With You┃Dylan O'Brien ⓵

Chapter Four : Getting Acquainted

He laughs a little, "I'm glad to know that you're such an intelligent person."

I smile, "The same goes for you."

~

When I get to Honors English, there are already about ten people there before me. I take my seat in the back and sip from my water bottle, totally spacing out. I get lost in thought, daydreaming about if I were on a beach right now without a worry in the world.

All I have to worry about is not getting too tan as wonderful music plays loudly. I laugh and smile about absolutely nothing and everything feels perfect. I don't realize how deeply spaced out I am, lost in my beach daydream, until I hear someone snapping their fingers by my ear.

I break out of my reverie and turn to my right, "Oh, hi."

"Yeah, hi," Dylan says. "I said hello to you like three times." He takes his seat and fixes his glasses.

"Sorry," I tell him, a little embarrassed. "I was spacing out."

"I noticed. What were you thinking about?"

"The beach."

"The beach?"

I nod.

"Why the beach?"

I shrug and say, "I've always loved the beach, but I never really got to go to one in Washington. And I haven't gotten the chance to find one here yet."

"Well I promise you, there's plenty around," he says.

"I think I might go to one this weekend."

He nods, and I take it that that's the end of that conversation. I begin to take my binder and pen out for class and the bell rings. I expect Miss Hathaway to start teaching then, but instead the announcements come on.

A guy with a voice that sounds both cheerful and official says the pledge of allegiance and goes on to tell us about upcoming meetings and events. He talks about the cheer tryouts after school today and tomorrow, and Naomi who sits in front of me turns around.

"You ready for tryouts, chica?", she asks me with an easy-going grin.

I nod, "Super ready! Thanks to you, of course."

"Aw, shucks, I try," she waves a hand at me then turns back around.

"You're trying out for cheer?", Dylan asks me. When I turn to look at him, he's playing some word game on his phone.

"I am," I tell him. "Why do you ask?"

"Just asking," he pauses, then says. "I hope you make the team."

"Why do you hope that?"

"Because our cheer team kind of sucks, other than Naomi and this other girl named Vanessa," he locks his phone and puts in his pants pocket. "And I saw that video Naomi posted of you yesterday. You're probably the best person they can get."

"Do you really think so?"

"Well I didn't say that for my own health."

I laugh, "Okay, well thanks."

The announcements finally end and Miss Hathaway passes out books. We have to fill out these book check out papers that take longer to finish than they really should, but soon enough we start reading the book. Hathaway reads out loud as we all follow along pleasantly, though she does have to ask Joey to be quiet on two separate occasions.

We read the first twelve pages and stop, so we're left with fifteen minutes of class left. Miss Hathaway passes out papers to everyone with twenty-five vocabulary words on it that we have to define by Friday.