Stay Beautiful Keep It Ugly

I Told You: Chapter 7

I made my way to my next class, English. It wasn’t hard to find; in fact it was just down the hall from my locker. I opened the door to the class room and introduce myself to the teacher before I felt a tap on my shoulder. Surprised, I turned around and was greeted by familiar hazel eyes.

“Hey there,” Gerard said.

“I told you I’d see you soon,” I said the first thing that came to my mind. I mentally slapped myself.

“Yes, you did. I’m quite glad I am seeing you so soon. I missed you,” Gerard told me, then I watched as he realized he let that slip out of his mouth; the look on his face was pure horror.

“I can either be honest and say I missed you too, or I can be dishonest and say I didn’t hear that,” I told him, trying to hide my smile.

“You can be honest,” Gerard said, smirking.

“I missed you too then. Try not to get a detention tomorrow and you can sit with me and my friends at lunch,” I told him as we made our way to the two empty desks in the back of the room.

“What if I don’t want to though?” Gerard asks.

“I have a feeling that you just want to be argumentative,” I whispered to him as the teacher started talking.

“Maybe I do. I don’t know,” Gerard whispered back. I smile and shake my head.

               I tried to pay attention in class, but Gerard constantly poking at me and passing notes to me didn’t make it easy.

“Pssssst, Toria!” Gerard whispered to me. I tried to ignore him, but that didn’t work out so well. Gerard poked me in my side, “Toria! Psst!” He poked me again.

“What?” I snapped at him. Instead of talking, he passed me a folded up note. Shaking my head, I opened it and read ‘what class do you have next?’ in a messy scrawl.  I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I checked my schedule before writing down science. I passed the note back and after a few seconds, the note landed on my desk again. I opened it and read ‘What teacher?’ ‘Mr. Grimmson’ I wrote back and handed the paper back to Gerard. ‘Sweet! Me too!’ He replied.

“Gerard! Tori! Are you passing notes?” Mrs. Jennings, the teacher, said.

“No,” I answered the same time Gerard answered, “Yes.” Mrs. Jennings raised her eyebrow at us and crossed her arms. I smacked Gerard’s shoulder and told her, “No, we aren’t passing notes. Why would we do that? We’re good kids.” Almost instantly, Gerard spoke against me, “Don’t listen to her. We are horrible kids. We are the kids who go around ding-dong-ditch people’s houses and egg the principal’s car and skip classes and were black make up and dress darkly and stay up too late for our own good and will most likely have our face pierced by senior year. We were passing notes and should get in trouble. Like an after school detention.”

‘He’s trying to get you an after school detention. Maybe he already has one… Maybe he wants you to get an after school detention so he can be with you longer… No! Get a grip on yourself woman!’ I thought.

“Gerard, stop it! You’re being a-,” I stopped myself before I swore in front of the teacher. That would definitely get me a detention. “Mrs. Jennings, Gerard was passing notes to me, being very distracting. I hope you can forgive him and me for trying to tell him to stop. The only reason I passed the note back was for me to tell him to stop being rude and let you teach, because I hope I can learn a lot from you, because you seem like an amazing teacher.”  Mrs. Jennings didn’t see I was kissing up to her and rambling just to make it so Gerard and I wouldn’t get in trouble. She placed her hand on her chest and smiled, “Of course I can forgive you and Gerard. Just stay quiet and don’t disrupt class.” And with that, she walked back up to the front of the class room to continue lecturing. I had a feeling that Gerard and I could do almost whatever we wanted to for the rest of the school year, and

“What the hell was that?” I asked Gerard after the bell rung. Lucky for him, I was smiling and joking around; I wasn’t seriously mad.

“I have an after school detention for… uh, unexplained reasons and I didn’t want to be lonely,” Gerard said, blushing.

‘So I was right…,’ I thought, blushing as well.

“Well, too bad. I have to go home and finish unpacking. Maybe by tomorrow I will be done packing. Are you free on Tuesday?” I asked him. In my head, I was chanting ‘Please say yes! Please say yes!’ Sadly, I must not have great luck because Gerard shook his head, “No, I have to work tomorrow. Are you free on Wednesday?”

“No, I… I’m busy that day. Thursday?” I asked. I had almost told him I have tutoring that day. I would have been embarrassed to the highest level.

“I have to work this Thursday too. Every Tuesday and Thursday, to be honest. I work at the comic book store down the road in town. Maybe you could come visit me,” Gerard offered. I thought about this for a moment. Mikey really wanted me to go to the comic book store with him. But, then again Mikey didn’t want to go to the comic book store on Tuesday or Thursday.

“Sure, I’ll visit you. I can’t promise I won’t get you fired though,” I told him. I’d go with Mikey sometime next week. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.

“Please don’t get me fired. I love my job, plus I get discounts,” Gerard told me, holding open the door to our science class.

“Oh, do you? Maybe that’s worth you not getting fired,” I told him, “Only if you buy me a comic book.”

“Deal. Thanks for saying you won’t get me fired. My brother would be mad. I buy him all his comics,” Gerard told me in a hushed voice as we sat down in a joint desk in the back of the class.

“Who’s your brother?” I asked as a man, Mr. Grimmson I was guessing, walked into the classroom. I say Gerard’s lips move, but I didn’t heard him because Mr. Grimmson yelled a greeting to the class.

“I’ll tell you later,” Gerard whispered to me before turning to the front of the room and proceed to ignore me for the rest of the class hour, except for the occasional smile when I poke him and poke in the side back.

               After I had finally given up on trying to talk to Gerard, and I was now focusing on what Mr. Grimmson was saying, Gerard slid me a note that read ‘hey ;)’ in his messy scrawl.

‘Bastered,’ I wrote back shacking my head. Gerard is the biggest asshole I’ve ever meet. In a good way.