Universe of Soulmates

"The Saving of Taylor Shumaker"

"Miss Shumaker, would you care to answer the question on the board?" Propping my head up on one hand, I stare at the board, quickly figuring out the answer to "When was the Roman Empire disbanded?"

"The sixth of August, 1806." With that answer, I'm sure my World History teacher is now letting me off the hook for sleeping through half of her class. At least, that's how it looked to her. On my end, I'm just trying to survive and closing my eyes when the pain becomes a little too much. And, hey, I've got a pretty good auditory memory, so anything that's told to me often stays in my brain for days, weeks even.

"Class, I have to deal with something. If I hear anything about this class being too loud or rowdy, you will all get an extra hour of homework tonight. And tomorrow." With that comment—more like threat—our World History teacher rushes out of the room, leaving thirty unattended sophomores in the room. There are a few juniors and one senior who skated out of taking it before now, so it's an overfull class, totalling at thirty-five students in the same room.

"You're Sophie, right?" Looking up to see the only senior in our class—the starting quarterback himself—I don't even answer, just going back to writing down what I heard while she was talking. "Sorry, you're Taylor. I was hoping for some help with World History. Coach says I need to get my grades up to play this Friday."

"What do you need help with?" Not even looking in his direction, I hope it's clear I'm holding all the cards.

"Something isn't clicking, so I barely remember anything she's saying when it comes to the tests." I don't know if I can help with that, Mr. Quarterback. His real name is Aaron Martin, although I only know that because it's blazed on every football poster in this school rather than because I've talked to him before. He's pretty well known throughout the city, since he's been the starting quarterback for the last two years, going on three.

"When do you have practice?" I ask, knowing I don't have anything going on tonight, aside from having to make dinner for myself.

"Until six." Since most of the school closes at three thirty, it will have to be somewhere else. "Do you want to stick around until then and we can study at my house?"

"Sure." If I'm home after eight, I know my father and mother will get angry enough at me to make me wish I wasn't alive. "I just have to be home by eight."

"Alright. Thanks." Finally looking at him, my heart lifts a little when I see how happy he is. Plus, with the amount of homework from the classes I'm currently in, I'll fill most of the three hours I have to stick around and watch guys in tights and shoulder pads run around with a leather ball.

In Trigonometry, a difficult subject as it is, I have a packet of fifty problems to work out, all of them due on Monday—and it's already Thursday. For World History, it's another packet with short answer questions that have to be filled out before tomorrow's class. Biology, I don't have anything assigned, but tomorrow we have a unit test, so I need to study for that. It covers genetics, something I am not a fan of given the fact that they're the only reason I have to live with my parents. Drawing II is my favorite class of the day, allowing me to be free to express myself on the page rather than via doodles on my hand that may or may not eventually give me ink poisoning. Campus Choir, a class I'm only taking for the credit, has no homework, as per usual.

"Are you coming? It's nice outside, if you want to sit in the bleachers." Despite never talking with Aaron, he seems really comfortable around me. Now that I'm thinking about it, why did he choose me out of everyone in the class to learn from? There are plenty of people he knows in the class, and we've never spoken to each other before today.

"Um, sure." Following him outside, I almost feel as if my backpack is going to pull me to the floor. I can't say I know many people in this school, especially since I only moved here a year and a half ago in the middle of grade nine, but I do know many of the faces and my couple of friends smile and say hi, heading to whichever bus brings them home.