Upside Down

Chapter Three

I groaned and rolled back over in my bed, hoping to fall back to sleep quickly. I wondered what time it was and opened my eyes to glance at my clock across the room. I sat up with a start when I realized that I had forgotten to turn my alarm clock on the night before and that school started in forty-five minutes.

I jumped out of bed and ran into my closet to put some clothes on. I quickly picked a pair of shorts that rested a few inches above my knees and a black V-neck shirt. I hurried into my bathroom and curled my hair. When that was done, I hurriedly did my make-up and then straightened my bathroom.

Walking back into my room, I picked up my clothes from the night before and tossed them in my hamper. I then ran around my room, gathering up my books and putting them into my backpack. I put on my black Converse before grabbing my phone and my keys and sprinted down the stairs.

I grabbed a granola bar from the kitchen and then sprinted to my car and sped to the gas station to grab a Pepsi, my version of coffee.

Fifteen minutes later, I was stepping out of my car into the high school parking lot as the tardy bell sounded across the school grounds. “Great, second week of school and I’m already showing up late for class,” I mumbled to myself.

I thought about running to class and trying to get there as soon as possible but I decided to just take my time. I was already late anyway.

I went to my locker and twisted the knob until it landed on the last number. Pushing up the latch, I pulled the door open and began to stack textbooks and shoved my notebook into my backpack. Squeezing out some lotion into my hands, I put the bottle back in my locker and closed the door with my foot.

Opening the door to my first hour Spanish 2 class, I was greeted with smirks from my class mates and a glare from my teacher, Mrs. Lane, standing in front of the class.

“Why don’t you take a seat, Miss Dove. There’s an empty one in the back row that you may sit in.”

Sending Mrs. Lane an apologetic smile, I began to walk toward the back of the class. I heard her start up again, explaining some concept to us I knew I wasn’t going to understand. Half way to the back of the room, I looked up toward the desk I was told to sit in and froze.

You have got to be kidding me.

Sitting in the desk right next to my empty one, was him. My mystery boy. He was looking right at me with an entertained smile on his face. Seeing me frozen in place, he raised one of his eyebrows and nodded his head toward my desk.

“Is there a problem, Miss Dove?” I turned around to see Mrs. Lane staring at me.

Looking down toward my feet, I quickly spun and started to walk toward my desk again.

Sliding into my desk, I refused to turn and look at him. Instead, I turned away from him and began to rummage through my backpack, searching for my notebook and a pencil. When I had found both, I resisted the urge to loudly slam them onto the surface of my desk. Instead, I set them down gently and opened my notebook to a clean page.

Leaning over the page, I carefully wrote out my name at the top of the page, followed by the date. I then looked up toward the front of the classroom and tried to decipher what Mrs. Lane was saying.

For the next ten minutes I listened to Mrs. Lane but didn’t understand a single thing she was saying. It could have to do with the fact that I was in Spanish, a subject that I had always struggled with, or it could be the holes I could feel slowly burning into the side of my head.

When it felt like my hair was going to burst into flames, I turned my head toward him and (surprise, surprise) he was staring right at me. Seeing me look at him, he smiled. Not letting his straight white teeth and perfectly sculpted smile cloud my thoughts, I glared at him.