Sea Wolves

I had Algebra II next. Jared was also in that class, but he didn't sit near me this time. I was never really good at math, so I expected to dislike the class, but I actually hate it. The teacher, Mr. Tupper, was extremely strict with us and didn't seem very tolerant of mistakes, as if he expected us all to be majors in math or something. I did alright, but under pressure I don't work very well. And I definitely felt pressured in that class. But whatever...

Art was my next class, and although I'm not much of an artist, it was still a relaxing class for me. We didn't do much: just go over some things (expectations, etc.) and then we drew a little with pencil and learned different shading techniques. Nothing too exciting in the artistic department, but the woman in pink was there signing at the front of the classroom, which once again distracted me from my work. This time I tried to remember the faces of the students I had seen earlier in History that were now in Art, hoping that that would help me narrow down some people in my quest to figure out which one was the deaf kid. Unfortunately there were a few students I recognized from US History, including the boy with the lovely brown hair, so I couldn't make any guesses yet.

In PE a perky blond-haired girl seemed interested in getting to know me; she asked if I wanted to sit with her group at lunch next period. Although I really would have liked to sit by myself, I agreed out of politeness.

The halls bustled with activity not long after the bell rang. Every one was streaming towards the cafeteria; I went against the flow of things to get to my locker and drop off all of the assignments that had collected from my classes so far. As I put some of my textbooks away to lighten the load of my backpack, I caught sight of the brown-haired boy by his locker, which was several lockers away from mine. He too put away most of his textbooks and pulled out different ones; he seemed oblivious to the people around him as he worked. It was only when he slammed his locker shut and started to sling his backpack over his shoulder that he saw me watching him. I found my eyes meeting a pair of breathtaking brown ones. He smiled a small smile before we awkwardly broke eye-contact and he walked away. I watched his back until he disappeared in the crowd, and then I gathered my things and headed into the sea of students.

Amanda, the girl who I met in Physics, was waving at me from a table with a bunch of girls when I entered the cafeteria. I made my way towards them and quietly took a seat, but to my horror they all leaned forward and smiled.

"So, where are you from? I'm Alyssa, by the way," one of the girls, her hair as equally blonde as Amanda's, said merrily.

"I'm Megan," I answered, attempting to return the smile she gave me. "Or Meg... I'm from California."

"Really? What part?"

"San Diego."

"Neat," she continued. "Must be pretty sunny down there, huh?"

"Yeah."

The other girls questioned me a little, but they must have been expecting me to be more talkative, so eventually they left me alone and chatted among themselves, I guess because I wasn't interesting enough for them. I picked up bits of their conversation - mostly about hot guys and fashion - but otherwise I didn't care for what they were saying. The steady buzz of people talking started to get to me, so I pulled out my ipod and put the buds in my ears, nibbling on the sandwich I had packed while I drowned out the noise with my music. As I ate I observed the people around me. Jared was sitting with a large group of guys; I watched as they would break out laughing occasionally at some remark that went unheard by the rest of us. Most of the tables had mixed parties of girls and boys, except for the table I was at and Jared's table.

One of the girls at my table, whose name I learned was Lillian, danced back and forth between both tables, laughing and chatting with the boys and then returning to giggle with the other girls. Well, I thought, She's a big flirt. My eyes narrowed a bit when she started leaning against Jared and whispering things in his ear. But instead of welcoming the attention he received from this girl, from where I was I could see a scowl appear on his face as he lightly pushed her away, which only made her more obstinate. For a long time I watched him fight with her until finally, laughing, Lillian skipped back to her table to laugh about it with her friends. I turned my ipod up a little louder so I wouldn't hear their noise.

I continued observing the cafeteria until I noticed the brown-haired boy sitting by himself at a table by one of the windows. He stared down at his lunch as he ate, never once looking up from it. I looked around. The cafeteria did have a lot of tables to occupy the amount of students in the school, but even then there still weren't quite enough to sit some people. I could see that some of the tables were way overcrowded, but they made it work out by squeezing in between their friends or even with some girls perching on their boyfriend's laps.

But here was a perfectly good table with a cute boy and plenty of room to sit at least five more people, and every teen in the cafeteria seemed to have avoided it completely. Why? Why wouldn't they sit with this guy?

Before I had time to ponder over this confusing question, the bell rang and lunch period came to an end. I left my table quickly and headed straight to my next class: Physics. The rest of the day progressed pretty slowly, but I got through it. At the end of the day when I boarded the bus, I was eager to get home and plow through most of the homework so I could relax for a couple of hours, maybe think back on the highlights of my first day at school or read a book or something.

When I got back home, I found an awesome surprise parked in our driveway. A nice-looking burgundy 1988 Mercedes Convertible. I didn't know it was mine until I saw my parents standing on the porch, grinning at me from ear to ear.

"Grandma Nora knew you needed a car!" Mom hollered excitedly as I came up the driveway to admire my beautiful new vehicle. I could see a nice leather interior through the windows, and I was psyched that it was a convertible. When I was younger I dreamed of owning one and speeding down a country lane with my hair flying behind me in the wind as it hit my face. I couldn't help but return my parents' huge grin. Thank you, Grandma Nora! It was a perfect ending for a pretty satisfying day.