Color Me (under construction).

3. Ice-Breakers

His cool breath fanned across Beau's pinking skin, the mint scent mixing with his cologne - the smell of him was intoxicating. Mr. Krasinski pulled away with sickening ease, his hands pulling from his pockets. His eyes flicked to the clock on the wall behind Beau, his smile timed perfectly with the bell. Beau released her tight grip on the desk as Mr. Krasinski created more distance between them. He turned his back to her and began scrawling in neat print on the whiteboard. Beau shook her head to push the lingering smell of him from her mind, but it was stubborn. Her small, sore hand wrapped around the doorknob just as he spoke again.

"Oh, and Beau please try to not get in fights. Let's not make that a regular thing, okay?" Beau nodded and yanked the door open.

The hall pooled with students heading to their first period's classroom, and Beau blended in quickly. Her heavy feet carried her to Mrs. Roddich's History room, and she dreaded every second. She hardly paid any attention in her morning classes - the material was too easy - although today she was just preoccupied. Briefly, Beau closed her eyes only to be met with her new teacher's warm eyes. His scent hit her like a bag of bricks all over again, and she had to hold her breath to stop smelling it.

Beau walked to lunch with his smell still haunting her senses though less strong now. In passing, she caught sight of Lauren being guided through the lunchtime crowd. She had her head down and wrist cradled in her "good" hand while escorted by both Mr. Krasinski and Mrs. Hale, their Astronomy teacher. When Lauren looked up, her glossy lips pulled into a devilish smirk but was quickly replaced with a pout when Mr. Krasinski said something. He shot Beau a curious look as they disappeared around the corner toward Principle Colnon's office.

After heading through the lunch line for a water and bag of chips, Beau weaved in the direction of her usual roundtable. Lillian greeted her with a one-armed hug before she took the seat next to Calvin. Sitting across from them was a beautiful girl Beau hadn't seen before. She had her head leaned toward Reece as he presented her with something on his phone. Her clear, brown skin was a shade or two lighter than Reece's, her tight dreads wound into a half bun. Her nearly black eyes looked up and caught Beau staring. Beneath the table, Beau's leg shot out and kicked Reece who jumped slightly back.

It took him half a second to understand before introducing the two, "Beau, this is Raelyn Webber and she new. Raelyn, that's Beau: a god-damn firecracker."

Raelyn smiled politely with a nod of her head. Beau shook her head and chuckled, "You push a spoiled brat down once and suddenly you're considered dangerous."

"Hey, she deserved it though," Lillian added through a mouth of potato fries.

Calvin got Reece talking about something else, and the rest of them joined in. Lunch was smoother with the absence of Lauren, and before she even popped up on Reece's radar she was trying to weasel in and push Beau out. No one ever had any answers as to why Lauren hated Beau so much, especially Beau. Yet, she endured it until she just had enough this morning. Now, without Lauren, things felt like they were back to normal. Raelyn seemed to fit in well with them, and Beau secretly hoped Reece would trade in.

In Astronomy, Mrs. Hale had a substitute take her place - no doubt due to Lauren and Mr. Krasinski. After an hour long of a space documentary, the bell rang to release them. Beau took her time in walking to English. She knew the second she was in Mr. Krasinski's presence, his scent would attack her senses and distract her. Her need to take her time only increased once she realized she couldn't just leave afterward ...she had to stay and help out in the next class. If it was Mrs. Wayne, Beau wouldn't have minded. The class was full of Sophomores, two grades below her, and they all really enjoyed her being in there.

Beau entered as the bell rang and went straight to her assigned seat. Mr. Krasinski stood from his desk and placed himself in the center of the whiteboard. He clasped his large hands together and scanned his students. His eyes sat briefly on Beau before he looked away to speak.

"I know you're all going to groan at this, but we're doing ice-breakers. You might all know each other, but I do not know you. So, today I want to get to know you better." A collective sigh fell from each student's mouth except Beau's. Her jaw dropped and she stared at him in disbelief. He smiled in her direction before turning to the whiteboard. In his hands, he scooped up all five of his dry-erase markers, "Now, I only have five of these bad boys so only five will be allowed up at the board at a time.

"I will pass out the markers initially, then when you've taken your turn you will do the passing. I would like it if each of you wrote two interesting or crazy, or plain fact about yourselves. Do try to stay away from appearances as I can already see those. I'll go first." Mr. Krasinski turned to the board and with the black marker, he neatly wrote two facts about himself.

Beau's eyes read the words carefully, trying to commit them to memory just in case. When he turned to the class he smiled, "I love night time, and I'm thirty-eight years old. See, it's easy."

Jeremiah, who sat in front of Beau, leaned far forward in his seat and squinted his eyes. A whistle came shot from his lips, "Damn, Mr. K I think you're lying about your age! Ain't no way you're over here being thirty-eight."

Mr. Krasinski chuckled, "I know, I know, I'm too good looking for my age. But, yes Jeremiah, I am thirty-eight."

Just like Jeremiah, Beau couldn't believe it. Even though thirty-eight wasn't that old the sound of it did zero justice. At most, he looked twenty-six and that was reaching. His body was too defined and well kept that it seemed impossible. Mr. Krasinski shook his head and made his way through the desks of his snickering students. He handed Jeremiah the first marker and distributed the other four randomly. In a joke, Jeremiah put that he 'doesn't believe Mr. K but okay' as one of his facts.

When it was time for Beau to head to the board, she took a deep breath. Mr. Krasinski seemed to be watching her especially, but she shook it off as her nerves. She hated being center of someone's attention and being at the front of the class put her in the attention space of a lot of curious eyes. The shaky green marker met the whiteboard quickly. In a messy scrawl, Beau wrote her two facts; 'Im older than you fools' and 'my favorite color is maroon'.

Once she placed the marker down and headed back to her seat she let her chin drop in the palm of her hand. Mr. Krasinski stood facing the board to examine the work of his students. He smiled to himself as he read some of the facts.

"Hm, okay...thanks for that Jeremiah...Oh really...Wait, who here is older than everyone?"

Beau's chin slipped from her increasingly sweaty palm, and Jeremiah raised his hand, his index finger jutting back towards Beau. She smacked his hand down and eyed Mr. Krasinski.

She cleared her throat, "I'm already nineteen." Mr. Krasinski nodded in thought and quickly moved on. He continued to make comments along the way, but Beau heard none of them. She just couldn't pull her eyes away from him.