Her Saving Grace

Ch. 12:

Sam's pov
The office lady told me to go to my locker first, get the books I would need then go to my first class. I had history first, one of my favorites when I was alive. "No! stop it " I said to myself. No looking back at the past.
I went to the bathroom checking myself one last time. Riley would have history with me, and I wanted to look my best for her. The halls were empty except for a few guys skipping together laughing at some joke one of them cracked at a younger kid walking past them.
I walked to the door and took a deep breath. Well here goes nothing. I turned the knob and shut the door behind me. The teacher, mrs. Hugh  was at her desk and all the students were at their desks doing what looked to be a test. A few people looked up including Riley , but they quickly dropped their heads back down as I was nothing exciting to them. But I saw her staring at me. Probably trying to figure out why I looked like she had seen me before . The teacher told me to find a seat. Just my luck the seat behind and to her left side was empty. I sat down and got out my notebooks from my backpack. I then pushed it under my chair as all the other people had. I felt her looking at me. I looked up and she was caught by surprise. She smiled politely and turned back to her work. I laughed inwardly. Poor girl was probably quite embarrassed.
After about 10 minutes of quiet the teacher collected the tests from everyone. She started her lesson and handed me a huge text book. The tired voices of the grumpy students chosen to read rung out in the quiet classroom. When the bell finally rang, I think every one let out a breath of relief. As people filled out, I felt someone bump into me, as I turned to apologize, I heard a shy sorry. Aw that was adorable. I turned to see my beautiful angel behind me. "It's fine" I smiled. She smiled at me and we started talking on the way to our lockers. Hers was about 10 down from mine on the opposite side of the hall. "So call me crazy but I feel like I've seen you before!" She laughed scared of my reaction. I smiled. " yeah um probably at a game maybe? Or the mall.." " you play sports?" She asked with a quizental look. "Uh I did. Erm at my old school. I did football and some track too. But I don't think I want to do sports this year." She gave me a look like that was cool. She kinda liked me, but she would like me more if I was like her. Into her types of things. Shit. I chose the wrong approach to her. I went for jock type but sweet guy. I knew I should have seen what she wanted. But I promised to never peer into her mind.
"Um could we talk more later? I should get to class.." I rubbed the back of neck, a nervous habit of mine. She brightened up a bit. " sure! How about at lunch?" She asked. I knew she was trying to seem cool, trying to figure me out, but I was doing the same. Except I had more of the upper hand. " sure! Um what time is our lunch?" I felt stupid asking but hey, I needed to know. She laughed at my question. "what?!" I asked. " something on my face?!" I felt my face frantically hopping she laughed along. She laughed even harder. And I was so glad it was guienue. " no no I'm sorry. Your new here and I'm being rude" she managed to breathe out. " sorry it's at 12:30. " I smirked. " ok thank you...uh ? I never got your name?"
" oh sorry my name is Riley. Yours?" She asked me. The bell rang as I answered. "Sam" I said. She nodded and went to her next class. As the hallways cleared out, I checked my schedule. I had wood shop next. On the 2nd floor. Great. I was already late. Oh well, I had an excuse. I made my way up the stairs to the last hallway. Some of the lower class girls stopped in their tracks and were speechless. Wow, was I really that good looking to them? Or they were just desperate for some guys arm to cling for so they looked good to their friends?
I walked in and there weren't many kids in there. Mostly the ones who liked art or needed the credit to graduate. The teacher seemed nice and open minded as he pointed to an empty seat at a table with 3 other guys. They looked like guys I could get along with. "Um hi I'm Sam and I'm new here, is it ok if I sit here?" I asked. What looked to be their leader answered me. He wore thick black glasses and a black sweater and blue jeans. His face was mostly covered in small patches of acne. "Uh yea sure. I'm Troy, this is Raymond and Caleb." I thanked them and asked what we were supposed to be working on. " a portrait of someone or any human type figure in a comic book style. " caleb answered me. I nodded. Easy. I took a spare pencil from the pile and a large pice of drawing paper and started working.