Latter Days

Chapter 3

Chapter 3  

            I waited in the office for a few minutes before following Jack to first period--Anatomy. I pretended I had a problem with my schedule, but I really just didn't want to give him the satisfaction of me walking with him to class. I ended up being one of the last ones to arrive, but I didn't care. I noticed on the board up front, the teacher, Mr. Hoover, had created a seating chart, alphabetically by last name. There was a crowd surrounding it, so I hung out near the door until it cleared up. Glancing around, I didn't see Jack, but I did see Noelle Traven. Noelle was a good friend of mine. She definitely wasn't as close as Nate was, but I had been paired with her for nearly everything throughout middle school and high school, since our last names were so close together in the alphabet. I smiled at her as I eventually made my way up to the board. 

          I looked toward the bottom, where my name would naturally be, and my heart stopped. The word "Traven" was unmistakably written just above my own, meaning we would be lab partners, but it had been crossed out. Over it was a new word. "Tristan". 

          This was the first day of my fourth year at this school. Four years, and I had not met anyone with the last name Tristan. I took a seat and, out of the corner of my eye, caught Noelle frowning at me. There was still no one next to me. 

          "Class!" Mr. Hoover called, "I understand we are very excited about our seating arrangements, but can we please keep it down while I call role?" We quieted down as he began. 

          "Asher?"

          "Here."

          "Betten?"

          "Here."

          "Christman?"

          "Here." Christman was Nate. Nathan Christman. Mr. Hoover made it down the list and eventually came to my absent lab partner. 

          "Tristan?" No answer. 

          "Jack Tristan. No Jack?" No. No. No. Jesus-boy is not my lab partner. I am not sitting next to him and having him preach at me all year long. I'm sitting next to Noelle like always, and this is all a dream. A very bad one. 

          "I'm here!" All eyes turned toward the door, "I'm so sorry, I got lost. It's my first day here and--well, I guess it's everyone's first day--but I'm new to the school and, well, school in general, and I got lost and I didn't know where I was going and I've literally been walking around for ten minutes trying to find the science building." In the very few times I had spoken to Jack, one thing I gathered for certain was that he good ramble for days. 

          "That's fine, Mr. Tristan. Welcome to Hemlock. Just take a seat in the far corner near Miss Tucker, there. Annalie, will you please raise your hand?" I hesitated. 

          "Annalie?" Jack questioned, as he peered at me from the front of the room. "Annalie! Hey! Hey, why didn't you walk with me to class? I'm so embarrassed, it took me forever, and you probably passed me on the way--" he was whisper-yelling as he made his way back toward me and it had to stop. 

          "Jack. Stop," I hissed. "You're here now, alright? You're still alive, so you can shut up about getting lost. You're here. You made it. Stop." 

          He stopped. 

          For the rest of the class, Mr. Hoover went over the syllabus while most of the students talked quietly amongst themselves. Jack and I, however, sat as far away as possible at our table and didn't speak a word to one another. I could tell I had hurt Jack's feelings, by the way he wouldn't even look at me throughout the period. This was his very first public school experience, and I had ruined it for him on the first day. Sure, I didn't particularly like him, but I had no reason at all to be so mean to him. After all, he had every right to go to the police about what he had seen me about to do at the Temple. He knew that it was me who broke into all the buildings before the Temple. He knew, and he didn't say anything. Because he was trying to be a good person. 

          Then I realized. Jack wasn't trying to be a good guy. He just was. That was his nature. He had no reason to be polite to me, since I was anything but, right from the start. He was a good person and I was scum and it took one hour in anatomy class to figure this out. 

          When the bell rang, everyone got up to leave very quickly, except for Jack. I looked over at him as he pulled out his copy of the map of the school. I didn't even know Hemlock made maps. He was still refusing to look at me. 

          "Hey," I tried. "Do you want to walk with me to our next class? We have art together, right?"

          "Nah. I got it," he replied, carefully reading over the map. The art building was across campus, and if he was going to sit and ponder this sheet of paper for hours, he was never going to make in on time. 

          "No, come with me. I can show you where it is," he looked up at me and I forced a small smile. 

          "Are you sure you want to be seen with me? If you want, you can walk a few feet ahead, and I'll just follow behind you. I won't even say anything to you." 

          "Look, I'm sorry about what I said. Okay? I have a lot going on, and I took it out on you, and I think I might be jealous of you, and it just got to me and I snapped at you, alright? So I'm sorry. Please just walk with me to art." This was getting embarrassing. 

          "You were jealous? Of me? Why?" I sighed. 

          "Hey, let's talk about this on the way, okay? We're gonna be late. You may have an excuse, being new and all, but I don't, and the school will waste no time in calling my mom to tattle." 

          On the way to art, I explained to Jack what I had realized during the time he wouldn't talk to me during anatomy. That he didn't even have to try to be nice, and how I was born with the social skills of a gnat. "It's just the way God made us," he started, "I didn't really take any offense to it. Everything is a part of His plan, and we just have to accept it." 

          God, he was preaching at me again. "Okay," I began. "I just wanted to apologize to you. For being a bitch back there, I mean. And before, in the office. And before that even, at the Temple."

          "It's fine. I know you didn't mean any harm by it." He smiled. "I like you, Annalie." 

          "Do you? Not a whole lot of people do." 

          "Yeah, I do. You're a good person."

          I nodded, and looked toward the ground. No one had ever told me that before. In the seventeen years I had been alive, not one person had told me that they thought I was good. They said I was smart, sure. They said I had a lot going for me, but I was slowly throwing it away. Not once did anyone say they saw any good in me whatsoever, and that was because they truly didn't. 

          But if Jack could see that, after seeing the true me, and only talking to me for a few minutes in total, then why couldn't anyone else?