Absent

Chapter 13

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"Now if you turn to page 217, we'll review the homework so you all can be prepared for next week's test." Mrs. Scott finished the lesson for today's class and moved onto a review.

Everyone was squirming in their seats, waiting for class to end. The lessons weren't so bad, so I didn't understand why it was hard for them all to sit through and hour long class. Mrs. Scott ignored their restlessness and whispers as she went over the review material. I took notes on everything just to be sure I was prepared.

Truth be told, it wasn't difficult to do the work we were given. We got assignments based on the exact same information that the teacher spent the entire lesson talking about. Sometimes there was a little bit of extra reading, but it was no more than 20 minutes at home. Since Jason was gone, I was glad for the homework to fill in the time.

I even liked to save homework for when I was going to bed, hoping I would fall asleep during the assignment and my mind would be too distracted to dream. I wasn't usually so lucky.

The bell rang and my classmates all but sprinted from the room. I packed up my things and tucked my notes into the folder I kept just for this class.  I would have PE next and then lunch period would begin. Aimee, Nina and I all had PE together, which I liked because the class size was 4 times the size of a regular class. I wouldn't want to be on my own with that many people.

I made my way to the locker rooms along with the other students who had PE this period. The girls and boys locker rooms were right next to each other and the girls actively tried to keep out of the rowdy boys' path.

They pushed each other and laughed, not caring about who's path they crashed through. I could tell by their matching jerseys that they were on some sort of team together. I only knew that they were football jerseys because of Jason. I walked steadily to the locker room, stopping just as a large body came into my peripheral view. One heavy shove would have had him knocking me down if I hadn't moved out of the way fast enough.

He rushed passed me and their match continued. The boy went stumbling backward again, his large back just inches away from crushing me against the locker.

In a second, I was prepared to intervene. It wouldn't take much effort for me to step to the side and use his momentum to leave him flying into the locker behind me. It was all playing out in my head when the boy jerked to a stop right before he reached me.

I blinked, wondering how he stopped so suddenly, when someone else pushed the boy to the side. One of his friends, I assumed, had gripped his shirt and stopped him from crashing into me. I was not helpless by any means, but it was comforting to know that not all of these football players were so carelessly obnoxious.

"Are you okay?" The boy asked me, stepping past his clumsy friend. The friend, who had almost hit me, suddenly had a look of embarrassment on his face.

"I'm fine," I said nonchalantly before realizing that I was probably being rude. "But thank you."

"No problem. Patrick can be a little rowdy sometimes." His mouth tilted up into a smile. "My name's Charlie."

His smile was different, not perfect, but genuine. He had brown eyes, though the left one had flecks of green in it. His hair was dark brown, slightly curly, a little on the longer side.

From the corner of my eye, I realized there were more than a few people watching our exchange. I didn't know why, nor did I care. What I did know, was that I wanted to be anywhere but here. Unwanted attention wasn't exactly my "cup of tea" as Wendy used to say.