fall ↠ hale | 1

five

melanie martinez - sippy cup

" blood still stains when the sheets are washed, sex don't sleep when the lights are off "

I was called into the principal's office first thing in the morning for reasons completely unknown to me. When I stepped in, Principal Argent was smiling widely as he offered me a seat.
"Don't look so scared, you haven't done anything wrong just yet," He chuckled. I sighed internally, my stomach settling down after doing backflips for the last ten minutes.
"In fact, you're in here for a great achievement. Do you know what the tests you did yesterday were, Rose?"
"Yes, sir. They were old sophomore finals,"
"And I assume you've heard about their infamous reputation?"
"Yes, sir,"
"Then you'll be incredibly pleased to know that you did astonishingly well. Near perfect, in fact,"
"Thank you, sir," I said, a small smile of pride tugging at my lips.
"Are you sure you're 15? Some of the stuff covered in those tests hasn't even been covered by our sophomores yet,"
"Yes, sir, I'm completely sure,"
"Well, in that case, you'll have to remain in some sophomore classes,"
"Some?"
"I've decided that the current sophomore math and science classes are too...too pedestrian for your abilities. We're moving you into junior Math, Chemistry and Biology classes you have the option to take AP Calculus. How does that sound, hm?" I was completely shocked. I found the test fairly easy but I never thought I'd done that well.
"Um, that sounds great, sir," I said, stumbling over my words. I was too astounded to form a cohesive sentence, apparently.
"And the AP class?"
"Sure. I mean, uh, why not?"
"Wonderful!" He said, clapping his hands together, "I'll let you head off now, my secretary has your new schedule ready. AP Calc is first, good luck!" And with that he stood up and ushered me out the door. I guess he'd already planned that I would accept the AP classes, or wasn't going to take no for an answer.
I took my updated schedule and thanked the secretary quickly before hurrying off to first period: AP Calculus. I wasn't sure what to expect but if the principal thought I was capable then I must have been.

I entered the classroom just as everyone was settling down into their seats.
"Are you the new sophomore joining us?" The teacher asked.
"Yes, miss,"
"Great! Lydia can finally have someone her own age to talk to!" She smiled. Wait a second, Lydia was in this class? I surveyed the room quickly and saw her sitting towards the front, smiling slightly at me. Great. I didn't dislike her, but I got pretty mixed messages from her. I couldn't tell whether she hated me or not.
"You can sit next to her! Oh wait, no you can't, that's where Angelica sits. Okay, how about next to Nathaniel? That seems to be the only free seat," I saw a boy with a curly mess of hair sitting next to an empty seat, so I made my way over to it.
"I'm Nathaniel. No-one calls me that though, it's just Nathan," He held out his hand.
"Rose. Nice to meet you, Nathan," I smiled, shaking it. He looked at his desk shyly before returning his attention to the class. He was actually really cute, the realisation making me blush. His mop of hair hung over his forehead and he looked sort-of like he hadn't slept in a few weeks, which I found really hot for some reason. I noticed throughout the lesson that he had this habit of tapping out certain patterns with his fingers. Middle finger, ring finger, forefinger, forefinger, middle finger, ring finger. Over and over again. It was almost hypnotising, the way he did it so quickly and effortlessly without even looking. I tried it myself a bit but I couldn't get anywhere near as fast as he was doing it and I always lost my place. I didn't listen to the actual teacher much at all, but it was alright because we were just graphing equations and I could do that easily. Although I did the work, I still remained entranced by Nathan.