𝔇𝔦𝔣𝔣𝔢𝔯𝔢𝔫𝔱 -Z.K

2

I walk into my first period and sit down at a lab station by myself. The bell rings right when I get all settled down.

"Alright welcome back students, I am Ms. Barker and this is ap chemistry, if you are in the wrong class please leave now... okay, we good?" the teacher says in a boring tone.

"Before we go over the syllabus I would like to let you know that the person next to you will be your lab partner for the rest of the semester" she says handing out the class syllabus.

Students groan. I had no one sitting next to me and I'm too scared to raise my hand to tell her, so I just kept my mouth shut.

The door swings open and the most unexpected person walks in. Zion Kuwonu. He's one of, if not the, most popular boy in our school. You know all the jocks in those Netflix originals, yeah that's Zion. Pretty boy, partier, star football player. You name it. Not the type that takes ap chemistry.

"Mr. Kuwonu! So glad you could make it" Ms. Barker says in a sarcastic way. "Go ahead and take a seat next to China, you guys will be lab partners.

Zion nods then looks around the room.

"Uh whos that?" He asks taking his headphone out of his ear.

A couple of kids laugh. I gulp. Damn he really doesn't know who I am?

"China raise your hand so Zion knows where you are" Ms. Barker says fed up.

I raise my hand and Zion sits next to me.

"Okay, since it's the first day, I've decided to go easy on you guys. This is a review on what you should have learned last year. I encourage you to work with your lab partner and get to know them while you're at it. This is due tomorrow. Good luck" she says sitting down at her desk after passing out a paper to each of us.

I take out my pencil and write my name on my paper. I wait for Zion to do the same but he stays on his phone. I cough so that he would take a hint. Nothing.

"Uh we should- we should start on- on this" I say to him.

"Oh. Uh yea" he says. He quickly scans the paper and starts writing. "Number one is b"

I look down and read the question. Took me a while but he was right, it was b.

"Wait. You're right?" I say.

"I know shocking that a dumbass jock like me knows chemistry, huh?" he says rolling his eyes.

"No- I uh- I didn't mean it like tha-"

"Whatever. Why don't we just work on this individually and then compare answers" he says putting his headphones in.

Damn. That was... not good. We both finish and we compare answers.

"So you new here?" He asks me out of no where.

"Uh no. I've lived here my whole life" I say awkwardly.

"Oh. Nice" he says nodding.

There was an awkward pause.

"You play any sports?" He asks.

"I used to play soccer, but I don't know if I wanna play this year" I say. The more he talks to me, the more confident I get with my answers.

"Soccers dope. You should go for it" He says. I shrug my shoulders.

Another awkward pause passes by until the bell rings. Zion leaves without looking back at me.

Fast forward to lunch.

I grab a lunch and sit with Sophia.

"I hate school" I say throwing my bag on the floor.

"Why?" Soph giggles.

"I don't have any friends in any of my classes" I complain. "You know who I talked to all first period? Zion. Zion kuwonu"

"Zion kuwonu? Why are you talking to the biggest dick in school?" She asks.

"We're lab partners" I say eating a fry.

"Can't you just switch partners?" She asks.

"No. I have Barker, she doesn't let us switch" I reply.

"Hey Austin!" She says ignoring me. Austin smiles and sits next to her.

"Where's b?" I ask.

"Hanging out with some kids he met in music class" he responds taking out his lunch.

"Oh. Well how was your guys classes?" I ask them.

"Oh! Soph tell her what our ap English teacher said today!" Austin says laughing. Sophia laughs.

"Oh my god. It was the funniest thing ever China, so we walk into-"

Her voice fades off as I spaced out. I hated this feeling. Like I was numb. I haven't felt like this since my dad died. I got into this really bad mindset and I struggled doing simple things. I really didn't wanted to go down that path again.

The rest of the day wasn't any better. Yeah, I had my last class with Soph, Brandon, and Austin. But for some reason it felt like I didn't fit in. Don't get me wrong I love them, but I just felt... idk left out.