-William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
"Well," she released as if she had just witnessed something disturbing. "I see your dilemma Erik... I'll tell you what I'll do; I'm going to write an explanation note to the principal and he can write you another note to give to your other teachers so you won't have to... er... explain..." Hurriedly, I made my way to my next class through the empty hallways.
All eyes were upon me as I opened the door to the Chemistry room. A short man with thinning gray hair and watery brown eyes frowned at my late entrance. I blushed and stood helplessly in front of him, not knowing where my seat was.
After a moment he spoke, his voice low and accusing. "You are late... Miss Daye," he said accusingly, looking at his grade book.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Ballinger. I'm new to this school... I guess I got lost..." I replied softly, hoping he wouldn't notice the lie that I choked up.
He seemed to soften. "All right. Just try to be on time from now on. You sit in the middle row, the end seat next to the empty one." To my surprise, Erik, about ten minutes later, walked through the door and went towards the front of the room to give a note to the exasperated teacher. As Mr. Ballinger read it, students whispered and snickered at Erik who was standing rigidly, exposed to the whole class.
I clenched my fists tightly, I wanted to stand up on the desk and dance around, anything to stop them from tearing Erik apart with their eyes. Finally Mr. Ballinger, giving Erik an odd look, allowed him to sit in the empty seat next to mine.
When the bell rang, Erik got up quickly and left. I ended up following him through the hallway and up the stairs, his tall frame was easy to spot in the empty space that formed around him as he moved through the crowds of students. I caught up with him just as he was hesitating outside the door to the math room. I took a deep breath and approached him.
"Hello again, Erik. We seem to have a few classes together." He seemed surprised that I addressed him directly and nodded quietly. Allowing me to enter first, I again was conscious of his presence behind me. It was odd but not unpleasant, it felt like I was being watched over... by a guardian angel.
As in the chemistry class, the other teens whispered and stared at Erik as he let the math teacher, Mrs. May, read his note.
"All right, no time for messing around. We're starting right off with this question," she announced in a loud, firm voice once Erik and everyone else had been seated. "Who can tell me what the sum of 1 to 100, inclusive is?" I frowned. Wonderful... first day of school and I'm already confused... What was she talking about? I vaguely remembered something about that from my junior year but I was drawing a complete blank. Apparently so was everyone else... except Erik. Beside me, he had silently raised his hand no more than two seconds after she had asked the question.
She raised her eyebrows. "Yes, Erik? What's wrong?" she asked, clearly not expecting an answer so fast. None of us were, but I soon learned that it was unwise to underestimate Erik.
"The answer is 5050," he replied in a soft but certain voice.
Mrs. May's jaw dropped. "How'd you guess that?"
Erik's eyes narrowed. "I never guess, ma'am," he replied icily.
"Did you already know that problem?" she still looked amazed, as did everyone else.
"No, ma'am. I did it in my head," he replied.
Astonished, all I could do was stare at him like the rest of the class and the teacher were doing. Who is this guy?