You Sexy Thing

Confusion, the act of confusing or being confused. Its synonyms include bewilderment, perplexity, uncertainty, disorientation, disorder. It is a certainly obnoxious state to be in, especially at a time when full focus, attention and understanding are required. When one is confused, it is hard to organize and comprehend thoughts. Therefore, confusion is definitely a hateful situation and unfortunately for Meredith, she has to live with it for the next few hours. If it carries on until Thursday, she'll be pretty much screwed.

Meredith doesn't understand anything right now. She's supposed to be working on her French homework, but instead of composing a friendly letter to an imaginary friend named Danielle Rousseau she's lying on her bed staring at the ceiling without fully knowing why. She doesn't understand why Bolton seems to hate her – the whole no-talking-in-class rule still hasn't completely registered in her mind. She doesn't understand why her new lab partner, a certain George O'Malley whom she never knew existed until Bolton reassigned her as his new partner, wouldn't seem to stop glaring at her for the rest of the period. She doesn't understand why the Stingray is always on her tail. He's beginning to annoy her, but unfortunately Meredith can no longer have her schedule changed if she wishes to keep her electives. Lastly, Meredith doesn't understand at all the reason why Derek asks her out a few times and then just quickly shifts to another girl. Maybe it's because no one's really asked her out before, but then it's such a blur why of all the girls Derek would ask out, it would be Alexis. Or Alexia. What was it again? Alice… yes, Alice. And he calls her "nice". Meredith doesn't understand that, either. It's not that she should be blamed for it; Alice is as dumb as they can get.

It takes about two hours before Meredith decides to put off French homework for tomorrow à cause de son confusion. She seems to be too overwhelmed by everything going on and it's such a terrible situation to be in. Falling asleep is easy once again, but then before doing so Meredith makes sure that her alarm is set. It would be such a shame to be two hours late for school tomorrow. Her lullaby is a slurred melody in her head that she recalls from her father way back in the good times when her family was whole. Meredith falls asleep quicker than usual, and she is still wearing the long-sleeved olive green sweatshirt she wore to school today with a pair of shorts she threw on once she got home. It's already a surprise that she was able to change smoothly without toppling over in her disorientation. A deep sigh is all it takes, and Meredith's confusion dies as she enters an unfeeling void.

-

She wakes up in a flash, like how she really is on usual days once she hears her alarm sound off. Meredith follows her usual routine of taking a quick hot shower that lasts six to eight minutes followed by quickly changing to the first decent outfit that enters her mind. Today, it is a coffee-coloured graphic t-shirt and whitish pants with a pair of Chuck Taylors. She heads downstairs to make her breakfast and today she's having a bacon and egg sandwich for the road, along with a can of orange juice. Everything happens so quickly, and Meredith is out of her house by 6:45.

Living about twenty blocks from school, Meredith drives her red Mustang to school and is there by exactly 6:57am. She casually walks to the cafeteria to finish her breakfast and by 7:15 she would have enough time to walk to her locker to drop of her bag and collect her books and then navigate her way to her first class. Today her schedule consisted of PE, Humanities, History, Algebra and Art. Meredith finds it a relief that she doesn't have Bio today, which means that she doesn't necessarily have to see Derek for the whole day.

Phys Ed isn't one of Meredith's strong points, but she exerts enough effort to do her best each lesson. For the first few weeks, her class (which consists of tenth and eleventh graders) would be out on the field for football (ehem, soccer). It isn't until after the warm-ups and stretching that Meredith realises that the George O'Malley from Bio class is also in her PE. Coincidence also placed them on the same team for today's game.

"Hey again," greets George when he sees Meredith on his team.

"Hi," Meredith greets in return. "I'm Meredith."

"Yeah I know," he smiles (which Meredith finds cute) and then adds, although incoherently, "You're my lab partner… I mean I'm you lab partner… like you know how Bolton moved your seat yesterday… well I mean… you know… hi…"

"I get it," Meredith interrupts, chuckling.

Their team's leader is a Korean junior named Cristina. Her calm appearance is deceptive to the fierce creature within. As she gives her team instructions, Meredith can only listen in awe at the other girl's confidence and aggressiveness. She could only wish she'd be that way, except that Cristina got tripped over by the opposition, fell, and had to sit through the rest of the period in the clinic.

-

During lunch, Meredith spots Derek in the table where they sat together the past two days, but instead of heading toward him she takes a swift detour to the table where George and Cristina sat. During her first day, Meredith didn't even realise that the table existed because of how overwhelmed she was by the inauspicious majority of the cafeteria. George and Cristina were also with a tall blonde named Isobel, who also seemed like a nice person. Plus, Derek's still sitting with that girl, Alice; Meredith doesn't like her at all.

"Hey, can I sit here?" Meredith inquires discreetly. "Someone else took my table."

"Oh, sure," George says openly and even scoots over to accommodate her. "Here."

Meredith smiles at him. "Thanks."

"So, Meredith, you take Advanced Bio too, huh?" Cristina suddenly asks. "George just told me that you two are lab partners."

"Yeah, do you take it too?" Meredith responds.

"Yup, I'm in the other class with seniors."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously," Cristina repeats Meredith's question as a reply, and then shoves a forkful of lettuce in her mouth. "And Izzie, of course."

"Izzie, you're already a senior?" Meredith asks, clearly interested.

"Yeah," she replies shyly.

Meredith scans the lunch room and spots Derek in their table with that girl, Alice. And he's not just with her. He's also all over her, too. Meredith grimaces at the sight because she's disgusted, she's upset and she's jealous. Oh, hell she's jealous. Evil burning in her eyes, Meredith is at the brink of running to the parking lot and then ramming her car into the two. But of course, she loves her car and she doesn't want to get expelled. That would totally kill her chances of doing Ivy League. George catches her attention by placing his hand on her shoulder. If it had been a cold touch Meredith would have bitten it off, but lucky for him this wasn't the case.

"What?" Meredith asks impatiently.

"Whoa, chill… well um…"

Izzie suddenly broke out into a laugh. "Oh, I gotta hear this one."

"Well this Friday, um, tomorrow, a bunch of us are gonna watch a movie," says George sheepishly. "You know, I was wondering if you wanted to come with us."

Friday… isn't that the day that Meredith and Derek are supposed to watch a movie together?

"Sure," Meredith responds without a second thought. "That would be… great. Thanks."

George sighs in relief. "Cool."

"But you know what, I don't think I can go all of a sudden," Cristina says out of nowhere. "I just remembered… I have to go to tutorials."

"On the first week?" George asks uneasily.

"You know what? Me too." Izzie adds. "Sorry guys."

And the two disappear into thin air.

Meredith raises an eyebrow at George. "So, who else is coming?"

George hesitates for a moment. "Well… when I said 'a bunch of us', I kinda meant Cristina and Izzie, so that just leaves, you know…" He makes a gesture where he points to Meredith and then himself. Meredith stretches her lips across her cheeks in a sort-of smile to show that she gets it. George bites his lip. "So, do you mind if it's just you and me? I mean, I didn't know that they'd suddenly back out like that. You know… they totally said they were going. I have no idea what happened. But if you're backing out as well, there's nothing wrong with that… except you know… I'll have to watch the movie alone and…"

"You're stammering," Meredith interrupts. "Don't worry, I'll watch the movie with you." She places her hand on top of George's, which lies nervously on the tabletop. She's not sure if George is new as well this year, but he sure looks like he is. Meredith is sure, however, that George doesn't like being alone, so she'll grant him her company. Besides, if Derek asked Alice to a movie as well, chances are they'll see each other at the cinema. And if fate would place them in the same movie theatre, then that's something.

"Come on, let's go to class." Meredith suggests as it's already 1:10 and their last class would start soon. Art is Meredith's last class, and for George it's International Studies. Meredith teases him about the Stingray and warns him about the teacher's threatening appeal. George sighs in a low hum of anxiety, and Meredith softly says "see ya" before the two part and drift off to their respective rooms.