21 Jump Street (Tom Hanson)

Tag, You're It

Narrator's POV
September 1989

The typical school day was going by very slowly for Andie Peterson. It was the beginning of the autumn season, so she was wearing a brown sweater and dark jeans. Her favorite rain coat was resting against her chair, and her dark brown hair was lazily styled for the cold school day. Her elbows were resting on top of her desk and she was mindlessly tuning out her teachers lecture to the class. The sky was gray and she was gazing out the window, watching two raindrops trickle down the glass slowly. She made a bet with herself to guess which would make it to the bottom of the window first.

She was interrupted from her mental gamble when her teacher called up everyone's attention. She looked up to the front of the class and took regard of the new kid who was standing beside her physics teacher.

Andie looked the guy up and down and instantly became infatuated with his look. He was wearing a thin gray tank top with a pair of loose blue jeans and a brown leather jacket over his arm. He ran his fingers through his messy brown hair to push it out of his face, which made almost every girl in the class lose their gum. He had a silver chain around his neck, as well as a black punk cuff on his wrist. It appeared to be that he wanted to be anywhere but that class.

Andie thought he instantly became one of the most attractive boys at school. He demeanor was careless, but in reality, he was doing a scan of every student in the classroom. Tom Hanson was undercover to investigate a series of drug dealings around Padua High School.

Tom was working alone because his partner, Mickey, was tying up some loose ends after their last bust. She was mostly working at the Metro Police Department Headquarters for the day, and she decided to stick around there and help with the paperwork side of things so Tom could focus solely on the school.

The teacher pushed her large square eyeglasses up her nose before she said, "class, this is Tommy McQuaid. He just transferred in from Taft, and it's his first day. I want y'all to make him feel welcome. All right?"

The class answered in slight murmurs and grunts. No one really cared that there was a new kid, even though it's odd to have new kids in the middle of the semester. All the girls couldn't take their eyes off of him, Andie included. Tom didn't bat an eye. Andie thought this made him even more desirable.

"Tommy, why don't you sit next to Andie, over there?" The teacher said, which made Andie twitch her head after she heard her name. It broke her from her trance, and Tom made eye contact with her. The power of jealously that the other girls in class felt after that announcement could have powered a lightbulb.

"Over there?" He asked while chomping his gum obnoxiously. He pointed over at Andie and she pretended to act busy by searching through her bag for a pencil. She felt her face grow warm and her leg started bouncing gently to try to release some of her nervous energy.

"Yes. You can be her partner for our assignment for today."

Andie's eyes peeked up at Tom as he slowly trudged down the aisle of tables and stopped at hers. He peered down at her and chomped his bright pink gum and he slumped down to the chair. Two students could fit at each table, and her usual partner was out sick that day.

"Hi," Andie said to him in a small voice. She wasn't quite sure what to say to him. His dark brown eyes met with Andie's sparkling eyes, and she felt herself melt towards him slightly.

"Hi, Andie," Tom said in a gruff voice that made her shiver.

"How do you like Padua so far?" She asked to try to make conversation.

"It's good," Tom said with a sniff. "Lotta squares around here."

"Depends on who you know," Andie chuckled softly.