Playing Hero

Chapter Two: Julian Evergreen

              *Your smile makes you pretty, but your personality makes you beautiful*

Our school was divided into the typical high school movie. It was like high school molded into a movie as more and more high school movies came out.

You had your usual, popular girls that concluded of the cheerleading squad, dancers, and Surprisingly chorus crew.

The athletic crew; Football and Basketball.

The nerds or in my words the students who want to make something out of themselves.

The emo crew, as they punked out to their rock music.

And the bad kids. The ones who have troubled homes or want to fit in in the worst way possible.

Then you have the kids who don't have a label. But is just the background kids in the movies.

Entering lunch felt like a quick flash of what life was like back in Martin Luther King time's.

Everything was similar except the black vs. whites part. If it was one thing about this school, everyone was united. Just in their way.

The sound of a crash whipped me out of my head. I heard laughter, and soon the whole cafeteria laughed.

From the popular kids down to even the nerds. I looked at the scrawny kid that stood in the middle of the room with meatball sauce staining his button-down grey shirt and milk dripping over his pants.

"Aw did little Benny pee his pants?" A guy I recognized to be Jamal Black, the Captain of the basketball team, stood and taunted the poor guy. I shook my head in disgust as they pushed him around as he stood there taking all the bad things they said about him.

I didn't know the boy, but I knew of him. Since sophomore year, he has been the flame and he attracted all the moths. But not in a good way. I never knew nor understood why they picked on this ONE kid. I knew nobody stood up for him because they didn't want to be the next victim. Even the other kids add to his already troubled life in school so they won't be next.

I sighed as he ran out of the cafeteria in shame and I could have sworn I saw the tremble of his shoulders as he cried.

I was tempted to run after him but I saw Sasha wave at me from our little table and I made my way over to her.

*

"Alright. Today is the first day, but that doesn't mean I am going to take this year easy on you. You have been in this school for four years now, so you should know the system." Mr. Brown spoke. He was 12th grade's Science teacher and from the other students, he was known as one of the good ones. He gave it to us hard but also knew how to have fun. He joked around and wasn't a teacher but was one of us. A student.

Science was one class I was good at, thanks to my parents I kept an A in this class for as long as I could remember.

"I have assigned you a Science project that's due in 2 weeks. You will be partnered up according to this bowl right here-" He held up a glass bowl that was halfway filled with folded white papers. "You will pick a paper and the folded paper contains the name of your partner."

Some people groaned while others stayed focus. "Any questions?" His dark eyes roamed over the class as he licked his lips. He nodded to a student who asked the dumbest question.

"What's the assignment?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm getting to that" Mr. Brown chuckled as he walked back to his desk and leaned against it folding his arm.

"Alongside, your partner's name is your assignment. You each have a different project, but that doesn't stop you from giving a full report as detailed as possible. You don't have a limit but please-" He paused. "Don't bore us to death, keep it simple yet college worth ready and keep us on our toes. I don't need to hit the grave early."

We laughed as he started to pass around the glass bowl. Students picked at it and grabbed the folded paper.

As I picked up mines, I unfolded it reading the messy handwriting on it.

Julian Evergreen; Measure the toxicity of silver-mercury amalgam fillings.

Julian Evergreen?

I looked around the classroom, seeing everyone partnered up and chatting away. No one came up to me, so maybe the person didn't know who I was?

I walked up to Mr. Brown and he looked up from his laptop.

"Yes, Ms. Jack?" I handed him the paper and shrugged.

"Sorry Mr. Brown, but Who's that?" He read the paper and a grin painted across his face as he looked up at me.

"Julian Evergreen huh." He smirked and sighed. "He's absent today but I will give you his contact information and you can message him introducing yourself yeah?"

"I guess so, Thank you!" I smiled at him and he scribbled down some things on a piece of paper and handed it to me.

"There you go."

I took the paper and nodded walking back to my seat.

Julian Evergreen. I tapped my pencil at my lips as I tapped in the phone number into my iPhone and fired off a quick text to the number.

~Hi! I'm December Jack. Uh Mr. Brown gave me your contact info, we have a science Project today for the first day and I'm your science partner. I'll give you the details of the project.

It sent through and I snapped a picture of the folded paper containing the science project title. Just as I was about to send the pic, he responded.

Julian: December? As in the month. I assume your favorite holiday is Christmas?

I raised a brow, about to respond but the three bubbles popped up indicating he was typing again.

Julian: Are you Santa's daughter? If so, tell him I've been begging for a car filled with cookies and I've been a good boy this year.

Julian: Nice to meet you December.

I shook my head. I already knew I would have my hands filled with this one. I laughed lightly imagining a car filled with cookies.

~Sadly, I am not but It's nice to meet you too.

He sent me a sad emoji before sending another winking emoji. I didn't respond but slipped my phone into my pocket as the bell rang for the next class.

Julian Evergreen.