Zac glanced over at Katie in the middle of Biology. She looked across the room at him and smiled shyly. Zac grinned, and went back to taking notes off the overhead projecter.
Their teacher, Mr. Loomis, was dragging on an on about the theory of evolution, and evolution just wasn't much of a competition to looking at Katie. They were supposed to be taking notes on what he was saying, but Zac just couldn't concentrate. He grinned to himself again and started writing.
A few minutes later, he looked up, and she was looking at him. They had been playing this game for the entire period. Zac's eyes checked to see what Mr. Loomis was doing: writing on the screen and talking. Good, he thought. He glanced around at all of his bored classmates. People were either doddling, passing notes, or sleeping.
One particular classmate caught his eye. Jeramy was sitting a few seats over and back two, so he was pretty far away from Zac. However, Zac could see clearly what Jeramy was looking at. He was staring at Katie while she copied notes. He stared at her for a good minute before looking over at Zac, who was giving him an icy stare.
Jeramy quickly looked away and went back to taking notes.
Freaky.... Zac thought. That's gotta be they guy who's taking those pictures....who else is that weird? He's gotta be it...
"Your next assignment will be a project." Mr. Loomis said, flipping the overhead projector off.
The class groaned in response. "We'll be in groups of three, and we'll be doing a project.... Mr. Loomis' voice faded out. Zac couldn't get the creepy look that jeramy was staring at Katie with out of his mind.
"Okay, now for your groups." The teacher rattled off names. Zac perked up when he heard Katie's name. He wanted to see who she got stuck with.
"Katie and Jeramy....oh shoot. I did this wrong..."
Zac looked over at Katie and she gave him a panicked look.
"Oh, who isn't in a group yet?" Mr. Loomis asked.
Zac's hand shot up into the air. Mr. Loomis saw him, and nodded. "and you, Zac. Katie, Jeramy, and Zac. And then we'll have..."
Again, his voice faded out, and Zac looked over at Katie. He could see the color start to drain back into her face. He sighed, and sat back in his seat.
Great....now we have to work with that queer. This is not good...this is not good at all....
"This is not good." Katie said as they walked home from school.
"Oh, it's gonna be fine."
"No, it's not. Zac, I don't want to have to work with that freak. That means I have to talk to him."
"Me too." he said. "I'm not exactly nuts about him either." Zac had neglected to tell Katie how Jeramy had been staring at her. He didn't want to freak her out even more.
"Yeah, but I can't even stand to look at him most of the time. I think it's him, Zac. I really do."
"Well, I do too, but we don't have any real proof, and we'd look pretty stupid for accusing him of taking a few pictures."
"Yeah, but....."
"But what?"
"I don't know, I just have a really bad feeling about this."
"Nah. We'll be fine." Zac said as they walked up Katie's drivweway.
"Oh cool, Taylor's here." Zac said, seeing his brother's car in their driveway.
"When is he not?" Katie joked, rolling her eyes. She opened the door, and the two of them went inside.
That night, Katie just coudn't stop thinking about their project. It would have to get done, but she didn't want to do it. She was really freaking out about the whole thing.
"Zac." Katie tapped him on the shoulder the next day. She was standing behind him that morning as he was getting his books out of his locker.
"Hey." he said. Without thinking, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. He frowned, then gave her a weird look.
"Sorry." He said, turning back to his locker.
Katie gave the back of his head a quizzical look. "What was that for?"
"I dunno." he said with a laugh. "Okay." Katie said. She looked down the hall toward her locker, and sure enough, Jeramy was watching. When he saw her looking at him, he went back to digging in his locker. Katie grimaced and looked away.
"We're going to have to talk to him sometime." Zac said under his breath as he zipped up his book bag.
"Yeah. We have to work on it together too." katie said.
"My house or yours?"
"I don't want him in my house!" She said.
"Me either!"
"That's just too creepy." She said.
"Why?" Zac laughed. "He already knows where you live." He pointed out.
"Ulgh, don't remind me." Katie said.
"I'm giving you today to talk to your group and get organized. You only have a week to do this, we're a little tight for time." Mr. Loomis said. "You can work on it this Saturday. The school will be open because of some activities, so you can come up and work on it then. I'll leave the lab open, so you can come and go. But only on Saturday. I'm locking it up again on Sunday. Okay, get to it."
Katie caught Zac's eye. They both glanced over at Jeramy. He was slumped in his seat, scribbling on the back of his notebook. They both got up, and Jeramy followed them to a table in the back of the room.
"Um, do we need to pick a topic...." Katie prompted.
"Anything you want." Jeramy said quickly.
"We need to see which one would be the easiest to find information on." Zac said.
"I can do some research tonight." Katie said.
"I'll do it." Jeramy said.
"Okay." Katie said, not making eye contact with him. She was carefull to keep her eyes down; she didnt' want him getting any ideas. "Do we want to come up and get started on Saturday?" She asked.
"Yeah, I can do that."
"So can I." Jeramy said.
"Great." Katie said. "How about 2?"
"yeah." Jeramy said. "Fine."
Katie looked at Zac, and he nodded. He nudged her foot under the table. Katie sighed and bit her lip. Why did the classes she hated the most seem to drag on forever?
That night, Katie sat at her desk, mindlessly clicking away on the computer. She had found a few things for their project.
It's okay if I don't find much...Jeramy said he would look tonight on our topic....Jeramy......
She wondered if it really was Jeramy. The person who was stalking her and taking pictures of her and Zac. Was Jeramy just weird....or was he a psycho?
She shivered. She didn't like the thought that someone could be watching her at any moment. She looked over at her window. It was almost ten in the evening, so it was dark out. She couldn't see anything outside. All she could see was black.
Someone could be watching me right now......at this very moment.....
She got up and walked over to the window. She glanced outside, and still saw only darkness. Was something moving outside her window? No, it was only a brach. She shivered, thinking of what could be lurking on the other side of the glass. Katie quickly grabbed the string attached to the blinds and yanked it, causing the blinds to go sliding down the window and land with a crash on the sill.
She took a deep breath. "You're fine, silly." She said. "Nothing's out there."
Katie opened her bedroom door and walked out into the hall. She opened the door to Kristen's room. She tip toed over to the crib to watch her baby sister sleep. It was something about her peacefull face and rythmic breathing that relaxed Katie. Kristen knew no fear; no one was after her. She had no worries, no responsibilities.
It would be cool to be young again.... Katie thought. A few minutes later, she walked back out into the hall, closing the door quietly. She saw that Sandra's door was cracked open; a rarity. She poked her head inside.
"Hi."
"Hi." Sandra said, looking up from her book.
"Haven't seen you in awhile." Katie said.
"Yeah, the basis of my intention." Sandra snapped.
"Why are you so mean, Sandy? I just wanna talk to you." katie said.
"Well I don't want to talk to you."
"Where are you all the time? You're never home."
"I'm with Scott."
"You're with him a lot." Katie said.
"I like him. It's the only time I'm happy."
Katie looked at her sister. She didn't know why she was so angry, or why she liked this Scott boy so much. She sighed, then shut the door and went back to her room.