Blame Gravity

Chapter 2

"Are you paying attention, Miss Canmore?" 

I shudder. "Of course, I am, Ms. Arquette."

Ms. Arquette nods.

God, I hate her.

I can't wait for French to be over. After this class, we'll have English, which is one of my favorite languages, mainly because it's so easy. And James is in that class, too, which means I can outperform him again.

"Homework!" I hear Ms. Arquette's shrill voice. God, no. "Workbook page 56, exercise 32, 33, and 34. Have a nice day!"

Have a terrible day, I think to myself. That task will be ten minutes of my day where I could be reading. 

I walk to the next class, and when I spot James as the only one in front of the door, we smile at each other spitefully.

"How did French go, Mme Lucie?" he asks. Ugh, I hate him and his perfect French accent.

"Bien," I whisper. 

He smiles at my pronunciation. He's terrible, I tell you. 

The bell rings, and he walks in first, not caring about etiquette. 

I roll my eyes and go in after him.

The English lesson has nothing interesting in store. It's basically just me and James answering all the questions turn after turn, and Ms. Rodriguez being astonished by our (extremely basic) knowledge. 

Then, I have I.T. The teacher, Mr. Simmons is a very kind man, but he doesn't take his classes seriously, and we usually just play a Kahoot or something. I hate Kahoot because it's James' favorite. But luckily, today Mr. Simmons teaches us about Excel. I like that because I'm good at it (obviously, I'm good at everything), and I already know everything about it. I hear everyone sigh and see them roll their eyes while I clap excitedly. I feel James' spiteful eyes on me, but I ignore him.

"I can see that you're quite excited, Lucy?" Mr. Simmons adds with a smile. I nod eagerly.

After the lesson, Layla stays to talk to Mr. Simmons about something, and I wait for her. To my greatest disappointment, I notice James waiting, too. We make eye contact, and we're doing our best not to barf over each other when the word "competition" is said. Our heads shoot up.

"Excuse me, Mr. Simmons, you were speaking about a competition?" we blurt in chorus. We make spiteful eye contact afterward. 

"Yes, and I wanted to ask you two to take part in it. It will be a coding competition, held on March 14. There will be practices every Thursday beforehand. What do you say?"

"Of course!" we shout out at the same time, again. 

After discussing some details, we finally leave for Maths. While walking to class with Layla, I realize that this competition means that I'll have to spend one more hour with James every week.  God, no!

"Fuck!" I yell out and Layla stops dead in her tracks. So does James, who I didn't notice was still walking in front of us. He makes a fake pitiful face, then walks on. Asshole.

"You okay, Luce?" Layla asks. I like Layla. She's kind and not as pretentious as the rest of the people in the class. Plus, she's really pretty. She has olive skin and black, curly hair. Her eyes glisten caramel. She's one of the less dumb people. 

"Yes, of course," I gasp. "I'm fine." Layla makes a worried expression, but we continue walking.

Maths is the same type of boring as the first one today. I am just calculating how much damage it would bring if I jumped out of the window and if it would cause immediate death (slash would it be worth it) when the teacher suddenly calls on me.

"Lucy? Do you know the answer?"

Oh God, another equation. I answer and Mrs. Anthony seems pleased. I look at James. He's leaning back in his chair, seeming perfectly relaxed. I hope he falls and breaks his neck.

Mrs. Anthony tells us to bring geometry apparel to the next lesson. Everyone starts packing, but I ask Mrs. Anthony what we will exactly learn. Mrs. Anthony answers quickly and rushes out of the classroom.

Everyone is already out of the classroom. 

I pack my stuff. I only notice James standing next to me when my backpack is already on my back.

"Miller!" I yell, startled.

"Did I scare you, Canmore?" he asks, his eyebrows cocked.

"Of course not." I try to leave, but he stands in the doorframe and blocks the way.

I sigh. "What do you want, Miller?"

He clears his throat and looks away. Then, he smiles and looks back at me.

"So, Excel, huh?"

I sigh, clearly frustrated. "I played around with it in middle school. So, yes, I know a bit about it. Can you please move, now?" 

"No." He fixes his hair. God, I hate it when he does that. "I..." He studies me for a long moment, then moves away from the doorframe. "Nevermind. Go on, Canmore."

"Thanks," I sigh, and I walk away. What was that all about? It was incredibly strange. He just... stood there. 

Nevermind. Let's forget about it. I don't want to stress about something James did. I mean, I couldn't care less about him! I'm not going to analyze every one of his words.

I go to Starbucks and buy a pumpkin latte (I don't care if it's basic, it's awesome), and I walk to the library. I usually study there. 

After an hour of intense studying, I go home. I have one test tomorrow. Physics. But that's easy, so I didn't have to study for it a lot. 

"I'm home!" I yell. Maya, my little sister, runs up to me immediately and hugs me. She has brown hair, hazel eyes, (just like me), and an adorable smile (unlike me). 

"Lucy! Do you want to play?" she yells. 

Oh, no. I wanted to read today, but... I don't know. I guess...

"A little, okay?" I say in my softest voice. 

We play a game of Harry Potter Scrabble - her favorite -, and then I go up to my room to finish my reread of Wuthering Heights.

When I go to sleep, all I can think about is James, and how he could have hurt me (with a reason), but he didn't.