One Way Bridge

Chapter 20

"You are my Allygator. She," Vince brought both of his hands to the one of mine he was holding and started to massage it, "is my baby girl." He finally released my hand which I pulled back into my lap.

"Relax Emma; he's just messing with you!" Justin told me, but I hardily found his words comforting.

What 'Allygator' said however was a lot more reassuring. "Sorry, I shouldn't have encouraged him. I'm Ally," she told me. "That's Vince, who I'm hoping you've met before otherwise we kind of look like jerks."

"Yeah, our first meeting was only slightly more uncomfortable." I told her. Vince gave me a sad look, so I stuck out my tongue. Everyone laughed and I felt that I had just passed some sort of initiation into their group. I already felt comfortable around Ally, and well, I wasn't sure I'd ever be completely comfortable around Vince.

The rest of lunch was fine. Justin had not forgotten to warn me about the mini corndogs; they tasted just fine. Ally and Vince were both nice, well Ally was. Besides the pet name, they didn't seem much like a couple, which was probably good because no one likes to be around gushy couples. They didn't even use Ally's pet name again.

Justin and I had both afternoon classes together. First we had History where, unfortunately, the teacher decided to make me stand in front of the class. I had been able to avoid that all morning, but my afternoon wasn't off to a good start. "Class," he began right after the bell rang. "We have a new student." Most didn't even look up. I had either had a class with them already, they had heard about me from someone else, or they just weren't interested. Of the people that actually looked up, only about two of them looked interested. "Tell the class about yourself, Emma." He told me before going to sit behind his desk.

"Um," I felt my cheeks change colors. "My name's Emma. I moved from South Dakota and now I live here with my grandma." I assumed that was what most people would know about me. I looked over at the teacher hopping that would be enough, but of course it wasn't.

"Anyone have a question for Emma?" I silently groaned and looked at the faces ahead of me hoping none of them raised their hands. But, because luck most definitely was not on my side, the entire class was now interested and half of them had their hands up. "Quinn?" the teacher said and a girl in the front row lowered her hand.

"Do you have any siblings?" she asked staring intently at me.

"Yeah, a brother he's a freshman in college."

"Jordan?" the teacher chose the next student. This time it was a boy seated on the left side of the room.

"How long have you been here?" he asked before winking at me.

I tried not to roll my eyes as I answered his question, "about a week."

"Kelly?" I was disliking the teacher more and more the longer this went on.

"Why did you move?" she asked in a fake high pitched voice. About four other hands went down. This was the question everybody wanted to know the answer to.

My eyes grew wide. I didn't want to tell them the truth; I didn't want their sympathy. My face was warm with blush when I peeked over at the teacher. He stood up quickly and spoke before I could. "That's enough for today I suppose. Now I should probably do what I'm paid to do, put a DVD in!" The class cheered and I quickly walked to the back, taking the open seat next to Justin.

A few minutes after the film started, Justin pushed a piece of paper in front of me. I looked down quickly to realize it was a note before checking where the teacher was. He was sitting at his desk, eyes closed and feet up. I looked down again and read Justin's surprisingly neat scrawl. 'Are you okay? You seem a little weird? Do you want me to take you to the nurse?' I smiled at his thoughtfulness. He was really sweet. I pulled out my pen and quickly wrote below his handwriting. 'Yeah, I always am, and no, thanks.' I pushed the paper back and he smiled at me before reading the note.

I didn't expect to get another reply, but when he slid the note back onto my desk I quickly read it. 'You're not weird!' I didn't know how to reply. I debated not replying, but when I looked over he seemed to be expecting a response so I quickly jotted down the first thing I could think of. 'Well, you don't know me that well.'

I got the paper back a lot faster than I thought I would. 'You're right, I don't know you very well, so why did you move?" I tensed up. Of all the people I didn't want knowing about my parent's death, he was the one that I couldn't have knowing. He was really nice to me, and maybe it was because he was just a nice guy or maybe it was because his mom put him up to it, but it wasn't because he felt bad for me. I didn't want to be the girl that only had friends because they felt bad for her. That would be pathetic.

A hand on my arm jolted me out of my worrisome thoughts. I turned to see Justin looking at me with a mask of worry again. I shook my head. He nodded and rubbed my arm a couple times before turning back to the projector screen. I relaxed, slumping back into my chair and zoning out with my eyes glued to the screen.

Full Copyright 2013
Last Edited 2018

Author's Note:

Hey guys,

I'm back, the last few weeks have been hectic, and the next one will be too, but I'll try and write as much as possible. I got Microsoft office on my laptop now so the chapters should have better editing and I'll probably write more because I can write wherever I want. Unfortunately, school has started, so I probably won't update every three days like I've done in the past. I have no idea how often I'll be updating, but I won't leave you hanging for a month at a time without telling you.

Thanks so much for sticking with me,

Devin4862

P.S. Tell me what you think about the school, Justin, Emma, Vince, Ally, Caitlyn, coach, the History teacher, grandma, predictions?