"Alright, enough staring," Mr. Jameson snapped, rapping the rolled-up textbook in his hand against his teacher's desk.
The rapid sharp sounds made most of us jump. He was so strong; I couldn't believe he managed to roll up such a thick book and hold it all in one hand...
"Have none of you seen a classmate awake in class before? He's supposed to be awake, so there's no reason any of you should be making such a spectacle out of this."
His stern glare landed on me, forcing me to pull myself out of my daydream. Focus, Chelsea!
"If I catch any of you turning to look at Nolan again, or staring at him when you're supposed to be taking notes, you're all getting detention as a class. Do you understand me?"
At this, almost all my classmates straightened up in their seats and looked solemn. Mr. Jameson always meant business, and we all knew he wouldn't hesitate to mete out punishment he believed was well-deserved.
A general murmur of "yes" went around the room.
I didn't even dare to check Nolan's reaction to this declaration; that was how sure I was of Mr. Jameson's seriousness. If Nolan were like any normal person, he'd be mortified to be called out like that in front of the whole class. Considering, however, how he just took all the lecturing and books to the head in his stride in the past year, he probably didn't care—which strangely made me even more curious about what he was thinking.
Near the end of his period, Mr. Jameson began handing back the pop quiz he gave us at the start of the week.
"You all did fairly well on this quiz," he said, starting with the row of desks closest to the front of the classroom. "Great job and keep it up, everyone."
He flashed a good-looking smile as he started on the next row, and audible but hushed sighs floated all across the room. I clapped my hands to my mouth, willing myself not to melt into a giant puddle right there and then. I loved studying English.
When he reached our desks, he handed me mine with an encouraging smile—actually, it wasn't just an encouraging smile; it was the best smile I'd ever seen. His deep-blue eyes were smiling, too, and all I could think about was how gorgeous they were. "Great work, Chelsea."
"Thank you, Mr. Jameson," I said, taking my paper from him as slowly as I could.
He handed Nolan his and said, "Good work as usual, Nolan. Like I said yesterday, the only thing you really need to work on is paying attention in class."
"Thank you." Nolan's face was impassive as he took the paper from him.
But Mr. Jameson wasn't done yet. "I'm glad to see you were actually awake for all of my lesson today, but I noticed you weren't taking any notes. I recommend that you take down at least the things that I point out are important to the class. Keep it up."
When he moved on, the snort I was holding in finally escaped. Nolan shot me a side glance.
"What's so funny?" he said, putting his pop quiz and his textbook into his bag.
"You did just fine without any note-taking last year. I don't even know how you did it," I pointed out, shaking my head. "You clearly don't need it."
The left corner of his lips lifted into a half-smile, and it completely caught me off-guard. He could smile, and I was pretty sure the look in his eyes was amusement. Before I could even think about it, I found myself returning the smile.
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"I fell asleep on the toilet while getting ready this morning," Melissa complained, resting her head on the cafeteria table we were sitting at. "Thanks to that, now I have detention."
"Again," Ashley supplied.
Melissa shot her a frown and sighed. "I was going to play soccer with the others today. I can't believe Mr. McMillan did this to me."
"I can't believe you did this to us," Derek said, looking irritated. "Now we'll have to find a replacement."
She scowled at him. "Stop rubbing it in, okay? It's not like I wanted to miss it."
"It's hard to believe that when I reminded you so many times yesterday not to do anything that might land you into trouble," he said, matching her scowl for one of his own.
"Oh yeah, that reminds me—don't forget that we're studying together tonight," Ashley said, looking at me. "If you accidentally fall asleep again, I'm coming over to your room and using a megaphone next to your ear."
"I didn't know you had a megaphone," I said, laughing. "You're as dramatic as Nolan was being earlier."
Perking up at my words, Melissa stopped mid-bickering with Derek to respond to me. "Oh, yeah! I saw that. I can't believe he was awake through all the classes we had today!"
"The strangest thing I've seen all year," Derek said. "What happened?"
Ashley sniggered. "You just missed the show when you walked in this morning, Derek. Remember what happened yesterday when Chelsea was sent to get him? He was hiding in the darkroom, so she had to use her flashlight, right? Earlier, he accused Chelsea of almost blinding him."
Melissa gaped at me. "How did you even respond?"
"Obviously, I told him that was ridiculous. That was some grudge he was nursing! I literally shined that light on him for maybe five seconds," I said, shaking my head. "Derek, are you eating that, by the way?"
"So, why was he awake?" Derek asked, giving me the fruit tart that I was pointing at.
"I don't know; I didn't ask. How does one successfully ask, 'Hey, why aren't you asleep today?' without sounding rude on their end?" I said, shrugging. "It's not like we're friends."
"Yeah, you know, he actually asked her who she was when she took her seat," Ashley said.
Melissa sputtered. "What! Are you serious?"
I nodded. "You know how he never greets anyone back, and he never waves back at them in the hallways? I'm pretty sure he doesn't know a single person in our year."
Derek shook his head. "Yeah, I'm not surprised."
"You got front row seats!" Melissa said to Ashley, looking a little envious. Then she turned to me. "Did anything else happen?"
I was about to tell them about the almost unbelievable fact that Nolan could actually smile, but the words died in my mouth before I could get them out.
Suddenly, I realized that I didn't want to share that with them.
"Not in particular," I said, not wanting to outright lie to them.
After all, if it were anyone else, telling them about a smile someone gave me would be counted as an absolute non-event. They'd probably even tell me to get my head checked. Why would this be any different?
"Hey, Derek," a guy said as he approached our table. "I got Jonathan to join us for soccer later, so you won't need to continue looking for a replacement."
Beside me, Ashley stiffened.
"Oh, nice," Derek replied, looking pleased. "Thanks. See you later."
"See ya," he said, giving the rest of us a short wave.
The moment he was gone, Ashley turned to Derek. "Jonathan? You mean the same Jonathan in our geography class? The one who sits behind Claire?"
He looked at her oddly. "Yeah. Why?"
She put her hands to her face and gushed, "He's cute. Can I come and watch you guys play later?"
Both Melissa and I laughed at her reaction.
"Since when have you had a crush on him?" I teased.
She rolled her eyes, but her cheeks were starting to pink a little. "I just think he's cute. It's not a crush."
"Yet," Melissa added. "Looking at you, I think it's only a matter of time. I mean, I think he's cute too, but I'm not the one sitting here excited about getting to see him."
I agreed with Melissa. Sure, Jonathan was pretty cute, but ... whatever. He wasn't that cute.
Derek made a strangled sound. "You think he's cute?"
I promptly pressed my lips together in case my smile exposed me.
"Well yeah," she said matter-of-factly. "He's tall, he's toned, he's blond, and his face is just nice to look at. What, you don't think he's cute?"
Ashley burst out laughing at the deadpan expression on Derek's face.
"Ha, ha, very funny," he said. "You think everyone is cute, so I don't know why I bothered asking."
She flared up. "Excuse you, I don't! I don't think you're cute, for example!"
Ouch. That had to hurt. I winced internally, hoping it didn't show on my face. They started squabbling again, forgetting about our presence.
"Hey, anyway, Chels, can you come with me later?" Ashley stared at me with wide, pleading eyes.
"You mean, to watch them play? But I wanted to finish reading my book," I said, feeling dismayed. "Do I really have to go?"
She grabbed my arm with both her hands, and cried, "I can't go alone; it'd look really obvious that I was there to watch them! If you came with me, we could pretend we went to the bleachers to just, you know, get some fresh air and relax. You could read your book there!"
Incredulous, I said, "Who goes to the bleachers for fresh air? If you really wanted fresh air, you'd take a walk. We aren't going to fool anyone like that. They're just going to think we're both there to watch them."
"Please, Chelsea!" The desperation in her voice took it up a notch, and guilt niggled at my heart.
She clearly needed my company. I thought longingly about my book sitting on my desk back in my room, and I sighed.
"I'll go with you. But I'm going to be reading the whole time, okay?"
Her eyes lit up and she squealed, giving me a quick hug. "Thank you, Chelsea! I really appreciate it!"