A Collection of Short Stories

Get Your Head In The Game

For almost ten years, Emily Zaaleks had a crush on baseball player, Andrew Nelson. She could never get up the courage to talk to him, and he always passed her by in the hallways. She tried out for the cheer squad, and got on, just to impress Andrew. He never showed her any signs of recognizing her presence, and that upset her; a lot. Emily just learned to give up, and tried moving on. Her crush on Andrew never left her, and she never moved on, but she did stop focusing on him so much. She stayed focused on her school work and cheerleading practices. That is, until one day in her AP Chemistry class. 

Emily was sitting in the back, like she normally does, taking notes. Mr. Larson was droning on and on about the elements of the periodic table, and Emily just wanted class to be over. Because of her last name, she's always last, but there was an uneven amount of students in her AP Chem class, so she had to sit at a lab table by herself. Mr. Larson quit projecting his voice to the class, and was quietly whispering to someone. Emily glanced up to the head of the classroom, and there stood Andrew Nelson talking to Mr. Larson.

"Mr. Nelson, how about you have a seat next to Ms. Zaaleks, please." Mr. Larson suggests. It's more of an order than a suggestion, but Emily raises her hand, showing Andrew where she is. He smiled at her, and paced to the back of the class, taking the empty seat next to Emily. This confused Emily; it's halfway through the year and Andrew was in regular Chemistry, now he's in AP? Emily really didn't care though, Andrew was sitting right next to her. Instead of having a fangirl attack like she would with her friends later on, she just sighed and listened to Mr. Larson talk again. 

"Can I see your notes?" Andrew asked her politely. Emily didn't answer, she just slided her notebook over. He started copying down notes from her spiral into his, but then he wrote something down in her spiral, making Emily curious. She was antsy until Andrew returned the notes. "Thanks," he smiled politely at the cheerleader, and she just looked down to her notebook, shyly. Emily looked at the note that Andrew put in, and it was just a smiley face. 

"Now, class. We will be working on a short project, nothing more than two weeks. You will be working with your tablemate, and it's due on November 14th. I will come around, assigning you to what you will be doing, so sit tight." Mr. Larson started to shuffle things around on his desk, while Emily just wanted to scream. Everything was happening to her so fast; Andrew being placed next to her, then the project together. It was absolutely wonderful to her. Andrew, little did Emily know, had the same reaction.

Andrew Nelson had a returning crush on Emily, and he'd been crushing on her since fourth grade. Emily and Andrew are seniors now, so for eight years, Andrew has wanted to ask Ms. Zaaleks out. He's never had the courage to, so he always avoided her in the halls. Andrew always found an excuse to be near the cheerleaders when they were having practice, but Emily never seemed to notice that. There were many beautiful girls on the squad, but the only one Andrew noticed was Emily Lauraine Zaaleks. 

"So, do you want to work at my place or yours?" Andrew asked Emily. 

"I'll do everything, and just put both of our names on it," Emily's eyes never left her notebook.

"No, no. I'm going to help you, Emily." Emily about freaked out, because Andrew Jason Nelson knew her name.

"Yours," Emily replied to Andrew. It took a lot of courage for Emily to say the one word, and it took Andrew a lot of relaxing to make sure he didn't blurt out anything about Emily. Mr. Larson came around to the tables, and when he got to Emily and Andrew, he had one project left. The project was pretty stupid to Andrew, but Emily was all for it with her arts and crafts background. They have to make a three dementional model of the periodic table. 

AP Chem was the last hour of the day for Emily, and now Andrew, and since they were in the back of the class, they were the last to leave the class. "So, I'll meet you by your locker?" Andrew suggested to Emily. He wants to get started right away, even though they have two weeks to work on it.