Realm Keepers 01 - Realm Keepers

said, and she actually smiled. That was the Raven that I missed.
    I went on my way, entering the school and pushing through the slowly-forming crowd to my locker. I was dialing in the combo when I thought I heard someone say something behind me. I turned. A younger girl with dark brown hair covering one of her eyes was standing there. She was kind of looking at me, and kind of not. She’d look up at me for a moment before looking nervously back down at the floor. I smiled , trying to be encouraging.
    “I’m sorry, did you say something?” I asked.
    “Good luck in the election,” said the girl in a tiny voice. I had to lean in to hear it. “I voted for you.” Immediately she turned and headed off down the hallway before I could answer. I didn’t even know the girl’s name.
    That was nice, I thought. Weird, but nice .
    “Hey, Sarah,” said a voice behind me. I knew that voice. I smiled and turned.
    Kurt Masterson was, without question, the cutest boy in Roosevelt. He had always seemed to have everything going for him: captain of the football team, decent grades (though not as good as mine) and super popular. He was popular in a way that I wasn’t. I was friendly with everyone, and everyone was friendly with me, but people wanted to hang out with Kurt. I wanted to hang out with Kurt.
    And recently, he seemed to be feeling the same way. Sometimes he’d sit with me at lunch, even though every time he did, I didn’t know what to do with my hands and could barely hold a conversation. On breaks and after school, he had started coming around and chatting with me as well.
    It’s possible I may have had a tiny crush on Kurt.
    “Hi,” I said. I tried to think of something else to say, something smart, something funny. I couldn’t.
    “Good luck in the election today,” he said, flashing that million-dollar smile. “Although, everyone knows you’re going to win, so I guess you don’t really need any luck.”
    “I guess we’ll see,” I said, immediately thinking that was a stupid thing to say.
    “Well, see ya,” and then he was gone, walking down the hallway toward his first class.
    My mind was a buzz for the next half hour. I could hardly think about anything besides the election results and Kurt’s smile. I barely arrived on time to my first class, advanced calculus. I plopped down in my usual spot in the front of the room. I knew some kids made fun of me for always sitting in the front row, but it was only because I wanted to be able to see what the teacher was doing. I really liked learning. I know that’s not how a lot of people feel about school, but I love it. And besides, I had to keep my grades up if I wanted to get into Stanford.
    Soon I was buried in numbers, variables and equations. It was a breeze. It should have been; I’d spent the last two nights studying up on calculus. Math was always the hardest subject for me, but I forced myself to learn it.
    Half an hour into the class, there was a crash as the door flew open. My head jerked toward the sudden noise.
    In strolled Blade. Blade wasn’t his real name, of course, just a nickname. He was one of those kids who was always getting into trouble and didn’t seem to care. You know what I said about how lucky I was to have the family I had? Blade was the opposite. I didn’t know exactly what his home situation was like, but I had heard rumors. But Blade didn’t seem angry all the time, like you would have thought he should. If anything, he seemed to act like the whole world was just a big joke and he was the only one who got it. He was pretty new at our school. Apparently he and his family moved around a lot. I actually felt sorry for him most of the time. I thought it must be pretty hard to make any real friends if you were at a new school every few months.
    Our teacher, Mister Roberts, looked up from his papers and let out an exasperated sigh.
    “Honestly, Mister Frederickson, I don’t know why you even show up after missing half the lesson. Care to tell us what was so important that it made you late for class—again?”
    Blade grinned that crooked grin he usually wore. “Explosive diarrhea.”
    Most of the class behind me exploded in laughter.
    “It was bad,” Blade continued, enjoying the reaction. “Too much hot sauce. That’s the last time I steal your lunch, Mister Roberts.”
    Mister Roberts glared at Blade, but he looked more disappointed than angry. Most of our teachers just seemed to write Blade off as a constant