Plastic

CH. 2

CH. 2

"Wait, you're telling me Heather asked you to sit at lunch with her?" Gwen laughs. She and Noah had somehow convinced Cody to skip class and sit behind the school to talk. -"Won't we get in some sort of trouble for this?", "If you show up late, yes. But if you don't show up at all..." "They'll never notice."- Cody nods. Gwen laughs even louder, "Oh, God! Okay, you have to do it, okay? And then you have to tell me all the horrible shit Heather says!" Cody shrugs, "But... Heather seems... Nice!" Gwen scoffs. "Heather is not nice she is a blood-sucking whore and she ruined my life!" Noah walks out of a bathroom stall to join their conversation. "She's fabulous but she's evil."

"Why do you hate her?" Cody asks. Gwen gives him a look, "What do you mean?" "Well, Heather, you seem to really hate her." "Yes, what's your question?" Cody looks at the ground. "Well, my question is... why?" Noah chimes in "In elementary Heather found Gwen's di-" "Noah! Can you not? Look, this is not about me hating Heather, I just think it'll be a fun little experiment..." Cody sighs. "What would we even talk about?" Noah and Gwen shrug. "Just do it, please!" Gwen begs. "Okay, okay, fine! I promise I'll do it. ...So. Do you have anything pink?" Cody asks. "No" "Yes" Cody turns to Noah. "I need to borrow it." Noah nods.

It's the next day of school, and Cody's wearing the light-pink shirt he borrowed from Noah. School was so boring. By eighth period, he was so happy to get to math class. Cody's favorite subject was always math. With math you're either right or wrong, there's no in-between. Cody's good at math, he understands math, and nothing in math class could possibly mess him up.

He sits down at the same desk he sat at the day prior. In walks a boy he hadn't seen before. A really cute boy... Cody swallows nervously when the boy sits in front of him. The boy turns around in his chair to face Cody. "I haven't seen you before..." Cody feels his face heat up at the sound of his voice, deep and accented. He stutters out: "I'm new..." and the boy in front of him smiles. "Oh, well, welcome to North Shore. I'm Alejandro." "Cody. Nice to meet you..." The boy smiles and turns back around to pay attention to the lesson. Cody feels himself melt. The boy turns back around to him. "Do you have a pencil I could borrow?" Cody's eyes widen and he feels his face flush once more. Holy shit. He nods and hands the boy his pencil. Alejandro thanks him and looks in front of him again. Cody rests his head on his hand and sighs to himself. He's only crushed on someone once before, well, when he was five. They had never made his heart race like this. This crush hit him like a yellow school bus. God, this looks like he's from a magazine... Tall, tanned, handsome... Cody tries his best to pay attention to the lesson.

His teacher looks at him. "Cody, what do you have?" His classmates, including Alejandro, turn to look at him. He swallows nervously and looks at the board. "Oh, um, X equals 17." Ms. Norbury nods and she turns back around to write another equation. "Correct, very good, Cody." Alejandro smiles at Cody. Cody looks down at his paper, the air around him feeling hot and uncomfortable. When he looks back up, Alejandro is still looking at him.

The bell rings and Cody gets up to leave. He's stopped by one of his classmates whom he's never talked to before. A scrawny ginger wearing glasses. "Hey, you're the homeschool kid right?" Cody nods. "I'm captain of the North Shore Mathletes. We participate in math challenges against other high schools around the state. You seem good at math. You should think about joining." Ms. Norbury looks up from her desk, having overheard the conversation. "You'd be perfect for it." Cody frowns in contemplation. Even though he loves math, he's hesitant. Gwen and Noah told him it was social suicide. He looks at the kid and simply shrugs. "Listen, let me give you my number. Think it over, 'cause we'd like to get jackets!" The kid pulls out a pre-printed business card that reads: "Harold McGrady V, Math enthusiast/Badass MC". Cody takes it and walks out of the classroom. He puts the business card in his pocket and forgets about it not long after.