Miss Davis || m.m. au

1

Brushing my hair, I gazed at my reflection in the mirror, attempting to see myself as a stranger would. I was nothing special, at least that's what I thought. I wasn't ugly, but I didn't consider myself to be pretty either. Beauty is found in the eyes of the beholder, I reminded myself. Later tonight I would find myself in my first ballroom class, and I had no idea what to expect. Standing up, I looked fixedly at my duplicate, and in an attempt to boost my morale for the day, I spoke out loud with as much confidence as I could muster, "Your hair looks perfect, your outfit is super cute, and any boy would be lucky to have you in the ballroom." I nodded in satisfaction, smoothing my blouse, before slinging my backpack over my shoulder and grabbing my car keys.

...

My friend, Brooke, had managed to get my jittery spirits up by the end of second period, mindlessly chatting about anything and everything before we parted ways for our next classes.

"Hey, good luck on later today, Mer!" she called down the hallway, I waved my thanks as I turned into a different corridor. The atmosphere automatically changed. It was almost impossible to breathe, let alone move; a person could be found in every crevice and corner, leaving absolutely no space. They were all yelling and cheering and waving their fists, as I pushed through with my shoulder.

"Come on Maks! Put him in his place!" A boy encouraged. Once I had fought my way to the middle of the hallway, I saw what the ruckus was about. A student was flattened against a locker by Maksim Chmerkovskiy. He was very tall, very intimidating, and very much in my third period Algebra Two class. I had known Maks for years, just as a schoolmate and acquaintance, and he seemed alright. He was very brazen and outspoken, but alright. What I watched unfold before my eyes was a side of him I'd never seen before: the anger radiating off his body mixed with the unchallenged power running through every vein he possessed was frightening to say the least.

"Say it again, I dare you," Maks roared, slamming him into the lockers; the echo bounced off the walls amidst the uproar. The boy must've really done something to get Maks riled up like that, but I didn't want to see him beaten to a pulp, and it was very obvious that was what was about to happen.

Before I knew what I was doing, I pushed myself to the front of the circle around them; the verbal approval of the fight was almost deafening. I yelled, "Hey! Maks!" Needless to say I was drowned out by all the noise surrounding me. Placing two fingers in my mouth, I whistled. "Maks!" I almost screamed. The cacophony rapidly diminished. Swallowing discreetly, I realized a little too late that I had diverted everyone's attention to myself.

Maks turned his head, and looked down at me."Yes, Meryl?" He asked, in a mock-calm voice.

"Uh, I, uh," I stuttered, trying to find the right words. "Detentions are given for tardies, you don't want to be late."

He chuckled, "And my tardiness concerns you in which way?" I would've laughed too if some girl I barely knew appeared right before I beat the living daylights out of someone to give me detention advice.

"I'm sure you of all people do not need another detention, Maks. Why don't you walk me to class?" I offered, as everyone, still silent enough to hear a pin drop, observed. I hadn't the slightest idea where my sudden gutsiness had come from, but I wasn't complaining, nor was I taking no as an answer from Maks.

He looked back at the boy, weighing his options. "Why don't you start walking and I'll catch up with you?" He goaded me.

"No," I hiked my backpack up further on my shoulder, "we should go now." I made a mental note to tell my friends all about this later. He raised his eyebrow at me, and I gestured in the direction of our classroom.

"Alright, you win," he released the boy, leaving two balled up, wrinkly fists on his shirt in place of his hands. "He wasn't worth it anyways." Taking a step towards me, he quietly said,

"After you, Miss Davis," lightly touching my lower back, guiding me down the hallway. I giggled to myself, earning a "What?" from Maks.

I looked up at him, "I was just thinking to myself how great your morning must've been so far." The tardy bell chimed out through the school.

"Ah," he sighed, "the cherry on top."