Leap of Faith

Day Twelve

I nod and try to form words, but none come out.

“Yeah, you dated Adam Dayton last year,” the boy clicks his fingers as if all the jigsaw pieces finally fit. “I don’t mean to sound rude or anything, but he was a dick to let you go, Cate.”

 I was just about to speak when a guy came running up and pounced on the boy’s back.

“Liam,” the guy shouted into his friend’s ear. “Come one, dude. We’re waiting for you out on the field.” When the guy saw me standing in front of Liam, he stood on his two feet and smiled at me. “Hello, Red.”

I wave at him and chuckle to myself. “Red?” He points to my hair as if it explains everything. “I also answer to Cate.”

“Sean Carpenter,” he second guy points at himself before patting Liam on the back. “Just to let you know this guy here is a top bloke and from the glare I can see he’s giving me from the corner of my eye, I know he wants me to skedaddle before I accidentally let drop that he’s liked you for a few months now. Oh, wait. Did I just say that out loud?”

Before anyone could answer, Sean ran down the hallways shouting ‘You’re welcome.’ I turned to Liam and try to suppress my laugh when I see that he’s looking anywhere but at me. I reach out to place my hand on his arm reassuringly, but Liam just steps away and mumbles something unintelligible.

I look around bemusedly and wonder what just happened. I shake my head and kneel down on the floor, trying to fit everything back in my satchel before I head for my morning classes. Capshaw work on a two-week schedule and my morning looked promising. I had double photography, Calc and Religious Studies.

Capshaw wasn’t a religious institute but the Dean insisted that we have an insight into different religions and so every year we had to take a semester of Religious Studies. Some students hated going to this class, but I actually didn’t mind it. I mean, what’s the difference between learning a foreign language and learning about Islam and Judaism? It all comes down to respect in the end, and I for one can appreciate the beliefs of others just as much as I can appreciate the language of others.

I said that speech once in front of my last RS class… They laughed at me.

Here’s hoping this year’s class wouldn’t be as bad as last years.

I really need to stop jinxing myself.

Catherine Addison? Present. Adam Dayton? Present. Gillian Merkel? Present. Christos Theoris? Present. TJ Rushing? Present. Sean Carpenter? Present. Liam Lexton? Present. Cate Westbrook?

“Present,” I say as I reach my hand up in the air in the way that lets the almost totally deaf Mrs. Pratt know that I’m here. That said, she’s almost blind too, so maybe the signal wasn’t all that necessary.

I was sat in the third row back, and the second aisle from the window, surrounded by all the people I wish weren’t here. To my right was TJ. I could deal with him, but it was the girl in front of him that I worried about the most. Catherine Addison glared at me before turning on a seductive smile to TJ.