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History Class

My first period was history.

Unfortunately, Riley and Farkle weren't in my class.

I walked in and stood awkwardly by the teacher's desk. It took a second, but the teacher looked up. He was an older guy with a bald spot, wearing a cable-knit sweater and slacks.

"Hello!" he cried, "You must be Maya!" He had a hint of an accent.

"Umm... Hi?" I replied awkwardly. The rest of the class filed in. 

Including Lucas.

Yaaaaaaaayy.

This will be a great rest of the year.

"Class!" the teacher said, "This is Maya. She's a transfer from..." he trailed off and looked at me.

"New York," I said.

"What was that?" he asked, cupping his hand to his ear.

"New York!" I said loudly.

He chuckled, "Ohhhhh, I was just messing with you."

I already didn't like you.

"I'm going to put you next to..." he looked as if he were trying to decide where to put me, even though there was only one empty seat.  And guess who it was next to?

"Lucas," he finally said, "You can sit next to Lucas. You're okay with that, aren't you, Mr. Friar?"

Lucas looked like he wanted to say no, very, very much. 

"Mmmmhhmm," he said, looking down at the desk.

The teacher seemed satisfied. So, I reluctantly went and sat next to Lucas.

As the teacher rambled on and on about the Boston Tea Party, Lucas stared at me. The. whole. entire. class. He looked as if he was having a very intense internal debate. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw anger, hatred, fear, sadness, then his face would soften, and then the cycle would repeat. He was confusing and scary and strange.

"So," the teacher was saying, "We will be doing a partner project," -a collective 'yaaaay', "And I have already picked your partners!" -A collective 'ughhhhhhhhh.'

"Jenna and Antonio. Isabelle and Michael. Veronica and Eli. Ryan and Willow. Maya and Lucas-" but the rest of the sentence was nothing but a low buzzing. Me partners with Lucas?

"And this will be a strictly out-of-school project. I suggest you exchange phone numbers with your partner."

Ugh.

"Well," I said timidly, "I guess we don't have to exchange phone numbers, since we're neighbors."

"Yeah, I know," he said, so quiet I could barely hear him, "I saw you looking in my window yesterday."

I blushed, "Sorry about that."

He didn't answer.

The bell rang. I grabbed my bag and ran out of the classroom, embarrassed.

Riley paused as she ran past me.

"Hi-Maya-how-was-history-science-was-great-thanks-for-asking-I-gotta-go-my-music-class-is-on-the-other-side-of-the-school-see-you-at-lunch-byeeeeee."

And she was running again.

I walked along the lockers. Then, the late bell rang. Great. I was late. I walked faster.

All of a sudden, I got slammed against the locker. A big guy, with slick black hair and brown eyes, like holes, had me shoved up against the lockers.

"Hey, Blondie," he said, "You're really pretty, you know that?"

Three of his friends stood behind him menacingly.

"I'm Mason, beautiful, what's your name?"

I slammed my forehead into his face.

He jerked back, holding his mouth. His friends growled.

"You're gonna pay for that one, Blondie." He lunged for me. But, I ducked under his arm and sprinted down the hallway.

"Get her!" I heard Mason call, and four pairs of footsteps were pounding behind me. I pushed open the double doors and sprinted down the hallway. 

All of a sudden, I felt Mason tackle me to the floor. He flipped me over so that his face was an inch away from mine, and I could smell his breath, hot on my face.

I squeeze my eyes shut and tried to struggle away.

I heard three muffled thumps, and Mason was lifted off of me.

It was Lucas! He held Mason by the throat, and he turned around and slammed Mason against the wall. Lucas gritted his teeth and squeezed Mason's throat. Mason's three friends lay unconscious on the floor.

"I. told. you. never. to. do. that. to. another. girl. again," Lucas said, pausing in between words because of how tightly he was gritting his teeth.

"I will give you one more chance."

Lucas hurled Mason across the hallway, and he crashed to the floor, unconscious like his three friends.

Lucas turned to me, his eyes alight with rage, and sprinted down the hallway.