Scatterbrain

Smitten

Adrenaline pumped through her veins. After Cecilia walked out of the classroom her body felt spastic, like all her nerve endings were malfunctioning at once. She silently thanked luck that Warner wasn't in her next two classes. Hopefully her nerves would calm down and she wouldn't break down. At least not yet.

Class blurred into class until the end of the day. With books in hand, Cecilia stood in front of the door to English class talking with her friends. Her teacher ran on her own time frame
and the class before often ran long. Cecilia's brown eyes flickered up and around the rest of her classmates standing in the corridor. She was looking for a certain brown-eyed boy, but he wasn't there. Late probably, she thought. He's always been scatterbrained.

The class before finally filed out and Ms. Laney, the English teacher, ushered in her last class of the day. Inching herself away from the door, Cecilia strolled towards the end of the line trying to stall. She wanted to wait for him, for Warner, as long as she could.

Just as her feet began to cross the threshold of the desk-filled room a voice rang through the air.

"Ms. Laney!"

Both of us turned our heads. Crowds of students were scampering, all rushing to get to class. Scraps of loose leaf and Bic pencils littered the laminate tiled flooring, remnants of the last bell change. Warner appeared at the end of the hall, clothes rumpled and bunched up. His books were disheveled with papers sticking out of every crevice. He must've been in a hurry.

As Warner walked briskly towards them, Cecilia ducked inside. She plopped in her desk, conveniently close to the doorway. Picking up on Warner's voice, she heard him say, "Ms. Laney, I'm sorry if I'm late, but I was checking around the school for the book you assigned yesterday, Dusk to Dawn. I seemed to have misplaced it." Classic Warner, she thought. She pictured him reddening a little having probably realized how embarrassing it seemed he already lost the book.

Hearing a snicker, Ms. Laney walked into the room with Warner trailing.

"I'm gonna beat you with this book, Warner," Ms. Laney said with sarcasm, picking up a beaten copy of Dusk to Dawn from her desk. "A classmate found it in the hall, keep a close eye on it." He laughed, thanking her, grabbed his seat.

As class droned on, Cecilia found it hard to focus on the things being said. All she could do was focus on the desk three seats over.

Warner was busying himself with his own antics as Cecilia surveyed him. His knees stuck out of the small conjoined desk and chair. Short, brown curls crowned his head. His long fingers grasped a blue mechanical pencil oddly as he sketched on the desk. She remembered the conversation they had in 6th grade about the unique ways of holding a pencil. She had tried mimicking the way he held his and failed, holding her cramping hand and smiling as Warner had laughed at her.

The bell rang and class was dismissed. She packed up her things and headed out, blending into the stream of students. She almost sprinted to her locker, throwing all her stuff in her bag. She hated the closeness of the clustered hallways.

Advancing towards the doors of the bus lot, the only exit, Cecilia noticed a red athletic backpack bobbing up and down in front of her. A familiar lanky frame carried it. In her surprise, the red backpack wearer turned around and met her with a grin.

"Cecilia, how's it goin' ?" Warner asked, a hint of playfulness in his tone, like usual. Her guts twisted like they did earlier in the day. As she was about to speak the laminate flooring changed into cracked asphalt. The smell of fresh spring air stung her lungs. "Whoops, gotta go," he said, heading off in the direction of bus 24. She started to sigh, making her way up the clover filled hill overlooking the lot when his voice called her name again.

"Cecilia!" he yelled. She turned around, stopping. Warner's arms were flailing around trying to claim her attention. "See ya tomorrow!" he yelled up to her. She blushed, as an internal switch flipped, sending her jitters from head to toe. I just might be smitten, she thought to herself. Just might.