She's That Girl, He's That Boy

Chapter One

I brush my hair back out of my eyes and look up at the board where the teacher is writing out next homework assignment. I open my planner, yes I keep a schedule for my week, and write down tonight's work. I smile as I write it down. We are reading "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller and I love it. The bell rings and I gather my things. Before I exit the classroom, I stop at the teacher's desk.

"Mr. Reese, do you mind if--" I start to say before he cuts me off.

"You stay after school again to work on the assignment?" he says smiling at me, "Of course not. I have to warn you though, I am monitoring detention today."

"That's fine. Thank you. I appreciate it." I tell him brightly

I usually stay after to work on my assignments. I don't like to go home right away because my parents are never there. They work a lot and are always away on business. The silence kills me sometimes. My teachers let me work in their classrooms after school because of it. They trust me to know I won't do anything wrong.

"Aubrey, did you tell your parents about the award?" Mr. Reese asked me

I sighed and told him, "Of course. They were super proud of me."

Truth is, when I told them, they were on their way out to go on yet another trip. My mom barely heard me and said congratulations. My dad paused for a second to pull out his checkbook and write me a check for $200 and mumbled "'Congrats, here take this."

They always did this. A check here and there. A package in the mail that their assistant probably bought for me. They thought giving me things would make up for the fact that they were never here to acknowledge my achievements. Though, half the time they didn't even hear what it was I had done. It didn't bother me all that much. It's been this way for a long time.

"Bye Mr. Reese. See you later," I said as I swiftly walked out the classroom door into the busy hallway.

After I leave Mr. Reese's classroom I head to my locker. The chatter of all the conversations buzzes in my ear. I stop, encountering a couple devouring each other's mouths. The way they are all over each other is just disgusting. Don't they realize they are in a school hallway with people around?

I cough and ask, "Can you move please? You're in my way."

They pause and the girl turns to look at me. She sees my face and smiles. Oh god, what did I just do? Her name is Shelby and she is the queen bee of the school. It's the typical stereotype, which would be cliche if it wasn't so true. She's a tall blonde with a fresh tan, wearing the school cheer leading uniform.

"Who's asking?" she smirks

I know she knows who I am, but this is a thing they all do to me. It's typical. Try to make the "nerd" girl cower in fear. It's been this way for years. I sigh knowing that she expects the 'nevermind... sorry..." response but I wasn't in the mood to cower today.

"The girl whose locker now probably has STD's thanks to you." I respond

I instantly cringe knowing how awful that was of me to say that. I know what people say about some things she does, but I was never one to fuel nor listen to the gossip revolving our school. She looks shocked and I wish to reach out to her and apologize, but suddenly her mood shifted. She grins viciously and flips her hair behind her shoulder.