The Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 1) Read online

  Beth came up to her, smiling and giddy like a child who just ate a cup full of pure sugar.

  “Are you ok?” Katey asked, wondering if she was going to have a seizure.

  “Can you believe that he’s actually here?” she asked animatedly.

  “No, I can’t. I wonder why he’s here at all. He should be graduated by now,” Katey explained as they waited behind the rest of the class who were making their way out the door.

  Mr. Dubose snuck up behind the two and stomped his foot the way he sometimes did to startle his students. Beth jumped and squeaked in surprise, but Katey was used to him by now to expect it from him.

  “I hope you two don’t mind sitting next to Logan for the rest of the year,” he said as he stood in the threshold.

  “I don’t mind at all!” Beth screeched.

  “I’ll just deal with it,” Katey mumbled. She really didn’t mind sitting by Logan, but she knew it would distract her a great deal. Thankfully, seating charts normally changed every semester and this semester was almost over for Katey.

  Beth and Katey parted ways in the hall and she was on her way to Mrs. Kimbrough’s room for English class.

  When Katey arrived, Lily, who was in the class with her, was waiting just outside the door. There was a look of impatience about her, just like Saturday as her arms were folded and her foot tapped on the hallway floor tiles impatiently.

  As soon as Lily spotted Katey, she ran over, grabbed her arm and pulled her into Mrs. Kimbrough’s class and pointed at Katey’s seat, which was not vacant. Logan was sitting in her desk, reading a thick black, leather bound book that looked to be a century or two old.

  Katey’s mouth gapped open.

  “Somebody took your seat,” Lily whispered to her.

  Katey was still staring at Logan, as he calmly read like he didn’t even see her. But after a few seconds, Katey saw a furtive smile creep across his face like he knew she was there and he was expecting her, mocking her shock. Katey felt her mouth close and her brows knit together into a scowl.

  “Not for long,” she mumbled. Katey summoned every ounce of courage she had before marching over to Logan. She stood next to the desk, glaring at him. He looked at her from the corner of his eye, but the smile never waivered under the heat of her crossness.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” he said, looking back to the fine print in his book.

  “You’re in my seat,” Katey stated.

  He closed his book like he was admitting defeat, stood and leaned down so their faces were inches apart. Katey was glad she had taken extra care with her makeup that morning. She tried to keep her stance strong and steadfast as he loomed over her, his muscular body intimidating pitted against her own.

  “Good morning to you too,” he said softly, just enough for her to hear and no one else.

  Her eyes were level with his collarbone and she couldn’t help but feel defenseless, standing so intimately close to his towering frame.

  Katey faltered and stumbled backwards a bit, almost tripping over Lily’s book bag. Logan gaze was fixated on her as he leaned down and slid his backpack to the empty seat behind Katey’s. “You may have your seat back.”

  With that, he slid into his new desk, reopened his book and continued reading where he left off.

  Katey shakily sat down, her legs glad for the rest, as the bell rang and Mrs. Kimbrough shut the door. The teacher was holding a piece of paper similar to the one Logan gave to Mr. Dubose and Katey assumed Logan had given it to her out in the hall.

  “The assignment is on the board. When you’re done, you may read quietly,” Mrs. Kimbrough said as she sat down at her desk and began shuffling through her papers.

  The whole class was almost completely quiet except for the occasionally page turning, coughing and fidgeting as they completed the assignments written up on the board.

  Despite the unnerving knowledge that Logan was in the perfect position to stare at her, Katey had just finished everything when the bell rang for third period. Once again, Logan shot up like a rocket and was out the door before everyone else.

  After letting out a long, exasperated breath, Katey put away her notebook and glanced over to Lily, who was grinning just like Beth was in first period.

  “What?” Katey asked, confused, trying to hide the fact she was falling apart over a guy that she barely knew.

  “He’s cute. Do you know him?” Lily asked, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. They made an exit towards the door together.

  “Yeah, that’s the guy I met at the graveyard on Friday, the one that gave me the jacket,” Katey replied.

  “Really? He’s hotter than you let on! You’ve got to ask him out! You two would make the cutest couple.”

  Katey’s head reeled with the thought of them being a couple. It was a nice fantasy, but it could never happen. Girls like her didn’t date hotties like Logan. She was better matched with some geeky gamer or brooding metal head guy.

  “Why don’t you ask him out?” Lily asked as they stepped over the threshold into the hall.

  “Not a chance,” Katey replied, putting on her most persuasive tone like she didn’t care a lick about Logan at all.

  Katey turned and looked over to Mr. Keith’s door. Logan was standing where she normally stood, reading the same thick book as he did before second period. Casting a pleading glance over to Lily, who was watching him as well, she silently begged for company while she waited for third period to start.

  Lily only shrugged and walked away smiling, as if to say “he’s your problem now”.

  Chapter 6

  Katey turned back to Logan and was dumbfounded. When everyone started pushing her out of the way, she was forced to stand next to him. She tried to think of something to say as she gazed up at him with a look of trepidation.

  Watching his eyes dart from one side of the page to the other and once he turned the page, she decided to say what was really on her mind.

  “Are you stalking me or something?” Katey asked. He turned his head towards her, and his eyes seemed to flash a dark shade of blue, but Katey assumed it was a trick of the shadows in the alcove where they waited.

  “I beg your pardon?” he asked.

  “Are you stalking me? Saturday you showed up at my work and today, so far you have all the same classes as me,” Katey exclaimed. Her legs grew shaky so she leaned against the wall to stabilize herself.

  He looked like he didn’t know what she was talking about. “I didn’t realize.” He smiled and went back to reading his book. He didn’t really answer her question, but she dropped the subject, not wanting to seem too persistent.

  Mr. Keith was a little early today. When he hurried forward out of the crowd of students, Logan closed his book and put it away into his bag. Mr. Keith took one look at the two of them and laughed while Logan replicated that crafty smile that she had seen on Mr. Dubose’s face earlier that morning.

  “Hey man, what’s up? How’s your first day so far?” Mr. Keith asked, holding out his fist to Logan.

  “I’m doing good, man. No homework yet,” Logan replied, bumping his own fist against Mr. Keith’s.

  Did they know each other? Katey wondered, her face unable to conceal her amazement.

  Logan gave Mr. Keith the enrollment slip.

  “Challenge accepted!” he exclaimed, then turned to a stupefied Katey. “Oh, hey, Katey Kat. How’re you doing?” he asked as he jiggled his keys into the lock.

  “Weirded out,” she mumbled under her breath.

  “Well, there will be no getting weirded out in my class today, got it?” Mr. Keith said with a chuckle.

  Mr. Keith opened the door and for the first time all year, Katey wasn’t the first student to step into the room for third period. Logan bolted inside and she followed close behind him, still recovering from her bafflement.

  “You can just sit to the left of Katey, Logan. I don’t think anyone is sitting there,” Mr. Keith said as he put his laptop onto the projector podium.

&nbs
p; Katey grimaced as the two of them took their seats and the rest of the class followed suit.

  When everyone in the class came in and sat down, they asked what they would be doing today. Mr. Keith was too busy making small talk with Logan and fiddling with his computer to notice their questions until Logan asked the same thing.

  “Well, right now, we’re on stand-by to stand-by for an F.R.Q. No whining yet, hold it in for a second,” Mr. Keith said. He pressed a few buttons, plugged in cables and the “Free Response Question” document appeared onto the screen, streamed directly from his laptop. Mr. Keith looked up to the class and held up his fingers. “And, one big whine before we get started, then no more talking. Ready?” he said, then flicked his fingers, everyone moaned on cue. When he flicked them again, everyone went still, just like when a conductor led an orchestra.

  Katey noticed Logan even played along with everyone else, a bright grin on his face like he found it all so utterly amusing. The class giggled, but was soon quieted down when Mr. Keith turned off the lights and opened the blinds to let in a little bit of sunshine.

  Katey pulled out a piece of paper and pen and wrote down the question. FRQs were relatively easy for her if it was about something they had been studying for a while. Katey was at least thankful that he didn’t take them up for a major grade.

  Logan was finished with the question far ahead of everyone else, even Katey, and was reading his black book again while he waited. All the while she tried to focus on her assignment, Katey continually stole glances at Logan. There was a coolness in the way he moved and a suave lilt to every word he spoke.

  It wasn’t much different from the Logan she had met on Friday night. But what bothered her was that he wasn’t nearly as talkative as she remembered. It was the same as in the bookstore. Katey imagined that once they were reunited, conversations would never cease. But now, he barely acted like he knew her.

  The shrill chime of the classroom phone broke her reverie and she snapped her attention back to her notebook paper. Mr. Keith’s phone hardly ever rang.

  “Keith…Yeah… Really?” Mr. Keith said. “Well, they seem to be doing fine.”

  Katey’s hand went still, pencil tip pressed against the paper as she listened closely.

  “I mean they haven’t ripped each other’s heads off yet so I guess they’re doing fine…”

  Katey tilted her head ever so slightly and peered at Mr. Keith from the corner of her eye. His stare was zoned in on Katey and Logan and she quickly looked away.

  “Yeah, it’s all good. How’s your leg doing?… Really?…Sorry about your luck there buddy…Ok… Thanks Dubey,” Mr. Keith hung up the phone.

  “Dubey” happened to be Mr. Dubose’s nickname that some of the faculty and students called him. Katey lifted her head up a little and saw that Logan was looking at Mr. Keith, who in turn was looking right at her.

  She tried to reason with herself that they couldn’t possibly be talking about her. Regardless, a knot formed in her stomach and refused to unclench as she hastily wrote out the last sentence of her answer.

  The bell rang and when Katey moved to stuff her notebook in her bag, Logan was nowhere to be found. No doubt he had bolted out the door as he had in the other classes. She grabbed her things and was about to make a similar disappearance when Mr. Keith approached her with a look of total cordiality that compelled her to stop and listen to what he had to say rather than dodging past him.

  “Hey, are you and Logan getting along?” he asked in a hushed tone so the other students who were filing out wouldn’t overhear their conversation.

  Katey shifted the strap of her bag on her shoulder and chose her words carefully. “We have barely talked enough to have the opportunity to get along. Why would it matter?”

  “Just checking in on you. Have a good rest of your day,” he replied, giving her a friendly slap on the shoulder and a toothy grin that looked a little forced in her opinion.

  Katey gave him a weak, nervous smile and hurried on down the hall towards her fourth period class. Taking a deep breath, she tried to forget about all that had occurred up until today. She didn’t want to think about all the strange coincidences and paranoia that was creeping up her spine to infiltrate her mind. All she could think about was how quickly she wanted to get this day over with and go home to scream in her pillow.

  Nothing was going as she had imagined. She should have been overjoyed that Logan was there in her school and had three classes with her. But something just felt wrong about the whole thing. It wasn’t natural and she felt like there was something she should have known, but everyone was keeping it from her. If Logan had simply shown up and had absolutely no ambiguous connections with her teachers, Katey might have been totally fine and behaved as normal. Or, at least as normal as could be expected. Instead, she felt like she was losing a small piece of her mind and that newfound peace.

  As she rounded the corner to come to her math class, Katey felt her stomach rumble. Her brows knit together with concern. She had two waffles on the way to school, she shouldn’t have been this hungry already. But the way her guts roiled angrily under her skin, she would have thought she hadn’t eaten for days. However, she wouldn’t have to suffer long. There was an old granola bar in her bag that she was sure hadn’t expired yet.

  Stepping into the classroom, Katey froze. Sitting in one of the desks was the last person she wanted to see again today. Logan was calmly reading his book without a care in the world. A world of unwanted feelings stirred within her and all Katey wanted to do was run.

  She turned on the balls of her feet and was about to walk right back into the hallway and risk getting detention for skipping class. But just as she took that first step, Mr. Myers came into view and they made eye contact.

  He made a face and jerked his thumb towards the classroom, wordlessly telling her to quit being silly and get inside before he proclaimed her as tardy. With a groan and childish stomp of her foot, she trudged to her fate of enduring Logan’s presence for one more class.

  It wasn’t that she hated him. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It was the mere idea of knowing that they shared the same room together that made her want to come undone. She couldn’t keep up appearances for long until she would fall apart from nervousness.

  Thankfully, she was far away from him in this class. Katey made her way to the far side of the room, but when she looked up on the white board, she wanted to scream out in anguish. There was a new seating chart.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she mumbled as she scanned for her last name. Katey prayed that she wouldn’t lose her treasured seat by the window. This class was the only period where she was seated next to a natural light source and a prime view of the outside world that she wanted to escape to. Every other class, she was bound in a room without windows or stuck in the middle of the room. Taking this seat away from her would have been like sentencing her to another hour of her day in solitary confinement for the rest of the semester.

  She was now in the in the third row from the door, third desk down. And that happened to be right behind Logan. Katey grudgingly picked up her things and slung them noisily next to her new desk. Logan set down his book, turned around to her with a puzzled expression.

  “Having a bad day?” he asked.

  “You should know by now,” she answered sardonically. “You’ve been in it all day.” Katey gave him a look of utter misery and reached into her bag, pulling out the nutrition bar. Logan was still watching her with uncanny interest as she unwrapped the top and was about to take a bite to squelch the bitter hunger in her belly. Logan glanced at the open door, and then snatched her snack away with speed that both startled and angered her.

  “What the - ?” Katey cried out.

  Just then, Mr. Myers walked through the door and slammed it shut behind him as the tardy bell rang. How did Logan know their teacher would slip in so suddenly?

  She glanced back to Logan who was watching Mr. Myers with an intensity that she could o
nly compare to that of a stalking predator. Logan carefully wrapped the bar back up and slipped it under her desk, tapping it against her knee to get her attention.

  “Hide it,” he whispered. Katey nodded and put it away.

  Mr. Myers was a stickler for any kind of food or drink in the classroom. He had handed out detentions several times in the beginning of the school year for students bringing water bottles into class or taking a simple bite of a candy bar while he was lecturing. Katey might have had a good rapport with her math teacher, but she would have been no exception to the rule.

  For the rest of the class, Katey noticed that Mr. Myers seemed a little jittery and anxious, as if he was distracted by something. He was making numerous simple arithmetic errors and losing track of his thoughts. Never had Mr. Myers been this absent minded. Katey wondered if he also knew Logan and he was feeling uneasy with him in his classroom. She couldn’t see Logan’s face to determine if this were the truth.

  In the middle of his lecture, Mr. Myers’ phone rang. Upon being interrupted, he sighed in aggravation and went to his desk.

  “Mr. Myers,” he answered, almost in a whisper into the receiver. As the caller talked, Mr. Myers glanced over to Logan and Katey. It was almost impossible to hear over the dull roar of the classroom, but Katey could just barely make out the conversation.

  “Yeah, why is he even in my class? I thought we agreed he wouldn’t take any of my classes?” There was a pause and Mr. Myers gave Logan a look of distaste and general unpleasantness. Logan had his head turned and Katey witnessed a broad grin spread across his lips as if he were pleased about something in Mr. Myers’ words.

  “Well I don’t care if he wanted to take this class, if he slips up just once, I’m kicking him out.” Mr. Myers firmly hung up the phone and reluctantly resumed teaching about equations.