Passport Through Time

2 - Collin

I waved my hand in front of Baelie's face. "Hello? Earth to Hoodie Girl."

She snapped back into attention. "Sorry! Just thinking..." Her emerald green eyes went all unfocused again, and I shook my head.

What had happened in the bathroom would stay in the bathroom, we had voicelessly agreed.

I just couldn't shake away the atmosphere that happened when our eyes had briefly met, though. Something had definitely happened there, whether I liked it or not. 

You have an image to maintain, I reminded myself. You can't just start making out with any girl that makes goo-goo eyes at you, even if you have been friends since preschool.

Baelie said something, snapping me back out of my thoughts. "Huhwhat?" I said.

She shook her head. "I said, do you wanna stay after school to practice for the play? Mr. Hanna mentioned that we could."

I thought about the overdue homework I had waiting for me. "Yeah sure. Whole thing?"

She shrugged. "Yeah. We can start walking around and stuff too. All the movements written in the stage directions."

"I don't see why not," I said, rather stupidly. Almost instantly, that weird look appeared in her eyes again, and I found myself staring for a moment. FOCUS! my brain screamed, and I went back to the math problems I may or may not have been previously doing.

Minutes later, I was studying her shirt again. To my surprise, Baelie caught me looking and smiled warmly. Pointing at the chick in the gold dress on the left, she said, "She's my favorite."

"Lame," I said. I didn't want to point because it would probably look like I was doing something else, so instead I asked, "Who's the dude? He looks lit."

"Did you listen to a single word I said during my presentation?" she asked, exasperated. "Actually, were you even paying attention at all?"

No, can't say I was. "Yeah," I lied. "I'm just bad with names. Remind me again, please?"

"Anakin Skywalker, dumb-butt."

I tried to make a convincing Aha! face. "Oh yeah, I remember him now. He kinda looks like me," I joked.

Her face lit up, and I realized that was the wrong thing to say.

The bell rang fifteen minutes later, and we trudged to the proper locker room. Inside the guys', PE became more like PU. Once inside, I made a quick change into my uniform, then joked around with a couple other dudes until the teacher yelled at us to get out.

Baelie was in the back corner, doing a front flip. She called it her "Jedi Training." I called it "dumb as hell."

She was finishing a cartwheel when I came over, her shirt tucked into the front of her pants to avoid flashing the class. I crossed my arms and waited for her to stop her antics.

She grinned up at me, strands of hair spindling out of her bun. "Hey Collin."

Baelie was only about five-foot-three, with a slender figure that was, haha well, definitely a figure. Her PE uniform did such curves absolutely zero justice, but then again...no one could really rock these monstrosities.

If only you weren't such a tomboy, I thought impulsively. You hide yourself behind those baggy shirts.

She poked me in the stomach, which didn't hurt. "Ouch," I said, just to be nice.

"Someone's been working out," she teased. "How're those abs comin along?"

I felt my face flush a little. "They're really not."