The Rumor Mill

Ch. 22

Chapter 22

You know, I'm starting to think that maybe I should've thought this plan of mine through, because it's hard trying to talk to someone whose absolute goal in life is to forget your existence. And I'll be the first to admit that I screwed up by kissing William, then keeping it from James, but come on!

James is taking this to the extreme! When he said that he didn't know a Tracey Turner, I thought he meant it like I'm a stranger to him now. But no, he LITERALLY meant he doesn't know me, as in I'm not even in his presence. And first period is the worst...

"Good Morning class! Okay, I want you and your partners to pair up with another group so you're in groups of four!" Mr. Hart announced enthusiastically. Without a glance at me, James scooted his desk towards another group...I reluctantly followed. The girl had long wavy maroon hair with light green eyes that went perfectly with her tanned skin, she was pretty. The guy was African American with dark brown eyes and a short hair cut; a fade, he was cute. Our seating arrangement formed a circle, with me sitting in between the girl and the guy, James opposite of me.

"Okay! Now that you've done that, here's your assignment. I want you all to do a sleep experiment. You're going to choose two people in your groups who are going to have to stay awake for at least 48 to 72 hours. How does this attain to math you ask? Well, we're trying to see how lack of sleep can affect your math skills. Now I'm going to give you all these worksheets that have math problem on them.

"And the people who will be non-sleeping will be assigned to do them. And in class Friday, we will see just how important sleep really is. The other two people will have to keep track of the non-sleepers. You know, make sure they don't fall asleep, how they react to certain thing, and most importantly do the work," Mr. Hart explained.

"Well what about our other classes? Won't this experiment affect those?" I student in the back asked. Mr. Hart shook his head with excitement. "No, I've already talked to all the teachers during our conference. All you have to do is write down the names of the students who will not be able to sleep, and I'll send that list off to all the teachers," the teacher retorted.

As he started passing out the papers I turned towards the girl. Gosh, I don't even remember her name. "Hi, I'm Tracey," I greeted while holding out my hand. She looked at it and chuckled, but took it anyway. "Haha, duh, who DOESN'T know you? I'm Alicia," she replied. She seemed perky. I turned towards the guy. He was actually attractive, but not in a "love at first sight" kind of way.

When he looked at me, a smile appeared on his face, revealing pearly white teeth. "What's up Turner, I'm Leon," he greeted while shaking my hand. His smile was contagious, and I got infected. I smiled back and stole a glance at James, he was looking at Alicia, who was looking at Leon, who was looking at me, who was looking at James. Wow, talk about confusion.

I have to admit, I felt kind of jealous that James was eyeing Alicia instead of me, but who am I to judge, after all, I AM a cheater. Although his body was facing me, his eyes were looking at her. "So, who's gonna be brave enough to stay awake 72 hours straight?" Alicia asked the three of us as she pulled out a pencil and paper to write down the names.

I raised my hand to the height of my head...don't ask why. "I'll do it," I agreed confidently. Alicia smiled and nodded her head as she wrote down my name. "Me too," Leon agreed. Alicia quickly wrote down his name and handed the paper to Mr. Hart, who had just given us the worksheet.

"Alright, so I figured since we have to watch each other, we might as well have a daily sleepover until Friday?" Alicia questioned. We all nodded in agreement, apparently she's the leader of our group, and quite frankly, I'm okay with that. "We can't have it at my house, it'll be too many distractions with my little siblings," Leon replied to us.