Can You Chase Away The Darkness?

I Met A Girl Who Never Looked So Alone

Chapter Three: I Met A Girl Who Never Looked So Alone

- Jaime’s P.O.V. -

I walked into business management late the next morning – it was one of the classes I had with Claire. I’d kind of hoped she’d saved me a seat. Unluckily, she was up the back with Jenna; Tony and Taylor, who we also shared the class with, were in front of them and the only spare seat left was up the front. I made puppy dog eyes toward the back of the room and Claire smiled at me apologetically.

“Mr Preciado, please take a seat,” said our teacher, Mr Ozbourne. I slumped into the chair, wondering who I would be able to trade seats with in order to sit with Claire and Jenna. Mr Ozbourne quickly set some boring chapter questions for us to do; I spun around, working out who I could possibly scam. A new guy, Pete Adams, was up the back next to Claire. He hadn’t been at the school long so I hoped he was still trying to find a niche to fit into. Next to me was Phil Robles, a jock who was pretty popular. I gathered my stuff and headed to Pete, flashing him a grin.

After a few sweet-talking minutes, Pete was making his way to the front of the class and I was relaxing next to Claire.

“You could’ve saved me a seat,” I pointed out to her while she laughed, smiling at me.

“You could’ve got to school on time,” She replied ‘causing me to pause, thinking of a comeback. She laughed again and I smiled.

“Fine, you win this one,” I grumbled, pulling out my books. The rest of the class followed with Claire and I joking and doing less work than we should have. I could tell Claire was opening up to me more and I liked it; I caught Jenna’s eyes flickering between us a couple of times and worried what would be reported back to the rest of the group.

- Claire’s P.O.V. –

I sat next to Jaime in business, waiting for the bell to go. While Jaime and I had been sharing jokes and making the session more enjoyable, I was over it and ready to go to History. The bell soon rang and before I could even stand up, Jaime was up and darting from the room. I narrowed my eyes before shaking my head and picking up my stuff.

“I’ll save you a seat in maths,” Jenna said as she made her way from the room. She was really sweet and I liked her already; I hoped we would become good friends. When I arrived in History, Jaime was already sitting. Mike, Alex, Jack and Rian were around him although there was a spare directly next to him. I immediately assumed the seat was for Vic or Tony and made my way to a random seat.

“Claire!” Jaime’s voice sounded. I looked him and he pointed to the seat next to him before motioning for me to come over. I smiled, feeling happy that he deemed me worthy of saving a seat for. As I sat, he murmured to me: “Who was late this time?” I laughed before quietening down to listen to Mr Rose.

Mr Rose ended up rambling on about the Enlightenment ideas within the French revolution for much of the session. The session was thankfully drawing to a close; the only downside was that I had math afterward.

“Okay, we’ve only got a few minutes left so I best tell you about this now,” said Mr Rose as we all put our books away. “The main assessment piece for this unit is a paired project that will need to be submitted at the end of the semester. It is entirely based on the French revolution; you will receive the handout once I have paired you off,” There was a collective groan from the class and Mr Rose raised his eyebrows at us. I withheld a giggle and Jaime nudged me obviously noticing my grin. Mr Rose quickly read out the pairs – many people high fived and a few groaned. “Claire McDonald and Jaime Preciado,” he read out and Jaime and I looked at one another, eyes wide. Jaime and I high fived as the bell rang and Mr Rose dismissed us. We both collected a handout, reading over it as we headed to our lockers.