Different

Chapter 22

After lunch had finished I went upstairs to History, which was mind-numbingly boring as usual. When the bell went, I made my way down the corridor towards Geography. Ugh. We had to do our stupid presentations today. I really was not in the mood.

I’d be lying if I said my heart didn’t skip a couple of beats as Luke entered the room. Even when I was feeling crappy over Spencer I couldn’t ignore him. Mr Asher started the class by saying that the order we would be presenting in would be random. Great. Then I couldn’t even prepare myself properly. Ugh, I hated presentations.

The first presentation was from Bailey and Jodie. Their country was Spain. Then it was Derek and Kristen, theirs was on New Zealand. Katie and Ellie’s was on Finland. Then it was meant to be Thomas and Savannah. ‘Does anyone know where Savannah is?’ Mr Asher questioned.

‘Dentist.’ I said.

‘Alright, you’ll have to do your presentation another lesson, Thomas.’ Which means never since teachers always forget stuff like that. I should have just skipped so I wouldn’t have had to do it either.

Eventually me and Luke had to present. I completely faced the screen, not looking at anyone else in class or my voice would start to shake and I’d look completely retarded. Luke did the same, which didn’t surprise me since he was shy. I was so glad when I got to the last sentence and we’d done. As I sat back down in my seat I breathed a sigh of relief. Then just sat back and watched everyone else’s presentations.

After everyone’s presentations done there was 10 minutes of the lesson left. Mr Asher said that we could do what we want, but we couldn’t leave early because of stupid Health & Safety Laws. As if we’re all going to drop down dead from leaving Geography a few minutes early.

I checked my phone. I had a message from Courtney.

Coffee is cancelled.

Good. I wasn’t going to go anyway, I was going to fake being sick just before we drove past my house and go home. But now I have no way of getting home, unless I walk. Ugh. I sighed in exasperation. ‘Are you okay?’ I jumped a bit, I wasn’t expecting Luke to speak to me.

‘Y-yeah, kind of, I have to walk home now though.’ I replied still looking at my phone. If I looked in his eyes I’d never look away.

‘I’ll drop you off if you want?’

‘Really?’ I was kind of shocked.

‘Sure.’

When class ended we walked to Luke’s car. I nervously looked around hoping that Courtney and Tamzin weren’t around to see me. ‘Thanks for taking me home.’ I said.

‘It’s fine. How are you anyway?’ he asked quietly.

‘Better than I was yesterday.’ Since I’d managed to go all day without crying today. ‘But still not great.’ He gave me a weak smile in response.

We started talking about all kinds of stuff. Most of it funny, I was actually laughing for the first time in days. The drive to my house seemed so much quicker than usual. We said goodbye as I got out of the car and I thanked him again. I walked into my house with a smile on my face.