melanie.
"How did it go?" Mr Bates asks, shuffling some of his papers at his desk. I stand on the other side of it.
"Uh, it went well for me, but also went shit?" I say, still confused by the whole situation.
"How so?" He asks, looking up this time, up over his glasses at me.
"Well they understood what I was saying, I think. But they literally didn't even know the basics. So how are they ever going to learn the actual stuff they need to know to pass an exam?"
Mr Bates looks at me. Into my eyes this time. "But they listened to you didn't they?"
"Well, for the most part, yes."
"Exactly. They haven't listened for five years. So just them listening means you're already doing a better job than me."
"I think they're listening cause they want me to muck it up, they don't believe I'm good at maths." I say, because it's what I've been told.
"How would they even know you did?" He asks. And leaves me to think about it for a second.
"And maybe you should show them how good are." He adds.
We finish up our conversation and I leave him. School is almost over now, and I only have one more lesson today. I check my timetable, it says that I have English.
I wait for the bell so I can miss the rest of Biology. It was useless anyway, I would never need to know the difference between prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells.
"Oi, Ed!" A voice calls from behind as I wander down a random corridor to pass the time.
I turn around and Jay trots up behind me.
"Oh, Jay. Hey." I say, he gives me the evils.
"Where was you at lunch?" He asks, as if I didn't have any other friends bar him.
"I went out,didn't I ?" I say. Why was he so bothered?
He brushes it off, thankfully. I didn't really want to tell him I was out with Van and Larry and that other chap. God knows what he'd have to say about me and three lads around the side of the school. He liked to make up stories, that Jay. If he wasn't so incompetent he would make a decent author.
"Right. Well, I got summat to tell ya. It's really serious." He lowers his voice, so I know he's serious.
"Alright?" I say.
"Someone told me Mary's mate is coming for ya after school today, cause you broke her arm."
"Ah shit." I say. I knew I shouldn't have fought her.
"How did you even manage to break her arm, Ed?" He asks.
"If I knew I wouldn't be so scared, Jay." I say. I feel a fear, deep in the pit of my stomach. Her friends were rough. I was a scrawny girl. I didn't really stand a chance.
"Listen, Ed. It's probably just talk. If someone even attempts to jump you I'll knock 'em out." He says, flexing his bicep. It made me feel a bit better, Jay was a fighter. He was pretty strong and quite tall, and he had the temper of a dog with rabies.
The bell rings and I go off to English. Jay is in my English but he decides he doesn't want to go today, so I say goodbye to him.
When I get into the class, I sit down quickly at the back of the room. A few people wave and smile at me but they all sit down somewhere else. Until a curly haired lad walks into the room. He slumps down beside me and I turn to look at him. It's the lad from earlier, the one who doesn't smoke.
"Alright, lad?" I ask him, because I'm confused as to why he's sitting beside me. I got the impression he didn't like me earlier.
"Yeah, and yourself?" He turns to me and smiles, which shocks me.
"Great." I smile back.
"Van's meant to be in this class too." He says.
"Oh okay?" I say, I'm not sure why I want to know that.
"If he knew you were here he probably would've came."
I go red. That couldn't be true.
But suddenly, he bursts through the door, luckily he's still here before the teacher, so not a lot of notice is paid to him.
He sits down on the other side of me. And suddenly I'm in the middle of a weird indie lad sandwich. And I don't really know what to say. But I'm a fucker for thinking out loud at the worst of times.
"How come both of yous are in this English now? Yous weren't before."
I really have no filter. No wonder I get in fights.
I had never had a class with either of them before that I could recall.
"I've always been in this class." The curly haired lad says.
"Oh." I say, really embarrassed.
"Me too." Van says, and I feel worse.
"Well shit." I say, feeling terrible.
"Nah I'm joking." Van laughs. And I smack his arm.
"You made me feel like the biggest bitch." I pout.
"You should do, Benji has always been in this class." I presume he's talking about the curly haired lad.
"Aw shit, I'm sorry." I say to him. He just shakes his head like it's no big deal.
The lesson goes on for an eternity. It doesn't help I'm useless at English, but Van is actually quite good. He's only in this class now because his class was too small and there wasn't enough teachers so his class got put in with mine.
I think out loud for most of the class and he answers my incredibly stupid questions every time.
"What does she mean by 'juxtaposition'?"
"Like contrast."
"Does it really matter what kind of cloud was in the sky?"
"It's a metaphor."
"What's onomatopoeia?"
"When a word sounds like what it means."
Finally the bell rings and the day is over.
I pack up and Van turns to me.
"So it's just maths you're good at then?" He questions.
"Yeah. I'm useless at everything else." I laugh.
"Ah, don't sell yourself short babe." He winks at me.
It feels like someone set loose a swarm of bees in my stomach. What the fuck was he playing at?
"I wish I wasn't." I say to myself.
"See you tomorrow, yeah?" He asks as we head out the door.
"Yeah. I guess." I say. The bees still reeking havoc in my stomach.
We part ways and he leaves me with that familiar feeling. I think I had a crush. Dear god, pull yourself together Melanie, you're sixteen, not eleven. If it's not going to happen, forget about it.
