White Noise

2

 I joined the masses of students in the halls and drifted in the current until I found the door of my history teacher, Mr. Nelson.

The class was only half full and so I easily found a seat in the middle of the classroom. Unfortunately I didn't recognize anyone I knew. I pulled out my notebook, my planner, and a pen—this time a blue one—and just as I began organizing them on my desk, a shadow appeared over me.

I looked up at a dark haired boy standing next to me. I immediately could tell it was him from the broad grin. Gesturing to the open desk on my right, he teased, "Is this seat taken?"

I smiled with my lips pressed together and shook my head. "No. It's all yours."

Jack Monroe plopped down in it, still smiling at me. "Good. I didn't want to have to kick someone out."

I laughed. "That would've been tragic."

"But totally necessary," he insisted humorously. Then, with his deep brown eyes boring into mine, he asked, "How are you?"

"As good as one can be on the first day of school," I said with a sigh and I knew he agreed just by the look on his face in response. "How are you?"

"About the same. Although I'm upset I didn't get to see you all summer."

"I know," I replied. "But I'm sure you had a lot of fun on your road trip."

"It was amazing," he answered. "Although, I'm about up to here," he raised his hand far above his head, "With Austin."

I chuckled. "Are you really that surprised?"

"Fair point," he said with a smile and a nod. Then he jumped a little, which startled me, and reached into his backpack quickly. "Hey, I got you something."

"What?" I asked incredulously.

"It's nothing big," he promised as he rummaged through his things. Finally he reached over and placed a thin metal object on my desk. When he removed his hand, a shiny navy fountain pen remained. On it, in crisp gold text, it read, "Library of Congress," and underneath that in even smaller print was, "Washington, D.C."

I picked it up, feeling the weight of the pen in my hand as Jack began explaining, "When Austin and I visited the Library of Congress in D.C., I couldn't stop thinking about how much you would've loved it. I mean, I could picture you living inside it and spending ten years happily reading through every book."

I looked up at him now and smiled. His eyes were nervously fixated on me, but when he saw my smile, a bit of relief crossed his face. He continued, "So when we were leaving, I stopped by one of the librarians desks and swiped that for you. I know it's kind of stupid—"

I vigorously shook my head, which forced him to stop speaking. Now I responded, "No it's not. It's awesome." As we were now both smiling stupidly, I added, "Thank you."

He modestly shook his head a little and before either of us could say anything else, Mr. Nelson began lecturing us on his expectations for the class. The majority of the time I spent staring at Jack's gift, rolling it in my fingers.

About twenty minutes in, Jack's hand reached over and dropped a half sheet of paper on my desk when Mr. Nelson wasn't looking. I glanced at him in confusion but he was staring at the board, pretending like nothing had happened. I took the sheet and in small writing, read,

Austin's having a party on Friday. Are you going?

Using Jack's gift, I wrote back:

Like I have a choice.

When I slipped the note back to him, he held in a laugh, which came out as a quiet snort in the back of his throat. I stifled a laugh myself as he began to write and eventually gave the paper back.