The Idiots Guide To Insomnia

jenna

"How do people go to sleep? I'm afraid I've lost the knack."

~ Dorothy Parker

***

The boy sitting next to me smirks and I almost flinch at the arrogance radiating off of him. Its no secret that he's attractive, and by the way all the girls keep sneaking glances at him, I know I'm not the only one who thinks that. Apparently he knows it too by the way he keeps smirking at me. I hate people like this; too cocky for their own good.

Much to my disgust, he slowly eyes me up and down as my cheeks blush a bright crimson. My mouth has already dropped open at his bluntness and I turn back around in my seat, presumably ending the conversation.

"I'm Tanner," he whispers, scooting even closer to me.

"And I'm trying to pay attention to the teacher," I snap back, remembering to keep my voice lowered. I don't want to get a detention on the first day.

"How old are you?" he asks. "You look kinda young to be a senior."

Wow, this guy can't take a hint.

I decide to just ignore him, figuring that would be the best idea. Plus, he is seriously annoying me. Not to mention the fact that his face keeps getting closer to mine; his hot breath fanning down my neck.

Much to my relief, he finally pulls away and I try to focus on the teacher, scooting my chair further away from Tanner.

The teacher moves on to talking about extra credit work and I try and focus all my attention on him. However, all of my efforts are thrown to the wind as something lightly hits the side of my head and falls to the ground. Great.

Tanner continues to pester me with spit balls until I snap. "What?!"

He smirks in victory, his eyes alight with mischief, "I got you to talk."

I glare at him. "If you think that -"

"Mr Owens, Miss Woods, please pay attention," the teacher gives me a stern look as I blush and lower my head in shame.

"Yes sir, sorry," I mumble, my cheeks ablaze as I sneak a glare at Tanner.

"Sorry, Mr K, I was just welcoming our new classmate, that's all," Tanner's smirk grows, as does my annoyance.

I glare daggers at the infuriating boy to my left before scooting my chair even further away from him. I can't believe I'm already making a bad impression on the teacher.

For the rest of the class, Tanner doesn't bother me, and as soon as the first period bell rings, I scramble off to AP History, which is just around the corner.

After another embarrassing round of awkward introductions from the teacher, I end up sitting next to a pretty girl with dark skin and curly black hair. When I seat myself next to her, she smiles kindly at me and whispers 'hi'.

I whisper 'hi' back and return her kind smile with one of my own. Wow, a person that's actually nice in this school. Huh.

I spend the whole class taking notes and organizing my binder, however, the teacher - I think her name was Ms Carson or something - ended the class early and said we could talk amongst ourselves for a couple minutes before the next period starts.

Sighing, I pull out my planner to schedule things and almost instantly I am engrossed in my organizing. Wow I really do sound like a nerd.

"Hey," the pretty girl from before turns in her seat to greet me.

"Hey," I say shyly, not really used to making new friends.

She smiles. "My name's Chloe and you're Jenna right?"

"Yeah," I smile.

"So," she cocks an eyebrow. "how are you liking HarthFront high? I bet it's pretty weird being the new kid in the middle of the year."

I chuckle, "Yeah, tell me about it."

She laughs before her eyes widen in excitement. "You should totally sit with my friends and I at lunch!"

I widen my eyes, "Oh, really? I don't want to intrude, or anything -"

"No, no! We love new comers. Plus, you seem really cool," She smiles with reassurance written across her face.

"Wow, thanks," I blush a little bit.

Chloe and I talk about a bunch of random things before the bell rings. Turns out that we share the next class too, which is Chemistry, so Chloe and I walk together down the crowded hall.

"So, are you like super smart or something?" Chloe asks as she slings her floral designed backpack across one shoulder.

I furrow my eyebrows. "Huh?"

"Well, everyone has been talking about you. You know, with how you skipped a grade and you're practically a genius, or something!" She laughs.

I roll my eyes, playfully. "All I did was skip sophomore year because my teachers thought I could do better. I'm definitely not a genius."

Chloe smiles. "Well that's debatable."

***