The Waiting Game

Chapter Four

My alarm clock chimed out that annoying beep, like every morning. Toast was put in the toaster, toasted, buttered, and eaten. Sleep clothes were changed into jeans and a t-shirt. Hair was brushed, eyeliner applied, schoolbooks thrown into a bag, shoes tied, and a baseball cap was pulled low over my face. It felt like any other day, but it wasn't. Mother was gone. There was a knot in my chest, a tightness in my throat, and I was kind of shaky all over, but I did not cry. I would make it through the first school day back from winter break without crying.
I hopped on my motorbike and went to school. First class was elective. I had art. Today our teacher said to paint our feelings with watercolor. My painting was a vortex that went from blue, to purple to black, with a small dot of yellow-golden light in the middle, my mother's favorite color. Next class was honors english. I am an all honors student. I suffered through that class, then went to calculus. As I walked through the door, I saw him. The guy I had slapped. I put my head down low and hoped he didn't see me. I lined up against the wall with the rest of the class to get new seats. The teacher told me to go to the back left. I started on the warmup. What is . That one was easy. -2/3.
"Hi." I turned to my right to look at the voice, only to see...
Oh. Boy. That dude again.
"I'm so sorry!" I blurted. "I didn't mean to slap you. Well, I did at the time, but it was childish, immature, and ill-thought out."
"Wow. So she actually says something besides the correct answer to a math problem or something rude." He said. "My name is Jack, and I'm sorry too."
I sighed heavily. "You really don't have anything to be sorry about. I was way out of line."
I turned back to the warm ups on the board, expecting him to go away. Instead, he sat down.
"This is my assigned seat for the rest of the year. And I kinda forgot my glasses and contacts today, so I was wondering if you could tell me what the problems on the board were."
I sighed even more heavily.
This is going to be the longest class of the entire semester. I thought.
Oh boy.