Down The Highway

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I still couldn't believe that Travis introduced himself under the name Shawn which is not his real name. Is this a kind of joke or something? Another prank? Another thing that his bullies want him to do? But he wasn't done yet. He kept on talking because the professor asked him to. "Can you tell us where you came from?" He looked at the professor as he was speaking but then looked at us, later on, to continue speaking. "I'm from France" he truly was a great pretender. He told me before that he is from Kazakhstan and now he is telling us is from France.

He doesn't even look like a French guy. I rolled my eyes sarcastically. Players are going to play I said in my mind while being bitter in the corner because I knew he was Travis and was just hiding like a nightmare dressed like a beautiful dream. Who's plan was just to hook me up all along. Once he finished introducing himself, he sat beside the three other guys in a table row. Unexpectedly, when I looked at him, our eyes met but I immediately looked away. I didn't want to face him.

I saw him frowning but completely ignoring me like I was a total stranger that he never met before. I couldn't help it so I just tried to focus on listening to the teacher. Whenever you think that you are finally at peace and stable already, another problem would come and say hi to you. I thought it was going to be the best year of my college life, but I was pretty not-so-right. I took a deep breath which made Jannet, Myrna, and Maureen look at me together at the same time. I shook my head, to stretch it up a little bit.

I tried to stop myself from looking at Travis but temptation kept me up a lot and didn't stop me from looking at him over and over again. For the first few times, he didn't catch me but for the sixth time, "Miss Frocklori! Why do you keep on looking at Shawn? You like him?" The professor sarcastically asked. But as someone who knew who Shawn was, I didn't find it funny instead, I found it so insulting. "No, it's also not him that I am looking at sir. It's the players outside" he nodded.

At least my mind found an alibi. "You like the players?" He asked which led to another misery. I didn't know if he was just sarcastic or he was trying to insult me because I have been looking at Travis or Shawn or whoever that guy was, over and over. "No sir, it's not like that," I stated bravery and smiled but deep inside I was insulted already. He nodded and kept on talking. It made Shawn look at me and smile a bit but the looked away for a few seconds. I sighed. "Oh my god, Jade! Focus! This year got to be better" Jannet said after noticing the same thing that the professor did.

I sighed, not knowing why I couldn't stop looking at him. Travis was hiding under the name Shawn. I just rolled my eyes, tried to focus once more even if I really can't do it. I still tried to. The professor kept talking about the lesson for the first day of school. "So, that's it. I guess you all heard enough. The rest of the lessons would be discussed tomorrow since it's almost 11:00" which means that lunchtime is coming. I smiled as I looked at the three of them.

****

Jannet, Myrna, and Maureen have already been at the cafeteria but I let them go there first for a purpose. Because I want to sneak on Shawn. But I just couldn't get closer to him because the other boys in the school kept guarding him and some even set him up in their group. He was like a popular boy already even if he was there just for a day yet. In addition, he caught all the girls' attention. Not to deny that he looked good with his outfit which was a brown sweatshirt together with his black hair, white skin, and green eyes.

He was also as tall as a basketball player. The only difference he had from Travis is the name. He walked in front of a boy group and smiled at every single girl he passes by even if it was obvious that he was just being pressured to do all those things because he didn't want to ignore everyone. Except for me who he just passed by without even looking at my eyes. Like I was invisible or he just truly didn't see me as he walked.

But when all the other boys went inside the cafeteria already and he was left outside, I took that as an advantage to confirm if he was who I think he was. I immediately grabbed his hands then he frowned at me. "I know it's you Travis" I threatened but he just frowned more as if he was completely speechless and clueless about what I was saying. "Umm, Jade right? I think it's a misunderstanding. Maybe you just think I look like someone. But Shawn is my name" after those words, he immediately went inside the cafeteria and left me while the other girls stared at me.

"What's with her?"

"I don't know"

"I think she's crazy"

"Maybe she just thinks that Shawn looks like the Travis she's talking about"

"Mistaken, probably"

I rolled my eyes, tried to ignore their whispers which, to be honest, were still loud. I went inside and found the group sitting on the usual table spot. While I glanced beside them and found Shawn again. When he looked at me, I looked away because I was so convinced that he was not who I thought he was. I sighed and just tried to ignore him even if it was hard to do it because the school was small and we were there together. For 365 days, we would be classmates.