Dawn and Dusk and Dawn Again

Extending A Hand

    I stayed away from Angelette, as you might have guessed. I didn't need drama.
    One time, though, I did approach her.
    When the class got back from P.E class, I passed her seat while trying to squeeze through the groups of people to get to my seat. I saw her doing the math homework, and said casually, "Oh, I finished that."
    Angelette was one of those kids who spring on their homework the minute they get their hands on it, and finishes them before you even finish saying their name. So, naturally, I was pretty proud when I saw I actually finished something before her.
    But I have to admit, showing off back then wasn't a good idea. Actually, showing off rarely is.
    In response, she snarled at me. Well, to put it fairly, it was between a snarl and a growl.
    "Jeez," I whispered, partly to myself and partly to her, "Someone woke up at the wrong side of the bed today."

    "Hey," I said casually.
    "Hi," she responded.
    I didn't know if she forgot about the math homework thing, but over last couple of weeks, I noticed she did that with everybody who interrupted her homework, so I guessed she couldn't have kept track of who she snarwled (snarled + growled)at. It would've been almost everyone in the class, actually. So much so that "Don't interrupt Angelette when she's doing her homework" has became both common sense and a warning to those who still didn't know.
    Thankfully, she didn't do her homework as she walked, so I assumed I was safe.
    "So... P.E, huh?" I said, wondering why I even started this conversation. "Do you like it?" Of course I knew she didn't, but I didn't really know what to say as an icebreaker. I couldn't bring out the Harry Potter gig again, and complaining about P.E in our class was equivalent to talking about the weather in the UK.
    Amazingly, P.E saved me this time. I'm telling you, P.E works magic in every conversation in hurl it into. And after tests like the 800-meter run, almost no one could resist the magnetic pull of describing how painstaking the subject is.
    It also didn't hurt that we were on our way to P.E class when that conversation was taking place.
    Eventually, the topic changed. P.E really was the icebreaker. Once it broke the ice, it was cast aside until it was put to work on the next big block of ice.
    We found common ground on books.