blind-sided

chapter eight

AFTER A WEEK OF SUCCESSFULLY avoiding Jamie, I thought I'd gotten rid of him for a least a while when he appeared in my robotics club, plopping himself down next to me as I was trying to connect two wires, causing me to slip and have to start all over again.

"I hate you," I glowered, maintaining my focus on the robot, hoping that this electrical link would make the device work. I could feel it in my blood.

"What is it?"

"What does it look like?" I sassed back, concentrating as I knitted my brows, my tongue sticking out a little as I squinted my eyes.

Almost there I spoke silently in my mind and held my breath as the robot instantly came to life, my work finished.

"Finally!" I sighed and pulled away, admiring my device as the little robo-dog took a few steps around the floor.

"Huh, impressive," Jamie gave me a look and I shrugged, biting my lip.

"Eh, it's nothing," I waved the compliment off and picked up the robo-dog, finding the on/off switch I installed and flicked it off. It quieted down and I walked over to the counter, placing it on top.

Jamie followed after me and leaned over my shoulder as I started to dig through the scrap metal bin, wondering what else I could make.

After finding a few pieces I liked, I noticed Jamie staring at the row of robots on the counter. I tapped his arm and said, "I made about 80% of those."

Jamie shot his eyebrows up at that and I waggled mine, taking my pieces of metal back over to the work desk I was using. "You made all of those?" Jamie's voice was impressed but also full of disbelief.

"Not all, 80%," I corrected him, arranging the metals out and wondering how I could use them for my next project.

"Do me a favor. Grab one of those design templates over there," I pointed behind me and I heard Jamie shuffle over. He then set the template down in front of my face, watching me get to work.

"So what do you want?" I kept my focus on the paper, tapping my pen on the desk in thought.

"Oh, well I wanted to talk about our project. The first assignment is due tomorrow and I just had some questions about where you got your answers," at that I tore my gaze away from the template and tilted my head in his direction.

"What questions?"

"I don't know, I just know you're a lot smarter than me. I just want to be able to understand before the test," Jamie pulled up his backpack and started to unzip it but stopped when I asked, "Don't you have football today?"

Jamie tightened his jaw but shrugged, putting on a light smile again as he handed me his packet. "Coach let me skip today."

I didn't exactly believe that but I flipped through the packet anyway and set it down between us. I looked at Jamie, his face studious as he analyzed over the pages, confusion flickering over his brown eyes as he silently murmured the equations I'd done.

"What don't you get?" I leaned towards him, my elbows propped up on the work desk.

"This part, right here," he pointed to it with his finger and I could see how he got confused.

"Okay, so what you're gonna want to do here is..." I began to go through the steps again, glancing at him ever so often to make sure he was still with me. He nodded his head once in a while and would interrupt if I was moving too fast. It didn't take him long to understand, but by the time I was finished, robotics club was almost over.

"Sorry you didn't get to start your next project," he apologized and I shook my head, signaling that it wasn't a problem.

"Helping you understand was more important," I zipped up my backpack and started to put my other things away, placing the template to the back of the room so I could finish it next time.