The Player

Chapter 7

I walked into first period and placed the assignment, along with the pile of papers already there, on Mr. Lynch's desk.

"Thank you, Ella." he said. I gave him a small smile and turned to go to my seat. When I sat down next to Maya, I looked back at Mr. Lynch sitting at his desk, reading our essay.

"Hey." Maya said. 

"Hey...Mr. Lynch is reading our paper." I told her. She looked down where I was looking and saw him.

"That makes me nervous when teachers read your stuff right in front of you." Maya said.

"Me too."  Mr. Lynch flipped the page. He was still reading when Niall walked in and came and sat next to us.

"Mr. Lynch is reading our paper."

"Damn." Niall said under his breath. We all knew what this meant. He was going to make us present it today in class. We all watched as Mr. Lynch flipped the front page back over and placed the paper back on his desk. The bell rang and he picked it up again. Everyone got into their seats and got ready for class.

"Good morning. I hope you all turned in your group essays to my desk when you walked in. I was reading this essay that was due today, and it's very good." Niall, Maya, and I let out a small breath in relief that he liked it. But we quickly realized that he was probably going to tell us to come up and present it. "...and I would like it to be presented in front of the class. Niall, Maya, Ella. Come up here and share your work with us."

"Shit." Niall said under his breath again. We got up from our seats and walked down to the front. Mr. Lynch handed the paper to Maya and we turned to face the class. Maya looked down at the paper and started talking.

"My take on fear was that some people, at least most people, are afraid of fear itself. They don't want it to be in the way........." she continued on. When she finished, she passed the paper to Niall who began saying his part.

"My opinion of fear was that some people are so afraid to be daring, to take risks, or even to just be who they are.........." he continued on and the class listened to every word he said. Then Niall passed the paper to me. 

"Fear is an obstacle. It can get in the way of what you really want in life. It's always holding you back. It's hard to overcome sometimes, but you just have to find the will to.............." my whole presentation of my opinion of fear was basically my fear of getting to know Niall. My fear of letting Niall take advantage of me. The whole time I was talking, all I could think about was the guy standing next to me. I finished talking and the class applauded us. Mr. Lynch took the paper from me, thanked us, and told us to go back to our seats. We went to out seats in silence and sat down as Mr. Lynch began lecturing.

"Guys that was totally awesome!" Maya whisper yelled. I let out a small laugh. Niall just smirked.

"Yeah, I mean for a spontaneous presentation it wasn't that bad." I whispered back. Class ended after, and the three of us left the classroom together.

"Hey, Ella." Niall said lightly touching my arm. I stopped walking and turned to face him. Maya had kept walking with one of her other friends. Niall led me over to the side of the hallway out of the way of the other people.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go out again sometime. Like to the movies or something." Niall asked me a little nervously.

"Uhh....." I looked around the hall hoping that the bell would ring for next class so that I wouldn't have to answer right away. I found myself a few seconds later still standing there with Niall waiting patiently for my response. I shrugged my shoulders and gave a small smile. "Why not?" Niall's mouth curved into a smile.

"How about this weekend? Is Saturday good?"

"Yeah, that's fine." I said. 

"Awesome." he said.

"Yep." 

"Well, I'll see you later." 

"See ya." Niall walked off down the hall as I stood there clutching my textbook. 

"Hey!" Sara came swooping in and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. We started walking down the hall. 

"Hey." I said.

"What's that smile for?" she asked me putting her finger in my dimple.

"Haha stop!" I said pushing her hand away.

"I know you were just talking to Niall."

"So?"

"That's why you're smiling." Sara said to me.

"No it's not. I can't just smile cause I want to?"

"Not when I know it's because of Niall. So what did he say?" she said being the nosey person she is.

"We're just going to the movies on Saturday." I said casually.

"Ooooohhh."

"No, it's not like that Sara."

"Maybe not for you, but what about him?"

"I don't know. I mean obviously I know he likes me, and he thinks about me that way. At least that's what he says."

"Just give him a chance El. Who knows? Maybe he will make you change your mind about him."

"Or, I could be completely right about him and get my heart broken. No offense, but I don't really think I wanna go down that road."

"Suit yourself." Sara said shrugging her shoulders. We got into our classroom and sat in our seats. Just as we sat down the bell rang for class to start.