The Beauty of Him

t w o

The entire weekend passed in a haze. All I could think about was the worker from the movie theater. He was so mesmerizing. The way he smiled at me just made me feel like everything would be okay. Although, when reality hit, and I woke from my alarm Monday morning I knew I had to focus. I had to finish the this year strong.

I couldn't focus in first period or second or third and by fourth period I was ready to just leave. It was about halfway through class when the classroom door opened revealing our principal. He entered the classroom and behind him came the worker from Friday night. I could see him scanning the classroom. When his landed on mine I immediately looked away. My face flushed but I looked back up again and he was still looking at me with that same grin plastered across his face.

"Alright everyone we have a new student. His name is Carson. Be nice" said Principal Smith. Carson smiled and raised his hand up for an awkward wave. 'Wow. Cute and awkward what a great combination' I thought.
Mr. Smith left the room and our teacher got put from behind her podium.

"Hi Carson. I'm Mrs. Traver. You can sit uhh..." She trailed off looking for an open seat. There's only two, one beside me and the other beside the door. But before she could even finish he was already headed my way and sat in the desk directly beside me.
"Well. Okay. Great that works." Mrs Traver said. "Raegan why don't you let him know what we're working on today?" She added.

"Uh err. O-okay." I said. I looked over and he was looking at me with those beautiful blue eyes.

"I'm Carson," he said while smiling.

"I- uhm- I'm Raegan," my face flushed but I still managed to somewhat smile back at him. "So, uh, we're working on cells right now. We have to draw one and label each part. Then do a description of each part. You can choose from a plant cell or animal cell." I finished.

"Okay. That's pretty easy I guess." He replied. My eyebrows flew up in astonishment. "What? Do you not think it's easy?"

"No. It's not that. I'm already done. It's just everyone here always complains about everything. I've never met anyone who actually doesn't mind work."

"When you have my background you learn to love work and think about your future and think less about the people who hold you back." He told me. He left me speechless then he turned back to start on his work.

The rest of class went by fairly quickly. When the bell rang I gathered my things and started putting them in my bag. When I stood up Luke was still standing there as well.

"Do you need any help finding your next class?" I asked him.

"How about the rest of my classes. These hallways are confusing." We both laughed and he handed me his schedule.

"We have the same schedule so I'll just show you around the rest of the day." I told him. He smiled as I handed him back his schedule. "So this period is lunch. And we have this period free. We can eat on campus or off."

"How about we eat off campus and I'll pay." Carson suggested.

"No. No its fine. I'll pay my own." I told him.

He scoffed. "Whatever Rae. I'm paying for you." My face lit up when he called me Rae. Only my family had ever called me that. "You coming?" He called after me.

"Oh yeah! I'm coming." I said catching back up to him.

"So where are we headed?" Carson asked.

"Uhm. What're you in the mood for?" I asked.

"How about......Panera Bread?" He asked rather nervously.

"You like Panera Bread?"

"Yeah. Well more like love it. So you wanna go?"

"Yeah sounds good actually. I also love Panera"

◇◇◇

He tucked away his phone and looked back up at me.

"What's the worst your sister has even done? She looks so nice and innocent." I said. He laughed.

"At our old school a guy walks up to my sister and asked her if she'd give him head after school. She slapped him and broke his jaw because she forgot she had on a cast from her broken wrist." He finished. We both burst into fits of laughter.

"She," I said between laughs, "actually did that?" I finished. He laughed and nodded.

"Wow. She's a tough one."

"Yeah. She is."

I pulled out my phone to check the time. We were late for sixth period.
"Carson! We have to go! We're late for sixth period!" I said with all my laughter completely gone. He shot out of our booth and we both headed to his car.

We arrived in the school parking lot then ran into the school to check back in.

"You're late." The secretary said like she couldn't care less about us being tardy.

"Thanks. Like we didn't already know." Carson deadpanned.

"Just get to your classes," she said.

After we signed back in we headed to our class. When we walked in the door all eyes were on us. My face flushed and I went straight to my seat before the teacher could say a thing. Carson followed me and sat in the seat in front of me, not even introducing himself to the teacher. I heard whispers across the classroom 'why is he with her!?' 'Ew. Anti girl with the new pretty boy. Such a joke!' 'Oh please. He's playing her because she's naive.' At that one Carson stood up abruptly. "You know, I'd rather be friends with someone who is not as shallow as all of you people. I mean do you think it's okay to sit there and talk about someone who is in that very same room as you. Just remember your words cut deeper than a knife." After saying that he sat back down.

It wasn't like I didn't know people talked about me because I sure knew. I didn't have any friends and all I cared about was acing every test so yeah I was a pretty big target. It's not like I really cared though. I wasn't per say bullied anymore just really whispered about. When I first started this school freshman year the bullying was so bad. I was talked about, picked on, pushed around, and people even tried to make me do their schoolwork which I never did. Once they realized that I didn't care what they thought it wasn't fun to them anymore so they quit. I'd never had anyone to stand up for me before so I was surprised when Carson did. I wasn't exactly sure what to say so I thought I'd lighten up his mood or at least try.

"So, does that mean you wanna me be my friend?" I said, lightly laughing.

"Well, I would pay for your food for nothing," he played back. "But I would like to be your friend."

"I think that'd be okay. I guess." I said sarcastically.

"If you don't wanna it's whatever," he scoffed playfully.

"In all seriousness though, you'd be my first friend since 8th grade."

"What? Why?"

"I've just never had time for friends. My mind was and has been on school and getting perfect grades to get an academic scholarship. So feel lucky Carson," I said laughing a little at the end.

He looked at me with those piercing blue eyes. My face went hot under his gaze.

"Oh, trust me, I do."