Behind These Bruises...

Behind These Bruises...[Part 1]

"Mila!" I heard the all-to familiar voice of my best friend call out. I tugged on the sleeves to my uniform and turned around, smiling as my friend came up to me.

"Hey," I said, when she got to my locker.

"Hi!" Alisha said, beaming at me. "Did you hear the news?" she asked me, as I put my books in my locker. She did the combination to her locker and began putting books in as well.

"No, it's the first day of school. How can there already be news?" I asked. She leaned against the side of the lockers and smiled at me.

"That's what I said! But, you know our brother school?" she asked. I nodded. "Well, apparently, the bay flooded their school and now it's going under construction. So the boys are going to come to our school until construction's finished," Alisha explained. I raised my eyebrows.

"That's...random," I said.

"I know. The classes are going to be packed," Alisha commented. "But...there'll be BOYS here!" she exclaimed giddily. I couldn't help but laugh. Alisha had been my best friend since I was 6, when she moved here to Hampton, Virgina from NYC. We were completely different people: she was out-going and bubbly and good at science. I was more reserved and quiet and good at literature.

"I wonder how they'll fit everyone," I said, closing my locker and putting my bag over my shoulder.

"I mean, it's not like we have a ton of students here, anyway. It's so dumb that we have two different schools," Alisha said, closing her locker, too. We began walking to our first class: Calculus.

"Waste of money," I said, agreeing. She glanced down at my hands, which were still clamped around the ends of my sleeves. She frowned.

"Again?" she asked, lowering her voice and furrowing her brow. I swallowed and nodded, looking down. "How bad?" she questioned.

"Not as bad as usual. It was actually one of his better days," I replied quietly. She nodded.

"You can come over after school, if you want. We're done painting the kitchen, so it's all good," she said. I smiled at her in gratitude. We took our seats, which were assigned. I sat on the other side of the room as her. We texted each other as the classroom filled up. Every time a boy walked in, Alisha would send me a text saying whether he was cute or not. I struggled to keep from smiling. I was smirking at my phone when she sent one that said, "TOTAL HOTTIE SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO YOU." I laughed and looked up to see a very attractive guy that had just taken the seat next to mine. He glanced at me and then looked to the front of the room. I blushed. I probably seemed really stupid laughing at my phone. Alisha sent another text that read: "OMG OMG OMG! Soul mate!" I bit my lip and sneaked a look at the name that was on the desk: Derek Thomas. I looked at him. He had a really nice profile. His front view wasn't too bad either. He had to be a good 5 or 6 inches taller than me. I sat up straighter to look a little taller, but didn't really get anywhere. Our teacher came in once everyone was seated. There were probably 35 students in the class when there were usually only about 18.

"Welcome back to school. I would imagine you are all thrilled to have a Calculus class the first day back from summer break," Mrs. Liam said, putting her bag down. We all chuckled politely. "Well we just have a few laundry list items to do today. We will start our first lesson next time. I'm passing around a syllabus..." she said. The rest of the class went by excruciatingly slow as we went through the too-long syllabus for the class. We were all thrilled when the bell rang.

"Oh my goodness. That guy is gorgeous," she said. "Do you have dibbs?" she added. I pushed her a little, laughing.

"His name is Derek Thomas. Go FB stalk now," I laughed.