Running Into You

Chapter 3

Emma

I walk into English, my first class, and hand Mrs. Hollis my paper.

"The guidance counselor wants to see you right away," she informs me while taking my paper. I look at her nervously and don't move.

"Take your things and go," she demands shooing me with my paper. I turn and head back out the door. The guidance counselor's office is only two doors down so I don't have any time to figure out what this could be about.  I walk into the lobby and the student aid, Amber I think, she's also a senior, looks over at me as I take a seat in one of the three chairs against the wall. She holds down a button on her phone. "Emma is here to see you," she says without asking me who I am or why I'm there. I glance over at the door with the name Carolyn Calhoun on it and wait for it to open.

Miss Calhoun opens her door and smiles at me, "Come on in and take a seat." I am a lot more nervous than I should be. I haven't talked to the guidance councilor in two years and I was hoping to finish high school without having to talk to her again. I take a seat and she smiles.

"There's nothing wrong. Geez take a breath. We have to change your classes," she rushes on. "You're a senior now and you haven't had a Physical Education class yet. By law you have to have at least one P.E. class before you graduate," she explains in her sweet voice. I'm sure it comes in handy when dealing out bad news. Like 'I'm sorry Timmy, but you're going to have to retake the third grade.' Brought on with her sweet as cherry pie smile that's somehow supposed to soften the blow of what's probably the worse news you've ever had. I take in her candy apple red lips and long blond hair that has been straight ironed to perfection. Her gorgeous looks are making me nervous so I search for an imperfection to make her somehow normal. I look for wrinkles around her large doe like eyes. Finding none, I zone in on the broken pinky nail she hasn't had time to fix. The red paint has chipped around the edges where it broke. She follows my gaze down to her hand. She removes it from the desk and tucks it away on her lap. The move takes me out of my trance and I remember the audacious request she has brought forth.

"What? Are you kidding me? If I wanted to learn any physical education I would join the softball team or something like that not waste my time on P.E. P.E. is for underachievers who just need to fill up their schedule. It's not a real class."

She tries to laugh off the sullen defiant teenager that I'm sure she comes across on a regular bases, "Playing softball is not the same thing as taking a P.E. class. Now, since you have been taking on so many AP classes you have gotten away with not taking one every year, but now that you are on your last year you have to take one now. Since you have enough credits to graduate you can exempt any class you want. So which is it?"

I sit back and huff. "I don't know. Out of all of my classes Physics takes up most of my time since the lab takes up an extra hour once a week and Mr. Phillips wants us to go to the state Science Fair next spring and this way I can get out of that," I mutter mostly to myself.

"So, is that it? Physics?" She looks over at her computer screen and brings her hands from her lap to type away at her keyboard.  I watch the broken nail as it clicks away at the Enter key over and over until she pulls up the screen she's looking for. "That is your third period. Coach Barnes will be your teacher." I hear the printer come to life behind her and she swivels around in her chair to grab the page it spits out and then swivels back around and hands it to me. "This is your new schedule. Give him this to sign and give back to me. To make sure you go," she adds on to clarify the meaning of the form.

I roll my eyes. As if I would ever skip a class.

I sigh. "Yes, ma'am," I reply as I get up and take the paper to leave.