Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series Read Online Free

enthusiasm what to do for their
project, Eddy turned towards Ian, a pitiful look on his face. “So,
you wanna help me out, man?”
    Ian shrugged, smiling faintly. “Not
really.”
    Eddy’s face contorted, as he gave up trying
to persuade Ian, likely knowing how stubborn he could be. “Fine,
but don’t go begging me for help when you need it.” Staring at him
crossly for several seconds, he dragged his feet towards Jasmine
and Alan, a grieved expression singed onto his face, a malevolent,
animalistic glint in his eyes.
    Only bearing to watch Eddy for a few more
seconds, Ian quickly strutted over to his group.
    After a rather awkward introduction, Ian
trying to make some small talk, the tense atmosphere almost
instantly lightened, and he found himself engrossed in conversation
with them, surprised by how normal and interesting they were: Jimmy
Ivans wasn’t half as peculiar as he’d judged him to be, and his
jokes actually made him laugh; and William Martel, not to be
outdone, had an extraordinary gift of analyzing people and copying
their accents, speech patterns, and body movements.
    His impersonation of Dustin Edwards was
hilarious--made even funnier by the fact that he did it whenever
the professor’s back was turned.
    The twenty minutes they spent together went
by too quickly; they did far more talking than actual work, yet
they somehow still managed to finish the Bohr model assignment
consisting of drawing the shape of the orbitals and writing how
many electrons were in each of the first four shells.
    Upon completing it, Ian heard the professor’s
loud nasally voice take command of the classroom again.
    “Well, that’s all for today. Hold onto those
projects--you’ll be finishing them on Wednesday.” The professor
glanced down at his notes, a jubilant expression on his face, and
then raised his voice above the noisy stampede of students picking
up their books, scooting out of their desks, and hurrying to leave
the classroom: “Tomorrow we’ll be discussing collision theory,
sub-orbitals, and valence electrons. See you all then.”
    However, the students simply ignored him as
nobody cared to know what was coming for them the following day.
Who knows why he felt he had to inform them?
    As Ian exited the classroom, nearly the last
one out except for Eddy who had begun cleanup duty, he headed over
towards his locker when he felt a hand alight on his shoulder--it
was Hazel’s.
    Her mouth curved innocently. “Hey, Ian--so
you comin’ to my party tonight?”
    A blush swept across his face; this was news
to him. “Sure. When does it start?” She could take her hand off
anytime now.
    “Seven. You’d better be there.” Removing her
hand from his shoulder, her light blue eyes aglow with playfulness,
she twirled her blonde hair between her fingers, adding, “I’ll be
watching for you.”
    His cheeks grew even redder. “Thanks,” he
murmured, not knowing what else to say, as he nervously tapped his
fingers against his blue jeans.
    Hazel smiled tenderly. “See ya,” she said,
before turning around, skipping over to her friend Tianna, and
whispering something into her ear that made her friend laugh. Ian
didn’t catch it, nor did he care to, but from the look of it, they
were talking about him--and he’d barely said anything. Girls.
    Backing away from them, trying to recollect
his thoughts, he stood confused and unsettled. Hazel was a mystery.
He’d liked her ever since last year when he’d gotten put into the
same group as her in speech class; but whenever he tried talking to
her then, she always seemed distracted and bored as if he were the
last person on earth she wanted to spend time with.
    Yet that was not at all how she seemed now.
For once, she actually appeared excited to see him. Whatever had
made her become so friendly, he suspected that Darien was behind
it, as his friend had just been in her and Tianna’s group. Though
he didn’t know what his friend could’ve possibly said that had