Bride In The Voyage

Chapter II: Solicitous

8:05AM. Mr. Davenport was taking the register, calling out each name in full one by one. I set the apparatus needed for the lesson on my dilapidated work table: two pens (black & blue), a translucent ruler, trigonometry & calculus books, a worn-out calculator, and a protractor.

"Harriet Pollard," Mr. Davenport called out.

"Present."

A word so elementary made alluring by Harriet.

"Miles Bateman."

"I'm present."

"Ronnie Herman."

Ronnie sat in front of me, his head on his desk. Apparently, one puff was all it took to knock him out. I kicked the back of his foot.

"Ow!" Yelled Ronnie as he jolted into a sitting position. Quiet laughter filled the room, which pissed off Mr. Davenport.

"Excuse me?" thundered Mr. Davenport with vexation in his voice. The entire class instantaneously went silent.

"I mean, present," Ronnie said as he rubbed his leg. "Present."

Mr. Davenport continued with the register until he finished two minutes later. On the electronic whiteboard, he put up the topics that we were going to learn; it was continuous functions & quadrantal angles. Oppressively, he stood up and gave instructions to the class.

"You can all work independently until the end of the lesson and I expect no talking. You don't want to find out what happens if you don't follow instructions."

We cracked on with our work. The lesson was two hours long, and an hour had passed. The majority of the class was worn out from the abundance of work; some continued and some slept. Ever since I woke up Ronnie, he'd seem to be adjusting his leg. I must've hit him too hard. I didn't feel bad.

Harriet was seated in the middle section of the room, her pencil on her desk, endlessly looking around the room. She had already completed the entire topic of quadrantal angles. Mr. Davenport sat down to read his newspaper, his ever present coffee mug in his hand. Immersed in the stories being provided, he took his eyes off the class.

"What were you going to ask me?" whispered Harriet.

Harriet briskly turned her head towards me and tried to initiate a conversation.

"One minute." I mouthed back, coming up with a way to ask her out.

After being put on the spot, I decided to create a poem to tell her my true intentions. Spilling out my heart for five minutes, I'd concluded the project. I titled it 'In My Heart.' I even added tiny love hearts for dramatic effect. After folding it in half and trying to give it to her by yawning and dropping the note over Ronnie's shoulder. I tilted my head towards Harriet so there wasn't any misunderstandings.

Mr. Davenport was watching over the edge of his newspaper, and had started his surveillance of the classroom again. He'd caught me in the act; as soon as my eyes met with his, there was immediate trouble.

"So, you're eager to pass notes around MY class are you?"

The whole class looked up and focused their eyes on me, the center of attention and trouble.

"If It's so important to discuss, you can 'discuss' it with the whole class."

"Shit." I muttered to myself.

Pulling out my chair and tucking it under the desk with the love note grasped tightly in my left hand, I took nerve-racking steps upwards until I'd reached the front of the class. Everyone had stopped working, waiting to see what I had to say. Mr. Davenport nodded his head to give me the go ahead. Whilst slowly unfolding the love poem, the entire classroom went pitch black, then a spotlight was placed on Harriet. Was this my mind helping me? I took a deep breath and proceeded to talk.