Could this be some sort of trick? Was there a student phone tree I hadn’t been informed of yesterday or at orientation that had been activated last night due to my arrival? Had they called each other up late last night to devise a plan where they somehow lured me into a false sense of security so they could corner me in the girl’s restroom alone after lunch in an attempt to drown me in one of the toilets?
Death by toilet, not a pretty picture.
Death by fellow crazed students, even less pretty.
Both royally sucked and toilet water would probably do some serious damage to my hair. Goodness, I’d lost my mind.
As I made my way to my first hour I glanced through the lingering students clumped together now more suspiciously than I had been when I first entered the school building. No one paid me any mind. Which made me even more suspicious.
I breezed into the classroom at the very last second and just as the bell rang. The first bell. The second one would ring in exactly sixty seconds and you were expected to have your butt in your seat by then, or so I’d been told at orientation. Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, I realized I’d made it to school just in time to avoid having to rush and possibly making a spectacle of myself. And, bonus, no one watched my awkward climb out of Mr. Cole’s sweet ride.
Very carefully, so as not to trip over some A-hole’s purposely outstretched foot, I made my way to the desk I had occupied yesterday. The desk right next to Tyson’s. The seat was empty and waiting for me. I slid my backpack off my slender shoulder and gingerly sat down in what I thought of as my seat. I was
far too paranoid to place my backpack down on the floor and out of my sight where people could potentially mess with it, so I laid it upon the top of my desk. If I needed to I’d place it on my lap, but I’d not be putting it on the floor and out of eyesight. Not in any of my classes.
A glance to the side told me Tyson had made it to class before me and had claimed the same seat he had occupied yesterday. I wanted to look at him so badly just so I could study and memorize every aspect of his handsome face. Which was insane, right?
His body shifted slightly as he moved in his seat beside me. I couldn’t not look at him. His cold, dark eyes met mine. They were a lot less cold and dark today than they had been yesterday. I didn’t know what to think about that, but I wasn’t certain sure I liked it. Due to his behavior the day before, this boy was not to be trusted. I shouldn’t concern myself with whatever it was that had slightly defrosted his eyes. Nope, definitely not. I shouldn’t be interested in this boy at all. I couldn’t seem to help myself. If I were honest with myself, I’d admit that even though he’d snarled at me he hadn’t lied to me when he said he was being nicer than others would be. That didn’t mean he’d been nice, though. I needed to remember this. It was important, first impressions were important.
A shadow fell across my desk. My entire body tensed in anticipation, expecting the worst.
When nothing happened, I made the first of many mistakes to come throughout the day. I looked up and over, meeting the dark, dark entirely defrosted gaze of my next door neighbor who was a dick, according to gossip, had no friends and never talked to anyone at school but had (for some fucked up reason) picked me to snarl at. He had been a dick and now he leaned across the aisle towards me with a non-hostile look on his face. Non-hostile, but definitely guarded. His eyes didn’t move over my face, they didn’t roam over my body as most teenage males did in order to seek out any and every inch of skin I had (or in my case didn’t have) offered up on display. No, not Tyson. His eyes stayed locked onto mine.
I held his stare, neither of us blinking.
What was this?
A challenge?
The careful guard over his eyes told me he wasn’t trying to challenge me, he was simply curious and wary.
Silently, we stared into each other’s eyes until the teacher reined in the class and forced our attention to him. I was breathless and trying really, really hard to keep my shaking from becoming obvious and visible.
What the heck had just happened? What did he think he was doing? What the heck was he doing? Not so nice one day, then silently trying to stare me down the next without words and hostility. Did he have multiple personalities and had decided to skip his meds with his breakfast today? I hoped not. Why else would he look at me in such a way? A questioning, probing way?
I was baffled.
And intrigued. God help me, I was intrigued.
The pregnant man in front of the classroom clapped his hands twice, loudly. All eyes were on him, including my own. I didn’t like my first hour teacher. He, like the majority of the students, had no problem being an A-hole. To me. He wasn’t pretty to look at but we looked at him all the same because he commanded us to do so with his strong presence and A-hole personality. I’d like to think it had to do with not wanting to be his next victim of the hour and less to do with him being an actual good teacher. The jury was still out on that one.
“If you didn’t catch it yesterday,” he turned his beady eyes my way and glared at me. What a dick! Granted, I hadn’t heard a word he said yesterday after he told me to take my seat next to Mr. Tyson but I had a damn good reason and he knew it. “My name is Mr. Franklin. Today I want you to find a partner. I want you to ask each other questions and get to know one another. Tomorrow I’ll expect each of you to hand in a paper telling me what you learned, your first impression of them, what you like or don’t like about them. Write it all down. I’ll hold onto them until the end of the semester where I’ll have you write another paper, but we won’t get into that today. Choose wisely because the partner you pick today will remain your partner for the entire semester. And I mean it, so don’t even bother to ask me later if you can’t get along. Your teenage drama and your ridiculous, superficial problems have no place inside my classroom.” Again, he glared at me. Seriously, what had I done to deserve this treatment? “If you cannot pick a partner on your own come and see me and I will help you. Now get to it.” He clapped his hands twice, like he had done to get our attention, this time to release us.
Several students groaned. I didn’t, but I wanted to. What was this, elementary school? I wanted to restart my day so I could have my Bug not start for me and be smart enough to just get my ass back to bed so I could sleep through this entire shit show of a day. And this was only first hour. I fought the urge to drop my head on top of my desk and start banging it over and over again until I blacked out from the pain.
Nobody would want to be my partner and then I’d have to approach Mr. Franklin about it so he could be a dick to me. Who’d want to get stuck with the girl labeled as the freak show. I hated those stupid jocks more by the second.
A hand smacked the top of my desk. I looked up to see Tyson leaning into me. My mouth dropped open and I stared up at him with wide, startled eyes. What now?
“You and me, girl.” His voice was rough when he wasn’t snarling at me. It washed over my skin, making me shiver. I liked it. “We’re gonna be partners.”
Oh.
Well, shit.
“Uh…” I cleared my throat and blurted the first thing that came to mind. “I don’t particularly want to be your partner.”
I cringed. Now why had I said that out loud? Good grief.