𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘦

Chapter Thirteen: Maryland PHS

Eventually people started walking to their classes, and stopped staring at me. It's weird how gossip works at not just this high school, but every high school, college, workplace, and any other place you can think of with people. There is some gossip that goes around for a few days or weeks, then something else happens and everyone is all over that news now. I'm sure this whole thing will be over soon.

But then again it's been two months and it's still the talk of the town.

The bell rang, signaling it was time for the first period.

"I'll cya later," Becca said to me.

"Yep," I replied, and walked upstairs to the first class on the left, English.

English was nothing much, no rude comments, no paper airplanes my way, no sabotage. The teacher's lecture went through one ear and out the other. Just like every class since kindergarten.

Yeah, I'm not the smartest kid in the grade, or my class, but I still end up making it to the next grade — somehow. It's not easy being a student! I don't want to sound like every high, stoned, or tipsy student in high school saying "Life is so hard" and "They don't let us have lives!". I mean, I think that, but I don't complain to everyone. I've never had a problem with schoolwork.

If I did, I wouldn't do it. Easy.

I decided it would be a good time to tune the world back in, and pay a small amount of attention to the teacher. Whatever she was saying, it was probably something about her dogs, her four kids, and how her name is Karen. It's no different.

"Okay, enough about me, let's talk about you!" She continued from whatever sentence she just finished. "I want everyone to pair up with the person next to them and introduce yourself!" She sounded like Miss Día — an annoyingly calm voice.

I looked to my right, then my left, and found that everyone had already found a partner. Either that, or they swiftly avoided being partnered with me.

"Sweetie, do you not have a partner?" The teacher turned to me, she had bleached blond hair tied into a "teacher bun" and it was receding from her forehead. She looked about forty-five or older, and her wrinkles were caked with makeup that didn't match her neck. I found out her name was Mrs. Smith shortly after.'

"I guess not," I said.

"Well it looks like this young boy in the back doesn't either!" She pointed to a group of three boys in the back, and asked a boy with blonde curls to come and be my partner.

He was about 5'11 or 6'1 and slightly taller than everyone else in his group. I'm not going to lie, he was kinda cute. But, I already know he is only my partner because the teacher told him too. If I weren't such a freak, maybe I would have a shot with him. I didn't recognize him, and this place was really small. Everyone knew everyone and their family basically.

The boy sighed, and left his group as his friends chuckled, knowing who I was, and how he had to be my partner.

"Sure," He said with a smile on his face.

He sat down next to me, and Mrs. Smith went to her desk and started working on some files she had.

"So," I start.

"So," He replies.

"Do you know what we are supposed to talk about? I was tuning out the teacher and minding my own business," I ask.

"Yeah, we tell each other our names, hobbies, favorite food, and birthday,"

"Oh, that's easy enough,"

"I'll go first, my name is Ben, I play hockey, I like pizza, and my birthday is June 4th,"

"Okay, so you're one of those boys," I said with a slight smirk.

"What do you mean 'those boys?'" He asked

"A basic white boy," I said.

"Oh, yeah I guess you could say so," He said with a chuckle.

"Well, my name is Chantelle, I like to read, favorite food would have to be any sort of chocolate, and my birthday is tomorrow,"

"Well, happy early birthday," He said, with a half smile half I don't even know how to describe the other half.

I was about to say thank you, but Mrs. Smith told everyone to return to their desks. I watched Ben get up and return to his seat in the back of the classroom. I felt sad almost. It was a weird feeling to feel about a dude I only know the name of.

Instead of thinking about this for the rest of class, I decided it was a good time to zone out until class ended. I found out my "ability" to tune people out when I was in second grade, and the gym teacher was giving instructions to some game we were playing. All I remember is coming back into reality with the last sentence being "any questions?"

Yeah, can you repeat the whole thing from the beginning? I was daydreaming about unicorns and kittens.

Well that was exactly what happened to me right now. I woke up from whatever I was dreaming about, to the bell ringing signaling the next class.

Eager to leave the classroom, I grabbed my denim backpack and walked out the door. The Spanish classroom was across the hall from my English classroom, so I decided to wait outside Becca's classroom until she walked out.

It was the classic high school hallway. There were small cliches walking in groups, except for the freshman who didn't know who were freshmen or seniors. They walked alone, looking at the room numbers carefully, afraid to miss their classroom. I could always spot these little ones even in the biggest of crowds. So innocent and naive.

I remember being like that.

Our hallways weren't filled to the brim with people, since it's a private high school, but still enough to definitely get shoved around if you were small enough.

While I was shuffling through the crowd, Rebecca appeared in my vision. I chased her down, and caught up with her.

"Hey, you missed me back there," I said behind her. She turned around to half face me while still walking forward.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't see you," She said.

"It's ok-," I commenced my sentence, but I got cut off by a 6 '1 or 6' 2 tall dude, wearing all black, bumping into me at the start of the stairs.

"Hey watch it," He said in a grizzly voice.

He jogged off down the hallway before I could even say sorry. He had no books in his hand.

"Who was that?" Becca said in shock.

"I- I have no idea,"