“Amy, don’t say anything about this to your rumor mill,” I said, as I glared at her. “I mean it. Let me do this on my own. Not a word to anyone. I’ll kill you if you spread rumors about me.”
“I won’t. Just get it over with. You’ll feel a lot better once it’s done. I’ll see you later,” She said, and then she turned back to greet her arriving friends. Amy was known for starting rumors among her popular friends, so she made me nervous with this information.
By the time I made it down to the Upper School, I still had ten minutes before the bell rang. I had never been so early. As I pulled open the door to the building and headed down the hall, there he was, leaning back against my locker. I scanned the hall to see a few of my teammates huddled directly across from my locker. When they saw me coming, they raised their eyebrows and then quickly looked away. I knew they were talking about me, which made my stomach drop, so I looked down at the floor and back up again, hoping Chris would be gone by the time I got to my locker. No luck.
“Hey, Superstar. You’re early today,” he said as he looked me up and down with a little bit of disappointment on his face.
How did he know I was early? Had he been paying attention to me for some time?
“Guess so,” I replied quickly. “Can you move, please? I need to get in my locker.” His close proximity and the scent of his Axe spray made my palms sweaty again.
“Sorry, sorry,” he replied, drawing the words out slower than necessary.
I spun the lock and opened it, but his presence caught me off guard, and I didn’t want to give his hoodie back in such a public place. I had decided I wouldn’t even bring it up.
“Exactly what I expected from someone like you,” Chris said, looking over my shoulder at the mess inside my locker. I spun around.
“Someone like me?”
He was standing close enough that I could see the length of his long eyelashes again.
“Someone who seems to care more about sports than grades. Am I wrong?” he asked with a smile.
“You’re not wrong, I just hate that you’re right,” I replied. “My sister is the one with the good grades. She’s the one my mom is proud of. I’ll never know what that’s like.” I veered off and then looked up, realizing that I was oversharing and he was deeply invested, leaning in a little too close and staring me in the eyes.
“Of course she’s proud of you,” he said, as he leaned away with a serious look on his face.
“No, she’s not, she’s never been to a single one of my games,” I replied. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said all of that. I need to get to class.” Then I spun back around to shut my locker, crouched down to unzip my backpack, and loaded my books into my bag.
“You brought it,” I heard him say.
I quickly looked up at him. He was grinning. God, he had straight teeth. I looked back down at my backpack, trying to ignore him.
“Yeah, I brought it,” I replied, trying to act nonchalant. Then, with a sudden feeling of rage washing over me, I reached into my bag and held it out to him, deciding that I didn’t care what anyone else saw. I just wanted to be rid of it, but he pushed it back towards me.
“I was hoping you’d be wearing it,” he said, followed by a silly frown.
“Well, I was hoping you’d have left mine in my bag instead of yours, so I guess we’re both not getting what we want, are we? I guess I’ll keep it as ransom for mine,” I said, then with a sudden burst of confidence, I got to my feet, reached up and patted his cheek playfully. I swear I saw his eyes widen and a fire flash within them at my touch.
I shoved his hoodie back down in my bag, zipped it, and turned around to head for class. The girls across the hall had been watching the whole time, but quickly turned back around when I caught their eyes. As I walked away, I turned to look over my shoulder, and he was still standing there, leaning against my locker, watching me carefully as I left.
7
French class was first period. How could I forget? I walked through the door and headed straight to my usual seat in the back of the room. People were starting to trickle in as I began to unload the materials for class onto my desk.
“Thanks for saving me a seat.”
My stomach filled with butterflies to see that it was Chris sliding in next to me. Now I was going to have to play it cool for an entire hour.
“Very funny.”
“Are you going to be nice to me today?” he asked with squinty eyes and a smirk on his face.
“I guess that depends on whether you pay attention to the teacher and don’t distract me again,” I replied with an annoyed tone to my voice. French did not come easily to me.
“I’m paying attention to you, does that count?” he said, and my heart beat a little faster when he said that, but I tried to ignore it, remembering what Amy had said about this probably all being a joke.
“To what’s happening in class, dummy.”
