CHAPTER 4: Escort me?

"Hey!" I heard someone shout behind me. I turned around to see if the person was referring to me or not.

Zach. He was still a few yards behind me, looking at me. I decided to stop and wait.

"Good thing you have art class fifth period." He said as he approached me. We started down the pathway.

I arched my eyebrow, confusion written on my face.

Zach explained. "This campus is huge." He emphasized on the "huge".

"I don't think I could find the art class by myself." Zach whispered leaning towards me, as if he just told a horrible secret about himself. Anybody could tell that he was being sarcastic.

"Oh? So what? I'm your…guide or escort or something?" I asked jokingly.

"Well, since you offered…Sure." He replied with a smile on his face.

He didn't see me roll my eyes.

"So, you said that this campus was huge," I made sure I emphasized on the "huge" just like him. He smirked. I continued, "Is that a good or bad thing?"

"I'll get back to you on that." He replied after a few seconds of silence. I gave him a questioning look and he explained, "I still need time to think about it."

"It's not that much bigger than West Point, right?"

"Yeah right. This is so much bigger!" he replied. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Are you being sarcastic?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

He laughed and admitted, "Guilty. But it is a bit bigger than West Point." He ended his sentence with a regular tone to his voice.

We entered art class and was greeted by Mr. Robleto by the door. He took our names, marked it on the attendance sheet, and told us our assigned seats.

The walls of the room had paintings of people, and valley and mountain sceneries. They were beautifully painted and drawn. Some of the pictures had a little black scrawl on the bottom right hand corner. On my way to my seat, I peered at the painting to read my teacher's name.

The art room consisted of six large square tables, each with six stools. Zach and I were assigned to table four, in the back of the room. We sat next to each other. No surprise there. It was obvious that Mr. Robleto assigned our seats based on when we arrived to class.

We took our seats. Four other people were already there: one junior guy, one freshman guy, one sophomore girl, and one junior girl. The class consisted of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. So, we didn't really know one another. The class was mostly silent instead of the regular chatter as in the other classes.

"Good thing we came together. At least I can sit next to somebody I know than a stranger…," Zach said to me, he paused looking around the classroom. "Like…that girl over there." He nodded his head towards table six. The girl just sat down on her stool, wearing a shirt showing her cleavage and a short jean skirt. She was the last one to enter the classroom. The stool besides her was empty.

"Good thing you found me after lunch or you wouldn't even have found the classroom. Or would have arrived late to class and would have had to sit next to her," I replied back, looking at the brunette-haired girl who was sneaking glances towards our direction.

"Then aren't I lucky?"

Mr. Robleto started the class by introducing himself. He was a new teacher to the school, was in his late 20's/early 30's, and was married.

He passed out sketchbooks to everyone in the classroom. We copied some art terms into the book.

"So, do you know how to draw and stuff?" Anthony, the junior, asked our table; interrupting the silence.

"Not really," we all replied at the same time. It was awkward this whole time, but the tension seemed go away.

"Do you?" I asked Anthony, who was sitting towards my right. He was tall and had black hair.

He laughed. "No way."

"I'm just taking this class because it's like USC approved or something. You guys too?" Randall, the junior girl, replied.

"Yeah," we all answered back.

The bell finally rang, ending class. All the students rushed out. I didn't know where Zach went off too; he exited the classroom before I did. I started walking down the pathway towards the gym when Zach suddenly appeared beside me.

"Whoa!" Where'd he come from?

"Thanks for just ditching me escort-slash-guide." He took out his schedule from his jeans pocket and unfolded it.

"What?" I asked a bit exasperated. I was about to argue when he interrupted me.

"For sixth period I have athletic P.E. at the gym." He read on the paper.

He looked at me and said with a smirk, "Care to escort me there?"

"You know where the gym is." I retorted back. The gym is almost the biggest building on campus, with big letters on it reading: GYM. Nobody can miss that.

"And for your information, girls aren't supposed to walk guys to there class. Guys do that."

"Well, I do remember reading on your schedule," he waved his schedule in his hand, "that you have athletic P.E. too. So, I guess I can walk you there…since you insist."

I laughed.

"What sport do you play?" he asked as we walked past some people.

"I'm on the tennis team, you?"

"JV or varsity? I play a lot of sports." He answered back.

"JV. A lot of sports huh? Like what?" I prompted.

"I have soccer this semester. I also play baseball."

"Soccer's fun."

"You play for fun?"

I laughed. "No, but I used to watch my brother play AYSO, its fun watching," I admitted.

"You don't want to play soccer?"

"Huh? …Well, my parents found out about AYSO when they had my brother, so I didn't have the chance to play when I was little."

"Oh."

We now approached the girls' locker room.

"Well, see you around." I moved towards the girls' locker room door.

"See ya." He waved bye and continued walking towards the boys' locker room. The dirty-blonde haired guy who Valerie thought was cute, came up to him and started talking.