Storyteller

Storyteller Chapter 16

Val’s POV

I couldn’t believe this. Alex was Mr. Hallaway’s son how was that even possible? He looked just as surprised to see me in this class and it took me a solid five minutes to look away. “Is that the Alex Woods?” Nadia whispered and I nodded slowly.

“He’s hot”, Henri said and I looked back to see her biting her pencil and I rolled my eyes.

“Alex this is your new class please find a place to sit”, he said and I sat forward again. Nadia was on my left side and Henri was behind me but the desk on my right was empty. Back in grade eight we had a different English teacher, Mr. Grimsly and he used to sneeze on that desk all the time so it was permanently vacated and no one bothered moving here even when we had Mr. Hallaway. Mr. Hallaway was way cooler and according to the girls in my grade he was the youngest and hottest teacher in the school. He was a lot of the girls’ crush but he wasn’t full of himself. He was nice to everyone and he did his job the right way. Alex obviously got his looks from his father and his love of writing.

Alex looked away from me and over to something else and I looked over to see Derek sitting on my other side and I glared at him. Alex went to the back of the classroom and sat in the corner seat and my heart sank. I guess it was to be expected he probably wasn’t even interesting in my outside of the Internet world. After twenty minutes of listening to girls flirting with him I put in my headphones and started reading my L.J. Smith book. I was listening to my country play list and thinking about my family. Today was turning out to be not so much fun. In Foods he was surrounded by people including Nadia and Henri so I made myself some banana pancake popovers and grilled myself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch along with making some chocolate chip cookies for me and the girls. “You didn’t tell us he was that hot”, the girls said as we headed to gym class.

“I wanted you guys to use your imaginations”, I shrugged.

“Too bad we have an all girl gym class”, Nadia said pouting.

“Well Val has first dibs on him”, Henri reminded her.

“Yeah why haven’t you been talking to him you’ve been avoiding him like he was a leper”, Nadia questioned as I changed into a pair of green dolphin shorts and white tank top.

“I don’t know it’s different talking to someone in person rather than on the Internet”, I said pulling my hair back into a ponytail.

“It’s better because you can actually touch him”, Nadia told me.

“I just think this was meant to be a wake up call to concentrate on my career and the future”, I said shaking my head.

“Have a future with your stud muffin man”, Nadia said disapprovingly.

“Besides you don’t need your career right away it’s a time in our lives where we get to explore our opinions”, Henri said brightly.

“You guys can date him but I don’t know if military guys are my type”, I said then got a soccer ball in the head, “oh for goodness sakes”.

“Come on just let the swears fly free no one says goodness sakes anymore”, Nadia said kicking the soccer back over in the general direction of the guys. We were playing football again today again and I was a fast runner so I was the left runner. I just had difficulties catching the football that’s all.

“I never thought I’d say this but I miss volleyball”, Henri said after about twenty minutes of class.

“You don’t have to run around as much”, Nadia said leaning against me to stay upright while Henri was leaning on my other side.