Paper Hearts (boyxboy)

The New Kid

I sit anxiously in my spot, tapping the pencil against the worn desk. I'm noticeably more uneasy today. Carly weighs heavy on my mind, like a threatening storm cloud just above my head.

What is Mrs. Jones even saying? I must not have been listening for a while now. Even on better days she's hard to follow, her voice is so monotone and tiring. Carly's does the same thing after a certain point in every story, and I wonder if anyone else listening feels like their nodding off slowly, too.

Man, why am I so strange? I'm really popular at this school, being captain of the football team and dating the "hottest girl." Everybody knows my name, in one sense or another. You'd think on the inside I would be just like every other bone-head jock I know, but I'm just so different. I have no idea why. All of them would kill to have her, I know it. I wish I could be like them, simple but happy, untethered by such concepts like deep emotion.

Suddenly the bell rings, breaking my train of thought. Everybody piles into the hallway, mixing in with the sea of people parading to their next class. Like everyday, people stop to smile at me or just to greet me. Most barely know me, they just want other people to see them talking to me. High school is chalk full if people like this, so petty and insecure. I don't really care, I just want to get to Biology.

Just outside the door of the class, Carly grabs my arm from behind and stops my progress. She's beaming like usual, standing too close to me when she says "Where've you been, babe?"

I feel almost guilty looking at her in front of me. "You know, School and such."

She laughs a bit too hard. "I know, silly! I meant before school." She sees the discomfort in my face and her grin fades. "Are you avoiding me?"

I shuffle my feet. "Of course not. I was looking for you, too."

She doesn't seem to buy that. Before she can say more, I throw out the words: "Look, about last night..."

"Oh my god, that was the best night ever!" She interrupts, more excited than I want to deal with. "I can't believe we waited so long to do it again." She makes a face I can't really read and rests her hand on my thigh.

Nothing. I feel nothing. "Yeah, I know right? Uh, the bells gonna ring, so I really better go."

Carly makes a pouty face, twirling her fingers through my blonde hair. "Awe, don't go. Damn the bell." She laughs, as if that was actually funny. When I don't, she drops her smile again and says shortly "I'll see you tonight, babe."

After an awkward kiss, she trots off toward whatever class she has right now, and I take the three steps through the door to science. As soon as I sit down, the tardy bell rings, sending the drifters who were standing around scrambling to their seats as Mrs. Perry walks in. "Hello class! Open your anatomy books to page 204 for the warm-up."

She irritates me a bit. She's such a cliché of a teacher. Nobody's that chipper. It's just annoying, like a character from a cartoon.

Everyone flips through the enormous textbook, all the familiar pages flying by. I glance at her to-do list on the board. Looks like a lab today, dissecting frogs. Mrs. Perry blabs on about the small intestine, but I'm disinterested. Several others are doodling on the desks instead of actually writing the warm-up.

Eventually, she has Matthew, her little teacher's pet, pass out the goggles and the frogs. He has the dumbest smile on his face, fumbling with contents in his hand. He goes to hand one to a pretty girl in the front and trips over his own feet, sending dead amphibians flying everywhere. The class burst into laughter, but the girl in the front is screaming uncontrollably.

"You idiot! Get these nasty things of me!" Girls are so dramatic. Matthew repeatedly apologizes as he plucks the slimy creatures out of her hair and shoulders. She just sits there, helplessly screaming. Everybody laughs even harder when he digs his hand down her shirt to extract another frog.