Toaster Notes From My Best Friend the Dating-Optimist (A Christian Romance)

Chapter Two

My next class of the day is math. My least favourite class. Ms. Abbot is a new teacher, fresh out of teacher's college. She's probably in her mid-twenties, and she's already got a chip on her shoulder. I settle into my seat, very nearly late for the start of class.

Ms. Abbot walks in about a minute and a half later than the last student. I glance at the clock. 10:15am. She's five minutes late for her own class. She dusts off her hands, wiping them on her skirt. There are cookie crumbs on the corners of her mouth. Her dark hair is pulled up in a tight ponytail, making her already severe features even sharper.  She takes her thumb and swipes at an errant line of dark red lipstick. She smacks her lips together.

    "Hi. Today we're learning about . . . what's it called? Uh . . ." She takes a step towards her desk to check her lesson book. "Ah! Scale drawings. So basically, scale drawings are when you draw things according to a scale, got it?"

The entire class groans. I sigh, already wishing I could skip out of class. It's only five minutes into the lesson. Embarrassing, isn't it?

    I suffer through seventy agonizing more minutes of math before I make a break for the cafeteria.

    I stand in line for ten minutes or so. It's burger day. On burger day, everybody buys lunch. Including me, and I really don't like standing in line.

After I get and pay for my burger and apple juice, I sit down at a table next to Asia. We're the only ones there, but I won't be surprised if  a few more girls from the basketball team come to sit with us. Ugh. That reminds me. I have practice after school.

I pick up my burger and take a bite. I tilt my head back and let out a little moan. So good. Greasy and squishy, but so good. I look over at Asia, who struggles to contain a laugh.

    "What?" I ask. Asia grins, shaking her head.

    "Nothing, nothing." I glare at her, and this time she really does laugh.

    "You have mustard on your face." She giggles. I pick up the spoon that I grabbed for no apparent reason. I scrutinize my reflection. There's mustard smeared across my whole upper lip. I scrunch up my nose, instinctively wiping my lip with my hand. Bad idea.

    "Ew!" I exclaim, frantically wiping my hand on a napkin. I look over to find Asia laughing as if this is some kind of joke.

    "Hmph." I grunt, picking up my phone and effectively shunning her. She continues to laugh until I can't resist cracking a smile, if only in an effort to shut her up.

                        -

    The rest of the day passes quickly enough. I sit through science quite obligingly, since it's not a class that I dislike. My last class of the day is photography, an elective chosen by the completely non-practical part of me that wants to study photography. Almost every day Ms. Tremblay gives us a new assignment. Photography assignments are the best. I sit down at my place in the back of the class. Renee sits next to me. She's probably the best photographer in the class. She seems to have a serious knack for it, especially considering that she says she's never taken any sort of photography class.

"Hey Renee." I greet. She smiles, waving.

"Hi Rory. Take any good pictures this weekend?" I shake my head, pulling out my phone.

"Nope. Just this one." I show her a blurry picture of my dog Hazelnut. She covers her mouth with her hand.

"Ooh. That's bad." I nod, grimacing.

"I know. What about you?" Renee shakes her head.

"Nope. None."

Mrs. Tremblay gives us an assignment to take five black and white photos of someone. All of them have to be of the same person. She says to make them 'profound'. She gives us two weeks to take the pictures, saying that they need to have thought and meaning behind them. I wonder who the subject of my photos could be. My first thought is someone in my family. Or of Asia.

Those seem too easy though. I'm already close to those people, so taking a profound picture won't be challenging. I need someone who I don't know as well. Renee, maybe? No. Someone else.

The bell rings for the end of class. I stand up, pulling my backpack onto my shoulders. I'll think about my assignment later. Now for basketball practice.