1000 Paper Cranes

Chapter 1 - 954

"So, what number does this make?" Joanna asked me, leaning over my shoulder as I creased another fold on my paper crane. Folding cranes, at this point, should have been the easiest thing I've ever done, but it's still difficult. Being a perfectionist, I wasn't content if every edge didn't line up exactly.

"954." Jonathan answered back as I stuck my tongue between my teeth, completing the last fold. I had a surgeon's precision and a chess player's concentration when it came to folding my cranes. Which was good, I guess, since I had no aptitude for chess and no desire to operate on humans.

"Wow! You're almost there!" Joanna smiled, snatching up the mint green bird and guiding it through the air between her thumb and first finger.

I cast my eyes toward the dirty carpet on the floor. I was painfully shy, even when it came to the attention of my best friends.

I felt one of my completed cranes land on my shoulder as Joanna took a seat next to me at the big library table.

The library was my refuge, my hideout. It was there that all of my best thinking, reading and not-talking were done. I hated talking, honestly, hated the sound of my own voice. I hated the glazed looks people got in their eyes when I shared my interests. And I hated that awkward way I never knew what to do with my hands when I spoke.

"So, Crane Boy, what are you hiding from in here today?" Joanna laughed as she sat.
Joanna Johnson was a social butterfly. With her trendy haircut and love for dance, she fit in with the preppy girls perfectly. But she also was one of the smartest people in our class and devoured literature like it was going out of style. She was a perfect nerd. And yet, she fit in nowhere, so she chose to spend her time with Jon and me.

Jon was also an anomaly. He was a computer wiz and hacker extraordinaire. He had broken into the school servers so many times that I had lost count. He was second in our class, and if that wasn't enough, he was also the all-star pitcher of our school baseball team. Somehow, crazily, even his name was not a scarlet letter of high school shame. Jonathan Johnson was known very affectionately as JonJohn. He had overcome high school. He had risen above.

I, on the other hand, had been a victim of high school. I was peculiar, and not in that quirky way that Joanna was. And I was nerdy, and not in a way that might land me a job with the CIA, like Jonathan. No. I was that strange know-it-all who rambled when nervous. And not in that endearing way that nerdy girls rambled about their favorite scenes from Jane Austen. No. I once introduced myself like this: 

"Hi [cute girl I just met], I'm Jordan Johnson. Did you know that one in every five-thousand north Atlantic lobsters is born bright blue?" And then I'm pretty sure I chuckled nervously and pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose. She, coincidentally, looked at me like I had grown two heads. I was one asthma attack from undateable. Strike that. I was undateable. The only girl who looked at me like I wasn't green and covered in scales was Joanna. And I didn't want to date Joanna.

"Hello? Earth to Jordan." Joanna snapped her fingers in front of my face. I realized that I had zoned out.

"Oh. Sorry." I blushed. I hated when I turned so inward that time passed unbeknownst to me.

"Nothing. I mean, lunch. I'm always in here for lunch." I sighed. How pathetic was I?

"I'm aware, Space Cadet, but why? For all you know there's some beautiful girl in that cafeteria who's just waiting to be swept off her feet by some random fact you know."

I cut a glare at her.

"Or, hey, no discrimination here. Maybe there's some dreamy guy whose butter gets totally melted by pasty nerds in glasses." Jon laughed, slapping my shoulder playfully.

"Did you know Dr. Seuss invented the word nerd in his book If I Ran the Zoo?" I asked, impulsively.

"That's the spirit! Let's go sweep some girl away!" Joanna grabbed my arm and dragged me away.