A/N: I have been busy for a while with finals and semester changes and band stuff, so sorry about not updating right away. I'm working on getting into a habit of updating often but then again I lie all the time when updating so yeah... awkward. Hopefully y'all will like this chapter.
Carter Kane left his sister's class in a hurry to get back to his own. He didn't think that his teacher would be impressed with him if he returned to her class later. And he really needed her to like him. Once he saw no other teachers nearby, he sprinted towards Mrs. Smyth's room. He failed to notice the 'Caution Wet Floor' sign by the broken drinking fountain in the upperclassman's history section so he skidded across the floor. Luckily, he managed to grab the door to his class.
He opened it and soon faced the short teacher. "Mr. Kane, I hope you have a good explanation for being a minute late back to class?" Mrs. Smyth was the strictest teacher in the building and unfortunately the least forgiving.
"Mr. Blake, um, struck up a conversation about Egyptian history with me."
The pudgy woman raised an eyebrow but let it slide. At least for now, her eyes seemed to say as he walked past her. He slipped into the vacant seat by Zia. Nobody but him would really want to sit by a 'towel-head' like her. And this fact irritated him. That was his girlfriend they were talking about.
Most of the jocks and popular kids were arrogant jerks just like on TV. Sometimes Carter just wanted to take one of his many textbooks and slap them into next week. There may have been some nice kids in that crowd, but they blended in pretty well with their nastier friends. They let their friends treat everyone 'beneath them' like dirt. And that made Carter's anger pretty hard to control.
"Hey Z," Carter mumbled under his breath.
She must have heard him because she whispered back, "Hey. Are you done kissing up to Mrs. Smyth for the day?"
He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I think she's made it clear that I am."
She smirked. "So you admit that you are trying to win her over by being her academically inclined slave?" She joked lightly. Contrary to the belief of most other students, Zia had a sense of humor. Though it was mostly used in teasing her boyfriend.
"Oh ha-ha. Real funny, Z," the curly haired boy replied.
Her smirk faded back into the same neutral expression that was normally seen on her face. "Just don't get too caught up in trying to impress Mrs. Smyth just because you want a scholarship to get into Yale. You can get in on your own if you try hard enough."
I am trying, he thought, trying to make everyone proud of me.
They turned their focus back onto the blackboard in front of them. In messy handwriting, the question, 'What is History?' was written in the middle of it with yellow chalk. Zia had to squint in order to see what was written.
"Isn't that what this class is supposed to tell us?" A low voice grumbled two rows behind the couple. Carter glanced back at whoever said it. It was Walt Stone.
"Walt, the question is supposed to relate to us and what we think it is, not the class," the blonde next to him whispered. Carter knew her too. She was the prettiest and most popular girl in school, but that description wasn't exactly what he came up with. She was Jaz Anderson, the head cheerleader and unofficial head girl of Clearview High.
"Hello?" Jaz asked when she noticed Carter staring. Walt raised an eyebrow at him. Carter turned his head away, embarrassed, leaving the couple confused.
"What was his problem?" Walt muttered to Jaz.
She shrugged. "I don't know. But is that…?" She glanced over at where Carter was sitting at the person next to him.
"Is that who?"
"Zia Rashid," Jaz finished her previous question.
"Zia Rashid?" Walt repeated with curiosity.
"That girl I was talking about at lunch before class started," she said to him.
"Oh. Her?" He shrugged. "Maybe."
Jaz was about to respond when Mrs. Smyth bellowed, "Quiet class. Now take out a sheet of paper and answer the question on the board." She grabbed a small piece of yellow chalk and underlined the written prompt for emphasis. The room burst into quiet chatter, begging for supplies, and the occasional laugh directed at Mrs. Smyth's red pants, sweater vest, and seventies hair style.
A folded up piece of paper sailed in between Jaz and Walt labeled, 'From Courtney'. Jaz's eyes looked back and forth before snatching it up and opening it. 'Oh my god Jaz, Smyth's outfit is totes ugly. Where does she shop? That place where towel-head Rashid works?' it read. Jaz rolled her eyes. She wrote back, 'I know it's ugly but what makes you think she'd get it from wherever this towel-head person works?'
Jaz sent it back from where it came from only to get it back ten minutes later into the period. 'Towel-head = Zia Rashid. And she works at that weird history shop where all the old things go for 20% off on Tuesdays.' Jaz laughed at that. 'Okay. But I think Mrs. Smyth's more ancient than anything in there.' She ignored the towel-head thing for the lack of wanting to argue about it with her friend. Plus Courtney probably wouldn't listen.
The notes exchange went on throughout class to the point where Jaz was heard by the people on the front row during the classwork period. An irritated Zia turned towards her. "Can you be quiet?" she requested sharply.
"Sorry, just talking to my friend," Jaz explained.
"If you call talking writing notes like people did in middle school," Zia mumbled to herself.
"You don't have to be so rude about it."
Zia sighed. "Just be quiet for all our sakes."
"Both of you ladies will be silent in my room during work time," Mrs. Smyth's voice cut in, "or you will receive detention on the first day of school." The two nodded at the teacher and looked down at the text book scavenger hunts in front of them.
"Hey, Jaz," Walt whispered, "where is the French Revolution in this book?"
"Somewhere between the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution," Jaz answered.
"Gee Jaz, thanks for the specific answer," Walt said sarcastically.
She opened the book to the glossary. "Here," she pointed, "page 312."
"Thanks." He smiled at her.
"So basically the Opium Wars was pretty much a giant drug war?" Zia asked Carter, amused.
"It was about trading actually, but the opium was a big part of it," Carter said smiling at her expression.
Zia nodded. "Right, but we both know the rest of the class won't see it that way."
"Yeah." Carter noticed two jocks in the corner of the room playing paper football with a folded up syllabus. "They definitely will if they even bother to remember what they are actually about."
"True," she agreed, scanned the book for more things to put on the worksheet.
The bell finally rang and let the students free. Zia and Carter were the first ones out and on the way to Gym. On their way, they passed Sadie whose face was a light pink. "Sadie," Zia acknowledged the younger girl. Sadie didn't answer and kept walking. "What is wrong with your sister?"
He lifted his shoulders in a small shrug. "Who knows with freshman girls?"
Zia chuckled and playfully knocked into him. "We still have another class and I may get the chance to beat you around the track." He laughed back and put an arm around her shoulders.
A/N: Hehehe. What is with Sadie? Could it have something to do with her last class? Did the mystery character not yet introduced in the story strike up a conversation with her? When will we finally get past the first day of school? All answers will be revealed in the next installment of... this story. Let me know what'cha think and have a nice day.