They're Playing Our Song

"Have fun with you're...erm...'friend'." she teased. I paused only for a moment to stick my tongue out at her. I flew out the door and to my locker, just as the day before, and grabbed my lunch.

Even though I was quite excited to see my teacher friend, I made myself walk slowly down to room 233. I smiled softly as I approached the open doorway. I peaked my head in slowly. He was sitting at his desk bent over his own sketch book, intently drawing something I couldn't see. His hair hung down around him like a curtain as he sketched. I tried as best I could to sneak into the classroom quietly and scare him like he had done to me, but I guess he heard me coming anyway.

"Good afternoon Louie." he said smugly, hiding a smirk under his messy black hair.
"What?" I laughed. "How did you see me?" He just smiled and shrugged, looking up from his drawing to greet me.

"I don't know. Guess I was expecting you is all." he said happily. I nodded and took a seat at the table closest to his desk. I slowly unrolled my paper bag again, grimacing. He laughed.

"What's that look for?" he snickered.

"Nothing. I just need a new lunch box. I hate carrying around paper bags all the time." I said, glaring at the brown monstrosity in front of me.

"Good to know." he chuckled. He smiled at him and took some food out of my bag. I took a bite out of my sandwich thoughtfully as I looked down at his drawing. My eyes widened as I took in all the pencil marks. He had drawn...what looked like a portrait of himself. The only difference was that he was grinning mischievously and had a pair of rather sharp looking fangs. It was amazingly done, and had a wonderful likeness.

"Whoa." I said in amazement once I had swallowed. "Did you draw that?"

"What? Oh. This." He said quietly, looking down at the picture and scratching his head. "Yeah. I guess I did."

"It's amazing." I muttered, standing up and walking over to kneel next to the desk to get a better look. I felt him chuckle beside me.

"Chill. It's not that good." he said quietly. "I'm an art teacher, not Van Gogh." I just shook my head and went back to my seat.

"You don't know how good you are." I chuckled. I quietly finished my lunch as he smiled and started a new drawing.

"Louie." I heard Mary say, walking into the classroom. "Let's roll." I nodded at her, picking up my trash.

"M'kay. See you this afternoon Mr. Way." I said cheerily.

"See you Louie," he replied absentmindedly, returning his attention to his new drawing.

Later on that afternoon I walked into math class and reluctantly took my seat next to Gavin.

"Oh hey freak." he said. "Feeling better? I can definitely smell your over confident little stench over there so I'm gonna' guess that you are." He fanned his face with his hand and pretended to look disgusted. I narrowed my eyes at him and opened my mouth to speak.

"Okay class quiet down," Mrs. Buckley interrupted as she walked into class after the late bell rang.

"Today I'm going to go over the project that I'm assigning--" Just as she finished her sentence the glass erupted in groans and complaints. A project never sounds good.

"Oh stop complaining," she smiled, "You get to work in partners." A wave of relief washed around the room. It didn't help me any though. I slyly looked around the classroom. I didn't know anyone. Well except for Gavin, but I was praying to god that I wouldn't have to work with him.

"Okay guys, now I've already decided who the pairs are going to be." She said, pulling out a piece of paper with names on it. She cleared her throat, and started to call names. My heart started pounding heavily despite myself as I waited for my name to be called. I could feel my whole body tense up as I prayed not to get a crappy partner.

"Sandra and Kevin." she said. "Michael and Maritsa. Greg and Ally. David and Owen. Sarah and Mia. Carmen and Taylor. Haley and Joey. Ivy and Maggie. Steve and Adam. Jacob and Molly. Oh, and Louie and Gavin." She finished. I let out the breath that I had been holding in disappointedly. Fate did indeed hate my guts. I glanced over at him sheepishly, and he was shooting me daggers. That was to be expected though, I suppose. Mrs. Buckley passed out the sheets that explained the project, and I read over it dejectedly.

"We gotta' make a bridge." I muttered to Gavin. The paper talked about using mathematics to make blueprints and a scale model of a bridge. I cringed as I read over the grading.

"Yeah, and it's worth 60% of our grade." he said angrily.

"That's more than half..." I muttered in disbelief.

"Yeah, no shit. Fuck this up for me Parker, and you're dead. Do you hear me?" Gavin threatened. I rolled my eyes.

"What is your problem?" I shot back. He didn't have time to answer. The bell rang and the room quickly drained of students. Gavin stood suddenly and pushed past me as he made his way out. I huffed as I gathered my books and stomped out of the room behind him. I meant to give him quite a few pieces of my mind, but as I turned into the crowded hallway he disappeared.