Out of Ink

Chapter 2

Serina normally didn’t mind Biology, but they were getting split into groups of four for an experiment. The people in the first and third rows had to turn to the people behind them. She didn’t mind working with the red-haired girl sitting next to her, Sydney was her best friend. But unfortunately, the pair sitting in front of them were Emmett and Zack. Sydney wouldn’t mind. She not so secretly had a thing for Emmett. Despite Serina’s many warnings that her brother was an annoying pain in the butt. The boys turned in their chairs to face them. Emmett groaned. “Miss do we have to? Can we swap groups?” He complained loudly. Sydney blushed, feeling embarrassed. Serina glared at him.

“No.” Their teacher, Miss Cole, answered firmly. She had been teaching the twins for the last four years and Emmett was far from the only obnoxious student she’d had to deal with. “Today we’re going to do an experiment on camouflage. Camouflaging is where an organism blends into its environment. Can anyone give me an example?” She asked the class. A few hands went up. “Luke?” She called on a dark-skinned boy in the front.

“Like stick bugs? Or when fish look like rocks.” He said.

“Yes, exactly like that.” Miss Cole said. She picked up some sheets of green paper from her desk. “I’m going to give you some green paper ‘leaves’ and some red and green ‘bugs’.” She gave them to a girl to hand out. The “leaves” were just half a sheet of green paper and the “bugs” were little torn pieces of red or green paper. “I’m also going to give each group a pair of safety glasses smeared with Vaseline. So, you get a better idea of what a bird might see.” She handed each group a pair of gooey safety glasses. “Place your bugs on the paper and take turns picking three bugs off. Remember, you are a hungry bird. Just grab the first three you see.” Emmett went first in their group, making a big deal out of it.

“I can’t see much with these things on.” He said. Looking around at everything. “Eww, sis, you look even worse than usual.” He laughed. Serina resisted the urge to throw her pen at him.

“Just grab some paper and pass the glasses on dumb ass.” She told him. He grabbed three bits of red paper then handed the glasses over to Zack, who slid them on. He looked up at Serina and frowned.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Emmett.” He said as Emmett returned his bits of red paper. “I think she looks better like this.” He smirked and Emmett laughed. Serina felt her cheeks getting red in anger.

“Hurry up.” She snapped at him. He did as she told him and quickly snapped up three bits of red paper. Sydney went next and did the same thing. When it was Serina’s turn. She slid on the glasses, and everything became fuzzy and warped. It was difficult to see. She could only just make out the edges of a couple of green bits of paper. But the red ones stood out so brightly. She grabbed three and pulled the glasses off again. They were making her feel a little dizzy.

“So,” Miss Cole said grabbing everyone’s attention. “You should have all favoured the red bugs over the green. As the green ones looked just like their environment. That’s camouflage. Now you can all turn back to the front and watch this video.” She brought up a short film on the smart board and turned off the lights so they could all see it clearly. It was all about animals and how they had different types of camouflage. From polar bears to stone fish. Serina liked the tigers. Turned out that orange stripes were pretty hard to see in the jungle.

“My brother is such a dick.” Serina complained as she dug through her lunchbox. She and Sydney were sitting on the benches beside the library. “He stole my Kit Kat again.” She gave up searching her lunchbox for the fun-sized chocolate bar.

“He’s not that bad.” Sydney commented. “Are you sure you even had a Kit Kat today?”

“Yes. It’s Friday and I’m sure I packed it.” Her mother would only let them pack chocolate in their bag on Fridays. Not that Sam even checked their lunch boxes anymore. Serina had just decided to keep the habit of only one per week. Apparently, Emmett hadn’t.

“Then yeah, it was probably him. It’s a shame he’s so hot.” Sydney sighed. “Attractive bad boys are my weakness.” Serina eyed her friend. Was it really a weakness when most of the “bad boys” her friend fell for were fictional? Like Serina, Sydney had never managed to land an actual boyfriend. They had both managed to go on some dates over the course of their high school career, but no boyfriend. Her thoughts drifted to her current affair with Ryder, the lifesaving Lycan and the hero of her latest read. The boy could kick ass then turn around and stop the bleeding. Yeah, real guys were ruined for her forever.

“He isn’t that attractive.” Serina said, returning to their conversation.

“You’re only saying that because he’s your brother.” Sydney objected. “But to the rest of us, he has that whole Liam Hemsworth thing going on. I mean have you seen his abs?” Serina cringed. She’d never look at the Hemsworth brothers the same way again. “And speaking of hot.” Sydney continued, ignoring her best friend’s obvious discomfort. “Zack is just as cute, maybe even more so with those deep dark eyes of his.” A shudder went down Serina’s back. Okay, so Zack was pretty cute. But he was also an A-hole. She told Sydney as much. Syd laughed. “Okay, so we just need two guys who look like Zack and your brother, but like rescue kittens and write poetry and stuff?”

“Eww. No. Give me a morally grey supernatural, with a dark past and mad machete skills any day.” Serina said. Sydney frowned at her.

“I’ve got to lend you something a little more set in this reality.” She told her. “How do you feel about motorcycles?”