Unshed Tears

“Be quiet! Settle down!” It was a poor attempt to calm down a room of teenagers.

After a few minutes, Mrs. Mint dropped a stack of papers on the front desk. The noise overcame the students, and they settled down. She begun calling off names.

Lifting up her pencil May fiddled with it between her fingers. Team work was not her forte, and there were some real snobs in this class. If she was partnered with someone who disliked her, the project would turn into her doing the work while her partner insulted her or ignored her. The ignoring got under her skin as much as the jabs people took. People didn’t even try to get to know her sometimes.

“Jace Anderson and,” the teacher flipped a piece of paper on her desk and looked back up, “May Castel.” The room went to dead silence.

She got the feeling that someone was trying to drill a hole into the back of her head with their eyes. It was probably more than one person, but she didn’t look up from her scribbled words. Her hazel eyes were glued to the note book on her desk.

“Alright, slide some desks together and get your assignment,” the teacher barked.

She kept her eyes down and didn’t move. As everyone else got up and moved close, gathering their teams; she heard someone move a desk beside her. Tucking her dark hair behind her ear, knowing who it would be, she let out a long sigh. Somewhere behind her, she still felt eyes burning into her head. Why her?

“Hey,” Jace said as he tapped his fingers on the edge of her desk.

“Where do you want to start?” she asked, peaking at him. Of course he had to be smiling. His eyes had dark specks of green surrounding the pupils, and the grin just lit up his tanned face. How could he act like this was normal? How could he smile at her when she was suffering each day? He was the epitome of popular while she was the polar opposite. He would go along with what was cool and best at the time only to change his mind, personality or anything else just to fit in while May stood her ground on who she thought she was. High school was rough on her, and it only made her want to bask in solitude more. May had never minded being alone, but that was before Jace had pestered her into being friends only to change his mind when popularity took priority.

He looked down at the paper. “How ‘bout the essay section?” Jace held the paper in one hand and tapped on the desks with the other. “You seem to be a good writer.” Fallowing his gaze she freaked out, scrambling to gather her things together.

“Uh well,” she blanked on words. Flipping to a blank page in her note book, she took the instruction paper from him. “Any who, I guess the essay can give us a lay out for the presentation.” She nibbled on the end of her mechanical pencil, trying to focuses on the work instead of the heat coming from his hand that rested beside mine.

“Hey Jace,” the red head said standing behind me, “you got a pencil I can use?”she was willing to bet she was batting her eyelashes and twirling her hair. It annoyed May that she could recognize her voice as another girl flirting with Jace.

He searched both pockets and shook his head. Light hair slid into his face, “Nope, sorry.” As she walked away May saw his eyes linger. What did she see in him? Then he looked back at me, and she was melting. It was those eyes, and the heart she knew was buried someplace in his toned chest. “So I was thinking we could just use papers from English.”

May slammed her hand down on his fingers, “You’re driving me crazy. I mean I can’t think with you tapping on my desk,” her voice sounded strong, but she felt herself growing weak. She hated and loved this feeling. Dark hair fell over her eyes as she shook her head, trying to clear it. “So,” she said pulling her cold hand off his, “uh papers from English?”

He nodded.

Why where her thoughts so fuzzy?

“Right, we did a whole project on Shakespeare. Breaking it up and incorporating the rest should be easy,” she said. May twisted her hair back and ran a pencil through it so it would stay up. Picking a pen out of her stuff, she looked down at the assignment paper. “After the essay we have an oral presentation, I think you should do most of that.” She shifted in her seat. Vaguely she could smell chlorine. It was a great improvement over the perfume that still clung to her from the attack in Biology.

Jace was never mean to her, at least not to her face, but he didn't stop others from bullying her verbally. That was what kept her grounded, what allowed her to be constantly annoyed with him instead of fixated on the positive feelings she had.

“Fair enough,” Jace sighed. Sliding back in his chair he studied his palms. For the first time, she felt like taking the lead. School work was something she could throw herself into; plus, the sooner they were done the less she would have to see of him.

“So we can make a draft out of the essay to give you an outline of what to say, something short that just sort of hints at what we’re doing. Our main focuses should be the drama, or visual aid.” She put the paper down and begun scribbling in her note book. “I’m thinking we just act out some of the best scenes.” She looked up from her writing. His jaw was hanging open, not much, but it was nice to have that reaction, that she could surprise him. “What do you think?”she was smirking.

“Yeah, sounds good,” he bounced back fast. Removing his curly hair from his face, Jace looked up at the clock. “How time flies when you’re having fun.”

Almost forgetting to listen to the words, she was so caught in the sweet ring of his voice, May was puzzled for a moment. “Huh?” She spun her head to see the time, and Mrs. Mint stood from her desk.

“I suggest you start arranging time to work on this project because tomorrow we will be back on task.” Their teacher said looking over the class.

“You remember where the house is right?” she asked looking back at Jace.

Pushing the desk back in order, Jace nodded. Time was up. The obnoxious bell was blaring. Things were back to normal, and she was just a shadow of a person. She packed up her things and headed for the door. One more class and then she could collapse at home while listening to pounding music that soothed her.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Math was easy, so once she finished the work she pulled out her note book and begun writing. Before she knew it the bell was ringing. As the class emptied she scooped up her things. She figured he wouldn’t be over until 6 pm, sometime after swim practice. It was a 20 minute walk home, giving her plenty of time to stop freaking out.