A Shade of Halloween Book 1

Chapter Three

Mr. Ross went on with the class, but Selena stared at the screen of her cellphone, waiting for Alex's reply. It never came. He probably had his cellphone in his bag while his head was buried in a mountain of textbooks somewhere. The library was like his second home which made his going incommunicado for long periods of time nothing out of the ordinary.

"Miss. Messy Brown Hair, can you please tell the class the major reason behind the ill feelings that developed between the United States and Latin American countries in the early twentieth century?"

Selena lifted her gaze from her cellphone to meet the stares of the forty-five other students in her class. She felt like shriveling into dust and floating away through the windows. For starters, she didn't have 'messy brown hair'. Her hair was brown alright, but despite the fact that she didn't use a flat iron that morning, no one could classify it as messy. It was straight, just not celebrity straight.

"Um..."

Selena started, but couldn't find the words to continue. Latin American countries had ill feelings towards the US? How was she supposed to know that? Besides, there were a thousand possible reasons for any country to have ill feelings towards another country. How could she make a reasonable guess?

Selena heard the suppressed snickers from her classmates and felt the heat rising in her cheeks from embarrassment. The only thing worse than a dumb i***t in History class was an angry, red faced dumb i***t in History class. She wasn't about to be that girl, so she decided to take the honorable fall.

"I have no idea."

"Consider this your first warning. When I'm in class, I expect a hundred percent concentration." Mr. Ross snapped.

Selena could have sworn she saw his eyes flash bloodshot red for a split second but even the thought of it was ridiculous. There was no way his eyes could have turned red in front of everyone in class and no one else noticed. She was clearly losing it. Trying hard not to pout, Selena buried her head in shame and waited impatiently for the class to end. Mr. Ross turned back around and scribbled some sentences on the board.

"Everyone, your research assignment for this class is on the board. I expect a five paged summary by the next class." He stated, before gathering his teaching materials into his briefcase and walking out of the class.

Selena zoomed in with her cellphone camera and took a picture of the board. The research assignment was on the belief shaping myths of the early twentieth century. She had to turn in something good – to hopefully redeem her currently nonexistent image in History class. She knew the library had a lot of material on the early twentieth century and made a mental note to go there in the evening.

Once class was over, Selena called Alex's cellphone. It rang out. She didn't want to appear like a stalker or a person with no life by calling and texting multiple times within a short time frame, so she decided to give it a rest.

"I'll see him back at the dorm at the end of the day anyway."