They Never Expected

Chapter 3

3 

The kiss in the rain left me floating high above the rest of the world. I hovered through every part of the remainder of that night right up until I saw Isac the next morning. When he saw me, he seemed surprised that I wasn't awkward with him. He actually seemed a little awkward himself at first but he almost visibly broke out of that shell and settled into his usual self when I smiled at him and took his hand to wander aimlessly around the school before class. 

"You know, you're different." He said as he handed me half of his donut and offered me a drink of his coffee. He watched my face as though he were trying to figure out a confusing sentence in a book. I laughed. 

"Is that an insult or a compliment?" 

He chuckled back at me and took my hand as we walked together down the hallway to my first class. Unfortunately, he hadn't known me when he was scheduling his classes after he transferred, so he had to go to Pre-Calc while I had Chemistry. He saw me safely to class and kissed my hand before going to catch up with one of his friends. I sighed and went to find my seat. 

My lab partner lazed about through class, leaving all the work to me as he usually did, but I didn't bother to protest, concentrating only on the hands of the clock, waiting for class to end. As a result, class  dragged just as it always did when I wanted to get on with my life. After I finished the work that my partner was supposedly helping me with, I sat twiddling my thumbs for what seemed like a century. Finally, the bell rang, startling me out of my trance. The rest of the class shuffled out ahead of me as the teacher eyed me warily, wondering why any student would want to extend their time in his class for any reason whatsoever. I escaped his glares and headed for the door, wanting to give Isac time to find me. He was already there waiting for me with my World History book in hand. 

"How exactly did you get my History book out of my locker?" I wondered aloud. 

"I'm observant." He smiled an evil smile. 

"Oh really," I countered, "then what was your lesson in Pre-Calc today about?" 

"Ummm... Long division?" 

"Unless you dropped a few math classes, I think maybe you should start paying more attention. Your parents might think I’m a bad influence on you if your grades start to drop." 

He gave in, "Fine..." His face lit up suddenly "I made you something..." 

He reached into his pocket and pulled it out in a fist. He opened his hand and held it in front of me. In his palm was the most delicate, beautifully detailed heart I had ever seen and right in the middle of it was both of our initials. 

"Isac... It's amazing... How did you do this?" 

He took my hand and dropped the tiny heart in it. The weight of it stunned me. 

"Is this... This is metal!". 

"If you were to clean out your bag every once in a while you'd find all of the paper ones I made before I made this one." 

I reached my hand into my bag and pulled it out again. Sure enough, my hand was filled with a dozen tiny, paper origami hearts. I looked again at the metal one in my opposite hand. 

"This is incredible!" I continued "How did you do this?" 

"I used one of the two classes we don't have together." He said with a smile. 

Unlike me, he had the courage to take an art class that involved welding. 

"Hmmm... Fire... Hot metal... Not good for Grace."