Mending Heart

Chapter 7

Recap: I was so stressed about losing my phone I hadn’t even heard Everett’s phone go off. “Hello? You did? So you have it?” He nodded his head. “Thank God, Gabriella was freaking out here.. Where are y’all now?” He paused and looked at me and said, “Oh… Well I’ll see later.. Yeah, love you too, bye.” Then he hung up.

I looked at him with huge eyes and eyebrows raised. Finally he said, “She has your purse and phone. They all went back to our house. They decided to skip the movie and just go hangout.” He stood from his swing. “We can go hangout there? Or..?”

“Uh, yeah sure, that’s fine.” I stood from my swing and dusted my pants off. When I was done we made our way back to the car. 

Monday, January 18th.

I hurriedly pushed through all the people in the hall trying to get to class. What were they all doing still talking? The bell was bound to ring any minute now. I hate to sound like a complete nerd, but I’ve never been tardy to class. I know crazy. I can’t imagine how awkward it would be to come into class late. All eyes on you, I mean I get that enough; I don’t need any help by being tardy.

I shuffled into the already full class with seconds to spare. The bell rang and everyone scurried off to vacant seats. I rushed to the closest open seat. Lucky for me, it was in the back. I watched the clock above the door as I waited for my late teacher. 3, 2, 1..

The door burst open. “Hello my wonderful, wonderful class! Sorry I’m late; I had to do a few things.” Ms. Sinclair said while smoothing her straight dark brown hair down, and fixing her black pencil skirt. She had to ‘do a few things’ more like ‘do’ Coach Murchison.

I sighed to myself. Almost being tardy to my last class, my slut of an English teacher coming in late, and then getting assigned a new project of some kind; easily became part of my daily schedule. Today was no different. Well, so I thought.

Ms. Sinclair clapped her hands and said, “Today you will be starting a new project.” See? No different from any other day. “But for this project you will be assigned partners.” That’s when all the groans broke out.

Teachers don’t assign you to friends on purpose; they want you to get work done. But some people work better with someone they know. Rather than with someone they don’t. So why can’t we just pick? It saves them time, and they get happier students. I guess they don’t see it that way.

I was so lost in my thoughts I barely heard Ms. Sinclair call out my partner. “Rumoldi and..” She looked around for a second and then said, “Marks.” Marks? Who in the heck is Marks? I mean I know that’s their last name, but I don’t know anybody with the last name Marks.

Ms. Sinclair clapped her hands as usual and said, “Okay now you may go find your partner, then I’ll explain the rest of your project to you.” With that being said everyone got out of their desks to find their partners.

I had no intention in moving. For one, I had no idea who my partner was, and two, I’m just plain lazy. I opened my binder and started doodling on some paper. That was until I heard someone clear their throat. I looked up and there was a guy sitting in the desk in front of mine.

“Umm, can I help you?” I asked a little unsure. Who was he, and what did he want? I really don’t feel like being harassed anymore today.

He furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Are you Rumoldi?”

I looked at him for a second, am I Rumoldi? “I’m Gabriella Rumoldi. You must be Something Marks.” I closed my binder and looked at my new partner.

He laughed a little and said, “Actually I’m Alex Marks. Nice to meet you partner.” He did a little wave with his hand. I looked at him weirdly. He blushed once he realized what he said. “I didn’t mean like a cowboy partner, I meant like partners for the project.” I busted up laughing.