Page 8 of Zodiac Hybrids

He nudged open the door and held it for me like a perfect gentleman. The only thing he and the professor had in common. Though it probably said a lot about the people I grew up around if a man holding a door for me stood out so much. Big city life hadn’t prepared me for polite and charming men.

A handful of other students were already there—more than I expected actually. There must have been seven or eight. Some possibly repeats from the previous year, but hard to say.

Marcus took a seat in the back of the class, where there was an open desk right next to him. He nodded to me subtly, and I didn’t hesitate to take the initiative. I cast him a silent smile as I settled in, feeling pretty proud of myself for having already made my first acquaintance.

Most of the class already seemed to know each other, as they chatted away without caring about the fact that the teacher was already five minutes late. I should have been chatting with Marcus, but I felt so awkward. I didn’t know how to start a conversation, and he seemed busy with his notebook.

The chatter didn’t settle down until a loud slamming of the door drew all of our attention to the professor.

… Professor Adrian Karras.

My jaw dropped, while the rest of the class looked between each other in confusion. His name wasn’t on the roster. According to the pamphlet, a Professor Chase King headed the Astrology Club. If I had known I’d be doubling down for a second period with a weird guy who sniffed me on first meeting, I would have picked literally any other club.

“Where’s Professor King?” A girl sitting in the front row asked. By her confidence, I assumed she was a sophomore.

“Professor King is currently on his honeymoon and will be taking the year off.” Professor Karras started writing his name across the board. Keeping his back to the class made it difficult to discern his tone. “But I’m more than happy to stand in for him for the year. I know a few things about the stars, too. I promise.”

“I’ll trust you.” The girl said, batting her eyelashes. I fought the urge to roll my eyes at the blatant display.

His nod was just enough positive reinforcement to give her hope, before he transitioned to his lecture. “So let’s start by going around the class and sharing our names and star signs.”

GROAN. The only thing worse than not knowing anyone was having to break the ice with people via an uncomfortable friendship exercise.

“I’ll start.” The professor flipped Chase King’s name plate over, and placed his own on the desk. “My name is Adrian Karras, but you can call me Professor Karras or Dr. Karras, depending on your preference. Those of you working towards STEM careers likely already know me, but I’ve been teaching at this school for about five years now, and I’ve had a lifelong tie to the stars. My birthday was in early January, so by the traditional Greek Zodiac, I’m a Capricorn.”

“So your birthday just passed?” The girl asked. “If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”

Seriously, so inappropriate.

“Thirty-four.” He shared, oblivious to her reasoning. So, twelve years. Again, not that it mattered. “Why don’t you go next?”

She beamed as she leaned forward on her desk, squeezing her boobs together with her biceps, so their ample size was obvious even through her uniform blouse. The girl was gorgeous, if I was being honest. The kind of person who was popular just for existing, who any man would dream of having on their arm. She deserved the attention the whole class was giving her right now, between her magazine good looks, well-honed confidence, that amazing vanilla perfume she was wearing that I could smell from back here, and her generally articulate and charismatic air. I might have wanted to be her friend too, if I wasn’t me, and she wasn’t… “Linda, twenty, Aquarius, and one of my favorite things are men who love science.” …Cringy as hell.

That kind of line probably got her places though. Maybe if I was more like her, I wouldn’t be sitting here being a quintessential—“Virgo” I said quietly under my breath when the spotlight fell to me. “Lila Denton. I’m twenty-two and really into space ships.” I added quickly, so the attention wouldn’t stay on me any longer than it had to. If Linda over here was cringy as hell, I was more awkward than a slutty dress in church.

“Marcus, Leo, twenty-six. I have a thing for nerds.” The subtle glance wasn’t something I planned to read any further into, but the butterflies in my stomach got all riled up over it.

“Okay, okay. This isn’t a dating profile.” The professor chastised Marcus with a roll of his eyes. Though he didn’t seem to have any problem with those kinds of answers from the girls. Funny how that worked.

“My bad.” Gaze now locked on the professor, Marcus cocked his chin back just a touch. “How about: I love long runs during the full moon.”

Professor Karras narrowed his eyes, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they knew each other. Maybe that was some kind of inside joke.

“Great.” The professor played it off like it was nothing, leading me to believe it must be nothing, then he started into his lecture. “It sounds like we have a nice range of different signs and elements in this year’s Astrology Club, so this should keep it interesting for the year.” He began. “So, let’s start with the current sign of the season, which you now all know I have personal vestment in: Being early January, we’re still squarely in the time of the Capricorn, which ranges from December 22nd to January 19th.”

He went on to sum up something about energy and planetary alignment, some other thing about Babylonian horoscopes, and blah blah blah voodoo and fortune telling nonsense. Though with the enthused and serious way he spoke about astrology, one might have thought he was talking about real, legitimate science. I’d hated the zodiac when Mom went on and on and on about retrogrades and compatibility, but hearing it in Adrian Karras’s deep voice was decidedly more tolerable. He was glowing even more brightly than he had when talking about physics, and he painted a fascinating picture, even if it was purely fantasy and legend.

I followed along, taking notes with the same exuberance as I might a class with actual tests, and I wasn’t sure how he’d even managed to get me swept up in it.

Though my reasoning for taking it so seriously was at least partially because keeping my face buried in my notebook helped me avoid the awkward stolen glances, whenever the professor and I locked eyes for a touch longer than a standard blink. That tiny bit of attention got my mind racing again, and I couldn’t say where all of these questionable thoughts kept coming from.

The awkwardness was only on my part, really, because he never skipped a beat, while my heart jumped ten every time I found myself in those turquoise waters. I had to keep reminding myself that he really didn’t care about me beyond that very brief and weird first encounter.

“Capricorns are insanely driven and ambitious, and they tend to charge forward, chasing their dreams rather than waiting and hoping for someone else to take the reins. They’re independent and born leaders, which can be thrilling for some and exhausting for others.” He said as he drew the symbol on the board.

Admittedly, the more he spoke, the more I was actually starting to like him. Or at least the him that he was letting us all see.

“Why don’t you tell us more about how Capricorns approach love?” Linda fluttered her eyelashes. Her grin was catlike, and her gaze, mischievous. I understood that Adrian Karras was pretty young for a teacher, and obviously he was easy on the eyes, but hitting on him in the middle of class seemed a bit desperate for a girl who had no reason to ever be.