The Breakup Girl

Chapter Five

We were in Algebra when Garrett was flicking papers to his friends across the room. Garrett sat right next to me, and I was on the verge of punching him in the face if he didn't stop. Luckily for me, Mrs. Rue stopped him.

"Garrett, you've been fooling around too much. Why don't you sit up here with me?" She fake smiled while the rest of the class was holding in our laughter. "Switch seats with Todd."

As he was gathering his books while we all laughed, I realized something. Did she say Todd?! I looked up from my notebook and there he was, putting his books down at the seat right next to me. The rest of the class watched as he sat down. Todd smiled at me, and I smiled back.

This couldn't get any better.

I felt like how I felt with Brandon. I had that urge to look at him. I had my hands in fists and kept telling myself, don't look at him, don't do anything embarassing! Oh, remember to breathe! He could see everything I did. So I tried my best to sit still and look ahead.

The next five minutes blew by with me in a very awkward position doing everything I could to not embarrass myself.

"Okay, complete page fifty-five with the person next to you." Mrs. Rue stated and went back to her desk.

I looked to my right, where Todd was already looking at me. He pushed his desk next to mine and I flipped open to the page and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Okay, number one..." He started reading.

"It's an equation." I moaned and started solving it on my paper. When I was finished answering, I asked him, "What did you get?"

He looked down at his paper and said, "Twenty-two."

"Are you sure? I got forty-five."

I leaned over to look at his paper and read his work. He had nice handwriting, and wrote everything very neatly.

"Oh, you divided wrong," I explained. "don't divide by two, divide by four."

I took my pencil and pointed at the numbers. I looked up from Todd's paper and he was already looking at me. I looked at him back, our eyes both wide, my mouth slightly hanging open. I blinked quickly and leaned back over to my paper.

"Uh, yeah, thanks." Todd said, snapping back to reality.

We finished our paper before most people were finished, so we both sat there quietly for a few seconds. I didn't know what I was supposed to say, or if I was supposed to say anything at all. While debating on what to do, I took out my notebook and continued writing a poem I started earlier in second period.

"You write?" He asked me.

It startled me, and my hand instantly flew to my paper so he wouldn't see anything.

"Uh, yeah," I blushed and looked down. "it's stupid, I know."

"I don't think it's stupid at all. I like reading and writing." He shrugged.

"Really? You don't seem like you would." I squinted my eyes and tried to picture it.

Todd was too attractive and muscular to be a reader or a writer. He looked like the popular guy, the guy who played sports, played girls, and spent all his time with his friends.

"Yeah, I know. I get that a lot." He laughed. I did, too. It sounded right.

The bell rang and I gathered my books.

"Don't forget to study for your test tomorrow!" Mrs. Rue reminded us.

As I stood up, I dropped my folder. I leaned down to pick it up, but another hand beat me to it.

"Thanks," I said to Todd.

We started walking together to lunch and talking about random things. Todd explained me that he had just moved from New York City, because of his father's new job. He was going to try out for the school football team. The best part was that he wasn't some low life that played girls. He had straight A's his whole life, like me. He liked reading, and we talked about some of our favorite books.

He sat at the lunch table right next to mine, where we continued our conversation. I didn't even pay attention to the fact that Brandon Dowey also sat at his table. I ignored him and focused all my attention on Todd Gades.

"I have football tryouts tomorrow, but next week we could hangout if you want," he shrugged while eating his sandwich.

Under the table, I felt Sam kick my leg. I looked at her and she was beaming. I turned back around to Todd and nodded.

"That'd be cool."

I played it cool, but as soon as lunch ended and I waved goodbye to him, I went in the hallway and squealed while my friends jumped up and down with me.