Forever & Always?

Chapter Four

        I walked into first hour the next day wearing my mother's old Stanford crew neck. Mom passed away when I was 13 from cancer. She was a beautiful woman with nothing but kindness in her heart. My mom was the best person in my life. Losing my mother made me realize the importance of love and cherishing it. I learned never to take any moment for granted because the saddest, most haunting truth is that any words spoken to a person, may be the last thing ever said to them. I found my seat in the muggy, badly lit classroom. 

"Hey Mar Mar. Looking good," Cam said in his mocking tone that he had practiced far too long in the mirror.

"Shut up, Cam," I said, trying not to smile. I couldn't tell if I liked Cam. I acted as if I hated him, but I could never really tell. We could have actual conversations, which tended to complicate our hatred toward each other. The bell was about to ring and only two seats were available. Unfortunately, those two seats were the ones directly to the left of Cam. I sat on the furthest one.

"Come sit next to me, Marie!" He squealed in his fake tone. I rolled my eyes. A couple seconds after I sat down, Daniel walked in and threw his stuff next to me. He quickly sat down, the bell ringing immediately after.

"Hey, man," Cam said in his real voice. I liked Cam's real voice. It was quiet, calm.

"Aye, Cam," Daniel smiled. I looked at the two of them and found my first similarity between the two. They had the same wide, genuine smile. I laughed and shook my head.

"What?" Daniel asked, smiling at me.

"Oh nothing!" I squeaked. I looked at Daniel, realizing he was still looking at me. I stared into his eyes for too long. He did the same to me.

I finally asked, "What?" I kept smiling and kept staring.

"Oh nothing!" He yelped, mocking me. He looked away, leaving his smile on his face.

"Hello, class," Mrs. Lesting said.

"These will be your seats for now, is that cool? If any of you want to switch now that's fine with me. People next to Cam, just blink twice and I'll make my move subtly." Everyone laughed. Daniel and I began to blink at her multiple times to keep the joke going.

"The periodic table!" She yelled over everyone's conversations. We all stopped.

"Speaking of the periodic table, Mrs. Lesting?"

"What Cam?" She asked, irritated by Cam within the first minute of class.

"Are you made of copper and tellurium? Because you're hot," he smiled, feeling proud. I went over his words in a whisper tone and then said,

"If your intention was to use the element symbols to spell out the word hot, you spelled cute." My annoyance was blatant. 

"Oh, yeah. Eh, same thing."

"Yeah. So Cam maybe you should spend less time looking up cheesy chemistry pick up lines and spend more time studying the actual periodic table," she smiled, content with her comeback.

"Man, that is exactly what I searched. Are you stalking me Mrs. Lesting?"

"I have better things to do," she said, becoming stern in her voice an facial expressions.

"You don't have to hide it. I think it's hot."

"Cam!" She yelped.

"I'm your teacher!" She yelped. A two minute rant as well as three detentions were given to Cam as a result of his sexual comments toward his chemistry teacher. I attempted to stifle a giggle the whole conversation, but I couldn't hold it back anymore. I started cracking up. Daniel looked at me surprised at how much I could laugh over something so stupid. He kept looking at me surprised but couldn't help himself anymore. He began to laugh too. Our laughs were so loud and so embarrassing that the rest of the class started laughing as well. Mrs. Lesting gave us a stare expressing her anger and her eagerness to hand out detentions to us as well as Cam. We managed to calm ourselves after a few more moments of stifled laughing.

      About 40 minutes later we started an assignment. I stared at Cam and Daniel, laughing at them the entire hour. They were hillarious together. The bell rang and I looked at my paper; my blank paper. I didn't realize how funny they were until I looked back up and realized they were leaving the room, continuing to bicker. I continued to laugh uncontrollably.

"Marie, class ended two minutes ago," Mrs. Lesting said, chuckling at my enticement in the boys' conversation.

"Oh my gosh!" I squeaked. I threw my paper in my binder and ran out the door, waving to Mrs. Lesting as I left. I could still faintly hear Cam and Daniel arguing the end of the hall. My laughs continued. Little did I know that the boy I laughed at in class would become the most important person in my life.