Playing Evelyn

Chapter 2

“Mr. Price asked you a question and you had this glazed over look in your eyes,” Gabriel said, staring at me as if I were an alien.

I avoided his gaze and mumbled something about being tired before heading into the home economics classroom.

Mr. Price and Gabriel came in behind me, both looking a little confused. I had to be more careful. Somehow I’d managed to pique the curiosity of the school’s most notorious pupil and my home ec teacher.

I gave myself a mental shake and vowed to avoid Gabriel for the rest of the year. I was temporarily mollified by this thought until I realized I still didn’t have my pick. I’d regained possession of my own hand when Mr. Price had interrupted but that rat, Gabriel had kept hold of my pick.

Before I realized what I was doing, I’d turned to see the back of the classroom and sent a glare to Gabriel meant to convey how very short his life would be if he didn’t give me that pick back and never talk to me again.

Too late, I realized that turning in my chair to glare at the school’s bad boy would definitely not help me keep a low profile. Once Gabriel’s chair, which had been leaning on its back two legs as he casually pretended to listen to Mr. Price, righted itself loudly onto the floor when Gabriel sat up in surprise, his eyes met mine and I realized what a huge mistake I’d just made.

Hurriedly, I twisted back in my chair to face the front of the classroom and adjusted the glasses perched on my nose. I tried to emit an aura of the completely uninteresting person I was and I think it worked quite well as the atmosphere in the classroom quickly turned back to the bored and tired one that was normal for the last period of the day.

My heart beat had just returned to normal when Mr. Price made a sudden announcement.

“Over the next few weeks we’re going to do some group work that will require some after school time.” The class groaned and my heart sank. After school was my time. I did not plan on sharing it with anyone but my band mates.

“During class, you’re going to come up with a recipe and then you’re going to go home and give it a shot. This will help teach you what ingredients go best together and will help you learn to recognize a good recipe when you see one without having to actually prepare the meal.”

People started twisting in their chairs to make groups.

“I’ll be assigning the groups,” Mr. Price said eliciting groans from everyone. Except me, of course.

After the protests died down Mr. Price started reading off the names of people and their partners. I noticed a few of the girls sending shy and nervous glances towards Gabriel. I could tell what drove them to look. He was very attractive. The nervousness was probably because of all those rumors about how he was in a motorcycle gang or how he dealt drugs or how he’d spent the last summer in jail.

Someone who looked like Gabriel did and had the guts to talk back to just about anyone no matter their age or social standing was bound to be the brunt of a few rumors.

And he rode a motorcycle to school which probably didn’t help.

“Gabriel, you’ll be with Evelyn,” Mr. Price said and I felt the blood drain from my face as I frantically wished that there was another Evelyn in this class.

“Who’s Evelyn?” Gabriel asked causing a few classmates to giggle and a few others to echo his question.

“That would be the girl you were conversing with in the hallway just before class,” Mr. Price replied saying exactly the wrong thing causing the class to break out in excited chatter.