My Second kiss

Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

The first day back at school was as monotonous as the rest. I actually remembered my schedule for the new semester probably because only two classes actually changed-which only made my day that much more boring. I yearned for a friend that I could walk to class with and hang out with after school. I wanted to go to my locker and find a note from her that had been written in pink pen while she was bored in biology class.

The repetitive days passed quickly, and before I knew it we were two months into the semester. Second period this semester was still German. The late bell had already rung, and I was half walking, half running down the hall toward my class. I was alone in the halls except for one other girl in front of me who was also walking toward my second period classroom-though she appeared to be in no hurry at all. She was noticeably shorter than me, with jet black hair that was slicked back into a ponytail. I recognized her from the back of her head as Drew.

Drew was that girl in school that started all the latest styles. If Drew wore a speckled brown long sweater jacket to school, pretty soon the halls were lined with girls wearing some imitation form of a long brown sweater jacket. She was the girl that belonged on the front cover of every teen magazine. She was that sort of tomboyish girl with the perfect body, smothered in mud from the ongoing co-ed rugby game, and surrounded by deliciously handsome boys who looked like they could eat her up for dessert.

Needless to say, Drew was popular. But not the bouncy blond hair, cheerleading kind of popular. Drew was just flawlessly cool without an enemy in the world. She approached the door just before I got there. I slowed down as I neared her, and I tried to conceal my heavy breathing. I was slightly embarrassed that I was trying to hurry to class when she seemed so casual about being late. She opened the door and glanced at me as I approached.

"Hey, Gemma."

She knew my name? I was so shocked that I almost forgot to say anything back. "Um, hey, Drew."

She nodded her head at me then slipped smoothly into the classroom. The teacher, Frau Hart, didn't even turn when she walked across the room and sat at her desk. She probably didn't hear her, as Drew was so quiet and graceful when she slid effortlessly into her seat. The exact opposite happened when I entered. The door slammed shut behind me, and Frau Hart as well as the entire class turned and stared right at me.

One person who was watching me particularly closely was Trace Weston. He was holding his pencil to his lips and smiling at me as I loudly and awkwardly walked down the second aisle to my desk, sat down, and pulled out my books. I only kept eye contact with him for a nanosecond, but I could feel him watching me as I settled into my chair.

Frau Hart stopped writing on the chalkboard long enough to frown at me and say, "Tardiness is not tolerated in my class." I wanted to believe that she was talking to both Drew and me, but somehow I knew that wasn't the case. Frau Hart gave us twenty minutes at the end of class to work on our homework. I was closing my eyes, trying to memorize a German poem when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Drew sitting in the vacant seat next to me. I hadn't even heard her sit down.

"Don't worry about Frau Fart," she whispered with a crinkled nose.

I looked over my shoulder at Frau Hart, who was busy grading papers at her desk. I had heard some of the kids calling her Frau Fart when she was out of earshot, but I didn't know where it had started-until now.

"What are you talking about?" I said nervously as I straightened the papers on my desk.

"You're kidding, right?"

"What?"

"I thought you were going to burst a blood vessel when she nagged you about being late."

I was slightly perturbed that she thought Frau Hart was talking to me alone. Then I thought about my nearly bursting blood vessel and wondered if Trace had seen it too. I shrugged. "I'm fine."

"Seriously, what's the worst that can happen?"

"Uh." I raised my eyebrows. "She can give me a bad grade. She can keep me after for detention. She can call my mom. The lady pretty much owns my life."

"So she drops your grade. Then what?"

The answer seemed obvious. "I get a bad grade."

"Uh huh. And then what?"

I didn't understand the game of questions. Where was she going with this? "And then that bad grade stays on my report card forever."

"Forever?"

"For the next three years until I want to get into college somewhere."

"And you think a half grade drop in your ninth-grade German class is going to stop you from getting into the college you want to get into?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"Let me tell you the correct answer. No. So chill out."

At that she got up from the chair with a wry smile and walked back to her desk and the three girls who seemed startled that she would talk to anyone else but them.

After that Drew started acknowledging me in the halls. She would nod my way or lift her hand in a half wave. Sometimes she verbalized a hello. I was surprised every time, but I usually said hi back. We didn't talk much in class, but I barely noticed. I was too busy trying to figure out the German language. I was so behind, and I hadn't even started my midterm project, which was due in two weeks.

"Do you have a group for the mid-term project already?" I had been focusing so intently on the vocabulary list I was memorizing that I hadn't seen Drew sit down in the same chair as she had the first time. I should have had a group by this time, but I didn't.

"No. Do you?" Stupid question. Of course she did, she had a permanent group of followers. So why did she ask?

"Yeah, but we need another person. We're making a movie about some German kids living in Eastern Germany post-World War Two. There are only four of us. We need a fifth person.

"You're doing a movie? I thought we just needed to write a story together."The assignment was to-as a group-write about a significant event in German history. And of course it was supposed to be written in German.

"We'll have to write the script down anyway; we're just going above and beyond. Frau Fart will love it."

Frau Fart-I mean Hart-stirred in her chair, and I could have sworn she heard what Drew had called her. I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't usually a risk taker when it came to homework. I wasn't much of a risk taker at all. But I was even more worried about not having a group for the project at such a late date.

"Sure, I'll do it with you." The words scared me as they came out of my mouth.

Drew looked pleased. "Awesome. We're meeting at my house today after school." She handed me a piece of paper with her address and then got up from the chair. "We'll see you around four then."

"Four." I nodded in agreement while looking at the directions that she had carefully sketched out on the thick piece of yellow note paper. Even her handwriting was careful and decisive. It could have been a fancy font option on Microsoft Word.

"Oh!" Drew said as an afterthought. "If you have any old eighties outfits, bring them. We need all the costumes we can get."