Fearless

Don't pet Sam

"Hi, my name's Ryan Waters."
Alex studied the new boy at the front of the room. He almost looked like a kpop idol, yet his eyes were electric blue. Those were some strong contacts. She chuckled at the image of him singing some high energy romantic song with an intricate dance number. Mack would freak out over that. She smiled.
She looked out the window next to her, not wanting to stare, but also not wanting to pay attention to class and, god forbid, learn something. Her head got a little heavier.
There was an awkward pause. "I'm from New York, and I moved here recently."
"Do you have any hobbies, Ryan?" Mrs. Sanchez asked.
"Um.. I really like to swim."
Huh. Ironic.
As he sat back down in the front row, she couldn't look away from him. He was...
What was the word?
Cute immediately came to mind.
Definitely not cute. Totally not cute. Utterly and completely not cute.
Just... intriguing. She settled with that.
***

Ryan introduced himself to the class, looking around at all the bored faces.
And then he saw her, and he forgot why he was even there.
She was looking out a window, sitting towards the back of the room. He only saw her profile. Her eyes shined in this way, a little hint of gold seeming to shine through the brown.
That's gotta be the girl. It looks exactly like her.
She started to turn her head, and he remembered he was in front of thirty people.
Right.
"I'm from New York..."
***
"Ok chicos, for homework I want you to complete 5 chicken nuggets in Sr. Wooly, earn 750 points in Duolingo, watch all four Edpuzzle videos, complete the listening activities in EMC Passport, go over the vocab cards in Conjuguemos, continue working on your Casa de mi Sueños project, check your homework calendar for more activities, write a summary about your reading book, and we also have a test on the preterite tense conjugations of ser and estar on Friday."
The bell rang, loud and annoying in everyone's ears.
"Excuse me?"
Her head was down on the desk, resting on her arms. Was she sleeping?
"Excuse me?" A little louder.
She bolted up. "No!!"
He flinched. "Um, sorry?"
She glanced around, seemingly angry. She had been in the park, and she was chasing the person, and she struck them with-
"I killed them."
"What?"
"I just did that..."
"Are you ok?"
"Huh?"
"You fell asleep.."
"...Oh." New kid saw her wake up from a nightmare. Great first impression. "I'm... I'm good, thanks."
"Oooookay." He responded. Awkwardly, of course.
"Do you know where this class is?" He pointed at his class schedule.
Room 11A.
"Yeah, that's right next to mine. I can walk you there if you want."
He smiled. "If you don't mind."

"So..." He tried to break the awkward silence as they walked, and of course he made it worse.
She chuckled. "I don't bite. My name's Alex."
Shit. She's the confident type.
He felt his heart beat a little faster.
"Ryan?"
Oh c'mon, Waters. You're gonna kill this girl, get over it. That's the number one rule, every teenage assassin knows that.
"Ryan??"
Her voice is kinda raspy... it's cute.
"Ryan!"
"-I'm ok!!"
"You sure about that?"
He nodded aggressively.
She sighed, smiling a little. "Well we're here soo uh.. see you around."
"Yeah."
She walked off, her mind immediately returning to that nightmare.
She was gonna find that person. She was gonna find them and give them hell.

He walked in to the classroom, introducing himself again, and got sat in the back of the room by the books.
The teacher, Mr. Baker, was oddly familiar. He looked... centuries old.
Oh my god.
The old guy who walked his cat at the park was his English teacher.
He looked to the teacher's desk, and sure enough, it was covered in pictures of a chubby tabby cat.
This was San Francisco we were talking about, how low were the odds???
"Didn't you sit next to me earlier?"
He turned around. "Huh?"
The boy beside him had the softest looking gray fuzzy sweater Ryan had ever seen. He almost reached his hand out to pet it, and then he remembered it was on someone else's body.
Oops.
"You're the new kid, Ryan Waters. In Spanish, you got seated by me. I'm Sam." He smiled. He seemed all around friendly. "You like to swim right?"
Ryan nodded. Sam's bubbly aura was almost contagious, he found his mood lifting just talking to him.
"Me too! You know, you look like you'd be a great actor."
Well that was random.
"Really? Thanks, I've never thought about that."
"Well, you should, Drama meets after school on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. We're choosing parts for our next play, you should come join! But also we really need more people." He got the whole sentence out in maybe three seconds.
He was a hyper one.
That actually sounded fun. "Maybe I will."
They talked the rest of the period.
"Don't worry, Mr. Baker's hearing stops working around there, so we're good." Sam gestured to the second row when Ryan asked.
***

Alex searched the cafeteria for a spot of bright white and frizzy hair, the questionably hazardous cafeteria food on a tray in her hands, looking immensely appetizing as always.
"Alex!" Her best friend called out to her.
"Did you see the new guy?" Mackenzie launched into it as soon as she sat down. "He almost looks like a Kpop boy!"
"Mhm. We have first, third, and fourth period together." She muttered with her mouth full.
"Isn't he cute?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Hey Mack!" Sam sat down across from the girls before Alex could answer. "Brought someone new today, hope you don't mind."
Ryan waved nonchalantly from behind him.
Alex immediately gulped down her food and burst into laughter.
"Ha, luCKy hE DiDn'T hEaR yOU mAck!"
"Hear what?" He asked cluelessly.
"She said you're c- OW FUCK!!"
Mackenzie punched her in the side. "Nothing." Mack had a honey-sweet voice and a honey-sweet look to go with it. Anyways, you're lucky you get to sit with the cool kids." She put on a beaming smile while Alex doubled over in pain. "We're so cool, we get a table to ourselves!" She gestured at the empty table the four of them sat at. Sam couldn't hold it anymore and cracked up.
Ryan chuckled a bit and sat down. He was enjoying himself.
But it nagged at the back of mind how well he already clicked with them.
Guilt truly was a pain in the ass.