You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

4

"Alright, enough staring," Mr. Jameson snapped, rapping the rolled-up textbook in his hand against his teacher's desk.

The rapid sharp sounds made most of us jump. He was so strong; I couldn't believe he managed to roll up such a thick book and hold it all in one hand...

"Have none of you seen a classmate awake in class before? He's supposed to be awake, so there's no reason any of you should be making such a spectacle out of this."

His stern glare landed on me, forcing me to pull myself out of my daydream. Focus, Chelsea!

"If I catch any of you turning to look at Nolan again, or staring at him when you're supposed to be taking notes, you're all getting detention as a class. Do you understand me?"

At this, almost all my classmates straightened up in their seats and looked solemn. Mr. Jameson always meant business, and we all knew he wouldn't hesitate to mete out punishment he believed was well-deserved.

A general murmur of "yes" went around the room.

I didn't even dare to check Nolan's reaction to this declaration; that was how sure I was of Mr. Jameson's seriousness. If Nolan were like any normal person, he'd be mortified to be called out like that in front of the whole class. Considering, however, how he just took all the lecturing and books to the head in his stride in the past year, he probably didn't care—which strangely made me even more curious about what he was thinking.

Near the end of his period, Mr. Jameson began handing back the pop quiz he gave us at the start of the week.

"You all did fairly well on this quiz," he said, starting with the row of desks closest to the front of the classroom. "Great job and keep it up, everyone."

He flashed a good-looking smile as he started on the next row, and audible but hushed sighs floated all across the room. I clapped my hands to my mouth, willing myself not to melt into a giant puddle right there and then. I loved studying English.

When he reached our desks, he handed me mine with an encouraging smile—actually, it wasn't just an encouraging smile; it was the best smile I'd ever seen. His deep-blue eyes were smiling, too, and all I could think about was how gorgeous they were. "Great work, Chelsea."

"Thank you, Mr. Jameson," I said, taking my paper from him as slowly as I could.

He handed Nolan his and said, "Good work as usual, Nolan. Like I said yesterday, the only thing you really need to work on is paying attention in class."

"Thank you." Nolan's face was impassive as he took the paper from him.

But Mr. Jameson wasn't done yet. "I'm glad to see you were actually awake for all of my lesson today, but I noticed you weren't taking any notes. I recommend that you take down at least the things that I point out are important to the class. Keep it up."

When he moved on, the snort I was holding in finally escaped. Nolan shot me a side glance.

"What's so funny?" he said, putting his pop quiz and his textbook into his bag.

"You did just fine without any note-taking last year. I don't even know how you did it," I pointed out, shaking my head. "You clearly don't need it."

The left corner of his lips lifted into a half-smile, and it completely caught me off-guard. He could smile, and I was pretty sure the look in his eyes was amusement. Before I could even think about it, I found myself returning the smile.

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"I fell asleep on the toilet while getting ready this morning," Melissa complained, resting her head on the cafeteria table we were sitting at. "Thanks to that, now I have detention."