be a cakewalk after her previous school.

"I'm sure you can," Mr. Platz said, craning his neck as he looked over the class. He pointed to the back corner. "There's a few more housekeeping things we'll need to address, but we can do that later. There's a free table in the back— you can sit there."

Lenore took her textbook and headed to the spot that he'd pointed out. As she got to her seat, her anxiety began easing away. A nice teacher who didn't force her to introduce herself? A spot at the back that'd make it harder for people to stare? A potential friend?

Things were looking up.

But as she sat down and glanced around, trying to spot Victor from her new seat, chills ran over her skin. She'd been wrong about the staring. Almost every student in the class had turned around to watch her.

Lenore dropped her eyes, pretending to focus on her new textbook.

Fortunately, Mr. Platz clapped his hands, and her classmates were forced to turn around and pay attention.

"Alright, class," he began, his voice carrying easily through the small room. "As I promised last week, we're going to be using this class to work on our group projects."

Group project? Lenore thought. A shudder shook through her as she imagined having to work with other people. But Mr. Platz had said she was the odd one out—in more ways than he probably realized—so maybe he'd let her work alone...

"But, first, you may have noticed we have a new addition."

Once again, the class turned to stare. Lenore shrank into her plastic chair. What was he saying about not introducing me?!

But it wasn't an introduction. It was worse.

"So, that means one of your groups will need to take on an extra member. I know it's a little inconvenient since we've already started the project, but think of it as extra help. So, do we have any volunteers?"

No one made a move. They just stared. More than stared, really—a few were glaring at her and whispering to their partners. She searched the faces for Victor or Fiona, hoping they might raise their hand, but in the sea of angry faces, they were nowhere to be found—

Finally, she spotted Victor a few rows over. He wasn't looking at her. He was nudging his lab partner, who was still head down on the table.

Lenore swallowed hard, trying to work up the nerve to speak. If no one wanted her, fine. That was fine. She could do it on her own. She cleared her throat. "I-I can—"

"We'll take her!"

Victor's hand had shot up. Beside him, his lab partner looked around groggily.

"Great," Mr. Platz said, smiling. "Thank you, Victor and Brad. Now, with that settled, let's talk about the plan for today. Before we head off to the library..."

The rest of the class turned around again, but Victor was looking back now. He smiled at her and gave her another thumbs up. Lenore gave a sigh of relief and returned the gesture.

The various groups had scattered throughout the library: spread out over tables, hunched over the slow and ancient computers, or sitting on the floor between bookshelves. Victor, Lenore, and Brad—Victor's original partner—were seated at their own table, heads down, reading from their selected books. Well, Victor and Lenore were. Brad was leaning in his chair, teetering it on the back two legs, while trying to balance his pencil on his upper lip.

Next to Lenore, Victor inhaled deeply and put his own pencil down. "Brad," Victor began, nice and slow. "Remind me, will you—what part of this project are you working on?" The class was currently studying viruses, and Mr. Platz had assigned each group their own individual virus to present to the rest of the class. Their group had gotten rabies lyssavirus.

Brad's chair dropped back to the ground with a loud thunk that shook the tables around it. Other students turned to look and glare. Lenore was thankful that, for once, they weren't glaring at her.

"Huh?" Brad mumbled as if he'd just been pulled from a daydream. "Oh, uh, right. I was gonna draw the virus so we can label it."

"Great," Victor said, smiling. Lenore could see the tenseness in his jaw—she could tell he was trying very hard to be friendly, but he was struggling. Even patient people had their limits. "Why don't you start on that?"

"Uh, sure," Brad said, his voice. "I just need..." He made a show of patting his pockets down. "Actually, I think I forgot something in my locker."

"Oh, really?" Victor said.

"Yeah, dude. I've gotta go get it. I'll be right back." Brad grinned at Victor, then he scooped his bag off the back of his chair and started towards the exit.

"If you just need to get something," Victor said, "why do you need your bag?"

Brad looked back at him. "Did I say 'get'? I mean, I need to put something in my locker. Let Mr. Splatz know, will ya?" He chuckled to himself like his joke was very clever. Lenore realized he wasn't just some clueless slacker—he knew exactly what he was doing—leaving them to do all the work.

Well, at least he wasn't alone anymore.

Victor huffed. "Fine."

Brad grinned and sauntered off.

A few tables away, Fiona looked up her own project as Brad passed. She watched him slip out the upper floor exit, then glanced back at Victor and gave him an exaggerated roll of her eyes. Victor just shook his head and mouthed something to her. She stifled a laugh with the back of her hand.

Lenore looked between the two of them, the observer yet again. They already knew each other well enough that they could communicate without even exchanging a word. They were closer than she thought.

She felt like the one left alone now.

"Is that why you volunteered to take me on?" Lenore asked suddenly.

"What?" Victor asked, his attention pulled away from Fiona. Fiona didn't seem to mind; she returned to her work.

"Did you volunteer to take me into your group because Brad wasn't pulling his weight?"

"No!" Victor said a little too quickly. He must have realized how it sounded because he quickly corrected himself. "Well... Not entirely." He went a little pink.

"Don't worry, I get it," Lenore said, trying her best to stop the ache between her ribs from registering on her face. "I don't blame you. And I still appreciate it. If you didn't volunteer, I don't think anyone would've. I was prepared to do it on my own, so, really... You saved me again."

"And you saved me. Again," Victor countered. "Saved me from the world's worst partner." He glared over at the door that Brad had snuck out. He could've easily been to his locker and back by now. He definitely wasn't coming back. "But that wasn't the reason I volunteered."

"Okay," Lenore said, smiling. She didn't know if he was telling the truth, but at least he was being nice about it. "I guess we can count ourselves even, then."

Victor smiled back. "I guess so."

They went back to their books, and a silence settled between them—but there was something else lingering between them. For some reason, Lenore was sure that Victor wanted to say something else, though when she looked up from her book, he was just rubbing his lips together as he studied his own page. But the feeling persisted, prodding at her like a nagging voice at the back of her head.

She was about to go back to her own reading when Victor suddenly looked up. For a moment, he seemed surprised that she was already looking at him. It seemed she was right—there was something he wanted to say.

"So, uh," he began, his eyes shifting around. "I wanted to ask you a question."

The same something inside told her that his question wasn't going to be an easy one. She swallowed hard, wet her lips, and braced herself. "What is it?"

"Well, people around here don't seem to... uh, well..."

Lenore finished for him. "...like me very much?"

Victor grimaced. She had guessed right.

"Yeah," Victor said.

Lenore looked away, trying to seem nonchalant as she thumbed the pages of her book. "No, they don't." If Victor knew, then there was no point in hiding it.

There was another beat of silence. Lenore wished she could look up at him and see what he was thinking. But she couldn't, not without betraying how much it all hurt.

Then, finally, he spoke. "Why?"

"Don't you know?" Lenore said, trying to keep her voice even. Her eyes were stinging again, and she had to blink a lot to keep the tears at bay. "Hasn't anyone told you?" She couldn't stop herself from glancing in the direction of Fiona. Fiona was from Eden, so she knew, and she had to have told him something.

"Sure," he said. "But I want to hear your side."

Do you think Lenore will tell Victor her side of the story?