Someone Like Her

Part Two

“Ugh, sorry, clearly I’m a straight-up space case today! JJ, this is Avery… Avery, this is my best friend, Jaycee.” the two turn to look at each other, both reaching out to shake hands. Avery turns back to me, a small smile hinting at her lips.

“I’ll see you around, okay? Don’t want to be late to two classes in a row on my first day!” she smiles and winks at me before turning on her heels to head toward the English hall. Jaycee, who is focused on me, has one eyebrow quirked up in question.

“So… she seems…” she lets her sentence trail off for a minute, seemingly searching for the appropriate word before continuing. “Different… I mean, she seems nice, but there’s something about her… I don’t know. I’m not sure about her…” I look at Jaycee, raising one of my eyebrows up her in question. “I don’t know how to explain it, Kota. I’m just not sure how I feel about her yet, and I’m not sure why… it’s just a feeling.” she shrugs somewhat apologetically. I let my eyes stay locked on her questioningly for another few seconds, then relax and playfully poke at her arm.

“What class do you have now?” I ask while turning to walk with her toward the science wing. She pulls her schedule out of her pocket and snaps it open with a sharp flick of her wrist. “Whoa, alright, showoff, it was a simple question!” I snort at my own joke.
“Ha ha… I have US History with Mr. Gaucher. I hear he’s pretty nice, so that’s a plus, I guess… maybe he’ll be cute; I heard he was pretty young, too.” she wiggles her eyebrows at me, making us both burst into laughter.

“Well, let me know at lunch because I have World History with him at some point later today.” I wiggle my eyebrows back at her, which again sends us spiraling into laughter. We reach the end of the hallway, and I gently nudge her shoulder with mine before splitting off to head down the science hall, before I make myself late and give Mrs. St. Germaine a reason to throw verbal daggers my way. I pick up my pace and make it into the classroom just as the bell rings. I can feel Mrs. St. Germaine’s irritated eyes burning into the back of my head as I make my way to an empty seat in the middle of the second to last row. Glancing around the room, I notice Tucker Nilson a few seats over from me. He hikes his chin up at me when he notices me, and I give him a small wave back. Tucker is Oliver’s best friend, and I’m actually kind of surprised to see him in this class since it’s a science elective and not a mandated class. Tucker is your standard meathead jock, who is all about partying any chance he gets. Mrs. St. Germaine gives everyone in the front row a stack of four stapled packets to pass back to the people behind them.

“Everyone take a packet and pass it back, then we’ll get started. I realize this is the first class on the first day of school, however, we have a lot to cover. We’ll quickly run through an overview of the class syllabus, and will be jumping into the first lesson today, so keep up. If you want a better overview, I suggest you read through the syllabus on your own time. And before anyone asks, yes, there will be homework tonight.” A collective groan passes throughout the room, and Mrs. St. Germaine ignores it. As she starts going over the packet, I hear a faint buzzing coming from my backpack behind me. I turn around as quickly as I can to grab my phone before the teacher hears it. I turn back slowly, relief washing over me when I see that Mrs. St. Germaine is still prattling on about the outline for the quarter, none the wiser to my buzzing cell phone. I unlock my screen and open my messages, the cause of the vibrating backpack.

So, how’s class with the dragon lady going?

Avery’s text once again brings a smile to my face. I type my response as quickly as I can without getting caught.

If I could get away with it, I would actually LOL right now! I managed to make it into the classroom in time; so far, so good!

I end the text with a thumbs-up emoji and hit send. Figuring Avery would respond quickly, I put my phone on silent instead of vibrate and placed it on my desk so it's hidden by the girl sitting in front of me. My screen lights up with a new message before I can manage to lift my eyes to the front of the room to re-focus on what Mrs. St. Germaine is going over.