The late bell rings, signaling the start of first period, the moment I walk into AP Chemistry. My eyes scan the half-filled room for Charlie, and I spot him hunched over a book at towards the back of the classroom. I dart across the room and noisily sit down on the stool next to him.
"Hey, Cal," he greets. His eyes continue to scan across the page in his book.
"Hey, Char," I reply as Mr. Thompson walks to the front of the classroom.
"Prepare yourself, students," the tall, gray-haired man sporting a sweater vest starts off saying, "For the most challenging science class you'll ever take!"
Charlie groans next to me. "I can't believe you convinced me to take this class with you. I tried to tell you that this guy is nuts."
"Hey, I heard that Mr. Halverson!" Mr. Thompson exclaims, pointing a bony finger at him.
Charlie gulps nervously while I muffle my laugh in my hand. Man, I can already tell I'm going to love this class.
"How does he know my name?" he whispers lowly, eyeing the teacher.
"It's not that hard to figure out; you're the only boy in the school who thinks it's fashionable to wear flip-flips with jeans," I whisper back, training my eyes on the adamant teacher who's explaining how to use a fire blanket.
Before Charlie gets the chance to argue with me, the door flings open, and Luke Hathaway struts into the room with Aaron trailing behind him.
"You have got to be kidding me!" I exasperatedly let out.
Mr. Thompson ignores my comment and, instead, turns his attention to the two boys in the front of the room. "Mr. Hathaway, I assume you have a good excuse for being late."
"Yup," he says. "I was helping Aaron out. He's new here and got a bit lost."
The teacher hums, contemplating whether or not to believe him. "Alright, have a seat, you two."
Luke scans the classroom for a good seat and heads toward the empty lab table in front of me, smirking at me the whole walk there. I scowl at him, narrowing my eyes at the sarcastic smile panted on his pierced lip.
Really? Did he really have to sit right in front of me? He could have sat anywhere else in the room; there are only 12 kids in here, aftetall. He just had to sit directly in front of me.
"Take a picture, babe, it'll last longer," Luke cockily remarks, winking at me.
"Sorry, I didn't catch that, I don't speak idiot," I innocently reply, shrugging my shoulders.
That earned a couple laughs from Charlie and a few of the other students in the room. I smile triumphantly at Luke, who's face is bright red.
Seems to me that poor little Lukey doesn't like it when someone upstages him. What a tragedy.
"Weirdo," he mutters under his breath as he turns away. Aaron, who I just realized witnessed all of this, shuffles around Luke and sits next to him. He doesn't glance at me at all. In fact, he's acting like the mini feud never happened at all.
Ah, great. In the three short minutes between classes, Luke turned Aaron into his puppet. Somehow, I'm not surprised by this at all.
Mr. Thompson continues to talk about lab safety rules and passes out papers for us to read over. "Oh, I also hope you all like the person you're sitting next to because they'll be your lab partner for the rest of the year," the teachers announces as the bell rings.
"Thank God because I'm clueless about this stuff, and you're a freaking genius," Charlie adds as he slings his black backpack on his back.
"Am not!" I defensively reply.
He raises an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"
Okay, so maybe I do get good grades, but that doesn't make me a genius. Things just click easily for me, at least most of the time.
We both walk out of the now empty classroom and head down the hallway to the math wing. I push through the slow moving and very congested halls by simply shoving people out of the way and yelling, "I'm claustrophobic; I'm gonna puke!"
Yeah, that definitely clears a path quickly.
After receiving a few dirty glares from a pack of girls who know I'm lying, we finally reach the entrance of Mr. Daniels' room. The bell's going to ring any second now.
Charlie re-adjusts his backpack strap, smirking at me. "Have fun in math."
I glare at him, shaking my head. He knows I like math and actually do find it fun.
Charlie pokes my cheek, making my scowl soften ever so slightly. "That's what you get for making fun of my sandals," he refutes before turning around to run down the hall to his next class. He waves to me as he rounds a corner and disappears.
I enter math class, smiling to myself because Charlie's playfulness is cute. I sit down at the group of four desks in the middle of the room, where my friend Shay is sitting.
"Hey," I greet her, drawing out the word.
Shay laughs, shaking her head at me, "Hi, Callie."
"Hey, guys!" Luke exclaims in a fake, girly voice.
Oh my gosh, someone please kill me now. Luke Hathaway cannot seriously be sitting with us.
He slams his math book on the desk and sits in the seat directly across from me, smiling widely. He stretches out his long legs, kicking mine in the process.
In return, I kick back a heck of a lot harder.
"Ow!" he shrieks, his face scrunching up in pain when I slam my foot into his shin.
"Callie!" Shay scolds me, slapping my arm lightly.
"What?" I ask her innocently.
She gives me that "knock it off" look, and I roll my eyes. I need to show Luke that he better back off this year because I'm not as weak as I was before. This summer has literally been the worst ever, and there's no way I'm going to be turned into a laughing stock again.
After all, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?
Luke recovers quickly. His stupid smirk is back on his face. "So, Callie," he trails off, using his tongue to play with his lip ring. "How's your mom doing?" he asks louder than necessary.
A couple students in the room turn to glance at me, and my blood begins to boil. I know that this is his twisted way of retaliating because I made him look like a fool earlier. We both know that I have one major weakness, and he took advantage of it when he got the chance.
In a way, he dropped the Mento in my fizzing Coke, and everyone knows what happens next: I'm going to explode.
The bell rings as I slam my fist against the desk. I rabidly scowl at him as he laughs quietly to himself. He knows he won this small battle.
"Callie, are you okay over there?" Mr. Daniels asks from behind his desk. He sounds concerned about my well-being, which so few people are these days.
I'm fuming, and it feels as if everyone in the classroom has their eyes trained on me. They all know what happened this summer, and they all look at me like I'm associated with what she did.
I can't stand their pitied looks. It feels overwhelming when all that energy is directly soley at me.
I grab my stuff and get up from my seat, storming out of the room. No one follows me, and I don't look back as I march down the empty hallway.
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[A/N] Thanks for reading!