Chapter 4: Partners
"Charlie, it is nice of you to join us today." said the chemistry teacher. The young man's eyes darted to the teacher standing behind Teara. She was trapped between the chemistry teacher and this "Charlie." She hadn't been trapped like this before since that night a week ago. Terra feigned a cough to get the two people to move. It was like a sandwich, and she was the meat in the middle. Charlie moved to one side so she could get by. Terra looked up at his eyes and thanked him with a smile, then walked to the back of the classroom and sat down at a desk. She slammed her books onto the table, which made everyone around her jump up. Terra smiled a lazy smile, then put her head down on top of her books.
"Hi..." said a startled young man. "I think..I am..uh..your..uh...lab..partner..." Terra turned her head to face his and sat up. She looked into his eyes and nodded her head, and then laid her head back down. Her new partner shrugged his backpack off his shoulders and took a seat next to her. Terra flipped her head around so she was facing her partner. "What's your name?" she asked with a polite tone.
Her lab partner looked startled by her question and the fact that she wasn't mute. "My name is..uh...uh..um..." Teara's left eyebrow was raised a little higher than the other, which meant that she was confused by his lack of a voice. "His name is Fulton, and my name is Charlie." Said a young man standing beside her lab partner. Terra looked up at Charlie and smiled. "Hi, Charlie." She looked back at Fulton and said "Does he always interrupt your sentences?" She laughed and put her head back on the table.
The teacher stood up from her desk and went to the board to write something. Terra whispered to Charlie, "I am thinking that it would be better for you to sit down at your table with your lab partner. I understand that you two are friends, but he is my lab partner, okay?" Charlie had a bewildered look on his face, but he turned around and stalked back to his desk and set down next to another boy. Terra shook her head absentmindedly put her head back down on the desk and watched the teacher. The teacher had finished what he was writing on the board, so Terra took out a notebook and started copying the notes when her lab partner started to talk to her.
"Don't be so mean to Charlie. He has had it rough the past couple of weeks. He won't tell me or any of the other guys what is wrong, but I know that it is not just his ex-girlfriend. It has to be something else, but he won't tell us." Fulton was taking notes too, but not from the board. He was copying her notes, which she was fine with.
"Can you not see the board?" she asked in a whisper. "I mean I don't care that you are copying my notes...I was just wondering." She stopped writing notes and looked over at Fulton. He looked startled by her question, but shook his head no and said, "I can read the board, but it is easier to see yours since they are right next to me."
Terra smiled and returned to writing her notes. That class passed by pretty quickly, and she even liked her lab partner. He was cool, but she didn't know why he was friends with Charlie, but then again, she did not know Charlie like Fulton obviously did. Terra walked out of the class and headed towards her next class, which was Algebra 2. Fulton caught up with her. "What's your next class?" Terra smiled at her lab partner and replied, "Math." Fulton said you are going the wrong way to math. Geometry is back there..." Terra interrupted him and said, "I am not in Geometry, I took it last year. I am in Algebra 2." She laughed at him and told him, "It's okay, most people think that about me too. It's fine, really. I can find my own class. Bye, Fulton." She walked down the hall, and opened the door to her class with Fulton gawking back at her.