summer school, j. martell

o.

LAUGHTER CAME FROM the room in which kazumi lovet was supposed to take her anatomy summer class in. inside would contain mostly students whose parents were forcing them to attend the class because they failed science in eleventh grade with the exception of she, whose parents forced her to take it summer of eleventh grade in order to 'get ahead,' as her parents put it. the girl rubbed the residual sleep away from her eyes with a yawn and quietly stepped into the cool, air conditioned room. her brown eyes scanned the area, trying to find an empty seat as fast as she could as to not attract attention. spotting an empty table near the middle of the room, she quickened up her pace and slipped into the chair. umi zipped open her book bag and grabbed her dark notebook, tucking a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear. she released the mechanical pencil from its place inside the spirals of the notebook and flipped to the first page, scribbling today's date at the top of the page. the girl was doodling in the margins when a tall man walked in the room. the chatter settled down as he sat behind his desk in the front of the classroom, and he looked around the room . when his eyes landed somewhere behind her, he spoke in a welcoming voice that definitely did not match his initial alarming demeanor.

" you, in the back. why don't you come sit up here? " he gave a nod towards umi and in response, a chair scraped against the floor and footsteps approached her direction. the seat beside hers slid back and a boy ensconced his lanky figure beside her. he hung his book bag on his chair and began fiddling with his pencil, his arms folded over in boredom. he had a fairly nicely styled undercut and sported a large, dark gray sweater overtop a pair of jeans, and apart from that, umi couldn't see much as he had his eyes trained on his lap. the teacher began introducing himself and talking about class expectations, all of the back-to-'school' information, but all of umi's attention was on was the awkward tension between her and her seatmate. she believed she had been overthinking it, but from what she had personally felt, anyone could cut the tension between the two smoothly with a knife. all that ran through the girl's mind was the twenty-five days of summer remaining that would consist of unpleasant silence as they sat together if neither of them made a move, which seemed to be the case; so she took a leap and did it herself, something of which she would never do on a regular occasion.

" hi, i'm kazumi. " the girl smiled at him, figuring that be a good and simple introduction and secretly hoping that it would boost some sort of interaction. anything to brush off that sense of awkwardness breathing down her neck.

" i'm jaeden. " she was met with gentle virescent eyes, dimples indenting his baby-faced physique as he grinned coyly back at her. the girl wasn't necessarily the best at starting, not to mention keeping, a conversation so she ended it at that without knowing how to continue as they both averted their attention back to the lesson. she spent the entire morning exaggerating that situation; it probably would have been better if i hadn't said anything because i'm pretty sure it just made the air between us even more awkward.

after roll call and a game of ice breaker she managed to sit out on where she learned that jaeden attended the private school a couple miles further, the teacher, whose name was mr. leveque, explained that the class was going to take a myers briggs test.

" does anybody know what a myers briggs is? " he began to walk around the room slowly. nobody raised their hand.

" nobody? c'mon, just shout it out if you know the answer, " he pushed. a slight wave of disappointment came over his face when nobody responded, but quickly replaced it with a smile.

" okay, what about you? " he pointed to a student near the front of the room. umi believed his name was chris, recognizing him from a few school assemblies the previous year as he would frequently get himself escorted out of the gym. he was definitely one of those kids held back from anatomy, it was plastered all over his body language.

he looked up, addled. " uhh.. a test? " the class laughed. he had a smart mouth which got him in trouble most of the time. umi thought it was getting really old at this point, but jaeden chuckled quietly to her left. so much for humor points.

mr. leveque smiled, nodding his head. " it is a test. but more specifically, a test that measures what? "

clearly, nobody knew the answer, so the girl finished jotting down the definition on her lined paper. mr. leveque had been walking past her desk at that time and he saw what she had written.

" it is a personality test that indicates different psychological preferences on how someone makes decisions, " he read off of her paper, a thrilled smile on his face as he patted the girl gently on her shoulder. jaeden had turned to look at umi, his lips curved into an amused smirk.

" impressive. " he eyed the girl besides him and umi felt as if he was gazing right through her, his voice just as meek as his initial glance. she smiled back at him briefly before looking down with freckled cheeks slightly flushed.

" thanks. "

throughout the test they took on the cheap laptops the students were provided, umi occasionally caught jaeden sneaking reticent peeks at her with the same fascinated look in his eyes. each time she turned to look at him, he'd just blush and quickly look back at his screen. he was definitely a fairly peculiar boy, way different from the animalistic chris-like males she was typically surrounded in during the regular school year. surprisingly, there was a feeling of hope sparking inside of her where she wished that she'd soon get to know him more than just the rich-kid school he attended. though for now, she didn't think much of his sly glances and decided to wait; he appeared just as shy as her and she figured he'd warm up when he felt like it. unbeknownst to her, jaeden already had his summer laid out and had a plan devised to help bring the girl along on his escapade.

| lord i hope i edited this oops

word count; 1114