Thousand Year Switch

Chapter 12

Mr. Slouch was late again. I suspected he didn't really care about this particular part of his job, and we students certainly didn't mind if he didn't show up at all. I took advantage of his absence to sneak into the hall and feed some coins to the vending machine. I slouched on the bench at the end of the hall, munching chips and waiting for our teacher to make an appearance. After a minute, Morgan sauntered down the hall, hands tucked into the kangaroo pocket of her red sweater.

"Feeding your addiction again?" 

"You bet," I examined her face as she got closer, remembering the weird phone call last night. I had automatically assumed that he'd meant her, but he'd claimed not to know her. Was this all some giant prank?

Morgan grinned. "Why are you staring at me, Lucas? Do you like my sweater?"

I sat up, surprised, "Er...yeah, it's a nice sweater."

To my astonishment she winked at me, "Well, thanks. I'm glad you like what you see."

"Er..." I stammered and finally had to shut my mouth and stop talking. I'd thought of Morgan as shy and sweet. Where had this Morgan come from? Not that I minded...

"Lucas?" Morgan sat down beside me, sidling up to me she put one hand on my thigh just above my knee, sending a shock through me. "What are you thinking right now?"

"I...I'm – " My thoughts started and stopped, colliding with one another, and I couldn't seem to make my tongue work. She was so close, I could smell her perfume, and see every one of her long dark eye lashes as she looked up at me.

I was saved from making a total fool of myself by Aden, who came around the bend in the hall and stopped, frowning at us. "Teacher is right behind me, love birds." The tall brunette gave Morgan one last scowl and marched into the classroom, high heels clicking.

Morgan gave me one last predatory smile and slid off the bench. "Guess we better go if we want to get good grades in Biology." Another wink.

I nodded, baffled. "Right, Biology."

I spent rest of the class extremely distracted, and was called on twice and didn't know the answer. When school was finally over I shot out into the hall before Morgan could talk to me. I would only make a total fool of myself.

Thursday morning. Only a couple more days dividing me from the weekend. The smell of coffee was driving me crazy. Even though I had my head down on the desk I knew it was coming from behind me. Carrots had come in that morning clutching a bright pink travel mug, and I'd immediately wished I'd thought of that. 

Morgan's voice jerked me out of my stupor. "Good morning, Lucas!" She was leaning over me. I could smell the faint scent of strawberries. She was all sweetness and lace this morning, in a pink long sleeved shirt and faded blue jeans, beaming down at me, blonde curls falling over her shoulders. It was hard to believe she'd acted so seductive yesterday. I wondered if I'd read too much into it.

Aden marched in, and glared at the two of us, stalking over to take her seat on the other side of me, slamming her books down on the desk with a crash that made us all jump. 

I shot her a sarcastic smile. "Well good morning, Sunshine. So glad you could make it."

She said nothing, only shot me an even nastier look and then folded her arms over her black tank top and glared at the whiteboard. Mr. Slouch came in five minutes later, with a bran muffin and a bored expression. "Let's open our books to page 221."

Halfway through a droning lecture on God-knows-what, a note slid across my desk. Morgan shot me an amused look and nodded her head at the teacher. Mr. Slouch had his text book up in front of his face. He was extremely near sighted and often forgot his glasses, so we were free to pass notes without him ever noticing. I snickered quietly and unfolded her note. It was a badly drawn cartoon of a cow, and she'd drawn a diagram indicating all the different cuts of beef instead of the skeletal structure, and a little stick figure with a carving knife saying "MMM..." in a cartoon bubble. I grinned at her and gave her the thumbs up, then set to work on my own masterpiece, an overly large chicken to keep the cow company.

Once we'd filled up that entire piece of paper I started a new one, folding it in half and ripping it in two as silently as I could. We drew more pictures of livestock, and one very unkind depiction of Mr. Slouch at his desk squinting at his text book. I was just finishing up this particular portrait, when the man himself cleared his throat loudly and said, "Lucas. Something you'd like to share?"

I straightened up and cleared my throat, "Um, no." I tensed when Mr. Slouch stood up out of his chair. "Really? Because it looks like you have a note in your hand there. Passing love notes, are we?"

I could feel my face flushing, and hear Chubby kid snickering. "No."

Mr. Slouch put out his hand. "Give it here."

I thought of the picture of the teacher I'd just drawn. "I don't think-"

"Give it." Mr. Slouch was turning just as red as I was, "Give it to me now."

I could only think of one thing to do, so I crumpled the paper up in my fist, gave Morgan a look of desperation and shoved the whole thing in my mouth and began to chew frantically. I've never chewed a wad of paper before – any paper at all, actually – and for good reason. 

It was dry, and it stuck to my tongue. It actually made me feel like vomiting, so I stopped chewing and just stared at Mr. Slouch, who was staring back at me with bulging eyes. After a few seconds of this, he snorted, shook his head and marched back to his desk. 

Morgan and Carrots were both giggling, and Aden raised a disbelieving eyebrow at me, which I ignored. I did lean down and spit out the paper though. Yuck. I sat back and snuck glances at Morgan every once in awhile as Mr.Slouch continued his lesson. She was still struggling not to laugh, covering her mouth with her sleeve every time I looked at her, her cheeks red as she struggled against giggling. I couldn't keep the stupid grin off my face. Not because I thought I was terribly funny, but because I'd have eaten the entire three ring binder of paper to keep her laughing like that.

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