Sorry, I Love You.

1.02

    Waving goodbye to her new friends, Zoe slipped into her English class and took her seat by the window. Other students flooded into the classroom as the clock ticked closer and closer to the beginning of class. As some students walked in, they stared at the new blonde sat patiently in her seat. Those she caught staring earned a smile and a playful wiggle of her long and skinny fingers. They simply smiled back and awkwardly sat in their seats.

Just as the bell rang loudly above, Teddy Morgan trudged into the classroom with his hood over his head and headphones in. The teacher was quick behind him, plucking his hood off his head. When Teddy grimaced at him, the teacher gestured towards his ears, a firm look warning Teddy to take his headphones out of his ears. Teddy obeyed and tucked them away as he made his way towards his seat.

Zoe carefully watched her tall classmate walk through the rows of desks until he reached her, her eyes falling nervously to her notebook in front of her. She listened as Teddy sat in the seat behind her and placed his backpack beside his seat. It was only two days since he had first spoken to her so she wasn't quite over her embarrassment yet.

Zoe wondered what he thought of her. She wasn't a cry baby. She hoped he knew that. More importantly, Zoe hoped he hadn't said anything to anyone. She didn't want word going around that she cried in the back of the library like a loner. This was a new school so Zoe only wanted to make a good impression on people. Unfortunately, she didn't get a chance to make a good impression with this particular classmate.

"I looked at your short practice essays from yesterday," The English teacher, Mr. Zanders, began as he grabbed the pile of papers and held them in the air. "They were so bad that I didn't even want to correct them. Instead, you're going to."

Some sighed, already annoyed that they were told to do more work. Every other class was still talking about the syllabus, work expectations, which lessons they'd be doing this year. Yet, Mr. Zander already had his classes writing short essays. He had written a couple bullet point facts on the white board and told the class to write about them so he could see where each student was with their writing skills. Apparently, he wasn't impressed.

"I'm going to hand them back to you and you're going to hand them to the person behind them. That person will then correct your mistakes. When you receive the person in front of you's paper, you will use a different color pen or pencil to correct it and write your name beside theirs so I know who corrected whose. Understood?" Mr. Zander finished as he started handing papers back to their rightful owners.

A murmur of agreements spilled from students as they slumped lazily in their chairs. Zoe observed everyone's reactions. It was a lot different here than at her last school. When everyone received their paper, Mr. Zander instructed everyone hand theirs to whoever was behind them. Zoe nervously spun in her seat and watched the familiar boy from the library pass his back. When he turned around, his dark eyes locked with Zoe's, who flashed him a soft, friendly smile. Her milky brown eyes softened as her puffy cheeks overtook her face.

Zoe placed her paper on his desk and swiftly turned, her long, blonde, and slightly curled hair twirling in the air and settling over her shoulders. Teddy looked down at her paper and his eyebrow furrowed. Her entire paper was written with a purple glitter pen, her letters curly and bubbly like the Disney font. She even dotted her I's with tiny hearts, crossed her T's with wavy lines, and doodled around the edges. All the words she messed up were messily scribbled out.

At the top right corner, Teddy read, Zoe Yang. So now he knew her last name after hearing her first name come out of literally everyone of his peers mouths.

At the sound of a pencil box loudly bursting open, Teddy looked up to see Zoe digging through her box of glitter gel pens and colored pencils for a tool to correct with. She decided on a pink glitter pen and put her pencil box back in her backpack that sat beside her chair. Teddy scoffed, shook his head, and grabbed the black pen sat beside his pencil.

Mr. Zander signaled for everyone to start correcting their received papers and took his seat at his desk. Zoe sat with incredibly straight posture as she marked things here and there. The boy in front of her, Daniel, hadn't made too many mistakes. She only marked a couple things before she started mindlessly doodling flowers and bunnies along the side of his paper. She couldn't help herself.

Teddy, on the other hand, drew harsh black lines under her misspelled words. He wrote sharp notes along the sides of her paper, correcting the fact that two of her facts weren't suppose to overlap. He also crossed out her purple, glittery flowers with black X's and stated not to draw flowers on essays. When he was done, he relaxed in his seat and stuck his pen between his teeth. With his arms crossed over his chest, he silently observed the class as everyone finished up their corrections.

"Everyone's done?" Mr. Zander questioned a couple minutes later. Some simply nodded. "Pass them forward, take a look at your papers, and I'll collect them once more."

Zoe passed the essay back up to Daniel and also flashed him a pearly white smile, which he happily reflected. Turning around, she flinched when Teddy thrusted her paper at her. Her milky brown eyes held his as she carefully grabbed it and turned around. Teddy also collected his paper from the last person behind him and looked over the corrections. There was very little on his paper. Only some added comma's, which he figured would happen. He had a tendency to create run-on sentences. Ironic, since he wasn't one to talk all that much.

Looking at her paper, Zoe's eyes first landed on the black X's on her pretty flowers. She frowned as she read his note, warning her not to doodle on essays. His handwriting was small and concise. Her eyes flickered up to his name written at the top left of her paper. Teddy Morgan. For some reason, Zoe really liked his name. She thought those two names fit very nicely together and the more she read it, the more she thought the name Teddy didn't really fit his stiff personality. It was so soft. He was so not soft.

Just under his name was written, Write your essays in pencil. Zoe frowned.

"I have pencils." Zoe blurted as she looked over her shoulder at the boy sat behind her.

Teddy looked up to see Zoe pointing at his sharply written note and then at her pencil box. Plucking his pen out of his mouth, Teddy spoke up, his voice low and almost gravely. "Lead, not colored."

"Why? That's no fun." Zoe turned even more to make eye contact with Teddy. His dark eyes engulfed hers completely almost instantly. His stare was dominating, intimidating, and deadly serious.

"You can't erase your mistakes when you use a glittery pen. It's an essay and it looks like a mess." Teddy stated calmly but firmly.

Zoe's soft eyes fell to her paper. She frowned at all the X's on her flowers and big blobs of purple glitter where she messed up a word. Daniel noticed Zoe frowning at her paper and decided to speak up.

"I like it." At his comment, Zoe's attention landed on him. Taken aback by a beautiful girl staring at him, it a moment for Daniel to continue. "Th-the pink glitter suits you. So does the bubbly handwriting. And the flowers."

Zoe's frown was wiped away nearly instantly and replaced with a blinding grin. "Thanks, Daniel."

From Teddy's slightly slouched position, he could see Daniel just passed Zoe. Daniel visibly turned to pure goo as he stared at Zoe and admired her bright smile. He had actually just fallen in love. Teddy rolled his eyes and stuck his pen between his teeth again. People falling in love with Zoe in the blink of an eye was probably common, Teddy thought to himself. She was pretty, no doubt, and apparently filthy rich. That didn't mean she could draw flowers on the side of her essay. She lacked sophistication. She was juvenile. Teddy was unimpressed.