I tried not to stare as I willed my latest Blake-filled daydream from my mind. Math class was far too distracting with him there. As a new student and stunningly gorgeous, it seemed his status and popularity had vaulted over the normal rigours of climbing the high school social hierarchy into stardom. It was completely not fair. Not that I was wanting the level of popularity he was currently flooded with.
Way too much pressure.
And so I refused to be one of the mindless masses drooling over his looks. It’s not like I even knew him. He hung out with Stacey and the other super pretties ruling the school. Not that he’d been left with much choice of who to hang out with since Stacey caught hold of him quick. He was barely on school grounds that first day before Stacey was escorting him to the office and gushing all over him about how fabulous it was that he had moved into the neighborhood. I only know because I was in the office when they came in.
Some people were just born to be popular, with their looks and charm competing with the others they surrounded themselves with, while others were born to coast through high school as a normal, average person. I had friends, quite a few actually. We weren’t in a clique or stereotyped group though so I guess we could all be labelled outliers.
Today was different however. Today he was sitting right next to me and causing more than a mild disturbance in my now-tingling spine. Why hadn’t he sat back in the back by Stacey? He always sat back with Stacey. At least then I could have pretended that he wasn’t in the class and gone about getting my homework done early without any Blake fantasies clogging up my brain. No hope for that now. I sighed. Or was it a huff? Either way I was going to have to accept that I wouldn’t be accomplishing anything remotely productive during class today.
Once again I tried as subtly as possible to glance his direction only to find Stacey glaring at me. I shrunk in on myself and hunched over my paper. I was doing homework. If I stared hard enough at the equation I had written I couldn’t even see Blake at all. I felt like I had a sniper dot target on my forehead. Not the most comfortable feeling.
Since that didn’t work I tried to stare up at the board, watching Mr Pedolski write another equation.
A nudge on my arm practically had me falling out of my chair. Maybe I had been trying a little too hard to pretend he wasn’t mere feet away for me. I glanced over at Blake to find him blasting a killer half smile my way.
“Hey.” He whispered.
I could only blink. Now I knew what those poor deer felt like; frozen.
His full smile emerged and I had to blink even more.
“Hey.” I finally managed.
“Do you have an extra pencil? Mine broke.” Blake showed me his snapped-in-half pencil. How had I not heard that happen?
I could still feel that laser-like death glare, courtesy of Stacey, trained on my back as I nodded. Handing him the one I had been using I turned to pull another from my bag. “Stacey is going to kill me.” I muttered under my breath.
With that, the bell rang and I jumped.
Blake set my pencil down and leaned over, arms folded on my desk, to whisper in my ear. “Trust me. Stacey is too mad at me to kill you.”
I flushed pink. He was not supposed to hear that. My blush turned a deeper red as I saw how close he was to my face when I looked at him. We were almost kissing; he was so close!
“What?!” I couldn’t move. A part of me didn’t want to move even if I could. I was still bent over my backpack and couldn’t sit up without running into his face…and lips.
At that exact moment Stacey plowed through the aisle on the other side of me, knocking my head into my desk.
“Oops.” Stacey simpered as she glanced back, not slowing down.
Hiding under my desk until everyone was gone for the day sounded perfect. Too bad Blake was there. He didn’t let me crawl up into a ball and pretend my head wasn’t killing me.
He gently helped me up, moving around to stand in front of my desk. “I’m sorry.”
I shrugged and sent jarring waves of pain through my face. I flinched.
“Can I walk you to your locker?” His hands went to mine.
“Everything alright over there Ms Johnson?” Mr Pedolski questioned from his desk.
“Yes.” I automatically answered. “I just hit my head on the desk.”
Blake slipped his arm around my shoulders, half holding me up. We walked like that out the door. I wanted to slump against the hallway wall once we were out of the classroom but Blake wouldn’t let me.
“Your locker?” He asked.
I pointed further down the hall. Talking hurt. I couldn’t form the words through the waves of pain. Luckily Stacey was nowhere in sight. Maybe I was just too out of it to notice her. Either way, I was glad I didn’t see her.
The further we walked the better my head felt. By the time we reached my locker, after a series of pointing where to go every 30 seconds or so, my head was mostly fine.
“This one is mine.” I stopped. Blake slowly let his arm drop.
He stood there a minute before leaning against the locker next to me. “I know this may not be the best time but I need to ask.” He paused and chuckled. “What’s your name?”
I glared over at him. “I didn’t hit my head that hard.”
“No…I…No.” He groaned. “I was going to ask you after class and then Stacey happened. I just want to know your name. I’m Blake.”
Maybe a slight smile eeked out of my face. “I know who you are. Everyone does.” I clicked open my locker. “I’m Rebecca.”
