Wonderland

❄B53❄ The Physics Project

Chapter Fifty-Three

Brayden's POV

The Physics Project

1 year ago

I can still remember the day as if it were yesterday. The day I met Heather. It was the first day of winter quarter, the first day of physics...

She was sitting in the back of the classroom by herself, doodling robotically over the cover of her journal. Being that I was a few minutes late to class, the only spot available was the one next to hers.

I never liked sitting in the back of the classroom, in part because I had a hard time reading the board—not that I needed glasses or anything. It was just hard to see. I was pretty mad when the teacher had said that the seat we were sitting in would be our permanent seating for the rest of the quarter, and that the person sitting beside us would be our partner for the rest of the quarter, too.

Our physics teacher introduced himself as Mr. Rogers. He then made us get to know our lab partners. Turning my body around in my seat, I stuck my hand out to Heather. "You probably know my name already," I said, arrogantly.

I thought she'd say something like, "I know," and then introduce herself, but she didn't. She was frowning, confused. "No, I don't. I've only ever seen you in hallways," she confirmed, shyly.

"Oh." I couldn't help but feel a little irked. Everyone in high school knew who I was. I was the gamer dude, the guy who won five Call of Duty state championships in a row. I knew a lot of people in my high school. It kinda flipped, though, when I started community college. No one knew me except for a few students.

I was enrolled in my school's Running Start program, which meant that instead of finishing my junior and senior year at my high school, I'd be finishing it at my local community college. A lot of kids went down that pathway because our high school's AP program sucked in general.

"Well, I'm Brayden," I said, gruffly, shaking her hand.

"Heather."

"Cool, nice to meet you." I abruptly turned away from her and busied myself with my physics textbook. I could hear people around us talking animatedly with their new lab partners. Heather and I were barely acknowledging each other.

I felt kind of bad because I knew, just from having seen her in the school hallways before, that she was the quiet type. I knew her friends, Aislynn and Cyndi. I used to have Spanish class with Cyndi. She always flirted with me, but I told her one day to fuck off because I wasn't interested in her, and she started avoiding me after that.

I'll admit, I wasn't exactly the nicest guy to be around with in high school. That probably explained why Heather and I didn't hit it off well. I was almost never serious around her. When we had to do discussions, I'd end up talking about my favorite videogames. When we were assigned our first in class lab on Newton's Second Law, I accidentally misread the procedure and Heather and I ended up with skewed data. She wasn't too pleased about it, and I could tell just by reading her face. She was like an open book; she was so easy to read. However, due to her shy nature, she never bitched out on me for my folly.

We ended up with a B- on that lab. Heather was furious. She confronted me the day after receiving back our lab report. Nostrils flared, she burst, "You need to step up your game, Coleman!"

So much for not bitching out on me.

"You need to calm down, Forde," I said, coolly. "We didn't fail the damn lab."

"I need a 4.0 in this class!" she hissed.

"Which you'll get."

"No, I won't, because this lab report just screwed me over! My life is over! Why did I have to get stuck with you?" she whimpered, more to herself than to me. She looked upset.