I'm Trying ||m.z||

Chapter One

Mackenzie let out a sigh as she glanced up at the clock. There were still 14 long minutes until her math class ended. Eight hundred forty seconds to go. Though Mackenzie loved math, she couldn’t stand hearing her teacher, Mr. Watterson, drone on and on about things she already knew. The so called “advanced” math class wasn’t on her level causing her to almost always be bored.

          At least I’ll get to see Tyler, Mackenzie thought, causing a smile to creep onto her lips.

          Only on Tuesdays did she see her crush. Not because he wasn’t in some of the advanced classes like Mackenzie was but because their school was so large. Plus he and his friends had five lunch tables they liked to sit at; one for every day of the school week. It was practically impossible to see someone you knew more than three times in a day outside of classes, so the day after pyramid was now Kenzie’s favorite, by far.

          She propped her chin up on a fist and stared off into the distance. Just thinking about Tyler gave her butterflies. His hair was the perfect shade of brown-not too dark but not too light either-and a playful smirk was always plastered on his face. Everything about him gave off a mischievous aura, except his eyes. They were a dark, stormy gray, and Mackenzie thought they made him even harder to figure out. Everyone knew Tyler wasn’t just the jokester he pretended to be.

          “Miss Ziegler,”

          While quickly looking over at her teacher, Mackenzie realized all eyes were on her. Something was wrong. “Mr. Watterson?”

          “I thought we had lost you there, Miss Ziegler. Could you tell us the answer to problem two?”

          “The answer is…um. Er, it’s,” Mackenzie swiftly flipped through her workbook pages trying to find her homework.

          Mr. Watterson was now standing next to her desk, and her frowned, “I see you didn’t do it. What was the conflict?” His voice was stern, unlike Mackenzie’s favorite teacher, Mrs. Eaton, who understood that dance was a big part of her life.

          “Dance,” She muttered before closing her book.

          The strict teacher shot her a “see me after class” and began another lecture.

          Dance classes had ended really late the night before for Mackenzie because she had been last to learn her solo. It was lyrical-not her strongest style-with a bit of acro thrown in. The name of her dance was ‘Stepping Stones,’ and Abby had said over and over that it was about taking every step to become a better dancer. The choreography was a bit harder than Mackenzie was used to, but she thought it was a winning number.

          Bring!

          Mackenzie practically jumped out of her seat, scared by the loud noise. She put everything in her backpack, left it on her seat, and walked over to Mr. Watterson’s desk. He glanced up at her through his glasses that always gave her chills.

          “Miss Ziegler,” he said “You do know that school comes before dance, correct?”

          With a nod, Mackenzie replied, “Of course! I had to write my essay for English and I thought it would make more sense to explain why I didn’t have one homework assignment, rather than a whole essay. I’m sorry. I meant-”

          “I understand that, and I feel as though you really intended to finish it, but this has happened two times before, and I have to give you a white slip this time,”

          Mackenzie felt her heart sinking but gave her Mr. Watterson a small nod. White slips meant trouble, and being yelled at wasn’t something found fun.

          As she stood waiting for the small slip of paper, Mackenzie could have sworn she heard her teacher whisper “Maddie never got a white slip,”

          After leaving the classroom, she hurriedly deposited her books in her locker and grabbed her lunchbox. Buying lunch as considered cool at her school, but Mackenzie didn’t care; no matter how good it sounded, every meal served was awful.     She found her way to the crowded cafeteria and sat at her regular table near the doors. Sitting on the other side made it hard to escape when everyone was dismissed. Her two friends, Ava and Grace, were already there when she arrived, and they had saved her a seat between them. Same as always.

          Out of her two close friends from school, Ava was definitely more outgoing. She easily could have been popular, but instead she’s chosen to be friends with Grace and Mackenzie, and Mackenzie definitely respected her for that.  Grace was super quiet; nobody really knew exactly what was going on inside her head, but when she did speak Ava and Mackenzie knew it would be funny.

          “Hey, Mackenzie.”

          Suddenly, there were a boy at their table with a small smile on his face. It was Tyler.

          Mackenzie gave him a small smile. “Hi, guys.”

          He sat down across from Mackenzie and the table settled into a silence that Mackenzie could only describe as awkwardness level ten. Mackenzie knew the looming Valentine’s Day dance was getting to her head so that must’ve been what was going on. Normally, there was a constant stream of chatter at the table.

          “So…” Tyler said, breaking the silence. “What’s up with you three?”

          Mackenzie shrugged. “Mr. Watterson is an idiot, but, I mean-”

          “He compared you to Maddie, didn’t he?” Tyler asked, raising one of his dark eyebrows.

          Mackenzie nodded.

          “Well,” he said, taking one of Grace’s fries. “He shouldn’t do that. I know how much you hate that.”

          For some reason, that made Mackenzie smile.

Hi! So this, I know, is slightly different from the original and that is because I decided against saving the end of the chapter. Sorry for the inconvenienece).