Janice Lance Book 1: Monday Blues (Revised Edition)

Chapter 8

The shower I took after gym class made me pretty tired. Probably not the best mood to be in when you’re learning a foreign language. Either way, I wasn’t about to cut class. I came into the room, sat in my seat, and started the assignment that we worked on yesterday… Wait- Friday. That’s what I meant.

I could finish the assignment easily. Which is pretty astonishing since I can’t even pronounce a 7-word sentence. After I finished I decided to just keep reading The Outsiders until it was time to leave.  Later on, I heard a voice,” I hope you have all these notes written down! Class is over in 10 minutes.” I looked up at our teacher Mr. James talking to the class and saw the notes written on the board. I quickly got out a sheet of paper and wrote down our notes for our test that Mr. James would probably give to us on Friday.

As I predicted, before we were dismissed Mr. James said,” Study your notes throughout the week for your test on Friday!” Everyone rushed out (including me) to leave as quickly as we humanly could. Suddenly I heard a familiar voice. “Hey, sweetheart.” Andrew came up to me with a stupid grin. “Hello dear,”  I said dryly. “Got any plans for Friday night?” It was practically a routine now. “Yes,” I responded without a sign of feeling in my eyes. “Like what?” He grinned from ear to ear as he waited for my response. I guess he knew just what to expect by now, which may or may not have made me happy.

“Well, I’ve got to do my chores, stick a needle in my eye, and end my night by rewatching A Walk To Remember and Annie Hall.” He chuckles and says,” Well, Talk about some romantic, uplifting movies!” He says sarcastically with a smile on his face. “And what do you know about those movies?” I say curiously. He grins like an idiot and says, “I know that they’ve got some depressing endings.”

As we walked home together, he suddenly asked me what my favorite book was. I was a bit confused as to why he cared, but I answered honestly and said I didn't have one since I'd read too many. He laughed and said he understood, and that he didn’t have one favorite either. I wondered out loud. “What’s your best class?”

He seemed kind of embarrassed and said,” English.” I wanted to see if he could guess mine, so I asked. “Science?” He said, raising his eyebrows with a confused look on his face. I smirked,” Nope.” He suddenly had a look of understanding on his and blurted out,” Math!”  I couldn't resist getting excited and shouted, "Yeah! How’d you know?" I asked excitedly. I couldn’t tell whether he was smiling or smirking, and he said,” I just thought it made sense, you’re good at it when we have to do it in Science, and you’re quick at it too, so I just put two and two together. I thought it would either be Math or English.” I smiled at him. “English is my favorite, but not my best.”

I totally forgot about all those times he acted dumb. I was just staring into his hazel eyes and admiring his smile. For a moment, I even thought that Dallas Winston had nothing on Andrew Lawrence. But then I shook myself back to reality and realized how stupid that was.

When we got to my front porch, I said, "Catch you on Monday." I really hoped I didn't sound as confused as I felt. He smiled and replied, "Sure thing, see ya." He started walking away but then turned around. "Hey Janice?" I turned around, puzzled. "Yeah?"

He looked down at the ground and mumbled something. "What?" I wondered what he really wanted to say to me. I'll never understand him, and it made me feel sort of sad.

He looked up into my eyes, and I swear I've never met anyone who could make me want to stare into their eyes for as long as he did. "I think you're a better friend than nearly all of mine put together." I was so surprised that I didn't know what to say. My cheeks felt really warm, and when I looked up at him, I could see that his eyes were a bit glazed, and he wouldn't look away from me. "I'm sorry." He seemed to be holding back a sob and then started speed-walking back to his house.

I could've called his name to make him turn back, so I could know what it felt like to be in his arms. I could've wrapped my arms around him and told him that I thought he was a better person than all his friends put together. But I didn't. I was scared, scared of what, I don't know. It was like getting close to him would hurt me or something. But you know what? It probably would've, and I didn't care. I just wanted to know what it would feel like to wear his jacket, to have him wrap his arms around me, and for us to go out together, to just be with each other.

The next thing I knew, I was back in my room, thinking about how Andrew Lawrence had the prettiest and saddest eyes I'd ever seen.