Chapter 2: I Walk to Second Period with a Stranger
I'm sure none of you would be surprised if I said that the girl from earlier was sitting two seats away from me but I sure as heck was. There she was, in the flesh and laughing silently. For a split second I thought I was daydreaming so I whipped my head around to look at Ricky to my left but saw that he was in as much shock as I was. What are the bloody odds that I'd develop a crush on someone in my first period class.
"Alright, alright. Quiet down everyone or I'll assign homework tonight for all of you and not just Mr. Storm. I expect a paragraph on the the history of sarcasm on my desk tomorrow morning at eight sharp." Mr. Filler had on a grin bigger than the Cheshire Cat himself. Oh I hated this man.
"The next order of business is seating charts," cue the groaning, "and don't even bother complaining Mrs. Cobble created the seating chart for all of you." He almost sounded salty at that.
We all stood up, tucked in our chars, grabbed our bags and walked over to the wall as we waited for our name to be called. I didn't even bother paying attention to who was sitting whereas my mind was preoccupied trying to determine whether to talk to the new girl or not. She seemed very shy and anxious which made me feel bad for some reason. I realized I was tall enough to see over her head which meant she was either really short or I was getting taller. Probably the first one knowing my genetics.
"Blake, back left corner," Mr. Filler calls out. Yes, back of the classroom, I'm so lucky. I walk past Ricardo who just happens to sit ahead of me and sit down in my back corner seat. Thank you Mrs. Cobble. Our annoying sub clears his throat and announces the next name, "Zoë Jackson." Who else would it be but the new girl. She blushed for some reason before walking to the back of the room and sitting down next to me.
A few more names were called out before everyone was sitting in a desk and ready to start the icebreakers. As we began saying our name and our favorite music genre, I looked out of the corner of my eye at Zoë. I didn't realize how long I'd been starring until Mr. Filler said the most embarrassing thing on earth. "Storm, stop checking out your new classmate and tell us your favorite music genre!" Every single teenager in the room began laughing except for my friend and oddly enough, Zoë. In fact she was blushing?
Once the room quieted down I answered, "Country sir. I like country music." More laughing and the same situation with the two people sitting around me. Huh, weird. Than the craziest thing happened when Zoë answered the question with the same answer! My first thought was, "Is this girl sent from the gods? She is 100% my type" but then it was followed by, "Oh crap I have feelings for someone I know hardly anything about."
Mr. Filler released us for the rest of class which meant we had fifteen minutes to talk about our summers. Ricardo went to go talk to his soccer teammates which left me alone with this girl. I turned to face her and noticed that she was looking at her hands in her lap just fidgeting with a BB8 mini figure. I stared at her for what must've been for five minutes before she asked me a question that was very embarrassing, "Why are you starring at me?"
"Uhm..." was all I could manage before she looked up and smiled at me. God's of Olympus she is beautiful. It's a Percy Jackson phrase don't judge me.
"I'm just kidding Seaweed Brain. Smile, I won't bite you."
"You've read Percy Jackson?" I asked incredulously.
She laughed, "Yeah, it's my favorite series in the world. My parents based their lives on it."
"Wait, did they change their last name to Jackson and name you Zoë like Zoë Nightshade?" I might actually be falling in love with this person.
She snorted, "Something like that. They know the book like they lived it." It looked like she was trying not to laugh but I couldn't figure out why. Maybe there was more behind what she said. I don't know I won't judge.
"What do you have next period?" Zoë asked.
"Geometry, how about you?"
"I have geometry too! Mrs. Coal?"
"Yeah, no way, that's awesome!" From there, we compared schedules and discovered that the only class we didn't share was our elective. I was going to be taking tech theater and she was taking art.
We continued to get to know each other. I found out that she is an only child and lives with both her parents, she has a dog named Betsy, and that she does competitive dance for fun outside of school. I also found out that she just got back from a summer camp yesterday. Who has summer camp coming up to the day before school. Her family is originally from New York but they moved out west for a more suburban life. The entire time we talked, I knew I was blushing but I didn't care. She seemed like she was willing to actually have a conversation with me and when it was my turn to share, she didn't interrupt or make fun of me at all. I'm seriously questioning how someone like this would bother talking to me. Sure, I'm the main point guard on the basketball team but I'm literally a twig, how could someone more beautiful than every teenage movie actress be willing to hang out with me.
After a few more minutes of chatting, the bell eventually rang, signaling that we had all officially survived our first class of the school year. Zoë and I decided to just walk with each other to class rather than split off because she didn't know anyone but me yet. I didn't mind because it meant I got to know her a little more. I couldn't how much we had in common and how easy it was to talk to her. I didn't feel like I needed to put on a facade at all so I had immediately let if fall down so she was seeing who I truly was as a person. I saw the occasional "cool" eighth grader who would pass us and say "Blake's got a girlfriend, Blake's got a girlfriend" and then they'd keep on walking. Zoë kept blushing tomato red but I was used to this treatment so only my temper was hitting red.
Right before we were about to enter our English class, one of the more annoying eight graders, Alex,came up to us and asked "Who is this Storm? Your new girl?" Only problem is, he didn't use girl. That was when I snapped and reared back my arm to punch him but I was stopped by a soft hand resting in my shoulder making me drop my arm and stare down at the culprit questioningly.
"Don't stoop to his level Blake, let's go," she glared at Alex before hastily entering the classroom dragging me along with her. Good gods she's got a strong grip. We found seats at the back of the room and sat down.
"Hey, I'm sorry he called you that. Alex is a jerk and loves to say the dumbest things. He's just a big bully. He only picks on me because I'm an easy target apparently. I didn't mean for you to get caught in the crossfire," my face tightened with concern when I realized that her nails were digging into the palm of her hand. Oh boy this might not end well. I gulped down my saliva before reaching over and resting my hand upon hers which caused both of us to blush. Was I getting too close on our first day knowing each other. (A/N Let Me Know in the Comments) It felt natural for some reason and not only did I notice her body relax, I noticed my own body begin to relax. We sat in our desks in this position for what was only seconds but felt like hours staring into each others eyes and I didn't even notice that our hand and become intertwined.
"You two in the back, turn around and stop holding hands!" we heard someone bark out at us making us jump back to reality. I quickly spun around in my seat and looked towards the front of the classroom. It was at this moment that I realized that everyone was smirking at us. Great first impression right? Our teacher Mrs. Coal didn't seem upset, rather amused at our reactions to what had happened.
"Now that everyone is facing forward and no PDA is about to happen, how about we start with some icebreakers and get to know one another," she announced as the classroom erupted in groans. At least my classmates' attention would no longer be on me and my cru... new friend. You didn't see anything, you didn't hear anything, nothing happened. Ignore that.
After about twenty minutes of just icebreakers including "would you rather" and "this or that", everyone had started to warm up to one another with the exception of one Zoë Jackson. I casually walked over to stand by her and whispered in her ear, "Hey, are you okay. If you don't want to do any of these, you can just tell Mrs. Coal, I'm sure she'll understand."
She looked up at me and smiled. "I'll go tell her right now then. Thanks for understanding Blake." She walked up to Mrs. Coal, explained whatever was going on, and she went to the back and sat in her desk smiling. I notice her reach into her backpack and pull out the Lightning Thief which made me smirk.
"Alright class, Marvel or DC," Mrs. Coal questions. No surprise everyone moved to marvel. We continued to do games like this for the rest of the period. I would continuously glance out of the corner of my eye towards one shy girl reading her book in the corner but never once made it obvious, or at least I hope not. I began talking with one of my classmates from last year. His name was Daniel and surprisingly, we discovered that the two of us had a lot in common with this little icebreaker game. We eventually started needing out about Pokémon.
We were in the middle of discussing whether Ash's Pikachu or Eternatus would win in a battle when the teacher told us all to sit down in our seats from the beginning of class. We quickly exchanged "See ya later"s before going back to our seats. I sat down and turned to see how my new friend was doing and discovered that she had decided that one of the best books in the world was an amazingly comfortable pillow. Her head was lying on the open book, her arms wrapped around her head on the desk and her body was hunched over. As much as I wanted to let her sleep, I knew the bell would be ringing soon so I decided I'd gently wake her up. I poked her arm which apparently was the wrong move. Her eyes shot open and she sent a fist flying in my direction which, unluckily for me, landed right on my nose.
Once she realized what happened her widened to the size of 8 balls and she immediately began fussing over me. Girls are so weird. Mrs. Coal walked back to find out what happened and I explained it to her. She wasn't too worried because I'd had worse injuries so she dismissed the class and wished us a good rest of our first day.
"I am so sorry. It was instinct. I didn't mean to hurt you Blake," Zoë wouldn't stop apologizing as we walked to out next classes. She had art and I had tech theater but they were in the same building.
"Really, it's fine. I have survived worse. I gotta go this way to class. Meet up for lunch?"
"Sure, see you then!"
"Bye, have fun in art."
And for the first time today, I walked away rom my new friend.