The Dating Game

Chapter Thirty-Five

Justin

My time at home during the holiday had left me with an unprofitable time to research the different inanimate objects I could sculpture in Woodwork class to impress Mr. Renaldo.

Five objects to mantle were easy enough. But then another proposal seeped into the train of thought. That's why on the first day back at school in the New Year, my mission was to locate Mr. Renaldo considering we had Woodwork later that day.

And after this preceding morning with the dispute with Juliet, I knew I had to do something to make it up to her. She was obviously feeling down about the heart condition revelations and the fact she was squandering away any chance of a relationship – with me or anyone.

"Sir," I said, catching Mr. Renaldo just before he was about to bustle into his room with his freshman class. "Could I just have a quick word please?"

"Of course, Justin," he said, befuddled. His brow was creased and the skin between his eyebrows was protruding outwards. "Is there something the matter? Hold on a minute, though." The door had closed to the room so he opened it again and shouted in, "Sit down in your seats and wait patiently for me please." The door closed and through the glass, everyone was ambling slowly to their seats.

"You know before Christmas we used a few lessons on the last week to start producing our sculptures?" I began.

"Yes," he prompted.

"And you said I was ahead of schedule having already sculptured one basically and there will only be a few minor details to do?"

His head slanted to the side and his arms crossed over his chest. "Perhaps I see where you're going with this."

"And this might be a little awkward telling you this considering you're my Woodwork teacher and I've known you for four years, but I need to make it up to this girl."

"The girl from the Halloween Fair," he offered.

"Yeah. And I was going to make her something. It will only be small and it shouldn't take longer than a lesson."

He was contemplative for a moment, wavering with his decision. "Alright, fine. But I hope you know I expect top marks from you now, right?"

Beaming, I said, "Thanks, sir."

He smiled back. "Am I alright to get back to my lesson now?"

"Yes, sir."

And that left me to meander absently to Math class where Miss Nellie was awaiting my presence. So far, she'd been rushing through the syllabus so we could inevitably finish early and have lessons at the end before our exams to have additional practice. When I got into the class, nearly everyone was seated. There was only one remaining.

"Mr. Bieber, I'm glad you could join us," Miss Nellie declared, turning around from writing our lesson objectives on the board. This was a recent modification to her lessons.

"Yeah," I muttered, bustling past to my seat.

I had previously closed the door to the room but before I had managed to pull out my seat and essentially scrap the edges of the legs on the floor, the door opened again. My eyes mechanically turned to the door and my body was immobile. Juliet had burst through the door and she was stood in the threshold. Her eyes were fixated on me. The class was silent.

"Miss Royal and Mr. Bieber, I would prefer it if you two could sit down in your allotted seats so we could proceed on with the lesson as I have produced a lesson plan.

"Sorry, miss," we both muttered.

Pulling my chair out and plonking myself down in my seat, Juliet scurried to her own seat. I heard a few mutters of fabricated rumours being exchanged from person to person. As well as the rudimentary Royal comments – they were always being thrown in with the mix to add to this concoction already.