Walking Away

One Step Ahead

Raven

I can't believe he was actually walking me to class. I mean, I think I'm in shock. What could Mark possibly have said? He didn't even look at the map - or my schedule, except for that once in the classroom. He must have a decent memory. I would have to remember that.

"Here we are." I stopped walking and looked up to see him holding a door. And then I realized I should definitely be walking through the door. And so I did, managing to trip over the doorstop  on my way. Triggering another blush that seriously did not need to happen.

By the time we had gotten there, almost everyone was seated. There were a couple of seats in the back that we headed towards, and then waited for instruction. Well, at least I was waiting for instruction. The guy, whose name I just realized I do not know, was messing with his phone.

"Mr. Lynd." the teacher, who I swear had just materialized out of thin air, approached us. Who is Mr. Lynd? She stopped at the desk next to me, and I realized that apparently that was my mystery tour guide's name. He looked up and smiled, turning his phone off and sitting it on the desk.

"Mrs. Brown, always a pleasure." he greeted her. Wow. Okay. I wonder if he took etiquette lessons, because I don't think that was normal.

She sat down a packet on his desk. "Here's all the contact information for your mother. I'm so sorry she couldn't come to orientation. The syllabus and introduction worksheet are due tomorrow." She stepped back. "I hope your first day is going well?"

He nodded. "So far, so good. I even met our newest student." he gestured to the side.

Mrs. Brown turned. "Of course you have. One step ahead, Jonah, per usual."

He laughed. "I don't know about that. Mrs. Brown, meet Raven Maralin."

Oh. Wait, I never told him my name. That was kind of creepy. Maybe Mark told him? I didn't think so. Now the teacher was looking at me. Okay. Okay. This is fine. I smiled, trying to look confident. I'm pretty sure I just looked scared.

"Nice to meet you." That was way too quiet. "Uh, this seems like a great class." And that was loud. I tried to find a happy medium. "I mean, it hasn't started yet, but I'm sure it will be. Once it does." I rambled on, the awkwardness fueling the insanity. She nodded in response, which was probably the polite thing to do when talking to insane people.

"Welcome, Mrs. Maralin." She seemed nice enough. With one more comment to the boy next to me, she left to the front of the room to get the worksheets for today. I turned towards him. He looked so composed. It wasn't fair.

"How do you know my name?"

He looked startled. "It's on your schedule." When I didn't respond, because duh, Raven, of course it was on the schedule, he continued. "However, since you haven't seen mine, my name is Johnathan."

Johnathan. But didn't the teacher just call him Jonah? No, I probably heard it wrong. I smiled, trying to look like I wasn't completely distracted right now. "Nice to meet you."

He just nodded and accepted the worksheet from the person in front of him. 

Ten minutes later, maybe fifteen, I was done with the worksheet and had nothing to do. So, like a stalker, I watched Johnathan. 

He had his head down, focused on his work. Not the worksheet, that was laying on the corner of his desk, already completed. No, now he was working on the packet he had gotten earlier, and it looked like he was about halfway through. He had nice handwriting, from what I could see on the worksheet. He shifted and I quickly looked away, not wanting to get caught.

Why is it so quiet in here? It's a classroom, not a library. But no one seemed to be talking. Well, they were whispering. I hope not about me. I started to fidget, tapping my pencil against the desk.

Soon enough I realized Johnathan was staring at me. I turned towards him. "What?"

He smiled, and it seemed like he was trying to be patient but was annoyed with me. "I know that this isn't the most entertaining class in the world, but could you spare both I and the pencil, and please stop tapping?" By the end he definitely sounded almost annoyed.

I nodded. "Yes. Yes, I could do that." He gave me a quick smile, which was nice but only lasted for a second, and went back to his work. I looked at my schedule. What were the chances he would walk me to my next class, too? I had just aggravated him with a pencil.

"So," I started. He continued working. Yeah, okay. Don't worry about it, it's not like you're killing my confidence here. "It was really nice of you to walk me to class. I mean, probably you just did it because it was your class too, which is great and everything because you're...a great conversationalist and all. I can totally see how you and Mark are friends." He smiled at that, shaking his head in response to my sarcasm. 

He stacked the papers and stood up, turning towards me and holding out his hand like he had earlier. I just looked at him. He closed his eyes for a second and then grabbed my worksheet, walking across the room to turn everything in.

"Thank you." I called out. A little late, but still. It's not like I knew he was going to do that.

The bell rang a second later and I stood there kind of awkwardly. He walked to the door and turned around. 

"Are you coming?" he called out. 

As I nodded and went in his general direction, I looked down at my schedule. My next class was somewhere across the school. I'm guessing he somehow already knew that.

This guy was just one step ahead. And I'm not sure I liked it.