Wings

Franny-Ruth

Tapping... Tapping my pencil against the table, checking the clock every five minutes, 11:00, 11:05, 11:10... When will it end. I'd already seen everyone new in class, so that was no fun anymore. It was second lesson... Just had break, not lunch next, not the end of school any time soon, just boring old second lesson. English, not too boring. Was almost my turn to read. Alex McDougall had just finished reading, there was one girl to go before me. A new girl, she had almost waist length, very dark brown hair and big, vulnerable green eyes. Very pretty. She picked up her book. She opened her mouth but no sound came out, everyone waited for a couple of seconds but still, nothing. She ran her fingers through the end of her hair and closed her mouth. Nobody said anything, especially not the girl. Was I missing something? The girl's eyes widened. The teacher nodded at her, she looked suddenly very scared. She picked up her book again and turned the page to where we were, she read a sentence stopped, she spoke very quietly and her voice was a little shaky, I couldn't hear what she was saying I had to read from the page rather than relying on the reader. The teacher sighed "William, why don't you take it from here." I smiled and started reading. The girl looked relieved as she watched me read. She watched, her eyes intently fixed on my hands as I turned the page, she wasn't even looking at her own book, I wasn't even looking at the book in depth anymore, I was just reading the words in order finishing every sentence with a brief stare at the girl. I had to talk to her after the lesson I turned the page slowly, what was she called, where was she from, why wouldn't she talk? So much mystery. The teacher looked over at me and told me to stop reading. The bell sounded. The girl sat and put her books into her bag. I slung my bag over my shoulder and boldly walked over to her. Alex had moved out of the chair next to her about a minute ago when the bell went, so I sat there. She looked at me and her eyes widened, but she didn't say anything. I made the first move. "Hi, I'm Willy." A smile spread across the girl's face. "You can laugh if you want, I'm used to it." She shook her head, still smiling. She blinked and the smile went away, she carried on putting her books in her bag. "What?" She shook her head again and stood up. She gave me a quick smile and walked away. A bit rude.

I was determined to find out more about this girl. I left third lesson with steely face. I walked down the stairs which lead me to reception, I walked forward, forward, then left. Down the coridoor, a lunch queue that stretched the whole way down the hall. But, things weren't so bad, at the end of the queue, a nervous looking... Girl, The girl. I was confident that I was going to talk to her in the quarter of an hour I would be standing behind her... And she would talk back. I strolled over casually. Rummaging around in my pocket for my lunch pass, just as I was about to step in line, Ben, Arnie and Tom chipped in front of me. They were all dumb, really dumb. When we were reading in second lesson Arnie had to sound out the name Kimberly. Seriously. I would have no problem skipping in front. They laughed in my face as I waited behind them patiently. When their fun was over and they'd turned round and started bugging some people two spaces in front I took my gum out my mouth and flicked it onto the floor in front of Tom. "Oh my god, gross, you're gonna step on that if you're not careful." All three boys looked puzzled as I pointed down at the floor, Ben looked disgusted. "I'll go in front if you like, then you won't tread in it." They all nodded, they didn't even realise that in a minute or so they'd have to move up the line anyway. But it worked. I looked at the girl. "I'm not stalking you." She looked instantly scared. What the actual heck. Why did I say that!? Luckily she realised it was light-hearted and the look of fear disappeared from her face and she giggled. "What's your name?" She gulped and opened her mouth, a tiny sound came out. "Pardon?" She opened her mouth again. "Franny." She said nothing else, nothing to build a conversation on, so I had to go with a dumb line and say "what's that? Short for Francesca or something?" She nodded quickly and pulled her hair around the front of her face. "Francesca-Ruth." She didn't look the slightest bit happy to be making friends. She looked terrified. "That's cool. My brother has two names, Bobby-Joe. He's only eighteen months old though." She smiled, I had acomplished a conversation.