Ones Ignored

Chapter 5 |"Are you stereotyping me, sweetheart?"

I avoid any conversation with Jameson the next day, which is very easy because that would be done on my part. It wasn't like the guy was jumping over fences to talk to me. He was good at not talking to me. I found out that it was true when he had said we had the class before the one we sit together as well. I hadn't noticed him before but I do the next day.

He doesn't even sit in the back of the classroom, he sits where he always does. Front row, corner desk. I guess that was the perfect combination of not being front and center or in the back. I had noticed him when I had fianlly looked away from Blake. Blake was more touchier with me than usual, did that mean we were on again? I hoped that we were. During the weekend I find that we were on again.

On again in the sense that he invites me on a date and we spend the next two days together. Come Monday, I am all smiles and giggles as I head into class.

As I take my assigned seat next to Jameson I find that he visibly scoots his chair away from mine. Oh, that was kind of weird. He never had moved away from me. I don't comment on it and instead pull out a notebook for the class.

"Cooper", I hear our teacher's name from ahead of me and look up. She is looking at the guy next to me and in a second he walks up and toward her. Like the stalker I am, I watch them interacting. Mrs. Meirs talks a lot while Jameson nods attentively. "You can go back now", she says loud enough for me to hear and I look down at my table.

I'm startled when there is a packet placed on my table with the title being read as Life Skills Partner for the course: Jameson Cooper. I forgot to mention that the only class I failed last year was this one. I have an excuse though, it wasn't because it was hard it was more about the fact that it was easy. Since it was easy, I put the classwork off and worried about other things. Things that occupied my mind for a long time.

I look at him and smile softly,"I promise I won't make you fail as well."

"I don't have this class", comes his grumble and even though I was already looking at him, I make a point to dramatically look at him.

"How is that possible?", I ask genuinely confused to why he would be here if he hadn't failed last year.

"TA", he says and then looks through his own packet while I'm left to conjure up the rest of the explanation. Ta stood for Teacher's Assistant but that didn't make sense as he was also my partner. I look ahead to the teacher and find her giving me a hopeful smile and I glare at her. She chuckles and I look back toward the guy who was now writing in the paper.

"She gave me a tutor!", I exclaim with disbelief, with him being my totur. "I don't need one", I say to him and find that he only shrugs. I huff and grab the file on my desk and look through them. All of them are familar and it takes me less than twenty minutes to complete it. I was lucky enough to have photographic memory because last year it took me almost a week to get this done.

I grab my papers and then walk over to the teacher's desk and place it there. She looks at the papers and then looks up at me. "You gave me a totur!", I say in horror to her and she waves me off, her hand grabbing the paper now. She looks through them and then flips to the last page that was left blank.

"Ivy", she says with a soft smile and I smile back to her. I was kind of embarrassed that she gave me a totur but I also didn't want to seem mean. I was working hard to be a nice personshamed- one that was weary of her actions. "An important skill in life is to try new things, branch out of your comfort zone. I want you to find that."

"Find what?", I ask her because apprently I needed to be handed out things.

She doesn't show any signs of annoyance though she only says,"Find something new. Something that you wouldn't think to try. Something that is entirely different from what you have known."