High School Romance ✓

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

I walked into the cafeteria and took a seat beside the "band geeks." I had been welcomed at their table for a few years now, even though I played no instruments. There band people are actually really sweet and a bit insane, but insane is what I need. Apparently they thought that since writing is an art, it was just as good as music. The band people were the first supporters of my writing and they loved it when I brought them a new piece to read.

Anyway, enough about that; this isn't my story. So, Courtney sat at an empty table, situated right between the football and cheerleading tables. Blake sat next to her. "So we're sitting here this year?" he asked gently.

Courtney answered with a sigh, "I guess so, Blake."

"Okay then," Blake answered rather awkwardly.

Lunch passed rather quickly. When Courtney reached her next class, she took an empty desk. Ethan sat down next to her. He leaned over to her desk and asked for a piece of paper in a whispered tone. She handed him one slyly, right before the teacher walked in. He wrote something and passed it back to her. It read, "There's a back-to-school party tonight at Matt's house. You in?" The 'Matt' he was referring to was my older brother, also a football player.

Courtney scribbled her reply, which was, "Yeah, sure thing, but only if Blake can come too." She slid it over to Ethan.

"Who?" Ethan mouthed. She shot him a glare. He hurriedly wrote something and passed it like it was on fire.

"Kidding. Yeah, I'm pretty sure the nerd can come." Before she could protest her eyes scrolled to the bottom of the page. "Btw, that was another joke."

She rolled her eyes and quickly wrote, "Not funny, Ethan," and passed it.

"Mr. Bowman, are you passing notes in class?" the teacher asked. Ethan quickly swapped the real note for a fake note he kept hidden for emergencies like this while she was walking back to his desk. "Give it here," she said. He obliged. She read the fake note aloud, "'Isn't this class the best ever?' Well, if it was the 'best ever' why weren't you paying attention?"

All eyes fell to Ethan. Courtney saved him by saying, "Ma'am, it was my fault. I passed the note to him. He was just giving it back because he wanted to learn something. I'm really sorry."

"I see," the teacher said, pacing back and forth, "Very well. Just don't let it happen again, Miss Pennington." She let it drop at that because Courtney had a great academic record and all the teachers at our school knew it.

Courtney was "Miss Perfect" in every way to them and the rest of the school too, but I didn't mind so much because she wasn't the least bit stuck up, like most queen bees.

The bell rang then and Ethan escorted Courtney out of the classroom. "That was my bad. Sorry, that fake note usually works every time. I don't know what went wrong this time."

Courtney laughed, "Don't worry about it. It's not that big a deal."

"Can I walk you to your next class?" Ethan asked.

"It's 'may I' and I'll take it from here," Blake said with a slight glare directed at Ethan. They were both fighting over Courtney and she didn't know it. The whole school knew it though, that's why they stayed away from Ethan, because they were sure that's who she would choose. It was bad enough to just be friends with a geek, and a million times worse to date one. At least, that's what they thought. I thought that was horrible and felt really bad for Blake.

Courtney, oblivious to the glares, said, "Okay, see ya later, Ethan."

"Bye, babe," he said. She sighed dreamily as he walked off. Blake heaved a disappointed sigh at her reaction. Actually, now that I think about it, it was more a sigh of defeat from poor Blake. It was definitely filled with pain.

I would have asked him out if I thought it would've helped, because I would take Blake over Ethan any day, but I backed off, just in case Courtney felt that way too, or in case she changed her mind about her crush on Ethan. I say "crush" because that's obviously what it was. Or at least it was obvious to me.