Five

Chapter 3

Once the orientation ended, I could tell I didn't want to leave. Besides, if I went home, I would be stuck doing what I usually do - either watch TV all night, or read a book. But I've finally unearthed something different, something that'll change up my monotonous life. 

It's exhilarating. 

Cooper is definitely someone I can see myself wanting to get to know better. It's only a matter of time before I find out if he feels the same way about me or not. 

       "Yeah, trust me, the school isn't even that big," he explains to the nervous new kids. "Wait till you see the pool on the roof! Try out for the swim team, too. I can envision a bunch of little Michael Phelps' surrounding me at this very moment." The kids laugh, and I smirk for a few reasons. The main one being that there is no pool on the roof; that's something the upperclassmen would tell the incoming newbies since they didn't know any better.

    Again, I have to ask. "Cooper, how did you even know about the whole pool joke-,"

"Shh," he hisses and glares at me. "It's no fun if they know  there's no pool on the damn roof." Then he smiles knowingly and winks at me, as if we share some sort of inside joke. In a way, we do. Once the shock of his cute smile wears off, I scowl slightly. I'm still confused as to how he knows the things he does. But it's really not that big of a deal at the moment. Maybe he just has a friend that goes to school here.

    And told him everything that you end up learning through trial and error, through the experience of being a student here. 

   "You shouldn't be so suspicious of me, you know. I'm not a spy for the NSA or anything like that."

I try not to let on how caught off guard I am by hearing this without even accusing him of being a spy at all. But that's probably all the First 48 and Dateline talking. "I can't help my natural skepticism. Plus, the fact that you're enjoying getting kids' hopes up is a little sadistic," I continue when he doesn't respond, "Right? Right." 

    He just continues staring me down, as if trying to find something that isn't there. Unless I don't know it's there. I'm automatically unsettled. "Why does it bother you?" He asks. Before I have the chance to answer, he bombards me with another statement. "And you used the wrong word."

  I scoff. "What word?"

"Sadistic. A sadist enjoys hurting others - which I don't. And a sadist takes sexual pleasure in doing so, hurting others that is. And if you haven't noticed," he leans closer as he says this, and his breath smells like the lemonade from the table by the door, "these are all kids way out of my league. Isn't that right my little Olympians?" 

    I cross my arms and pretend that his words didn't have an effect on me. I don't usually like being proved wrong, especially with my grammar. Who was this kid really? Who does he think he is? 

And yet they all seem to love him. Completely forgetting that I'm also their group leader. I go to gather my things and head out, I'm ready to go back home and immerse myself in nothing particular. Someone grabs my wrist and I immediately tense up and turn around, puzzled.

It's Cooper.

   "Hey, Coop!" One of his friends, I guessed, yelled. He turned towards the call and gave some hand signal that I assumed meant wait.

   "Your friend's waiting," I once again state the obvious. He lets go of my wrist and chuckles, stuffing his hands into his jeans. "What's your number?" He asks.

  "I don't have a phone." I say. 

"Well what time machine did you use and where can I give it a spin?" He laughs, and I don't. Something about this guy is just off to me. I can't help my hereditary paranoia of newcomers and the possible impact they could have on me and my life. It's a gift and a curse. "You can't possibly be from this era and or planet and not have a cell phone." He furrows his brow and I cross my arms again.

  "I can't afford such luxuries," I state plainly. For some reason I'm enjoying giving Cooper a hard time. I'm also trying to use sarcasm in an attempt to cover up the fact that I'm giddy on the inside at the prospect of giving him my number. The fact that he even asked for it is just -

  "You're kidding, right?" He flashes his million dollar smile again, but he doesn't have a clue. I'm the queen of sarcasm and playing hard to get. His friend didn't tell him that little tidbit, I'm sure. Either that, or he just doesn't care. 

   "Okay, tell you what," he says as he snatches my phone out of my back pocket and whirls around, protecting it in his hands before I can snatch it back.

   "Are you kidding me?" I say, gasping. "You don't get to just do that," I exclaim, trying to reach around him to get my phone back. 

   "Here." He hands me back my phone and it's opened up to my contacts app and his name and number are in there.

I scowl at him.

"Before you delete it, just think about all of the hungry children worldwide!" Cooper says this as he spins around, grabs his book bag off of a nearby chair and jogs over to his friend. He jogs backwards so he can watch me and see if I delete his number or not. Then he moves his thumbs in a texting motion, then winks at me as he spins around and claps his friend on the back.

   I watch them leave and ponder what Cooper stealing my phone and putting his number in it has to do with hungry children. 

I smile and grab my stuff before heading out to walk back home. Cooper is different, I can tell that much already. I just hope it's the good kind.