To Reach You

16.

I was in a great mood today. After opening up to Mom, I felt the need to not stress about Maeve anymore.

Mom dropped me at school today, and as I entered my first-period class someone caught my eye dearly.

The counselor came inside our class. "Hi, class. This is Vitali Johnson. He's from Russia and he will be joining our class. We will be going around the room to share our names and two facts about ourselves including Vitali's

"Okay you can start Alex," said Ms. Rincon.

I was blown away by Vitali. He was really tall, at least 6 feet tall. He had fluffy brown hair, parted in the middle. He wore grey sweats and a black hoodie on top with beat-up air forces.

"My name is Vitali. Two facts about me are: I'm bilingual and I play the guitar."

Vitali had a really good American accent. His deep manly voice flattered me intensely. But I could hear his Russian accent went he said guitar.

Finally, it was my turn.

"My name's Haley. Two facts about me are-"

As I stuttered, the whole class looked at me including Vitali. I was sweating.

I continued. "Two facts about me are: I love European food and my favorite subject is history."

I hope I didn't look stupid saying that. And then it was Maeve's turn.

"Hi I'm Maeve and two facts about me are: grilled cheese is my favorite snack and I love hiking."

I could tell Maeve was trying to impress Vitali and so were all the girls in our class.

"Okay, class thank you so much for sharing. Vitali your assigned seat will be right there, next to Haley," said Ms. Rincon as she pointed over me.

As Vitali walked by me, I could see all the girls gazing on him. As he sat by me I could smell his strong cologne.

He then mouthed hi.

I mouthed hi back and smiled. I hope I wasn't blushing.

I could feel that someone was intensely staring at me suddenly. I looked up to see Maeve was the one staring. I turned away and ignored her.

"Turn your books to page 235."

I proceeded to turn to page 235 on the book. I then realized Vitali didn't have a book yet.

"Vitali," I whispered.

"Yeah?"

"You don't have a book yet right?"

"Yeah, I don't."

"Here we can share. Scoot over here," I insisted.

I then shared the book with him. I felt someone staring at me intensely and I looked up. Again, it was Maeve. I could tell that she was jealous.

As the first period ended, I insisted if Vitali wanted to walk to second period together and he agreed.

---

"So why'd you move here?" I asked.

"Well, my dad's job. We move a lot and I hate it. But I'm actually kinda happy that we moved here this year."

"Oh cool. I mean I can show you around town this weekend if you like," I insisted.

"That'd be awesome."

"I'm guessing you live around Longdale?" I asked.

"Yeah, I do. I live really close to school actually."