"Thalia!" A voice shouted my name. I jumped and turned, only to see a grinning Grayson behind me.
I put a hand over my heart and said dramatically, "Gasp! I thought you were some wannabe with a stalking problem!"
Grayson grinned and waved a piece of paper in front of my face. "Schedule!" He sang, shoving his schedule in my hand and grabbing mine.
As Grayson started to read it, I said, "Oh sure, Grayson, you can look at my schedule. Thank you for asking so eloquently. I really appreciate it."
"Quiet, woman," Grayson said, covering my mouth with his hand. "Oh yay, we have like three classes together. I wish it was more, but at least we have some together."
I nodded and took back my schedule. "And I have to get to Algebra Two right now. So I guess I'll see you at-" I checked the schedule to see what classes he marked off "-the dreaded gym class. See ya!"
We did our secret handshake (Don't ask what it is, it's a secret!) And headed our separate ways.
I walked into my Algebra class to see most of the seats were already filled up. I shrugged and placed my pencil down on the desk that was front center and leaned back in my chair. I looked around the class to see the class was mostly sophomores with a few freshmen and juniors scattered about.
The bell rang, and in walked someone who could have been mistaken for another student. Her short red hair and bangs didn't help to make her appear any older.
"Hello, class," she said timidly. "I'm Mrs. George and I will be your Algebra teacher for the year."
"How old are you?" A voice from the back of the class shouted out.
"Older than you," she replied, and with that she took attendance and class began.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Holy crap," I groaned, dropping the books I had received into my lunch table. "I swear these teachers think this is boot camp."
Grayson looked surprised. "You mean this isn't boot camp? Oh no, I came to the wrong place!"
I laughed flipped through one of the books. "When do I need to know about any of this? Does being a news reporter really require knowing all this about the Crusades?"
"Yep," he responded. He grabbed my sandwich and took a bite. He then giggled like a schoolgirl and said in a high pitched voice, "So... did you see cute boys?"
I rolled my eyes. "Stop eating my food and no. They're all assholes anyways. Or taken."
"Hey, can I sit here?"
A pretty and small girl stood behind us. She held a brown bag in one hand and stood tall and confident.
"Uh...sure," Grayson said. "I'm Grayson and this is Thalia. Are you a freshman?"
She nodded and pulled out a sandwich. "I'm Rebecca. Fandom extraordinaire and queen of shipping. Even have a pretty popular instagram."
I exchanged a glance with Grayson. Girls like this one tended to want us to end up together, so we usually avoided them.
Still, we didn't want to be rude so we chatted politely with her.
The bell rang, and Grayson and I exchanged goodbyes before heading our separate ways.
I reached my English classroom and entered it, praising the Lord that there were no assigned seats.
The bell rang, and the class quieted down.
"Hello!" A peppy voice said. I looked for the voice and saw a short blonde standing behind the desk. She looked like she had a good sense of humor but wasn't afraid to punish wrongdoers. I immediately liked her.
"I'm Mrs. Green and I'll be your teacher. Freestyle seating is great but I was indeed once a student. Don't look so surprised. So, I have done assigned seating and I'll read the list off."
The class groaned but obliged. I was sat next to a boy I had never spoken to, but this year we seemed to have a ton of classes together.
"Are you stalking me?" The boy said.
"Excuse me?" I glared at him, but he didn't even seen to notice.
"I mean, I know I'm devastatingly attractive and have an infectious personality, but you don't have to follow me around because of it."
"Yeah, really infectious," I snorted. "Kinda like Ebola."
He rolled his eyes. "It's because I'm devastatingly attractive. They die because they can't handle looking at me."
"Are you sure they're not dying because you're so ugly?"
He looked confused. "I'm not sure when we started talking about you."
I signed and patted his arm, shooting him a sympathetic look. "It's okay. The first step is admitting you have a problem. Repeat after me: I'm ugly and I'm proud!"
"Okay, Patrick," he rolled his eyes and stuck out his hand. "Parker."
I shook it heartily. "Thalia."
He draped an arm around my shoulders and ruffled my hair affectionately. "I get the feeling we're going to be great friends!"
