Chapped {h.g}

{4}

Monday February 9th 7:58 am
Arriving at school the next day, I was dressed in a flannel that I had bought the day I went to the mall with my mom. To say that, that shopping trip was bad would be an understatement. It was absolutely horrible! My mom would hold up sparkly sequined tops for me to try on, but I would just cringe at them, making her frown and ask me 'why can't you be more girly?,'. That's just not me. I'm a t-shirt wearing girl, not a glittery, pink kind.

I waited patiently- well not exactly patiently since I was groaning and sighing, but I waited for the high schoolers to get off the bus first, then I jumped in front of my brother, Tyler in the isle, only for my shoulder to be smacked by him.

I hurriedly skipped off the bus before he could cause me anymore torture. I walked into the building, escaping the cold air, and slowly walked to my homeroom. I passed a few girls in the hallway who just snickered at me. I would love to turn around and ask them what their problems are, but something always holds me back, as if I was scared of these three girls who think they "run the school". I ignored them as I made my way into my homeroom class.

As the second bell rung, I walked to Mr. Galloway's class, sitting in my usual seat. In the corner of my eye, I seen Hayes walk in and sit in his seat he was recently assigned. As much as I want to ignore him, it's impossible. The minute I look at him, I can't look away. It would've been much easier if he had never arrived at our school, but I know, I wouldn't want it any other way. He caught my stare and grinned sweetly. I slowly turned around back up to the front.

Mr. Galloway clapped his hands suddenly, making me jump. He began searching for a paper on his messy, cluttered desk. "Ah. There it is," he picked the paper up. "Today, I have assigned each one of you a partner. It makes it easy since we have an equal amount of kids in the class," he began to pass out the papers.

"If you look on your paper, you will see an atom. You and your partner; I have picked out, will be assigned to create an atom, but only a 3D version. It's due the 23rd of this month, leaving you with...three weeks to get this project finished. It's an easy A as long as you work together on it,"

Chloe raised her hand. Mr. Galloway pointed at her. "So, do we like work on his project at school together or...," She trailed off.

"You probably won't have time in the school day to work on it, but there's a library you two can meet up at, uh...you can stay after school and work on it, go to each other's houses,"

"What if we're not close to our partner and we don't really want them to come to our house?," She spoke again. I rolled my eyes.

"Like I said again, Chloe, meet up at a library, stay after school. Anything," she nodded and grumbled.

"Okay" Mr. Galloway began. "The partners are: Isaac and Melody, Sierra and Ellie, Austin and Brice, Madeline and Chris, Chloe and Parker, Hayes and Jordyn-,"

Of course. Of course we would be partners. Mr. Galloway continued with naming the partners. I slowly looked back at Hayes to see him smiling.

"Okay," Mr. Galloway said once he finished naming off the partners . "Remember your partners. Now we are going to-," he stopped talking when a knock was at the classroom door. He scurried over to open it.

Outside the room stood a girl and an older woman. "This is McKenna," the woman said pointing to the girl.

"What's your last name?," Mr. Galloway asked her.

"Peterson," she said softly.

"You may find an empty seat, McKenna," she nodded and began looking around.

"Bye, Mrs. Johnson," he said before she waved slightly and exited the classroom.

I turned around to see McKenna take a seat behind Hayes. I clenched my fist and slowly turned back around to the front.