A Soul For Sale Or Rent

All The Troubles In My Way

Not much had changed when Billie found herself sitting in the same spot the following day. Physics was still as boring as ever and she still wasn't keen on focussing on her teacher's boring monologue as he wandered from one end of the blackboard to the other. Occasionally he tapped against it with his wooden pointer, bringing everyone who was drifting off into another, more exciting world back to dull reality.

In the notebook in front of her there were still no formulas to be found. Instead, she kept glancing at the quiet boy who sat almost exactly in her field of view, bringing down his features as lines on the blank paper. From time to time, the teacher completed a round through the classroom, glancing into his students' notebooks to see if they were really following his oh-so-exciting speech.

For that eventuality Billie kept a piece of paper in her reach, neatly covered with all sorts of formulas and symbols she thought would make her seem like an eager, interested student. Almost unnoticeable, she covered her artwork just in time, a move that had been perfected over time.

As soon as Mr Brown passed her table, she swiftly lifted the paper from her notebook again and continued distracting herself from the Physics lesson.

However, her teacher got Billie’s attention when he brought down his hand hard on the wooden desk, making everyone jump slightly in their chairs. “So,” he began, letting his eyes wander through the classroom. “To make sure that all of you understand everything you need to know for your exams, I have prepared a partner project.”

Billie’s eyes widened and she looked around nervously, wondering who of her classmates she would have to spend more time with, who she had to explain to why she couldn’t go anywhere after school and why they would have to work in the lunch breaks.

Swallowing, she looked down at her notebook and pulled the sheet with the formulas on top of her drawing. Billie glanced across the classroom to the cute guy, the one that was now also in her notebook as a drawing. A shy smile formed on her face when she thought about the possibility that maybe he could end up being her partner.

But that would mean explaining it to him. Her smile fell. And apart from that, he was really smart and Billie sighed when she realised she had no clue what they were supposed to do in that project. He would probably hate working with her. She wasn’t worthy of him, that’s how she felt.

Mr Brown was currently explaining more about the project, but Billie wasn’t listening, her mind was wondering and worrying. Mr Brown had gone over to pairing up the students, calling up names in pairs. “Miss Marriott?” Billie looked up at her teacher. “Yes, Mr Brown?” He looked down at his sheet. “You will be working with Mr May.”

She was feeling hot and cold at the same time and nervously glanced over to the cute boy at the other end of the classroom. “Y-yes, Mr Brown.” Billie quickly gathered her things and got up, walking over to the table of her partner. The entire time, her eyes were on the floor, not once looking up to meet his eyes.

Slowly she sat down on the spare chair next to him and placed her notebook on the table, careful to leave it closed. He certainly was the last person she wanted to see her drawing of him.

“Hey Brian,” Billie mumbled, looking shortly at him. Brian only spared a small glance at her, mumbling a quiet “Hello” before sighing and opening his notebook. Billie swallowed and nervously played with her fingers.

“So,” Brian started, making Billie look at him with wide eyes. “You know what to do right?” She swallowed and looked down at the ground, stumbling over her words. “N-no.. I’m sorry. I d-don’t understand what we’re talking about.” She turned quiet and didn’t dare to look at him, afraid what he would think of her.

The slight groan she could hear coming from Brian was enough to make her shrink in the chair. Almost inaudibly she mumbled another apology, hoping he wouldn't hate her, or even worse.

Mr Brown passed their table with a stack of papers, handing some of them to both. Immediately, Brian started looking through them, making a note with his pencil here and there. Billie, on the other hand, just sat there, helplessly looking at the tasks written on the paper, barely understanding what half of them said.

They sat there like that for another ten minutes, Brian doing the exercises and Billie looking between the paper and her partner. She made a few notes on one of the papers, proud that she sort of understood something.

However, she quickly realised that she wouldn’t be any help to Brian, which didn’t make her feel any better than the realisation that she would probably fail her exam. What would happen to her then, she didn’t even want to imagine.

When she put down the sheets of paper on the table and rubbed her face, Brian turned to look at her. “Are you okay?” She looked at him with wide eyes and shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t really understand this… I’m sorry.”

Anyone could tell that Brian was slightly annoyed by the way he rubbed his face frustrated. Billie swallowed and crossed her arms, not daring to move. She took a deep breath and gathered all her courage to look up at him. “D-do you think you could maybe… try to explain it to me?”

Brian sighed and looked at her sceptically, but the way she was looking at him, with those wide eyes, he could feel himself giving in and shrugged. “If you want me to, I can try.” She smiled shyly and shrugged. “That would be really helpful. I-I’ll do my best, I promise.”

The young man took a deep breath and looked at the girl in front of him, studying her expression. Eventually he nodded and placed his sheets in front of her, starting to explain what he had done already and what they still needed to do.

Billie relaxed slightly, but still kept her distance, listening as attentively as she could, trying to understand everything he told her.

Before Brian could go into detail, the bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson and the chance for Billie to escape that much-hated classroom. She didn't dare to interrupt though, so she sat there until he finished explaining the exercise he was currently doing.

He looked at her expectantly. "Did that help?" She looked at the paper and skimmed through the notes he had made for her, before nodding slowly. "Yeah, I think it did. Thank you." Billie kept her eyes on the table, missing the small smile that Brian gave her. 

He started packing up his things and paused to look at her. "So, when do you want to continue with this?" Billie swallowed. That was the question she was dreading. What little progress had been made in their beginning friendship was lost when she shrunk in her chair and became quiet again.

"M-maybe.. during lunch?" She hesitated to look at him, afraid he would make her come over to his house, or even worse, insist to go home with her. Much to her surprise, none of that happened. Brian only nodded and gathered the last of his things before getting up. "I'll see you during lunch then."

This is my first story written in third person, so if this sounds a little odd, then that's why. I've got to figure out how to write this in the best way, so if you have any suggestions what I could change, just let me know! (: