Courtney walks into her first period class- Algebra II. This class was easy to her, but she couldn't focus in the classroom very well. All the other students talked through out the whole period, which drove Courtney crazy. She really wished they'd learn to focus their energy on something other than a brand new pair of shoes or last night's basketball game.
But on this particular day, everyone was talking as normal until Courtney strolls in. She looks at the faces of her peers and senses on a few of the girl's faces something that seemed like jealousy. But that wouldn't make any sense. Courtney shakes her head and sits in her seat beside her boyfriend. Possibly that's why they looked like that- Sure, Alejandro was really sweet and not to mention not bad to look at- but that feeling's never been present before.
"Hello Courtney," Alejandro smiles, helping her with her many books.
"Hi Alejandro. You wouldn't believe-"
"Did you get my homework done?" he asks hopefully, then more urgently whenever the teacher shuffles in, messy hair and papers falling to the ground behind him.
"Yes, but honestly, you won't learn anything if I always do it for you," Courtney says as she hands him a neat paper.
"You've told me that, but I just don't understand any of this," Alejandro says, then turns to her and smiles. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Courtney returns the smile, then turns back and straightens out the papers on her desk.
"Good morning class," the teacher starts, sitting at his desk. The whispers immediately stop and the teacher smiles. "Okay. We will be doing an essay over the fundamentals of Algebra and-"
"An essay in math? That's outrageous!" a girl in the back shouts.
"Well, we needed extra grades and that's the only assignment I could find-"
"Courtney's family's lawyers will sue!" another girl shouts out and Courtney frowns.
"Excuse me," she says, sitting up straighter and glaring at the girl. "I believe I will say whether I'll sue the teacher and his assignment or not. I think it's an excellent idea. Maybe then you guys would use what little brain cells you have to focus."
The class groans and go back to whispering about her as she turns away.
"She's so stuck up," she hears from the other side of the classroom and her gaze drops to the papers on her desk.
"It's due next Friday," the teacher says and turns away to seclude himself from the classroom.
Courtney looks up and sees her teacher. His sort of long, messy light brown hair, his silver rimmed glasses, and is undeniable way to drop and or break anything he touches. Why would he become a teacher?
"Did you guys see the news?" their teacher, Mr. Anderson, says as he pulls up a page on the computer. He clicks on the overhead screen and it shows the local news website.
The headline reads, "Local teenage girl almost killed by drunk driver. Near-by Samaritan pushes her out of the way, saving her life."
Courtney skims down the page as her peers do, and picks up bits like "driver was going 90 mph" or "unsuspecting girl was saved". Honestly, it made her sick. Mr. Anderson scrolls down and everyone gasps whenever they see a picture of Courtney. Where the picture of her savior should be, it shows a picture of Duncan laying in the hospital bed. Duncan's face was bloodied and he was hooked up to machines, looking like he was dying.
Courtney hears gasps and turns to see all of her classmates staring at her, shocked. She groans, not liking the attention. Was it her fault that she was at the wrong place at the wrong time and Duncan just so happened to be present to help her? If she could, she would go back and just pay attention so he wouldn't have helped. It would've made everything so much easier. Whispers pick up as everyone stares at Courtney and pointing their fingers.
"What the fuc-"
"We don't use language like that in school, Jeffery. Principal's office," Mr. Anderson says firmly.
A tall, brown haired boy mopes as he shuffles past everyone and out the door, cursing his luck.
"Courtney, do you need anything? You don't have to do this assignment if it's too much for you to handle right now with that.. trauma you went through," Mr. Anderson says from his desk and everyone glares at her with jealousy.
"No, it's okay," she says. "I can handle it."
Mr. Anderson sighs and nods. Courtney looks away and starts to work on both hers and Alejandro's essays while Alejandro talks to the more 'popular' people of the classroom on the other side of the room.
"So, why are you with that prude chick?" a guy by the name of Mark asks, running his hands through his light blonde hair for the millionth time. "I mean, sure she's hot, but she's really rude and stuck up."
"Well, she's mainly the only reason why I'm passing all my classes," Alejandro says quietly, grinning. "I have other things to focus on and if I keep the charm on her, she'll do my bidding."
"Then you mean she's totally manipulated?"
"Yes, mi amigo, she's in my grasp," Alejandro says and smirks, knowing Courtney'll never find out. She doesn't ever hear him, and he's been saying things like this for how long? A month? Two? He couldn't remember. Probably since he asked her out.
Courtney starts shuffling papers and places them in her bag when the bell rings. She stands up and waits for Alejandro, but he walks out without noticing her. She looks at him in disbelief, but hugs the binder closer to her chest and walks to her next class by herself. When she enters the classroom, she sees Alejandro talking to Heather. The cursed girl was going to trick him into liking her! Courtney's mind races with accusations whenever Alejandro waves her over. She looks at him, surprised, but walks over nervously. Here she was, standing by her boyfriend, the girl she despised the most, and her two henchmen. Er, henchwomen.
"Take a seat," Alejandro smiles, pulling a stool from a nearby desk and placing it by them. She focuses her attention on the chemistry supplies and chemicals in a glass case behind the four while she sits down. Alejandro and Heather go back to their argument and Courtney sits their awkwardly, rewriting the problems on last night's chemistry homework to make them neater.
"Class, please move back to your desks," the teacher says, standing as straight as she could at the front of the room. Her posture was excellent, but everyone knew the reason she stood up so straight was because she was so short. She tried to make herself taller to seem more intimidating, but it just made her look even more helpless. Her fine, white hair was piled high on her head and she fixes the cuff of her purple work suit.
Courtney admired her because she made everyone focus. No matter her height, she made the jocks run in fear of her yardstick she carried around with her. She was one heck of a lawyer back when she was younger, but she got discouraged after losing her fifth case in a row, so she retired her lawyer position and became a chemistry teacher. Her name was Ms. Purcell, and she was Courtney's favorite teacher. Although Courtney couldn't care less about the subject she taught, personally because she didn't like chemistry, she'd stick through it so she could be around Ms. Purcell. Such a good role model.
"Everyone, we will be taking notes over Chapter 13 today. Go get a book and begin to pull out information you deem important. Then for the last ten minutes of class, you will study," Ms. Purcell says, her sharp gaze going out to the class. Everyone cringes in fear except Courtney, who gets right to work.
"My star pupil," Ms. Purcell nods to her as she passes, walking towards her desk.
Courtney waits for the words of 'take it easy' or whatever, but Ms. Purcell leans in.
"Don't think that just because you were in an accident yesterday that you can get behind on your work. Take a break if you need it, but just be aware that we'll be moving on, whether you're ready or not. We can't afford for you to hold everyone back," she says. "Understand?"
"Completely," Courtney nods.
"Good," Ms. Purcell says, straightening up.
Ms. Purcell makes it to the very back of her classroom and everyone moves to their friends' desks. She usually allowed her students to work together, as strict as she was, because she knew they would anyways. Only time most of them were separated was during a test, which was to be expected.
Courtney starts reading her textbook whenever she feels a sharp tap on her forehead. She looks up and sees a paper airplane laying on her desk. She looks around to see Heather waving to her.
"Read it Courtney," she says in her sweet voice, but Courtney could sense the bitterness in her tone.
Courtney's eyes narrow and against her better judgment, she opens it.
"I heard about you're little 'incident' a few days ago," it read. Courtney sucks in a deep breath and continues to read. "It's pretty pathetic. Talk about a damsel in distress."
Courtney's eye twitches as she grabs a purple marker that was near by and scribbles furiously. "It's not like that! Any pedestrian standing by would've done the same!" she writes, then crumples it into a ball and throws it. It hits Heather in the face and she growls while Courtney tries to hold back a bitter laugh.
Heather stands up and crosses the room, standing in front of her desk. She leans forward, staring her in the eye. Courtney's cold expression mirrors Heather's.
"I wouldn't have," Heather whispers harshly, then straightens up and walks out of the classroom right as soon as the bell rings.
Courtney growls and stomps out the door, following Heather. Lindsay and Beth rush around her to follow behind Heather and Courtney walks faster, grabbing Heather's shoulder and turning her around.
"The only reason you wouldn't help anyone is because you don't care about anyone but yourself," Courtney says, her eyes narrowing.
"That's so not true!" Lindsay says, turning around to face Courtney. "She cares about me. And Bess."
"Beth," Beth corrects quietly, holding her hand up half-way, but gets hushed by Heather.
"I just don't think it's attention you deserve," Heather says, looking down at the slightly shorter girl in front of her.
"Nor is it any that I want," Courtney grumbles, narrowing her eyes before pushing past Heather and her cronies and making her way to her next class. Heather stares after her, her hands clenched into fists.
The classes pass with lots of whispering and pity given from everyone. At lunch, Courtney strolls in normally. She picks the table in the corner to sit at and walks over, trying to ignore all the whispers and stares as she sits down.
'Oh, not this again..' Courtney mentally groans as she opens the brown paper sack in front of her and pulls out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"Courtney! Thank gosh you're okay!"
Courtney looks up to see Bridgette, her blonde surfer friend, exclaim and sit beside her.
"Me and Gwen were so worried!" she wails worriedly.
"Yeah," Gwen chuckles slightly, sitting down across from them.
"It's no big deal you guys-"
"Of course it's a big deal! I could've lost you!" Bridgette cries, hugging the girl tightly and dampening her shoulder.
Gwen sighs and gives Courtney an apologetic smile. "She's been really worked up over it."
"And you haven't?" Courtney asks and Gwen chuckles.
"I know you wouldn't go down without a fight. You'd probably dent the vehicle with your fist rather than your head," Gwen says and Courtney chuckles.
"You got that right."
"But what about the guy who saved you? He looks pretty beaten up," Gwen says, pointing to a cut out magazine article and sliding it across the table to Courtney. "Is he okay?"
"I, I don't know," Courtney sighs, staring down at the picture. The image of Duncan laying there burns into her mind, and the guilt shows on her face.
"Don't feel bad Courtney. He was just doing what was right," Gwen says, patting her hand. "It's not your fault."
'But it is.' Courtney thinks as she closes her eyes, a migraine appearing.
The rest of the day passes by uneventfully and Courtney starts walking down the sidewalk in the direction of her home after school when her phone rings. She looks down and her face brightens when she sees the hospital's number flash across the screen.
She answers and waits while Dr. Wulfe is talking. Although, the last thing that was said made Courtney gasp and grin ear to ear.
"Duncan has woken up, and we would like you to come visit him tomorrow," Dr. Wulfe says.
"Thank you!" Courtney says and hangs up, excited for the next day.