Personal Punching Bag

New Boy

I laid my notebook, textbook and pens on my desk as students filed into the classroom with annoyed looks on their faces. I personally don't know why they despise their classes so much, for me the classes are the best part of my week. Students are too busy sleeping or trying to pass the class to pick on me, and it's far from my father. I sat my chin in the palm of my hand as the bell rung and our teacher stood at the front of the room with an uncommon smile on her face.

"Students, we have a new classmate joining us today. He just moved here from Arizona, please be kind to him," Mrs. Woodworth said, opening the classroom door and letting a boy in.

I watched curiously as the boy stood at the front of the room and gave the class a shy smile, holding onto his backpack straps nervously.

"My name is Alex Nickles," He said quietly, obviously not comfortable with all the attention on himself.

"Why don't you go and take the empty seat by Ally?" Mrs. Woodworth said, motioning to where I sat near the window.

I had sat alone all year. We got to choose our seats on the first day of class and as you could have guessed, nobody wanted to sit next to me, but now here I was, moving my supplies over as Alex slid into the seat next to me.

"Hi," He said, offering me a smile.

"Uh... hello," I said, quickly putting a smile on my own face, not used to being talked to kindly at all.

"Okay class, please open your textbooks to page 86 and start reading, we will be discussing afterwards and I will call on students at random, so don't slack off," Mrs. Woodworth said, returning to her desk.

"Can I share your textbook? Just for this lesson, I don't have my own yet but I'll get it for next time," Alex said, turning to face me in his chair.

"Oh, yeah! Of course," I said, sliding the book towards him and beginning to read.

As the class silently read, my eyes slowly traveled away to the page to look at Alex. He was very good looking. He had brown hair that was brushed away from his face, deep blue eyes that had a small sparkle in them, and he had a few freckles sprinkled over his nose and cheeks. His jawline was sharp and his mouth had a slightly redish tint and his teeth toyed with his bottom lip as he read the page, not seeing me studying his features.

"Okay, who can summarize what the chapter you just read was about?" Mrs. Woodworth asked, scanning the classroom for a student to pick on.

I quickly looked away from Alex and over at our teacher when I heard her voice, I really hoped that she wouldn't call on me. I focus and do my work every day, but today I was distracted. Knowing my luck today will be the one day she calls on me. The one day I don't know the answer.

"Ah yes, miss Danbury, will you please summarize for the class?" She asked, drawing the attention to me.

Of course.

"Uhm... I actually-" She cut me off before I could give her some excuse.

"Did you not read it? Even after I specifically told you all to read it in case I called on you? Please try harder next time," She began to summarize the chapter herself.

I ran my fingers through my hair and made sure that it covered my ears which were now red from the attention of the class on me when I heard snickering behind me. I turned despite my mind telling me not to.

"Wow, can you not read or something?" Jax asked with a smirk, causing Ryder and Chase to chuckle.

"I was just-"

"She just couldn't see the page because I was using her book."

I turned around to see the Alex was facing back towards us.

"It's my fault she couldn't read the chapter, so leave her alone," He said, looking back at the smartboard and turning his back on Jax and his friends.

     I also turned back to face the front, as Jax sat in shock staring at the back of Alex's head. No one ever sticks up for me and I don't know which of us was more shocked.

~~~~~

     I was the last one to leave the classroom like normal, I wasn't as eager as everyone else to leave, knowing that the halls weren't safe for me. As I reluctantly walked out of the classroom I almost had a heart attack when I saw someone standing right outside of the door waiting for me.

"Did you think that you could just let someone talk back to me like that and not have to deal with the consequences?" Jax asked me.

"I- I wasn't the one who talked back, I can't control what he says to you," I stammered.

"Yeah? Well I can control you," He said in a low voice before bringing his fist into contact with my stomach, causing me to double over in pain. He grabbed my hair and yanked me back up, making me face him, "Next time you see that kid, teach him to never interrupt me when I'm messing with you, and if you don't you won't be watching the sun rise tomorrow."

He let go of my hair and stormed off down the hall, Ryder and Chase following him close behind.

I heaved a sigh and began walking to my next class while fixing my hair. I don't know how I'm going to tell Alex not to mess with Jax. Me and the kid had talked like three times and now I had to warn him to stay away from the biggest douchebag in school. This is why I can't make friends.

I walked into my math class and took my spot at the front of the class, I buried my face in my hands, looking up when I heard a voice near me.

"I think you left this?" Alex stood in front of me holding my notebook.

"Oh, thank you! Sorry," I said, feeling my ears and cheeks go red.

As the rest of the students quickly filled in all of the seats in the classroom, Alex walked down the aisle next to mine and took the desk to my right.

"Guess we're going to be seeing a lot of each other huh?" Alex asked with a cute grin.

I could feel Jax staring me down from the back of the room as I sighed and looked back up at Alex.

"Yeah looks like it."

((Thank you for reading!!❤️))