Three's Company

1.17 | Four People, Then Four Words

Four People, Then Four Words

mistake: [mi-steyk]; noun; an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.

    "Alright, we're starting class." Mr. Hunter called the English class together around fifteen minutes after the bell rang, silencing the students around him and making his way to the front of the classroom. Everyone ceased in their conversations and looked up to the front of the room, awaiting his instruction obediently.

    "I'm going to be straight with you kids," Mr. Hunter spoke after waiting for the noise to calm down, "I don't feel quite like teaching today."

    "We figured that when he sat at his desk for the first twenty minutes of class." Caleb Halpon whispered from behind Felix.

    "Fifteen minutes." Sasha Corrian corrected him.

    It was only the beginning of December, and yet the person with the biggest case of senioritis in a class full of seniors seemed to be Mr. Hunter.

    "Anyways," the teacher continued, "I do not want this class to be wasted for you students. Yet my desire to not teach remains all the same. Therefore, I have decided to make you do partner work."

    The class was immediately split into three parts by their own doing: the popular kids who always had their person to partner with, and the less-than-popular kids who had to settle for the absolutely atrociously nerdy kids as their partners, and said atrociously nerdy kids who had no preference of their partners, and would prefer to work alone. The popular kids made immediate eye contact with their partner of choice; Caleb Halpon with Sasha Corrian, the reason that the cheerleaders and basketball players could now speak to each other, Ethan Meek and Nova Desai, who had become remarkably close in the past few months despite Ethan Meek's ongoing relationship, and each cheerleader finding a jock to call her own.

    All the popular kids found their match except for one.

    Jessica Anastos sat in her seat, head down, clearly ignoring everyone around her. She didn't say a word as Felix watched her, flipping through the book in front of her without so much as a glance at any other human being in the room.

    "Yeah, right." One of the less-than-popular kids said from beside Felix, "Like you're going to be able to partner with her." The kid looked Felix up and down, "Just look at what you're wearing."

    Felix felt his face grow red and looked away, ignoring the rising tension inside of him that asked what he would do. He couldn't partner with Jess. He couldn't speak to Jess. They were in public.

    "Find your partners and read Chapters thirty-one through thirty-three to each other for the remainder of class." Mr. Hunter said, "Go."

    Everyone stood and found their partners immediately, except for four people: Jessica Anastos, Felix Brannon, a basketball player named Thomas Ryte, and a slightly unattractive girl named Hailey Barker.

    Jessica and Felix made immediate eye contact, either out of habit or out of hope, Felix had no idea. He just knew that he wanted to be able to be with her, and talk to her, and show off how much he liked her. But he couldn't.

    All at once, the feeling in the room shifted, and Felix could feel the eyes of everyone on him, wondering, whispering, about why in the world he was standing in the middle of the classroom, staring at the most gorgeous and loved girl in the school, as if he had even the slimmest chance of speaking to her at all.

    Jessica's eyes showed that she wanted to be able to speak to him, and be with him, but they both knew that they couldn't. As the tension in the room grew, she made the first move: she rolled her eyes at Felix, scoffing at the mere possibility of partnering with someone like him, and walked over to Thomas Ryte, taking his arm and sitting down across the room, leaving Felix to sit next to Hailey Barker and wonder why in the world it had taken him so long to realize the blatantly obvious.