Ch2

Ch2

Zach shifted uncomfortably in his seat and focused his attention on his notebook, attempting to ignore the girls gawking at him. He glanced at the clock; it was –3- whole minutes from when he last checked. The class would end in 2 more minutes and as he counted the seconds he nibbled on his poor thumbnail. Examining his fingers he saw that he had gnawed away most of his nails last night.

From beneath his lashes, Zach examined the rest of the class. With relief, he noticed that he wasn’t going to be behind in the lessons. Mr. Gonkard was writing a review of what they had done last year on the board and he remembered most of the equations.

One person’s gaze felt like it was burning into the back of his head. He blinked nervously and looked over his shoulder. A girl with her hair pulled back winked at him and held up a peace sign. The boy next to her rolled his eyes and his mouth curved into an apologetic smile. Zach returned the smile shyly and felt his face heating up. The girl was holding up her fingers to make letters. That was a…K? Wrinkling his forehead and mouthing the letter, he saw her brighten and nod. Then an A and a T. Kat.

After pointing and attempting to spell out the name of the boy next to her without success, Zach saw her sigh in exasperation and flip to a new notebook page. Pulling out a blue highlighter, she wrote large, exaggerated letters and held up the page. J.A.M.E.S. Suddenly she put the notebook on her desk and pretended to take notes as glanced in her direction. When he had looked away again she smirked as she added a new letter and showed it to the James, who glared at her and reached for the notebook she dangled out of reach. Holding up the notebook she displayed the latest addition. J.A.M.E.S.Y.

Zach resisted the urge to laugh, but he felt the corners of his mouth twitch. When he saw James flush suddenly, he turned a slight red and turned back to his notebook. He had a few days before the class truly started with new material. Glancing at the page, he saw that he had started doodling absently. There was a rain cloud sitting on his page, among other random doodles. Zach tapped his pencil in the air before bending over the page again. He drew a person on the page with an umbrella and wrote in script, it’s raining men.

“Julie, why don’t you start a bit early with Zach; I’m sure you’ll need it. You get to go with him to all his classes today, and you have a six minute tardy allowance for each one of his classes.” Mr. Gonkard’s voice startled him and he dropped his pencil.

Julie began to pack up her things and energetically bounced over to Zach, who closed his notebook and dragged himself to his feet. She was definitely a cheerleader. Eyes sparkling with delight, she clung to his arm and nudged him towards the door. “Let’s go.”

He nodded absently and tucked another pencil behind his ear so he wouldn’t lose it, blushing at the open stares he was receiving. “Alright.”

He listened distractedly to the babble Julie was pouring into his ear, occasionally nodding and smiling. A pep rally this Friday, a girl named Jenna, a pyramid collapsing, wasn’t that funny? Michelle had been cheated on by Brian…Bobby? Black berry flavored bubble gum…it was all running together. Zach wasn’t sure how much more chatter he could take until his head exploded. He could imagine himself on the floor, head deflated, with all the other students stepping on him, a few stopping and, ‘Oh, what’s that?’

‘Oh, I dunno, that was the new kid who came today.’

‘Pity really.’

‘Yes, he was so young and innocent.’

‘We lose so many this way. We really need to get new guides…’

Innocent. He snorted and shook his head. He realized the talking had stopped. Julie was staring at him with obvious confusion. “Did I say something weird?”

He felt his face grow slightly warm. “Uh- no, sorry.” He said quietly.

Puzzled, the girl looked at his face. “Oh…okay…”

Zach looked up at where they had just arrived. “Lunch room?” He guessed.

“Yes.” She nodded eagerly, smiled at him and grabbed his hand.

He wished his face could flame up only at normal times, like when he slid and fell, or dropped all his books. But no, he had to turn as red as a tomato when someone so much as looked at him. Zach supposed that would go away if he ever stayed at a school long enough to get used to everyone and make friends.

Friends. Did people only get those in movies?

Trying to think of a plain brick in his mind, Zach struggled to return his face to a normal shade. Julie’s hand grabbing his wasn’t really helping him. Contact with strangers was never good, all it took was a fingertip brush and his face was set off.

He was led through mazes of tables with a ball of dread growing in his stomach as he realized where Julie was most likely leading him. Her lunch table. Where there was bound to be hyperactive cheerleaders. Hyperactive, as in pixie stick snorting cupcake crazed five year olds. Splendid. They stopped in front of a table stuffed to capacity with girls, and he saw with terror that his guess wasn’t too far off from the truth.

Julie looked at the table with a blinding smile. “Hey guys, this is Zach-”

“Hello there!” a voice cheerfully chimed behind him and hurried him away from the table. Looking up he saw that it was the girl who had winked at him in English. Once again, contact with a stranger. Brick. Brick. Brick, brick, brick.

He looked back and saw Julie standing with her hand on her hips and an expression of disbelief and annoyance on her face as they disappeared into the swarming lunchroom.

“Thank you.” He mumbled, relief evident in his voice.

“Not a problem Zach. It’s death to have them as your tour guide.”

He winced. “Have them as my tour guide. Plural?”

Kat laughed. “It would have turned into plural, yes. Here we are.” She stopped at a table that was empty besides her and the boy from before, James.

“I told you we’d get him.” She announced triumphantly.

“So, I noticed.”

“Was that sarcasm?”

“Nope. No dripping sarcasm here.”

“There better not.” She motioned to one of the empty seats around the table, “Sit down.”

Zach cautiously pulled out a chair and sat. He could imagine Julie coming and finding him, along with her horde of cheerleader friends. It was a scary thought. He was drawn back to the present with an argument that was taking place in front of him.

“We’ll get in trouble.”

“No, we won’t.” Kat retorted.

“Julie won’t stay quiet. She’ll tell Mr. Gonkard that we kidnapped him.” James replied, glancing across the room to the table where he could see Julie scanning the room. “And she’ll find Zach pretty soon.”

“Julie needs to remove the stick she has up her-” Kat began, before James cut her off.

“Kat.”

“Well when she finds what she believes is a perspective boyfriend she really needs to keep in mind that unlike her circle, many guys don’t give a crap about pyramids collapsing and a pompom crisis.”

Zach’s mind panicked. Perspective boyfriend?

“You’re so mean to the poor little cheerleaders.”

“I can’t stand them.”

James winced “She’s seen you.”

“What was it? My Pantene commercial worthy hair? My: ‘I love Julie. BEST FRIENDS FOR LIFE!’ shirt?”

“Very funny. I’m sure she’ll find your shirt and Pantene worthy hair highly amusing.” James said, sighing with irritation.

Kat glanced around the lunchroom, nibbling on her lip.

“I suggest we go.” James looked at the approaching pink cloud of doom that was Julie.

“Righto.” Kat grabbed Zach’s arm, dragging him behind her. “Time to jet.”

Pushing through a throng of people, they managed to work their way towards one of the cafeteria doors only to be stopped by another boy.

“Not cutting class again, Kat?” He smirked.

“Michael that was last week. GEEZ.” She shook her head with mock annoyance. “Besides, Julie’s going to eat us and we need to get out of here, -now-.”

Michael burst out laughing. “What did you do now? Wear your JULIE: MY BEST FRIEND FOR LIFE shirt?”

Kat glanced arrogantly at James. “Wasn’t lying about that.” She indicated Zach. “Stole her latest prey.”

“I might not like her, but she’s got good taste.” He eyed Zach up and down. “Hello there.”

“No time for pleasantries.” Kat pushed by him and walked out the door. “You can flirt with Zach later, if someone doesn’t have dibs on him first.”

James merely glared at her with a look that would have melted steel. Zach just turned a crimson color and coughed.

The hallway was empty and silent, except for the occasional voice of a teacher that drifted towards them. Kat set off again, this time towards a hallway on her right.

Zach heard James suddenly groan. “We’re not going where I think we’re going are we?”

“The one and only.” Kat poked him in the cheek. “Julie won’t go there.”

“No one sane would go there.” He replied wryly.

She walked into a large room, followed first by Zach and then reluctantly by James. Holding out her arms, she spun taking a deep breath of air. “Ahhh! That is the smell of BANDISM!”

James looked at Zach and wrinkled his nose. “And spit valve emptying, with a hint of mystery smell coming from the tuba closet.”

Zach looked at his schedule. One less classroom he’d have to worry about finding.