Expectations & Reality

-Chapter 2-

-Chapter 2- 

"So, you liking Ridgewood so far?" I ask as I nudge him playfully. We're walking down the hallway onto 4th period. Turns out, Eli has a few classes with me. He's pretty easy to talk to. I like that. 

"It's... good so far" Eli says, squinting his eyes. His voice sounds a bit unsure.   

"You're lying" I state. I could tell by the way he squinted his eyes. Like he just ate a lemon. A very sour lemon. He chuckles. 

"Okay. Fine. You got me!" he lets go of his grip on his backpack strap and raises both of his hands like he was about to be arrested. His two dimples on the side of his lips on full display as he grins.

"I knew it!" I point my finger in justice. I then pause for a while, thinking to myself. 

"Let me guess, you already hate this school?" I look over at Eli, interested if he really did hate this school. I wouldn't blame him.

"It's just the first day, you know?" he looks over at me, "I guess we all kind of hate and secretly like it, too" 

"I know what you mean" I say, feeling understanding of him. It was true. Extremely true. We all do secretly like school. In some parts... 

There's a silence between us and i'm caught by surprise when I hear him giggling.

"Look at us, having a heart to heart!"

I start to laugh too. My bangs falling in my eyes and my hands on my stomach.

"We're bonding, aren't we?" I try to say between chuckles.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eyes I see Tyler walking down the hallway. I feel my stomach turning and twisting into knots. My heart feels a million times faster, like its about to jump out of my body. And the weight of my walking feels heavier. Like i'm walking in quicksand. My laughing goes away and all I can focus on is him. He's walking with his girlfriend. Hand in hand. How cute.

I manage to muster up a smile and continue talking to Eli even though I know it's probably obvious i'm distracted by something else.

"Here's room 7" Eli says and i'm broken out of my daze. I look in Eli's direction and see he's already opened the door, waiting for me to come in. He gives me a strange look as he notices i've been paying attention to something else.

"Sorry. I was distracted" I say, my voice wandering off. I walk into the Art class and look about the familiar room. Every inch of the walls are filled with art. Things from weird foot sculptures, paintings, and drawings. It was like a whole new atmosphere when you stepped in. The room was decorated by warm colors and unusual looking plants. Not one corner of the room was plain. Mrs.Wilken always made sure to keep things interesting. I was never bored in this room.

"Wow. It's pretty sick in here" Eli says, ecstatic. His eyes try to take in every single piece of art decorated on the walls.

"I know" is all I can say.

* - - - - - - - - - - - *

 "Saw you talking to that hot new guy" a low, raspy voice whispers in my ear as I walk outside of school. My eyes open with surprise. Who the fuck was behind me? Whoever it was, it scared the hell out of me. The moisture of the persons breath still felt fresh in my ear. If it even was a person.  I quickly turned around to see who it was. Or what it was. 

"Stacy" I put my hands on my chest in relief. "You scared the crap outta me!" 

I slap her on the arm.

"Ha!" she says as she lowers her voice, "That's what I was going for". She's using her "creeper" voice. She likes doing weird impressions sometimes. Well, maybe more than sometimes.