Us

Part 1

{ Bryce }

There was something about her that had just caught his eye, the first time he saw her. He wasn't sure what it was but there was definitely something.

She wasn't drop dead gorgeous. 'Attractive' wasn't the right word, but she wasn't 'ugly' either. She was a short and skinny girl with dull brown skin and straight black hair that fell down to her shoulders. Her eyes were leaf-shaped and she was wearing black braces which made her look as if she had just swallowed a bucket of ink. The only truly positive thing he could say about her was that she had pinchable-looking cheeks and was curvy enough to pass off as sexy.

She had been assigned to the desk next to his and she had taken the seat rather slowly and cautiously, as if he was a lion about to pounce on her. As she sat down, he could hear her tapping her fingernails against the desk anxiously. He knew she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't doing a good job of hiding it.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap.

"I'm Lacey." Those were the first words he had heard come out of her mouth, and she had spoken them with a nervous laugh.

He nodded. "Bryce."

Lacey was quiet for a while, and Bryce could hear the taptaptap-ing sounds getting faster and faster. She was staring straight ahead at the blackboard and biting her lip so hard he thought it would bleed. She was so nervous it was almost funny.

"What's Mr Joffrey like?" The words came rushing out of her mouth, and for a second the taptaptap's stopped. And then the second was gone and they resumed, even louder than ever.

Bryce shrugged, staring down at his pants. "Strict. But smart." He noticed a small rip in the fabric covering his knee area and instinctively patted at the cloth as if it would make any difference. It was a tiny hole and he was doubtful anyone would notice. Still, he felt uneasy with it being there. He had always been somewhat a perfectionist.

Lacey laughed again. It still had that tinge of nervousness, but this time, it sounded more like a real laugh than it had earlier. "Aren't all teachers smart?"

"Some more than others." Bryce kept his hand on the hole in his pants.

Lacey smiled. It was a beautiful smile, Bryce thought. She didn't say anything more then. "Where are you from?" he spoke slowly, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed.

She looked surprised, her eyebrows raising for a second. "I'm half Japanese," she said slowly. "I'm just here for a year or two. Then I move back home. Do you live here?"

Bryce nodded. "My mom's from France. She came here to study and fell in love with my dad." The lock on his throat suddenly lifted and he continued, "I've been living here since I was born. It's not the greatest place, it's a small town, but it's still something." His eyes flickered up to her before moving away.

She opened her mouth to speak again, but their converastion was interrupted by the sound of the door bursting open. "Good morning, class," Mr Joffrey's voice echoed through the classroom. The quiet murmuring quickly died down and the lesson was begun, but Bryce couldn't bring himself to focus.

***

At lunchtime, Bryce slid into his usual seat, near the corner of the cafeteria. His friends were arguing about something again, the soccer match last night.

"No, that was totally luck. I'm pretty sure it was luck," Zeke said, his tone stubborn. His mouth was curled into a scowl.

From across the table, Jason rolled his eyes. "Oh come on. They would have won any other day."

They both fell silent, looking at Bryce for support. He looked up at them from his sandwich. A moment of silence passed. He sighed. "I didn't watch the game."

Zeke and Jason groaned simultaneously, going back to further annoying each other.

Bryce's gaze suddenly locked onto the Asian girl from before, Lacey. She had just entered the cafeteria, and from the looks of how she made her way to a table which sat three girls, she'd managed to make a few friends already. He felt a pang of disappointment, although he wasn't sure why. Was he hoping she'd sit with him? No, he thought.

"There's a new girl," Bryce said, cutting into his friends' conversation.

Jason looked over at him, stopping the argument momentarily. "Oh yeah, that girl. Macie or whatever it was. She was in my English class.

Zeke waggled his eyebrows. "Well, is she cute?"

"Cute," Jason repeated, scrunching his eyebrows as if trying to place the description. He eventually shrugged. "Cute, in the sense of aww-she's-so-adorable, then yeah. She's Asian or some shit like that."

"Japanese," Bryce corrected, trying to sound as nonchalant as he could. He tried to make it seem like he couldn't care less, like how Zeke normally talked. But he couldn't help feel something as Jason said those words, although he wasn't sure what something. Not jealousy, or anger. Just something.

"Oh, and by the way, they won the game by 7 points. You can bet your ass it wasn't luck," Jason suddenly shot back at Zeke, and the subject at hand was immediately shifted away from Lacey. Before long they were both back to bickering at each other.

Bryce glanced to the table where she sat. She was laughing at something, her slender fingers cupped over her mouth. She looked... something. He wouldn't say gorgoeus, but... special? No, that wasn't it. She just looked something.

He'd been feeling a whole lot of something's lately. Strange.

He wanted to know more about her.