When Freedom Calls

VI

I rushed to use the bathroom after lunch. It gave me a chance to freshen up, so I re-deodorized and combed out my wavy hair. The bathroom light was hitting my head in such a way that it looked softer than caramel. *Confidence boost: +15.* The more I thought about it, that day wasn't such a terrible day for Elliot to suddenly pop into my life.
I was half hoping that Elliot would be in my fourth period, but when the bell rang and the classroom door shut there was no sign of him. Duh. Don't be an idiot, Max. Out of all of the classrooms he could have been put in for fourth period, you expected him to be in Mrs. Johannsen's Advanced class. The odds aren't very favorable for you.

The teacher called my name for attendance which helped me to stop talking to myself in my head. "Here." I said monotonously. I then buried my mind in "Lord of the Flies" and tried to drown out the boredom of reality. I was halfway concentrated on what my teacher was going on about, when a soft pattern of knocks on the door interrupted her lesson. She looked at us as if to ask, "were any of you expecting company?" And you could hear the entire classroom shrug. When Mrs. Johannsen opened the handle on the door a figured walked in holding a yellow sticky note with the unmistakable handwriting of our office secretary scribbled across it. My heart began to hammer faster and faster in my chest as the guest walked further into the room. When our teacher finished reading the note, she spoke with an intensely charismatic smile and pleased tone of voice.

"Welcome to room 206, Elliot."

thump

"Please, pick any seat that's open."

thump thump

"Thank you, Ma'am."

He sat one row to my left and one seat behind me. My heart rate eventually began to slow back to a normal pace and the teacher started her lesson back up again, but I was still not fully concentrated. Especially because I was deep in thought and rubbing a tiny slip of paper in between my thumb and forefinger. A folded up loose leaf marked "M+E" in Stacy's handwriting, with a bunch of hearts scribbled around it. I need to get rid of this. Before he finds it. I thought. A recycling bin sat a couple feet in front of my desk. To my left sat a dickhead named Ashton who would often search for things to make fun of anyone about. Mostly me, simply because I sat next to him. The chances of me missing a super easy shot and dropping the paper within the stretch of his foot seemed unlikely enough. But I could practically feel him staring at my hands and the slip of paper fiddling through them. If I were to miss this he would be attempting to snatch it up as soon as possible. So I ended up slipping the paper into the front of my jeans and forgetting about it in the next five minutes.
School is my game. Don't let a cute boy throw off your game. Don't let a cute boy throw off your life simply because he's cute. Don't lose focus on the rest of your life. I gave myself a pep talk in my head when I couldn't focus on the lesson. But it only worked half the time. I mostly just sat and stole carefully timed glances so it only seemed like I was curious about the new kid and not some mildly obsessed, gay stalker. And I prayed to any entity that the timing was correct. We almost made eye contact in one instance, but he averted his eyes once he saw me looking in his direction. Other than that, the rest of class was pretty straightforward. The bell rang, so I went to stand up and walk out the door, but before I could even gather my books, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I looked over in my desk, still sitting, to find Elliot retracting his hand from my shoulder and giving me a small wave before standing and walking towards the crowded door.
"Have a nice day, Mrs. Johannsen. It was nice to meet you," he added, turning on his heel and exiting the room.
"You too, Elliot," she responded excitedly to his back. "Oh, and Maxwell? Are you alright today? You seemed a bit.... out of it."
She could tell, damn. Hopefully she doesn't read to far into it.
"Ah, yeah. I'm alright. I guess I'm just tired today. I read a lot of our book last night, so I didn't get much sleep. Thanks for the concern, though." I gave a small smile and headed out the door. "Have a good day."
"You too, Max."
And, as I strolled into the hall, I spotted him leaning up against the wall, tracing its patterns with his fingers. He must have spotted me looking at him with a look of amusement and confusion, because he stood up off of the wall and nodded at me with a shimmering smile. "Hey, Max," he greeted me with a small laugh, "you do remember me, don't you?"
"Of course," I responded,"Elliot," and the awkwardness settled around us like dust from a recently erupted volcano. Thick and obvious and poisonous. I smiled in an attempt to cover it up, but it didn't help. Then Elliot chuckled lightly and all the awkward, dried ashes seemed to crack and fall below the two of us.
"So what's your next class?" I said to break the silence, and out of genuine curiosity, "because I have world history."
"Umm..." he checked his schedule, " me too." Other students started breaking off from their friendship circles and into their respective classrooms.
My face brightened up so much I could nearly feel it. "Lets go then, before we're late." And sure enough, we both walked into the room a few seconds before the bell rang. I sat in my regular seat and he talked with the teacher. "Sit wherever you'd like," I heard. Elliot looked at me happily and then to the empty seat next to me before sitting down in it. When the rest of the class began chatting quietly about their weekend, I found my cue and pointed to the seat in front of me. We both looked at each other at the same time and I could tell we were thinking the same thing.
A swish of bright color flashed in front of my eyes. "Hey, Ell! Welcome to our kingdom!"
Elliot looked at me again with an amused look and I could tell immediately that 5th period would be my favorite class for the rest of the trimester.