Promises (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter 2

As I walked down the hall after study hall, I saw Charlotte ahead of me. She turned into my next class, which instantly made me excited. This was my chance to talk to her. I went in and took a seat next to her and said "Hey."

She looked over at me a little surprised. "Oh, uh...hi." I could tell she was that she was not expecting this.

"It's Charlotte, right?"

She gave me a small smile. "Yeah."

"Well, I'm Jack and I just wanted to welcome you to our school. Just don't think about how lame the classes are and it will actually be kind of fun." I joked, slightly laughing. Luckily, this made her laugh too.

"Well Jack, thanks for the tip."

"So, where did you move from?" I ask. I already know the answer from Aaron, but I just want to talk to her, and I don't know what else to talk about right now.

"Baltimore. My dad got transferred for work, so here I am." She says. I'm off to a good start with this girl.

Just then, the teacher began talking, cutting our conversation off. For the third time today, I spent the entire class thinking about Charlotte. I looked at her every once in a while, but I didn't stare.

As hard as I tried, I just couldn't figure her out. I know that I'm going to have to get really close to Charlotte to figure this out.

When the class ended, I picked up where I left off. "So Charlotte," I say, picking up my books, "would you like to have lunch with me and my friends?"

"I would, but I don't know that I want to sit with a bunch of boys."

"It's not all boys. There's one girl." I couldn't help but laugh when I realized how ridiculous it sounded. "But, she could use a girl to talk to for once, and I'm sure my friends would love to meet you."

"Ok then, why not?" She shrugs. I don't think she's stopped smiling since we started talking.

We get to the cafeteria and get in line. I'm kind of nervous about introducing her to the guys. I feel like they might do something that would make Charlotte feel uncomfortable. But, I guess that I don't have a choice now.

After we got our food, we sat down at our table where everyone else was already eating. "Hey guys, this is Charlotte. Charlotte this is Jack Johnson, we usually just call him Johnson, Nash, Cameron, Sam, Mahogany, Shawn, Taylor, Aaron, Matt, and Carter."

They all greeted Charlotte without scaring her off like I thought they would. I saw Matt wink at me. Man, he can't take anything seriously.

"So Charlotte," Cameron says, "how do you like it here so far?"

"Well I've only been here for a day, but it doesn't seem much different than my old school," She says. I was happy that she wasn't that shy around the guys.

"Well, it's nice to have another girl here for once," Mahogany chimes in. "I was gonna lose it if I had to go another day with these morons." This made us all laugh a little.

"So," Taylor starts, "what do you think about Jack here?" He asks, nodding his head towards me.

"What do you mean by that?" Charlotte asked, a little confused. I knew that Taylor, being the funny guy and all, was trying to make it seem like I like Charlotte. I glared and him, cautioning him to be careful as to what he says next.

"Nothing," he says, dropping the subject.

I can't believe that the guys are actually being polite for once. I guess that they know that I would kill them if they drove Charlotte away.

We get to know some more about Charlotte, but not nearly as much as I would like. Aaron was right, this girl is a closed book.

But I am determined to change that.