I get to school a little later than usual, but I'm still in History on time. Cassie isn't here today, so I don't do much the whole time but sit and actually pay attention to the nonsense coming out of Lofton's mouth.
In Calculus there are a lot of people hollering "hump day", which Mister Trivino finds hilarious but I find annoying. We're given a worksheet that we're meant to work on in groups of three. Adrian and I team up with a guy who kind of scares me and looks an awful lot like Harry Potter but without the glasses. Or the scar. He turns out to know a lot about what we're doing, and we're the first group to finish with three minutes to spare.
Adrian and I walk to the first floor together, making polite conversation. He asks me how tryouts went, I say great and ask him how football practice was and he says it was okay. We go our separate ways as we get to the first floor and I head into English. I take my seat that's warm from the sun, and Dylan joins me soon after.
"Hola," I say to him.
"Hey," he returns. "What's up?"
"Nothing really," I lean my chin against my hand. "I'm kinda tired."
"That's me everyday. How did tryouts go?"
"Really well! I was surprised by how much fun I had."
"Then its a good thing you're trying out," he's been going through papers in his binder for a while and finally pulls one out and slides it over to me. "You're super good at Math, right?"
"Yeah, I guess. Are you in Calculus, too?", I ask him.
"No, I'm in Pre-Cal like all the normal Juniors."
I decide to ignore that comment, "What don't you understand?"
"We're learning about limits, and I got it for the most part. But this one here, number fifteen, I'm stuck on."
I look over the problem and tell him what he did wrong, and show him how to fix it. Just as he finishes the problem the right way, the bell rings and announcements begin playing loudly through the speaker. The announcer talks about a few things and one thing he mentions is that there's a cooking club meeting after school today. Beside me, I hear Dylan remark about how he forgot about that, and I can't help but pry...
"You're a part of the cooking club?", I ask him.
"I'm the vice-president or sous chef as we call it."
"So you can cook!", I exclaim delightedly.
"Well you'd think so, wouldn't you?"
I look at him, "You're the single most sarcastic human I've ever met."
He shrugs, "It's in my nature. Plus you just give me a lot of opportunities to use sarcasm, so. Blame yourself."
I roll my eyes but smile to myself as Missus Hathaway starts addressing the class. We work on our vocabulary a little more (which Dylan finishes and then helps me finish my own) and then we have to read twenty-five pages of the book.
Whatever we don't read in class is homework, so I block everyone out and solely focus on the words written on the pages in front of me. I shut the book a couple minutes before the bell is due to ring and I put it away in my backpack. Over on my right, I see that Dylan has fallen asleep with the book covering his face.
Trying not to laugh, I wake him up nicely, "Dylan." I tap his shoulder. "The bell is about to ring."
He opens his eyes and slowly sits up and fixes his glasses. He takes a look at his watch, stretches, and puts his book away. The whole time I'm still trying not to laugh and he finally glances at me.
"What are you laughing at?", his voice is still sleepy and, yikes, it's kind of attractive.
"I don't really know," I shrug. "I guess you're just a funny person."
"It's about time you figured it out," he says as he stands up and the bell rings.
We exit the class room and for the first time ever, he walks in the same direction as me.
"What class are you heading to now?", Dylan asks.
"Jazz with Miss Anderson."
"Have fun with that I guess. Meanwhile I'm actually going to have fun in Photography."
"Ooh," I say, slightly impressed. "Are you a good photographer?"
"Eh," he says. "I'm way better at cooking. So if you're looking to be impressed, ask me to cook for you sometime."
"Will you make me some food?"
"Not yet. It's a privilege you have to earn."
"Oh... so how many people have earned that privilege?"
"Nobody," he says. "I only cook for my mom and myself."
"Aw, you're such a nice son."
"I can be!", he turns the opposite way from me and I just now realize I walked past the locker rooms, lost in our conversation.
I have to go back a few feet and I try to change as quickly as possible, which isn't that quick considering I'm wearing jeans. I'm one of the last people to leave the locker room and as Naomi closes the door behind me, I see her give me a smirk that's clearly meant to mean something. As Miss Anderson calls roll, I whisper to Naomi.
"Why were you giving me that look?"
"You know why," she smirks again, clearly enjoying herself.
"Clearly I don't!"
"You and Mister mysterious! I saw the two of you, walkin' and talkin'."
"And what's wrong with walking and talking?"
"You think he's cute, don't you?", she asks suddenly, catching me off guard.
"What!?"
"Don't lie to me! Come on, it's not like I'm gonna tell anyone. Seriously, you can trust me." She looks serious and honestly she's my favorite person I've met so far.
"Okay, I do," I admit.
"Ha! I knew it!", she smiles widely. "Aw, look at you crushing on someone already! So, you gonna date?"
I stare at her with my eyes wide, "I've known him for three days! Chill out! You should be worrying about your own relationship!"
"My relationship is non-existent," Naomi says, somewhat bitterly.
"Exactly my point."
"Well what am I supposed to do, it's not like I can ask him out."
"Well I mean you can, but," I stop at the look she sends me. "Maybe I can talk to him. Can I talk to him?"
"It's too soon," Naomi tells me. "I mean, wait until you know him better; he'll be more open with you. Eventually you can ask, but for now just chill."
"Got it."
Today we work on dance moves, moving across the floor. We do things such as chaines, piques, this thing called a six-step, and leaps. It takes most of us a while to get the different moves down but with Miss Anderson and Naomi's help, we get them down for the most part.
After Jazz, Naomi and I walk together to the cafeteria. Today we just sit with Adrian and some friend of his who's listening to music; apparently the others are sitting at a different table downstairs today.
"Did you not bring lunch again?", Naomi asks me, giving me an are-you-serious look.
I shrug, "I'm never really hungry around this time. I don't know why. I always eat right when I get home, though."
"You're a weirdo," she tells me. "I can't stand to go through the day without eating lunch."
"Everyone's different," I remind her and she laughs a little.
I'm sipping from my water bottle and eat an Oreo that Adrian gave me when a tall boy with wet black hair and stunning green eyes approaches our table. After I notice him walking this way, I purposely look at my reflection in my phone so it doesn't look like I was staring at him. Suddenly I hear him speak to me, and I freeze for a second when he says my name.
"Hey, it's Anita right?"
I look up at the boy, "Yes?"
"Hi, I'm Jason," he smiles, and I want to melt right there; his smile is so gorgeous.
"Hi," I say plainly. Here I go again getting shy. I blame him for being so attractive.
"Do you care to take a walk?", he asks me, and he just looks so cute when he's asking the question; how could I say no?
I can feel Naomi and Adrian's eyes burning into the side of my head and I wonder what they think, but I don't waste a second in replying to this boy named Jason, "Um, sure."
He smiles again, and I want him to stop but keep doing it at the same time. I stand up and sling my backpack onto my shoulders. We exit the cafeteria and enter the courtyard where the sun shines down on us as we walk. I automatically start to turn left towards the school but Jason grabs my shoulder to stop me.
"We're going to go a different way," he says, and we walk down a staircase I never noticed before.
"Where are we going?", I ask him.
"If I told you, that'd ruin the surprise. Wouldn't it?"
"I guess it would."
We finally reach our destination which turns out to be the school's greenhouses. I had zero idea these even existed. We walk into one of them and the plants are actually pretty gorgeous. The vibrant colors and shades of green remind me of all the greenery in Washington, causing me to smile around at the place.
Jason suggests that we sit down on one of the benches that's made out of stone and we do; as I look around at the place again I realize how well off this school actually is, financially. Then I start to wonder why I'm even here.
"So," Jason says after a minute. "You're probably wondering who the heck I am, huh?"
"Just a little," I tell him with a small smile.
"Well I have English right before you so I pass you like, every day. And I saw you talking to Dylan once and he's a friend of mine, so I asked him about you."
I nod in understanding, making the connection in my head, "I hope he had nice things to say about me."
He nods, "A lot of nice things... So you like it here so far?"
"I love it," I say. "It's always so beautiful out here."
"You know, you're really beautiful."
I feel my face get hot and I know my cheeks are pink, "Thank you."
"It's the main reason I wanted to talk to you. When I first saw you I thought you were a model or something."
I laugh a little, "You're really sweet." Kinda corny though, I add in my head.
"I try to be."
Why is he so attractive? I can't look at him for long periods of time because if I do, I feel as though I'll start swooning over him.
"So you just wanted to talk to me?", I ask him.
"I did. I still do. Want to talk to you, that is," he fumbles over his words a little bit and even that is cute to me. "I want to get to know you."
I smile at him, "Well since we have the same lunch, we can have lunch together."
"Every day?", he asks.
"If you really want to."
He smiles, "Cool."
The two of us sit in silence for a minute. Then he says, "Sorry if I smell like Chlorine, by the way. I was swimming in P.E."
"That explains your wet hair," I grin. "I didn't notice any smell so you're good. Besides, I personally kind of like the smell of Chlorine."
Jason laughs, "Good to know."
There's another pause before he asks me a question, "Do you play any sports?"
I shake my head, "Not really. I mean I used to do gymnastics, if you count that. And I'm doing cheer tryouts, so."
"Ah, really?", he raises his eyebrows. "See I'm on the football team so when you make the squad, you can cheer me on from the sidelines."
"Would that make you happy?"
"Nothing would make me happier," he smiles again, and I wonder how it's even possible that this boy is single.
The bell rings then, signaling the end of lunch and we both automatically stand up.
"Well I'm glad I got to talk to you," Jason tells me.
"Yeah, it's good to meet you," I grin.
He outstretches his arms and asks, "Do I get a hug?"
In my head I scream yes but out loud I laugh and casually say, "Sure."
We embrace and I can feel his warmth and to be honest I could have stayed there for much longer than we did. The two of us walk back up the stairs side by side and part with a wave as I go towards Chemistry. When I get there, Dylan is already sitting at our table in the back, and his backpack sits on my chair to reserve my seat. As I approach him, Dylan moves his bag and pushes his glasses closer to his face.
I sigh happily as I sit down.
"What are you smiling about?", Dylan asks me as he writes down the date in his notebook.
I turn to him, "What can you tell me about your friend Jason?"
He was kind of smirking before but now he frowns, "Jason Moore? Why are you asking?"
I furrow my brow, "Why are you frowning?"
"Can you just answer my questions? How do you know about him?"
"He came and asked me to walk with him during lunch today, so I did."
"Where did he take you?!"
I'm slightly taken aback by his reaction, "We just went to the greenhouses! What's all the fuss about?!"
"If I were you," he tells me quite seriously. "I wouldn't hang around that guy. Please don't."
"Jason told me you were his friend," I tell him.
Dylan looks at me, "That guy doesn't like me at all! He's the president of the cooking club but everyone thinks that I should be, and he gets a lot of crap about it."
"But... He told me that he asked you about me."
"What? He never talks to me unless he has to. He must have been lying."
"What reason does he have to lie?", I ask indignantly.
"To talk to you, obviously," Dylan says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "See, Anita, this is exactly what Jason does: he finds some reason to talk to whatever girl he has his eye on, which turns out to be you right now."
"And?", I ask a little impatiently as the second bell rings.
"Anita, if you ask almost anyone at this school you will not hear good things about Jason Moore. Just please don't hang out with him. You'll get hurt."
"Really?", I ask a bit skeptically. "He seems too nice to do anything bad!"
"That's exactly what he wants you to think! Okay, literally he will hurt you. Emotionally or physically."
I give Dylan a look of disbelief, "Come on, now."
"You seriously don't believe me?!", he looks like he's gonna go crazy, then looks around. "Megan, come here."
He motions to a fairly pretty girl with short brown hair.
"What's up?", she asks, looking surprised that he even spoke.
Dylan points to me, "If you could tell this girl here one thing about Jason Moore, what would you tell her?"
She immediately looks at me, "No. I know he's hot, but he's a dick. It's a trap. Seriously, once you find out how terrible of a person he is, you won't think he's attractive anymore. Is he trying to get with you?"
"Yes, he is," Dylan answers for me.
Megan shakes her head, "Don't do it."
"Well, what exactly has he done?", I ask, starting to believe what they're telling me.
"First of all, he sweet talked me for a month and when I finally had sex with him he posted photos of me around school with slut written on them. My best friend Mackenzie, he got her into bed and cussed her out when a week later after NO calls she asked him why he stopped talking to her. Such a dick!
"OH, and he got this Sophomore over at Ridgeway pregnant but he basically bullied her into getting an abortion. He's just such an asshole. If you fall for his shit, you'll regret it. Trust me." Megan gives me a final serious look and a nod, then she returns to her seat.
Mister Luthy starts teaching and I think over everything Megan just told me. I mean I knew that bad people like this existed but I never had to deal with them before, really. I frown, disappointed and mad that I had started falling for this guy's crap. Why couldn't he just be a good person!? Ugh, he is an asshole.
Beside me, Dylan whispers, "Now do you believe me?"
"I'm sorry I doubted you," I reply.
~
In Spanish, Adrian and Naomi ask me if I was okay and if Jason did anything to me and I realize how bad this guy must be and how everyone knows it. I assure them that I'm fine and they warn me not to hang around with him.
"But I promised him that I'd eat lunch with him," I say, realizing I'll have to figure out an excuse to not do that.
"Why would you do that?!", Naomi asks me.
"Because nobody told me that he was such a terrible person!"
"Oh, right. Well, just tell him that we'll get mad at you if you don't eat with us."
"Okay," I tell her. "If he tries to get me to be alone with him, you guys will have to interject."
"Of course," Adrian says. "We don't want him to do anything to you."
I grin at them, "Gracias."
Vanessa, Naomi, and I head to cheer tryouts together again and all the same people are here. After stretching, we all do the cheer that we learned yesterday together as a group and then we do it, split up into groups of four.
When all the groups have gone, we start the dance portion where one of the ladies teaches us a jazz dance that's quick-paced and fun. It's not very long and it's not too difficult, but I do struggle in some parts (as well as some of the other girls). We all perform the dance as a group and then we're put into different groups of four and dance it again.
I mess up at two parts and I mentally curse myself but I smile and pretend it never happened, just like Naomi told me to do. My group was the second to go and I watch Naomi dance in her group and of course she dances extremely well. I cheer for her just like she and Vanessa did yesterday and she smiles up at me and laughs.
At the end of the tryouts it's around 4:30, and one of the ladies tells us that the lists for Varsity and JV will be posted in front of the main office on Friday morning. After tryouts, I drive home and take an amazingly long shower. I watch the new episode of a singing competition show before I do my Calculus and Chemistry homework. My parents and I have dinner on the earlier side, eating salmon and rice at about six.
My stomach is full and I go upstairs by six thirty and lay down on my bed. I turn on my laptop and play some soft music through Spotify then go onto Facebook for a little bit. After a while, I take out my list of vocabulary words and study them for twenty minutes until I think I'm good.
I put the list away and mess around on the computer for a while, browsing through my favorite sites and looking at clothes. Suddenly, that weird Facebook noise goes off that lets me know I have a message. I click over to the tab to see who it is.
Dylan O'Brien
Get off the computer. Don't you have studying to do?
I smile a little to myself and soon enough, we're engaged in a full blown conversation while Ed Sheeran croons about Autumn Leaves.
Anita Burns
assuming ur talking about the vocab test, I already did. don't U have studying to do?
Dylan O'Brien
I don't need to study. You should know that
Anita Burns
oh, right. ur mister smarty pants who knows like every word ever.
Dylan O'Brien
You over-exaggerate a lot.
Anita Burns
and u don't?
Dylan O'Brien
Anyway, how were tryouts today?
Anita Burns
pretty good, pretty good. I messed up a little on the dancing part buuut I kept going!
Dylan O'Brien
What, but you never mess up! You're Miss Perfect!
Anita Burns
😒 who told you that?
Dylan O'Brien
Nobody. I know perfection when I see it
Anita Burns
Awwww😊
Dylan O'Brien
I didn't mean it like that
I just meant
Anita Burns
I'm waaaiiting... U just meant... ?
Dylan O'Brien
You seem to be a perfectionist
Anita Burns
that is so not what u meant!
Dylan O'Brien
How would you know? Are you suddenly a mind-reader?
Anita Burns
let's just say... I know flirting when I see it
haha
hahahaha
Dylan
where did u go
U know Facebook tells me when u see my messages
stop ignoring me
Dylan
Dylan
are u embarrassed
hey
I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS
seriously
don't do me like this
Dylan O'Brien
Oh my god, okay I'm here
Anita Burns
why'd u leave me hangin like that
Dylan O'Brien
Ummm, suspense?
Anita Burns
u r so full of crap sometimes
can u just admit it, omg
Dylan O'Brien
Admit what?
Oh now you're gonna leave me hanging?
Anita
Anita
Anita
Anita
Anita
Anita Burns
omfg hi
Dylan O'Brien
Welcome back, now answer my question
Anita Burns
just admit it already that u called me perfect!
Dylan O'Brien
Why do I have to admit it? We both know it's true