Picture Perfect

Every class after art was basically a blur. I mean, I know what I learned, it's just that every one in those classes were the losers I am guessing Mitchell was talking about. They were all either football players who have nothing better to do than talk about "the game" and rate the girls in the school or girls who have conversations about the last romantic comedy they've just seen and what dress they bought at the mall yesterday. Yeah, that's not my idea of fun.

Then there's the girls who are in sports, and they're automatically an impenetrable clique, so I didn't even bother with them. Then there's that one weird girl who sits in the back of my math class in black and chains and scowls at the world around her. I just stayed away from her all together.

And that left me. Alone and afraid in my brightly colored American Apparel hoodie, just trying to get through each class until chemistry. I stared at the board intently as Mr. Grotting, my math teacher, scribbled his chicken scratch writing on the chalk board in front of me.

When the bell finally rung for the next period, I was out of my seat and out of the door before a second could even pass. I took out my map and tried to find my way to chemistry as quickly as possible.

I looked up every once in a while to make sure I wouldn't crash into somebody in the cramped, bustling hallways. I followed the direction my map pointed me in and came up to room C301. Chemistry, my worst subject. The only thing good that would happen in this class would be the fact that I actually have someone to talk to.

I walked in the classroom slowly, taking my time so I wouldn't trip or make a fool of myself in front of the whole class on my first day. I observantly looked around the room. It was a pretty standard chemistry lab. Safety posters adorning the walls, test tubes and beakers laid across the lab tables, and burners securely locked away so there wouldn't be any unnecessary accidents occurring.

As I looked at the kids sitting at the lab tables I spotted Mitchell and he waved me over. I frolicked to his table and stood at the end, waiting for him to say something.

"You should sit with me. My lab partner is really stupid and annoying; I want you as my partner. I'll ask Mr. Troff if I can switch with you, since I'm his favorite student anyways," He shone a brilliant smile and I couldn't help but to smile back.

"I'm just warning you ahead of time, I absolutely suck at chemistry. I don't understand an ounce of it," I sheepishly smiled and he put a friendly arm around my shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. It'll give me a chance to try out my tutoring skills," He wiggled his eyebrows and I couldn't help but to burst out into laughter.

When Mr. Troff entered the classroom, Mitchell walked up to him right away and asked about switching partners. The teacher smiled widely and accepted without a second thought. I guess Mitchell really is his favorite student.

I laid my books that I had just gotten from the teacher down on the table and waited for Mitchell to come sit back down.

While I desperately tried to pay attention to the lesson, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. There were way too many words that I didn't understand and it was insane for me to try and understand what was going on. I felt like he was speaking in a foreign language, that's how bad I was in chemistry.

While I waited for him to finish, I combed my fingers through my luscious, brown hair. I didn't mean to sound conceited, but I really did love my hair. I always got complimented on it. Other than that, I was pretty ordinary. Ordinary looking face, ordinary body. I guess my style was okay, but nothing award-winning. It was just different than everyone else, you could say.

Then I looked over to my left. Mitchell had long, beautiful brown hair that was shagging across his face. He constantly played with it. Shaking his head around for a few seconds, then sweeping the front to the right. It always looked perfect. He wore a yellow v-neck and black skinny jeans. Then I looked down to his Van-clad feet. I noticed we were wearing the same shoes in different styles and smiled to myself.

"Now get to work," I heard the end of Mr. Troff's lesson and turned to Mitchell with a blank stare.

"You didn't get any of that did you?" He questioned.

"Not one word," We both laughed.

"Basically, you pour this chemical into this chemical, then put it under the burner and it changes color," He put in such simple words, I felt stupid for not understanding it previously.

"Honestly, how do you make it sound so simple? You really do need to tutor me in this if that's how simple it really is. It sounded like he was speaking German before," He chuckled and handed me one of the chemicals that we needed for the experiment.

"Well, I'm free everyday of the week except for Tuesdays," He offered, making me curious.

"And what happens on these special Tuesdays?" I interrogated further.

He smiled and replied, "Well, I make Youtube videos. It not really anything too special, it's just fun to do," He started pouring the blue chemical into one test tube. I followed suit as I poured in my red chemical.

"That sounds awesome. I've always wanted to do something like that, but I'm useless when it comes to computers," I chuckled, thinking back to one time when I tried using my web cam and failed miserably at it.

"Well what're you doing today? Maybe you could come over and I could show you some of the tools I use and stuff," I was so excited that I would actually have plans for tonight that I accepted immediately.

"Great, do you just want to ride home with me, or do you want to go home first?" He asked, he was so much more polite than some of the guys back at my old school. They wouldn't even think to ask something like that, they would just do whatever they wanted.

"Well, I should probably stop home first; tell my grandparents I'm going out," I told him, feeling like a complete dork having to tell my grandma and grandpa my plans before I go anywhere.

"That's fine. I can drive you there if you want," He offered. He was so incredibly nice, I was feeling a great friendship forming already.

"Wait, did you say you live with your grandparents?" He asked in a curious tone.

"Yes sir. Ethel and Fred. And no, not from I Love Lucy. They're the best, I love them," I told him and he smiled. "Why?" I finished.

"Because I live with my grandparents, too. I just thought that was a weird coincidence. My grandparents names are Leon And Juanita. They're great too," He smiled widely.

I glanced over to the chemicals heating up in the tube and they started forming a magenta color. It was so cool, but I was so afraid that it wasn't supposed to be doing that from my previous attempts at chemistry experiments.

"Uh, is that supposed to be doing that or did I mess something up again?" I asked and Mitchell laughed.

"Calm down, Harlowe, it's supposed to be doing that," He smiled at me and shook his head.

"Sorry! I'm so used to messing these things up," I chuckled.

The bell rung again and we both had lunch next so he walked me to my locker. I threw my bag in and then followed behind him to his locker as he tossed his belongings in.

We met up with his friend Kyle he told me about earlier on the way to the cafeteria.

"Hey Kyle. This is my new friend Harlowe. Harlowe, this is Kyle," Mitchell said, using the standard introduction.

"Hey Har. May I call you Har?" He said in a sarcastic tone. I giggled and nodded my head.

We entered the lunch room and took a seat at a table near the back, away from the main popular area of the lunchroom.

"So, what's on the agenda today?" Kyle asked in his funny way I already picked up on. I could tell I would love this kid's sense of humor.

"Well, Harlowe is coming over today so I can show her the video stuff. Want to come over, too?" Mitchell asked Kyle as he took a sip from his diet coke can.

"It's a freakin' date!" Kyle exclaimed. We all laughed, getting a few odd stares, but none of us cared.

I only had two classes after lunch; gym and history. They went by quick and before I knew it I was climbing into Mitchell's old car, waiting for a fun time with my new friends.