Head Above Water

4. Bi-Polar

I walked into my Geology class with a sigh of defeat. With Connor in this class and him knowing I had lunch after, there would be no way to avoid hanging out with him, and I was sure his group included Malcolm. I didn’t know if I was ready to face him again after that embarrassing class.

Plus, Connor seemed like he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I smiled at the memory of our teasing banter earlier. The boy had a high opinion of himself and no shame. With his looks, I guess he had reason to be a little cocky, but he wasn’t really my type, which was a good thing, as I had my swimming to focus on.

He sat down across from me with a surprising amount of fanfare for such a small action. I raised my eyebrow questioningly at him, “Rough second period?”

He sighed dramatically, “Spanish with Mr. Schneider.”

“The German teacher?” I inquired.

“Yeah.”

“What is with that; a German teaching Spanish in an American school? It’s just odd.”

“Totally!” He agreed before lowering his voice, “And the dude is a total Nazi-type too. I mean come on, he’s the only teacher I have this year who’s actually making us stick to a seating chart.”

I laughed, “So that makes him a Nazi?”

“No, I’m just kidding, but he does seem overly controlling.”

I nodded in agreement. I’d come up with the exact same assessment of him yesterday. Malcolm walked in then and took his seat gracefully, nodding silently in greeting.

“Why do you have Spanish in your senior year?” I asked Connor.

“I put off language until junior year, so I have to take Spanish 2 this year,” he explained. “You?”

“Same. Sort of. I didn’t take it freshman year, deciding to cram in a bunch of advanced classes. It let me jump ahead a grade, but that forced me to take it junior and senior year.”

“You’re a year younger than us?” Malcolm queried, his face expressionless. I nodded.

“So, what was your last class?” Connor asked.

I heaved a sigh, my eyes darting away from Malcolm. “Dance.”

“Oh, you and Malcolm both, eh? Nice.”

I nodded unenthusiastically. “You liked it that much, huh? Not a dancer?”

I shrugged. “I would like it more if it was a different teacher.”

“Yeah, Quinn’s a piece of work. Malcolm’ll look out for you though,” he said casually, slapping his friend on the back.

I smiled shyly at Malcolm, trying my hardest not to blush. He already looked out for me. Maybe I judged him too harshly yesterday.

“It’ll get better. Besides, you can’t quit yet. I’ve gotta see you in one of those sexy leotards first.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

I rolled my eyes and smacked him on the arm. “You perv,” I couldn’t help blushing and my gaze again landed on Malcolm. His golden eyes had lost their glow, turning to a flat yellow and his brows were drawn together in a frown. He looked away and began rummaging roughly through his bag. He seemed angry all of a sudden.

“Hey, why do you have Dance anyway with your swimming?” Connor asked, drawing my attention back to him. I’d completely forgotten he was there for a moment.

“Umm, It’s good cross-training. If I wanna be the best swimmer I can be, I need to train in other ways too. Each activity strengthens the muscles differently.”