Rising Secrets

Chapter 3- Alive With Her

     All through his long awaited Chemistry class, Aidan sat in stupor. Until he flipped through his textbooks to find that his English notebook was missing, he seemed to have been in a dream.

     The notebook sitting on his desk was definitely not his. For one, it was a dark blue, while his notebook had been a teal green. Next was the fact that it was someone's Calculus notebook. And finally, that there was a girl's name on the inside cover.

     "Rosette Maria Lois..." He read aloud hesitantly. So that was her name; the girl with the captivating eyes...

     And that was when it suddenly struck him that he had never been actively interested in any girls before, although not without reason. The girls in his high school were practically all from the same kindergarten as him. It was hard to get romantic with someone who had known you since you both wore diapers. Really, it was quite a disturbing thought.

     But having the notebook meant that he'd have to return it to her sometime during the day. The thought of seeing her again instigated a strange feeling of elation within him. So foreign to him was the notion of liking someone.

     As he left Chemistry for Spanish, he searched the halls for her honey streaked hair. Not here, he realized with a clench of his chest. There was always the possibility that she wasn't even in his grade. That was a possibility he avoided thinking about.

     In the Spanish classroom, he did a double take. The girl he searched half the school for was sitting comfortably on a seat in the front row of his Spanish class.

     Sliding casually into a desk on her left, he tapped her shoulder lightly.

     "Rosette?" She turned to him with a startle. He held up her Calculus notebook with a slight smile.

     "I believe this is something of yours, then?" She returned with a wave of his English notebook, which seemed to have materialized in her hand.

     With a laugh from both sides, they traded their notes back and conversed. It wasn't long before Aidan knew she was originally from Rhode Island, that her family moved a lot because of her mother's job (hence her transfer to his school), and that she had all but three classes in common with him. The three classes being English, Calculus, and Chemistry. That's a shame, he thought, mildly upset that she wasn't in all of his classes.

     "So now you know enough about my life but I know nothing about you. What's your story, Aidan Frosz?" Rosette seemed to purposely wonder aloud with a curious twinkle in her eyes. Aidan opened his mouth, prepared to say something when, all of a sudden, he remembered that his story should have been school wide news already. He cast her a sidelong glance, wondering why she hadn't heard about "the poor boy who lost his dear father over the summer" yet.

     Thankfully for him, however, the bell chose that minute to ring, ending their conversation and starting the Spanish class. That was enough time for him to puzzle out the strange feeling in his gut that told him that he didn't want to tell Rosette anything that would make him appear pitiful. Call it bravado or whatever you want. He just needed someone in the school to see him for who he was behind the changes he bore over his father's death. Someone who could understand, not counsel, him.

     Like all the classes before it, Spanish was just the teacher, an eccentric and peppy Mrs. Cajar, talking about the goals of the year, the information that the class would cover, and the textbook that they were to study out of. There were papers to sign, rules to memorize, and supplies to shop for. The usual stuff.

     At the end of class, Aidan found Rosette standing by the door of the classroom with a wide smile on her face.

     "Wanna walk together?" She invited casually.

     "Sure. Where're you going? English?" He had a pretty good guess, having heard her schedule just an hour ago.

     "Advanced English." She corrected with a condescending laugh.

     "Hm... So she's smart, beautiful, and a bragger." He replied, as if unbothered that she was in a higher class than him. Of course he was, but... she was Rosette. The girl he probably liked. So that made it okay.

     The classes rolled by fast, and after Calculus he met up with Rosette again in their World History class. For the first time in a month, he was able to laugh at funny jokes and talk casually about things that didn't matter.

      If meeting Rosette could change me so much in a day, how much would my life change if we stayed together...? He couldn't help but wonder. Maybe he should find out if their feelings were mutual. Or he could try harder to make them mutual. It seemed to him that four hours with a girl he had just met garnered a bigger reaction from him than nearly two months of Louise's motherly fussings. But he felt for sure that he was beginning to care about his life again. Especially if Rosette was going to be a part of it.