New Ways

ELEVEN

Amery

"Hey, Am," a deep voice greeted me from behind. I turned away from my locker only to face Christopher's chest. God, this guy was huge.

"What now, Chris?" I asked in a bored tone, leaning against my locker in order to get a better view of his face. Christopher was the quarterback of Parmont's football team. Not like I care much about how cliché of a person he was. Sure, he was cute and all but what I cared about was how long more this guy was going to court me and what I could do to make him stop, as well as the rest of my male suitors in school.

Chris inhaled deeply before he started. "Are you... free this Saturday? Would you wanna go out with me?"

"No, I'm not. In case you forgot, I'm not some random cheerleader hoe who has nothing to do on the weekends and would gladly slide into your pants. I'm the president of the Student Union and I have the whole school to take care of," I turned to leave. "And you're certainly not one of the important ones on my list. You can suck it up, or go suck yourself."

I huffed and made my way to the meeting room. As I approached from afar I saw Sigrid standing near the door chatting with Derek. Something she said made him laugh and seconds later, they high-fived each other and he walked off. The sight of the scene irked me.

"Hey," Sigrid was adjusting her tie when I stopped at the door of the meeting room. "JP couldn't make it. He said he suddenly had stomach flu."

Of course. Of course Jean-Pierre was still mad at me for dissing him last Thursday. We didn't get to talk at all on Friday because we didn't share the same classes that day and although he didn't want to admit it when I asked him this morning and instead gave me a fake smile to assure me that he had gotten over it, he wasn't acting himself the whole time in class and was suspiciously quiet. Gwen knew that I had pissed Jean-Pierre off again and tried mending the situation by including the two of us in engaging conversations but Jean-Pierre barely said anything.

"You should apologize," Sigrid suggested. Pfft, as if I hadn't thought of that. I had only forgotten to actually do it.

I scoffed and placed a hand on the doorknob. Shit, it's this time of the year again. The most intense time of the Student Union year where I, Amery Tatcher, president of the council was supposed to carry out the most important task ever in my position – presenting the annual budget proposal to Parmont's board of directors. I had only previously done this once and my nerves got the better of me but with the help of my efficient former vice president Daniel Kim, I miraculously breezed through it.

I couldn't say the same for Sigrid Sharma.

"Nervous?" Sigrid noticed, holding out a piece of chewing gum towards me. "Chew on this and mentally count to ten as you do it. It's a great distraction, trust me. Works for me all the time."

Trust you? How could I trust you?! Especially when we were just seconds away from the most important presentation of the year? In front of the most important people in the school? Ha! Nice try.

"You have to trust me," she insisted, pulling my wrist and placing the gum on my right palm. "I'm here. With you. Now come on, we can't go in there and nail this if you're still this anxious."

For a moment there I felt slightly comforted by her words. I reluctantly popped the piece of chewing gum into my mouth, chewed slowly and mentally started counting to ten as I held Sigrid's gaze. The pace of my heartbeat gradually slowed down and by the time I reached ten, I felt more relaxed. As if able to feel what I was feeling, Sigrid grinned at me.

"I told you so," she whispered.

And for the rest of the day I swear I was as confused as an amnesia patient.