Behind The Screens

22 | Mistakes Pt.2

Alex

Just as the bell rang, an eager student, sweating and just barely late, shot into the classroom and into his desk as fast as possible. "Sweetie, you really don't have to run." Ms.Morgan told him. "I know," he replied. "But I could've walked and been later." She shook her head.

"Okay, good afternoon class!" Ms.Morgan exclaimed. "I spotted a new student today, and I wanted her to introduce herself." Eyes wide, Britten's head snapped toward my direction. I tried not to laugh.

"Go ahead and stand up, honey." Ms.Morgan suggested. Britten turned her head slowly back around and with a half-hearted smile agreed. 
"Tell us your name, we're interested!"
"Britten." As she moved her eyes around with no real target. Ms.Morgan looked at her for a second, then proceeded, "You're not a shy girl, I can tell... so why are you being shy?" Small chatter and little giggles around the room. Britten let out a small, nervous chuckle and shrugged, then glanced at me as if begging for help. I gave her a reassuring smile.
"Do you two know each other or something?" Ms.Morgan asked with that little suggestive waver in her voice. That was what got everyone's attention. The whole class knew me and if I knew the "new girl", everyone would want to know her too.

"I swear, man, if you do..." A kid on the other side of the classroom said in a suggestive tone. I looked over in his direction and he gave me a smirk, his eyes hungry. I rolled my eyes and heard from someone closer, "No, me. He's a douche. You don't want him, baby." Subtle. I shook my head. "She's my girlfriend, idiots." This time when I caught sight of Britten, she was smiling at me.

"Oh, really, Al?" Ms.Morgan prodded. She was a wonderful teacher, but she was always interested in class gossip. Could be a fun personality trait, could be that she was in her late 20's. Nevertheless, I nodded in response. "Five months." I said, coming to the realization of just how long it's been. I didn't know if our two month break counted or not, but it had still been a while. "Wow," she said. "That's wonderful!" And then a whole discussion about our relationship started.
Our first question arose, "How did you guys meet?" 
I hesitated to answer, since I don't normally bring this up at school. "...We have blogs."
"Are they popular?" Someone else piped in. Surprised at not receiving ridicule, I continued nonchalantly, "Hers is." and pointed in her direction. "Well so is his." She insisted, sitting back down. She was starting to get comfortable with the class.

We chatted until Ms.Morgan finally came to her senses and exclaimed, "We have three minutes until class is over!" This quieted the chaos. There wasn't really anything for the class to pack up so we sat and watched our teacher frantically dig through her file drawer.

"Okay," She began. "I had test reviews for you today, but... things changed," Giggles throughout the room. I flashed a funny smiled at Britten. "so, I'm moving your test to Thursday." I let out a breath of relief.  "Now I'm sure you all are hungry so um..." She looked at the time. "How about we dismiss a minute early?" Satisfied with the declaration, the class filled with sounds of moving chairs and pre-lunch chatter. Britten bounced in my direction with a newfound comfort and sat on my desk.
"See? Not so bad, right?" I said to her. She shrugged. "I wish you were here for my first four classes." 
"Isn't Mira in your second and third?"
"And last." She added. I nodded.
At the ring of the bell, I looked around to notice that everyone had already run out of the class in a hurry to get to lunch. Ms.Morgan had her bag slung over her shoulder and was halfway out when she stopped and said "don't hang around too long!" And winked in our direction. I gave her a nod and let the door shut before snapping my head back around to Britten. She chuckled, then sighed, then I noticed a look of concern suddenly cross her face. My ears perked up, ready for what she might have to say. "What is it?"