Girl [GXG]

Jasper Owens

"Delilah?" I perk up at the sound of my name. Everyone in class is looking at me, and I realize that Mrs. Galvin has just called on me. I lock eyes with Olivia before turning my head to look up front. 

"Sorry. Could you repeat the question?"

"I asked if you could define the word Biology for me."

"Oh it's the study of life and living organisms," I respond quickly. 

"That is correct. So this year we will be studying anything that is alive," Mrs. Galvin says. She does this thing where she talks to us like 5th graders. She acts really excited, and uses words like "cool," and "awesome." She tells us about our first lab that we will be getting to tomorrow. She tells us what our homework is, and what reading we need to do tonight. I am so insanely bored, and I just want to get to the studio, and throw on the wheel. The bell finally rings, and I get up so I can take Olivia to her next class when Jasper Owens cuts in front of me. 

"Hey, do you need help finding your next class?" He asks her cooly.

"I'm fine. Delilah said she would help me," She responds smiling sweetly. I walk towards the door, and Olivia catches up with me.

"Where to now?"

"Trig," she says. 

I drop her off in her class, and I walk into the studio. Mr. Keaton is sitting at his desk wearing an apron that is already coated in clay. I wave to him, and he beams at me. He already has the wheel set up for me, so I grab an apron, put my hair up, and grab a lump of clay. I throw it down on the bat, and place my foot on the pedal. I start of with a nice slow pace, and get used to the feeling of the clay being molded in my hands. I decide to make a vase to hold a single flower. Dad's birthday is coming up soon, and I think he will like it. I open the clay, and slowly work on raising it up to form a sort of teardrop shape. When I finish I wipe my hands, and cut it off to let it dry on my shelf. 

I walk over to talk to Samantha. She's working on another one of her sculptures. 

"Hey Sam," I say as I take a seat next to her.

"Hi," She nearly whispers. She's quite shy, but I like talking to her. 

"How was your summer?"

"it was nice," she says. "We went to Bermuda. My mom has a new boyfriend, and he's cool."

"That sounds like it was a lot of fun."

"Yeah it was. How about you?" she asks. I freeze up for a second, but then I finally give in and say something.

"I got diagnosed with leukemia," I say.

"Oh that's terrible I'm so sorry," she looks so concerned.

"Yeah. We're starting chemo in about a month."

"Oh my. Well I hope you know that I'm always here if you need to talk."

"Yeah for sure. Thanks, your sculpture is looking beautiful by the way."

"Thank you. I wasn't sure about this one, but now I'm liking the way it's turning out."

The bell is going to ring in ten minutes so I go to the bathroom, and wash my hands. The feeling of the warm water on my hands gives me goosebumps. I slowly rub my hands together picking pieces of clay off of my hands. I continue to wash until the water runs clear. Then I turn off the water, and dry my hands. Then I head back to class to pick up my stuff. I have Advanced independent English next. Mr. Bernard is one of my favorite teachers along with Mr. Keaton. Mr. Bernard is pretty relaxed. He lets us call him Paul, and he lets the class have a say in what books we read. I guess the only annoying thing about his classes is all the freshman and sophomore girls who thirst after him. Like they seriously believe that they can make him fall in love with them by using pornhub like techniques. 

I'm the first one to get to his class, and I take a seat in the front row. I put my bag on the seat next to me to save a spot for Christopher. He walks in looking a bit frazzled. He sits next to me, and lets his head fall on the desk with a light thunk. 

"Is someone a little tired?"

"Je ne parle pas français," He says exhausted.

"You could have stuck with Italian."

"No French is at least a little better than Italian. When do you have Spanish?"

"Last class of the day."

"Oh that's nice," He says.

"I'm good at Spanish. It'll be an easy class to end the day with."

"Ok everyone. Welcome AIE. You are all in this class because I believe that you are each capable of doing your work, and showing me that you understand these texts. I will be taking some input for your material this year, but not as much as IIE. I'm going to ask you each to take out a piece of scrap paper, and rank these three choices from you favorite to your least favorite," Mr. Bernard says as he begins class. 

Everyone scrambled, and when everyone looked up at him he started talking again.

"Your choices are The Sound and The Fury, House of Leaves, and The Female Man."

I list House of Leaves as my number one, The Female man as my second, snd The Sound and the Fury as my third. I walk up to his desk, and hand him my paper. He thanks me, and I go sit back down. Slowly more and more people go up and hand him their pieces of paper. It's a small class because it's so difficult, and he doesn't accept a lot of people in his advanced class. In total there are 14 of us. Christopher is the last one to go up, and when he sits back down Mr. Bernard starts tallying up the results on his white board. 

"Ok guys it looks like we will be starting with House of Leaves. If the one you want wasn't chosen you don't need to worry. They will be added as choices for our next book. I will be getting those books for you by Thursday. So your homework for tonight will be to research the author, and write me a page and a half at least about him," a few kids grumble, but I'm excited. My legs starts to bounce. I'm anxious to get to lunch. I want to see Olivia, and check in on her. 

Mr. Bernard gives us sometime in class to do our research for our homework. I put my earbuds in, and turn on some music while I research the author. I look up at Christopher, and see him bopping his head along with his music, and it makes me chuckle. He looks up, and mouths what to me, and I just shake my head, and go back to my work. 

The bell rings, and Chris and I pack up our stuff, and walk out of class. I get a text from Olivia telling me that she has lunch now. Christopher and I go to the lunchroom, and find her awkwardly standing by the door. I walk over to her, and take her to the table we usually sit at.

"How has your first day been?" Christopher asks.

"It's good, but kind of stressful," she responds. 

"Well I didn't pack my lunch, so I'll be back in five," Christopher walks away, and Olivia starts to eat. I feel so uncomfortable. I want to say something, but I don't know what.

"So what are your last two classes?" I ask, and mentally face palm myself. That is one of the most boring questions ever.

"APUSH, and Intermediate Independent English,"

"Oh IIE is a fun class. Mr. Bernard is one of my favorites. I have AP Psych, and Spanish III."

She nods, and we continue to eat in silence. I can't stop looking at her. I'm trying my best not to stare, but I can't help myself. I'm pulled out of my trance when Jasper sits don next to Olivia, and she starts laughing. I can't hear what he's saying, but I know it's pretentious as hell because that's how he always sounds. He hands her a piece of paper, winks at me, and walks away looking smug. I would love to punch that little asshole in the nose. 

"Well you seem to be getting to know Jasper Owens pretty quickly," Christopher says as he sits back down.

"He just gave me his number," She says trying to sound clam, but she's blushing. 

We all talk a little while we eat lunch, and when the bell rings Christopher, and Olivia go to APUSH, and I go to AP Psych.