Hiding in the shadows

Chapter 7

"Alright guys, grab a kit and a book and go back to your tables." Jenks told the class.

As I slide off my seat to go grab my new kit and book, Gus whispers to me, asking what was wrong. I reply back saying that I would tell him later. By later I kind of meant never, but oh well, he can figure that one out. When we get back to our table we open our new kits. The array of new stationary gives me butterflies. Drawing was my life and all this new expensive stuff filled my head with creative thoughts. 

"Alright guys," Jenks said, drawing my attention away from the art kit and towards the front of the room to look at a whiteboard completely covered in notes. "You have 10 minutes to get that down, then come over to my table because today we will be experimenting with water soluble graphite." 

With that,another small groan left my lips. I reached for my pen and some lined paper out of my bag and started taking down notes. About 30 seconds in, Gus nudged me to get my attention, but in doing so made me draw a blue line straight through the middle of my page.

"Dude!"

"Sorry." He said  sheepishly. I knew he didn't mean it but still, I was a perfectionist.

Reaching for another piece of paper, I started again. I was a quick writer so it didn't take me long to get back to where I was, then I looked over at Gus.

"So what did you want?" I asked him.

"What was wrong earlier?" 

"Bro," I said with a giggle "I told you later, like later later, not like, 3 minutes later."

"Aw come on A." He said playfully.

"Nuh-uh, no way, I need to sort a few things out first."

"Please."

"No"

"Pleaaaassseeee"

"No, Gus."

"Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top."

"Ew, you know i hate cherries, no way am i going to tell you now." I said with a small laugh.

"Shit. Goddamn A, why are you so difficult." Gus replied, trying his best not to break out into fits of laughter like before.

We finished taking our notes with around a minute to spare. Everyone gathered around Jenks' table, looking at what she had spread out before her. She started the demonstration as soon as everyone was at her table. Mid way through I contemplated whether I should look up at Elijah or not, so I did anyway. I slowly diverted my eyes towards him. He was paying close attention to what Miss Jenkins was saying. I glanced back at Jenks for a slight moment, but i was unable to resist another look. This time when I looked over towards him, he was gathering his hair into a pony tail, placed in the middle of his head, still concentrating on what Jenks was doing. A small strand left his tidy creation, coming down to sit in front of his ear, which he immediately tucked away. Looking back at what Jenks was doing I gathered what I had missed out on and broke away when the rest did, gathering a small amount of the graphite and a cup of water, then sat down with Gus and grabbed a brush from my kit. 

"So, what's the deal with the new guy huh?" Gus asked.

Shocked, I replied with a short and extremely not subtle "What?!"

"I saw you looking at him." Gus teased, while giving a small wink.

"Shut up." I said playfully, giving him a small push, this time he only swayed slightly, not falling off his chair, but still sending us into yet another badly retained fit of giggles. 

"Come on guys." Jenks said playfully. It was pretty hard to get onto Jenks' bad side, and when you did, the only thing you wanted to remember was to get away as quickly as possible. 

"Sorry Jenks." We both said in unison, finally focusing on our work. Around 20 minutes later the bell rang for recess. We packed up our stuff and finally got to put our stuff away in our new lockers. I got to my locker to find Kiro standing right next to it.

"What are you doing here Kiro?"

"What are you doing here A?"

"Going to my locker."

"Me too." At that, we both slowly look up at each other and did the girliest thing possible, we jumped up and down looking at each other in the eyes and squealed, "LOCKER BUDDIES!!!!!!!"