Brooklyn (A Paul Lahote Story)

Chapter Thirteen

The first bell rings, causing everyone to run from their lockers and towards their designated class room. A soft sigh escapes my lips as I run a hand through my curly red locks, the other hand clinging my math books against my chest as I move away from my closed - and locked - locker.

Last night was hell on earth. After everyone left, my dad exploded and told me to never speak of Paige like that again and he can tell her whatever he wants to tell her - including me. So, of course, that resulted in me telling him how much I hate it here before slamming the door in his face and locking it before climbing in bed. I got up extra early this morning to go for a run, shower, put on my black leggings and white v-neck tank with a black "fish in the sea strappy bra" - as Becca would describe it. Of course it's cold out so I'm wearing my leather jacket with my high top converse sneakers.

Slowly, I enter the math classroom and towards my seat in the back. I place my books of my desk, sitting down and dropping my over the shoulder bag on the floor as I wait for the teacher to come in.

I open my books, tapping my pencil against the pages as I skim over the boring material to distract me.

"Hey Brooklyn." Kyle says, taking his seat next to me.

Kyle is a football player, tall and muscular - obviously tan - and has piercing blue eyes that I could die for. He's one of the nice Quilietes in this school who actually talk to me and make an effort.

"Hi Kyle.." I softly say, reading over the section on theorems for geometry.

"How are you doing?" He asks, no doubt leaning against his hand and staring intently at me but I don't bother to try and make eye contact.

"Tired but fine. You?" I play along, wanting to be nice to the people who are most likely risking their reputation talking to me.

"Great! So, there's this party-"

"Busy." I cut in, hearing the second bell ring and people's feet patter against the tile floor, rushing to their seats.

"Come on, Dani! It'll be fun!" He whisper-shouts and I look at him, smiling softly before shaking my head and turning my direction to the teacher at the front.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Today, we will be discussing how to calculate shapes and create proofs." Mr. Henderson says, writing on the white board before turning to his book and writing down formulas.

The classroom gets filled with the sound of papers being flipped, pencils moving across and writing notes, and books being placed on the wooden desks. To me the sound is pure bliss, it's one of the odd sounds that makes me want to hear over and over again. Weird, I know.

"Miss Hudson, what is the area of this triangle? The base being thirteen and the height being six." The teacher asks me and everyone turns to look, staring at the new girl and probably waiting for me to make a mistake.

I take in a deep breath, calculating the equation in my head before answering, "The area is thirty-nine." I smile softly, tapping the bottom of my pencil against my notebook.

"Well done, Miss Hudson." Mr. Henderson smiles before turning back to write down more notes, to which I write down quickly.

I may hate math but I'm good at it, surprisingly.

~*~

"So you're pretty and smart." Kyle says, his football team surrounding him in front of my locker.

I roll my eyes and push him out of my way, opening my locker to place my books in and grab my books for science.

"Yeah, and a nice ass too." One of his teammates says, causing everyone to holler and whistle before high-fiving each other.