The Nerd and I

Chapter 1 (Noemi): Moving

Chapter 1: Darren POV

I don’t like school, but I don’t hate it either. It’s just pretty boring going to classes everyday and learning crap about projectile motion and the U.S. Government. It’s not like any of this is going to help me get anywhere in life. Honestly, life kinda sucks for me. In the social ladder known as high school, I’m not even on it. Wallflower, nerd, whatever you want to call it, I’m basically a shadow.

It’s not like I don’t like to have company, it’s more like I have trouble getting people to like me. My only friend is Jeremy Westover, whom I’ve been friends with since preschool. I don’t know why I decided that I would befriend him, maybe it was because he always had an abundance of yummy snacks, maybe because he was the only person who acknowledged my existence. I guess being tall and thin means that you slip by people easily. Not like that is a bad thing though, I don’t like being in the spotlight. I’m shy. Like, really really shy. The last time I had to give a presentation on the different branches of the U.S. Government, I stuttered so bad and spoke so quietly that everyone fell asleep before I even got to the legislative branch. After that the teacher made sure to put me last for every presentation.

“Mr. Peters!” A shrill voice yelled, cutting through my thoughts. I pushed my heavy glasses up on my nose and took a glance at the math problem on the board before looking down at my work.

“Umm...1/2 minus ¼ sin2…” I said quietly. It felt like the eyes of everyone in the class were staring at me, and I lowered my eyes back down onto my notebook, not wanting to draw attention to myself.

“What did you say?” Ms. Melero said, squinting at me behind her tiny glasses.

“1/2 m-minus ¼ sin2,” I said, a little louder. She looked me over once, and it felt like her beady eyes were searching my soul for any sins I committed. I’m so sorry for copying the answers off the internet for yesterday’s homework, I got too caught up in building my robot and completely forgot about it, please don’t send me to the dean’s office. After what felt like eternity, she gave a nod and returned back to class. I let out a breath I’ve been holding. Made it out alive this time. I glanced at the clock and saw that I still had thirty five minutes of class, and went back to taking notes.

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The bell finally rang and everyone scrambled to get out of class. Calculus AB is pretty demanding, and with Ms. Melero constantly breathing down everyone’s necks, I can see why they wanted to get out quickly. Thank god too, if I had to hear her shrill voice say the word derivatives one more time I think I’m going to explode.

After Calculus AB came physics, which honestly bores the hell out of me. Who cares about electromagnetic fields and what happens if I fling a ball off a cliff at an angle of 67 degrees. I spent most of physics daydreaming about the new DC servo that I’m going to put on my tetrix robot and how can I adapt it to work with the two DC motors.

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The bell rang, signalling the end of that hellhole. Half the students were already out of the classroom before I realized I had actually dozed off during the lecture. Oh joy, now I have to study my butt off to catch up to the rest of the class. I slowly placed my books in my backpack, trying to cut off some lunchtime. Honestly, lunch is my least favorite time of the school day. Everyone has friends to sit with, and they all laugh and talk about whatever in the world they find funny or interesting. But with me, I just sit outside in the courtyard in the corner by some trees with Jeremy, eating my sandwich. We’re friends and all, but we don’t talk about much. I guess we don’t have much in common, but at least he’s company for me to survive through forty minutes of hell.

I took as much time as I could walking down the stairs and into the courtyard, but I didn’t notice that my shoelace was untied and I accidentally tripped myself, books spilling everywhere as I struggled to gather my stuff up. The few students in the hall looked at me and snickered, and I felt a deep blush creep up the back of my neck.