Behind The Glasses

         I woke up with a start. I knew I had a nightmare, but what about, I had no clue. I continued to sit up groggily in my bed and looked out my bedroom window. It was a bright, clear sunny day in Manhattan. It was the first day of freshman year of high school, and I wasn’t even close to being ready. I had just moved into an apartment by myself, because my parents said there was no room for me in the tiny crawl space they call a house.  I had more than ten times the space I did before. The only problem was I had no friends.

        Throughout elementary school and middle school, I was bullied for being smart and for having my black, thick rimmed glasses. But today, I had a feeling. A feeling I haven’t had in such a long time. It was the feeling of hopefulness. But that feeling soon vanished after I went on the bus, sat alone the whole time, and walked into my first class; photography.  

        As I walked through the surprisingly quiet room and felt a pair of eyes watching me. This next part seemed very movie like. It felt like a fairy tale. I turned slightly to my right, in slowmotion, and my jaw completely dropped.  It was a girl.  An extremely pretty girl. Staring at me? She flashed a glowing smile, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

        “Welcome to Photography!” the teacher boomed. She was a petite individual with soft hazel eyes. Do you ever get that feeling that someone is just a really nice person just by taking one glance at them? Yeah, she was one of those people. I kind of zoned out on what the teacher had said her name was because I still had that feeling that I was being watched. I took one more look at the possibly new girl and got a bit of a clearer image. She was also very short with  wavy blonde hair. But the thing I really liked about her were her eyes. They were a very distinctive  electric blue with almost tiny streaks of purple. I’ve never seen anyone’s eyes that beautiful before.  Get a hold of yourself Con. First of all she’s so outta  your league and secondly, she’s probably just staring at the guy in front of you with the huge muscles and drooling over him instead. Why am I even still thinking about her?! I moaned to myself.

        The perky teacher finally came into my thoughts once more, “Now I will start attendance. If your name doesn’t get called, please tell me, because this means that you’re probably in the wrong room!” She spoke all smiles. She then started calling off names and I drifted off into la la land once again trying to find more answers to why that girl was staring at me when the teacher reached my name. But I was so busy in my thoughts that I didn’t really acknowledge her.

         “Mr. Connor Franta!” she exclaimed  for almost the fifth time. At this point many of the people surrounding me were giving me weird looks. Some were even holding in laughter. I tried to imagine my facial expression. It must’ve been funny if their holding in their laughter so much their faces are turning purple.  I soon sunk in my seat and uttered the word “here.” I guess it must've been the way I said it, or maybe they couldn’t hold it in any longer, but everyone in the class bursted out in laughter.  Great way to start a new year Con. Really nice going.

        I took one last peek at the creepy stalker girl, and she seemed to be the only one not laughing. She smiled once more, but this time, I decided not to smile back. I held a frown to my face and turned back around in the chair.

        Throughout class, the teacher was talking about this “All Year Project” we have to do with partners. Being my introvert self, I didn’t really enjoy the sound of that word, mainly because that meant working with others.  What made the situation even worse was the fact the we had to pick our own partners, and me having no friends, I’ll just have to wait for that one kid who got abandon by their friends, and have no choice but to work with them. My eyes wandered the room as I took a look at the groups forming. I suddenly felt a light tap on my shoulder. Thinking somebody accidently bumped into me, I ignored it.