The New Kid

Interactions

After French was over, I stood up from my desk and collected my things. I was placing my notes in my bag when Ryan spoke, surprising me, and causing me to drop my papers on the floor. I bent down to retrieve them when Ryan’s hand fell on top of mine. He smiled for a split second then immediately took back his hand and allowed me to collect my papers.

 “Huh. Are you always dropping things?” Ryan chuckled nervously trying to cover up his slightly flushed face.

 “Only if I’m being shoved or scared to hell.” I said deadpan and slid my papers into my bag and swung it onto my shoulder.

 Ryan laughed and led the way out of the classroom and down the hall. “Sorry, kid. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to ask you that question I had earlier.” He took me into the senior hallway, and stopped at the lockers. He entered a combination and opened the door to his locker, placing his French book into it. “So. You are really good at French, huh?”

 I shrugged. “I used to go to Paris all the time with friends and whatnot. I have picked up a lot of the language. I also had a few years of French in primary school, which helped with the basics of it.” I was not about to brag about it, though.

 “Aw, come on, Gavin! You are fluent in it!” He patted my arm and reached into his locker and grabbed a crumpled piece of paper. He felt up his pockets and then looked at me, “Do you have a pen, Gavin?”

 I let my bag hit the floor and I reached to find my pens. I handed it to him.

 “Well, since you are so good in French…and I REALLY need to pass this class to graduate…I was hoping you’d be willing to tutor me?” Ryan asked as he wrote something on the piece of rubbish.

 “Sure! No problem! I’d be happy to help you, Ryan!” I chirped.

 His dimple appeared again as he handed me his paper, “Here. It’s my number. Text me later. I have football practice today, so we would have to have the tutoring thing tomorrow, sound okay?”

 I causally took the paper and slipped it into my back pocket. “Sure thing, Ryan. Sounds okay.”

 He grinned and patted my shoulder, “Cool. See you around then.” And he left down the hallway.

 I waited for him to turn the corner before taking out the paper and putting his number into my phone.   

 * * *

 Once I got home, I went on Facebook and confirmed friend requests from Ray and Michael. I was really happy that I found some friends who were attempting to make me feel welcome to this country.

 I was just looking at Reddit when there was a knock at my door. I glanced at the door to see Dad standing in the doorway and nodded so he was welcomed in my room. I sat up from my bed and smiled at him, “Hey Dad.”

 He gave weak smile and sat at the end of my bed facing me, “Hey, Gavin. Hey, can I ask you a question?” He rubbed his arm shyly and looked at the ground.

 I set my phone aside slowly, “Uh...yeah..?” I raised my voice almost as if it were a question.

 He let out a small chuckle before beginning, “Well. At dinner yesterday, you said, ‘I don’t really pay attention to girls’, that kind of caught my attention for a moment but I brushed it off. And…when you were taking a shower, I came in here and made your bed and left you that note…” His voice trailed off and my heart stopped awaiting his next sentence, even though I knew what was coming. “I noticed something on the top of your suitcase. I WASN’T GOING THROUGH YOUR STUFF! It was just on the top. It was a picture of you…and you were at Disney…” He met his eyes to mine in hopes he wouldn’t have to finish his assumption. Shit. I knew I should have put that picture back on the bottom.