Dream

Chapter Four

 I blushed at the attention that the class gave me. I looked at my feet and walked back to my seat, next to Erik. I continued to stare at the ground while Ms. Carol praised me. I didn't think I even did that amazing. It was so embarrassing. I ended up looking over to Erik, which I immediately regretted. He was looking at me, and he winked. I hated the attention. I tried to ignore the fact that he winked at me and I sat up straighter in my seat, pretending I was just fine.

"I wanted to do something different today." Ms Carol was basically singing. Her vowels were incredibly wide and her voice was musical, "I'm going to have you pair up with the person sitting next to you." She smiled warmly. My heart stopped for an instant. No. No no no. I couldn't talk to Erik. I wouldn't be able to talk to him. Physically.

I reminded myself of P!nk when she was doing a talk show interview. The host asked her if she had seen Johnny Depp in person, knowing that she had a crush on him. P!nk said that she had seen him in person. The host then asked her if she spoke to him and she said no. He asked about why she hadn't spoken to him. She said that she wouldn't be able to talk if he spoke to her. That's when the host surprised her with bringing Johnny Depp out from behind the curtain. Their whole conversation she was tripping over words. The amount of second hand embarrassment I got from watching that interview was enough to know I never wanted to meet my celebrity crush in person. Yet, here I was meeting truly being forced to talk with the person I loved.

"This assignment will take a while to complete and since next class we are going to start singing Christmas music, you and your partner might want to meet outside of school." Why did, today of all days, Erik sit next to me. I would have to tell him something like 'oh shoot, I'm actually super busy tonight. Let's just get it all done in class'.

"So, to explain the assignment, you are basically going to present who your partner is." Ms. Carol smiled widely. "I know what you are thinking. What the heck does that mean, Ms Carol? Well let me explain. I've noticed that this class has a hard time... for lack of a better word... meshing.

"You all sound amazing when you sing, but there's no sense of togetherness. I want y'all to be able to get to know each other. I want y'all to have the kind of energy that only comes from familiarity. Does that make sense?" She asked looking around for people nodding their heads. A couple kids did while the others just stared blankly at her. I imagined that I wasn't the only one who despised the idea of 'hanging out' with someone I didn't know or going through the awkwardness of it.

"I'm going to give y'all the rest of the class to talk to your partner. Just to specify, Mao and Norman are partners. Rocky and Jenny are partners. Apple and Erik are partners. And so on." Ms. Carol smiled again, "All right kids, get to work please!"

I was seriously contemplating telling Ms. Carol that I didn't feel comfortable with being partners with Erik right when he turned to me.

"I guess it's you and me then." He said with a sly grin. I turned to face him.

"I'm Apple." I extended my hand to him.

"I know." Was all he said as he took my extended hand and shook it. It was strange. His hand felt the exact same in my hand right at that moment as it did in my dream. I got goosebumps from our closeness. I pulled back my hand first, twisting it with my other hand and placing it into my lap. I was so awkward.

"How do you know?" I asked him.

"Huh?"

"My name." I laughed.

"Oh, uh--just--the class roll?" He mumbled it as though it were a question. He was acting very strangely.

"Oh okay." I responded lamely. This was a train wreck. "So I guess we are supposed to get to know each other. You are Erik, right?"