The Framing

Six.

December 10th. 9:10am. Second period.

The bell for second period rang and most kids were still out of their seats talking with friends. Eventually the teacher walked into the room and everyone quieted down. I looked over everyone to see if I could find Alex, but I didn't. And he wasn't in school yesterday which made me worried.

I took my phone out of my pocket and hid it under my desk so I could send him a text. Where are you? I asked.

A few minutes went by and we were going over the warm up when he texted me back. I'm pulling into the parking lot now. He said.

Five minutes later, he walked into the room and sat down next to me. "Where were you yesterday?" I whispered.

"I woke up late and I was tired so I didn't come in," he said.

"Well I missed you."

"I'm glad you care about me enough to miss me," he laughed. The kids who were sitting near us kept giving us dirty looks, but I wasn't going to let it bother me anymore.

We were split up into groups after the warm up to answer questions about Animal Farm since we were supposed to finish it over the weekend. No one wanted to be in a group with me an Alex, so we sat in the back of the room and worked together.

"Did you read any of it?" I asked.

"I read some of the spark notes for it last night, but none of it made any sense," he said.

"Okay well as your tutor I'll give you a detailed summary," I said. I went into detail about each section of the book, and he eventually knew what I was talking about so we answered some of the questions we were given.

"You're a pretty good tutor," he said when the teacher collected our work.

"I try," I told him.

After that I had my trig class. The teacher passed out a quiz we took last week and then we started a new topic. In gym I talked to John, and after that was lunch. I waited in line for food, then sat down with Nate and John. I looked around to see if Alex was nearby, but I never saw him.

"Hey are you coming to my birthday party this weekend?" Nate asked me.

"Probably not," I said, "I have to be up super early on Saturday and my parents never let me do anything anymore."

"You should see if you can sneak out," he said.

"I don't need my parents to hate me any more than they already do," I told them. I felt bad that I was going to miss it but there wasn't much I could do.

A few minutes went by and I felt my phone vibrate inside my bag. I took it out to see I got a text from Alex. Where are you?

In the cafeteria. Where are you?

Back of the library. I usually ditch lunch here.

What loser ditches lunch?

Me I guess. You should come sit with me here.

I told Nate and John I had a presentation to work on in the library and got up and left. Once I got there, Alex texted me to some to the back by the windows.

"What the hell are you guys doing back here?" I whispered. He was with two other people.

"This is where we sit so we don't have to be around everyone else," he said. I sat down with them.

"Aren't you the super smart girl?" One of his friends asked.

"If that's what you want to call it," I said.

"This is Kevin and Thomas," Alex said and pointed at them.

"So like... why are you sitting back here with us?" Kevin asked.

"Alex texted me to," I said.

"Alex why did you do that?" He asked.

"You know I'm right here," I said.

"She's cool guys," he said.

"Really?" Thomas asked doubtfully.

"I try my best," I said.

"Name one cool thing you've done," Kevin said.

"Willingly sat back here for more than two minutes."

"I guess that's cool enough," Thomas said.

A few minutes later, the bell rang. I got my stuff together and walked upstairs. I bumped into Nate on the way there.

"How's your presentation going?" He asked.

"My what?"

"Your presentation," he said, "the one you left us to go to the library and work on."

"Oh right," I said, "just finished it."

We walked into the computer lab and sat with each other by the window. There were a few assignments written on the board for us to do. I usually did one and Nate did the other, and at the end of class we would give each other the answers.

A few seconds before the bell rang, Alex's friend Thomas walked into the room and sat next to me. I knew he was in this class but he never sat with me before so I felt a little awkward, especially with Nate sitting next to me.

I began working on one of the assignments online and Nate worked on the other. About ten minutes into class, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Thomas.

"What did you get for number seven?" He asked. I showed him my computer and he copied down the answer.

I submitted my work a few minutes after that, and then Nate and I exchanged what we had. I noticed Thomas was pretty far behind so I gave him some of the answers.

"Thanks," he said and turned in his work. After that him and I talked for a while about our chemistry class since we had it together. We were both pretty confused with what was going on.

Nate followed me as I walked out of the room when the bell rang. "What was all that about?" He asked.

"What was what about?"

"How do you know that guy?"

"Oh he's Alex's friend," I told him.

"I thought you hated Alex," he said.

"I used to, but now I don't."

He didn't say anything after that, but I could tell he didn't approve by the way he phrased his questions. I tried not to let it bother me.

I walked into the chemistry room. We were supposed to partner up and go to the back and do a lab. I guess it was a good thing that Thomas and I are friends because I didn't have to do this with someone I didn't know.

"Do you know how to do any of this?" He asked.

"Sort of," I said. I did most of the work for the lab and he copied down the results.

After that was study hall. I walked in and sat with Alex. "What's up?" I asked.

"I just got detention," he said.

"Why?"

"I got caught skipping sixth period."

"Well you can go to detention with me," I said. I was supposed to have it for the next few months.

"It's not like it's my first time," he said.