Page 24 of Wylder and the Almost Rockstar
“You are a weirdo, aren’t you?” Will smiled, blushing and avoiding her gaze. He was the one acting weird lately. The Will she knew was all inappropriate jokes and attempts at charm. Who was this guy beside her now?
“Weirdo? Or genius who gets more sleep than anyone else?”
“We’re going to be late, and Mr. Carlisle yells at you when you’re late.” Diego ushered her out of the dining hall.
“When is Cook coming back? He’s a great teacher.” Will followed them out.
“Not sure he is.” Wylder sighed, following Diego across campus to their first class.
“That’s too bad.” Diego held the door open for her and Will. “He picked the best books.”
“See ya.” Will headed off to his math class, leaving Diego and Wylder to catch up with Devyn.
“That’s what you’re wearing to class?” Devyn rolled her eyes.
“You really expected me to go change after breakfast?”
“At least run a brush through your hair.” She fished a brush from her purse. “I swear you’d come to class barefoot if it wasn’t for me.”
“That’s my cue to leave you girls to your… stuff.” Diego pushed past them into their classroom.
“Good thing I have you to watch out for me, Dev.” Wylder brushed her hair and fished around her messenger bag for a bobby pin to hold her flyaways back.
“Dear Lord, is that a bag of French toast in there?” Devyn groaned. “I can’t take you anywhere.”
“You’ll thank me later when we have superior snacks in our fridge. These will go great with some ice cream and hot fudge.”
“That sounds revolting.” Devyn shook her head and followed Wylder into the classroom.
Like the first day, Wylder stopped in her tracks, but this time she managed to hold on to her things.
“Put on your brake lights when you do that.” Devyn bumped into her, sidestepping to get to her seat.
“Seb—Mr. Cook, you’re back,” she blurted. How did that happen?
“Yeah, change of plans.” He winked, pointing to her seat. “We have a lot to catch up on.” He turned to the whiteboard, erasing a bunch of Mr. Carlisle’s notes. “You’ll all be happy to know we’re having a redo on theBeowulftest. Your grades were awful, so it’s clear we should spend a little more time on the subject since it’ll show up on your standardized tests.”
Wylder shuffled to her desk, dying to ask Sebastian what made him return. It couldn’t have been her trip to Nashville.
“Will we be getting back to the list ofAThousand Books to Read Before You Die?” Diego asked. “That was a cool project.”
“Yes, we will, Diego, but we’ll also catch up on some topics you’ll be tested on. Before Mr. Carlisle took over for a bit, I had planned to host a series of lectures to cover the testing materials in more depth.”
“Will we finish discussing A Clockwork Orange?” Devyn asked. “I have issues with that ending.”
“What kind of issues?” Sebastian leaned against his desk, crossing his ankles.
“Understanding it?” Devyn sighed. “It was confusing and kind of defeated the purpose of the whole story.”
“It’s supposed to be confusing and a bit maddening for the reader. The controversial ending was meant to show Alex coming full circle.” Mr. Cook took up the thread of conversation, and in a single moment, class was back to normal. Including the teacher’s brother sitting at the back of the room with his head down.
Their classmates stared. Everyone knew why Logan and Sebastian left. It was like the first week of school all over again, except this time people weren’t staring because Logan Cook looked just like his famous twin brother. This time they were staring because they all suspected he was the voice they’d all been listening to for the last several years. This time they were staring at Logan because he was Logan.
And Wylder was now one of them, unable to take her eyes off the less famous Cook. Logan didn’t meet her gaze as she sat. Why… how was he back? She hadn’t even gotten the chance to see him in Nashville.
“Stop staring at me,” Logan hissed, finally meeting her gaze. “It’s weird.”
“But… you’re here.”
