Chapter 2

Evelyn lightly kicked the ball back, but her aim was off, and it rolled crookedly to the other side. She lowered her head again and quietly murmured the words she needed to remember.

Lucas stood there for a full five seconds before his teammates shouted for him and he finally walked off.

Evelyn didn't look up, but she knew he was watching her. That gaze brushed over her like a feather, faint and lingering.

She turned a page.

After school, Evelyn intentionally stayed a little later and went through the math problems from class one more time. By the time she packed her bag and left the classroom, the sky was already dim.

There was barely anyone left at the school gate.

She walked along the wall toward the bus stop, but the moment she turned the corner, she stopped in her tracks.

Lucas was leaning against the wall, spinning a basketball in his hand. The streetlights hadn't come on yet, and his face was hidden in the shadows, impossible to read.

"Evelyn." He said her name.

It was the first time he'd spoken to her alone since she'd come back.

Evelyn stopped about six feet away. "What is it?"

Lucas didn't answer. Instead, he took two steps closer and stared straight into her eyes. "What was with you today?"

"What do you mean, what was with me?" she said.

"The note at lunch," he said. "And this afternoon. I told you to pick up the ball and you didn't."

Evelyn couldn't help laughing. She really did find it funny. She tipped up her chin and looked at this eighteen-year-old boy who always acted so high and mighty.

She asked, "Lucas, do I owe you something?"

He was taken aback.

"The note was mine. If I want to tear it up, I'll tear it up. The ball was yours. If I don't want to pick it up, I won't." Evelyn hitched her backpack higher on her shoulder. "Move. I'm going home."

She slipped past him.

His voice came from behind her, a little rushed. "Evelyn, you were never like this before!"

Evelyn didn't stop walking.

Yeah. I wasn't like this before.

I was way too stupid before.

*****

Evelyn had changed.

Sophie was the first to notice. Her deskmate suddenly seemed like a whole different person. She no longer doodled in class or sneaked glances out the window. Instead, she stared at the blackboard like her life depended on it, pen moving nonstop.

During breaks, she no longer went into the hallway to "accidentally" run into anyone either. She cornered teachers with questions so often that even the teachers started getting scared.

"What the hell happened to you?" Sophie finally asked.

Evelyn looked up from her mountain of practice problems and thought for a second. "Had a nightmare."

"What kind of nightmare?"

"I dreamed someone told me, 'You're kind of a trouble. Stop bothering me.'"

Sophie choked on her words, then cautiously asked after a long pause, "Was that about Lucas?"

Evelyn didn't answer. She lowered her head and went back to solving problems.

In math class, Mr. Carter put up a hard function problem. It was a real exam question from past years, and a brutal one at that.

He had the class work on it first, then said he'd call someone up to the board in five minutes.

The whole classroom groaned.

Evelyn looked at the problem, and her pen paused for a beat.

In her previous life, she'd crashed and burned on this exact question. During the exam, she'd only gotten the first step right and messed up everything after that.

Later, when she checked the answers, she found out there was actually a much simpler method. She had done three years of past papers before finally understanding it in the third year.

But now, in her head, she still carried the memory of those nights six years later, grinding through tens of thousands of problems alone in a tiny rented apartment.

She picked up her pen and started writing.

Five minutes later, Mr. Carter looked around the room. "Anyone want to come up and give it a shot?"

The whole class lowered their heads.

"Evelyn," Mr. Carter called out. "Your math homework's been pretty solid lately. Come up and try."

Soft snickers spread through the room. Evelyn? That Evelyn from the lower middle of the class?

Evelyn stood up and walked to the front.

The chalk clicked against the board. Her thinking flowed smoothly. First step, second step, extra line, transform, substitute.