Pretty as a Peacock

Oh, he knew how to strut alright.

He would swagger around campus, his skinny jeans hanging loosely on his hips. He would toss his hair out of his eyes and shoot a wink at a girl across the room, then watch her swoon.

His cockiness, his clothes, his hair that he flipped constantly – all of this disgusted Rae, and she made it known. But there were other things…. Like those moments in class when he was caught off guard and without an answer, and his expression was that of pure innocence. Or when he noticed someone's artwork and complimented the artist. Or when he made her giggle behind her hand with his dorky, goofball comedy.

Rae was in love with a peacock who was always fanning his extensive plumage. And she swore no one would ever know.

●●●

She was in sixth period English, one of the classes she shared with Jackson.

Rae liked the seating chart in Mrs. Raver's English class, because of the way the desks were arranged. They weren't in boring rows, but sort of blocks. A block of nine desks were aligned near the back wall, facing the front of the classroom. Two more blocks of nine were against either side wall, and faced each other. Mrs. Raver would write on the board at the front of the room for the first half of the period, then leave the class to themselves to work on their classwork or to leave it for homework.

Rae usually did her assignment, taking frequent but brief breaks to exchange a few words with the friends around her. Today, for some reason, her eyes kept drifting from her paper to Jackson. His desk was in the block on the left, and hers was the one on the right – somewhat of a perfect vantage point. She watched as Jack balled up a piece of notebook paper and threw it at his friend sitting at the back of the classroom. The friend laughed and threw it back. Jack threw it again, but missed his target by a couple of seats and hit Ashley in the shoulder. He and his friends cracked up, and Ashley chucked it back at Jack.

Rae giggled and looked to Mrs. Raver, who was sitting at her desk and reading a book, completely oblivious to the mini paper war erupting in her classroom. When Rae turned her attention back to her classmates, she realized half the class had joined in. With nothing better to do – she'd abandoned the assignment, promising herself that she'd finish it later – she grabbed a piece of paper, crumpled it, and chucked it at no one in particular.

And it hit Jack in the forehead.

He flipped his dark, dyed hair out of his eyes and looked at her. He gave her a lopsided, knowing smirk, and raised his eyebrows a bit suggestively, as if saying, "So the goody's gonna play the game?"

She tried to hide how that smile set her heart on a new beating pattern, and fixed her face in a disgusted sneer.

A paper ball hit her in the shoulder and she tugged her eyes away from that face. She picked up the paper and chucked it, again, at no one in particular. She got hit more and more, and threw more and more. The class was getting gradually louder.

"Settle down, class!" Mrs. Raver called without looking up from her book.

Immediately, all paper throwing ceased. Mrs. Raver had that effect – the students actually liked her and listened to her. The paper war started up again, but the noise was a tad more controlled. Some were even disappointed when the bell to end the school day rang.

Rae picked up a bunch of scattered papers, and threw them in the recycling bin. Most had thrown away their ruined paper on their way out, so the classroom was nearly empty when Rae picked up her backpack. When she tried to walk forward, her backpack yanked her backward.

"Shit!" she muttered, surprised. She turned around to see what was stuck. One of the excess straps had gotten wedged between the desktop and its frame. She dropped her backpack in her seat and tugged on the strap. "Crap!" she cussed again, at a loss of what to do.

"Hey."

Rae spun around to find Jack standing behind her. "Need some help?" he asked.

"Uh…" she said eloquently as she instinctively stepped out of the way. Jack stepped in and pulled at her backpack with an expert tug. It came free.

"Um… thanks," she said. He handed her the backpack, and she slung over her shoulders.

They walked out of the classroom together. Jack said casually, "I think we missed our busses."

Rae was a little caught off guard, but then she figured if she had seen him waiting for bus five, he could have seen her waiting for bus two. "I guess so," she said, trying to sound as casual as Jack. She scanned the campus as they walked to the front of the school and noticed it was a lot emptier than usual.

When they made it to the bus stops right in front of the school sign, Rae headed for the bus two stop to wait for the next bus – that would arrive in an hour, at best. She noticed Jack was following her. She tried to ignore him as she dropped her bag on the ground and hoisted herself onto the wall. Jack lithely hopped up and sat next to her. She edged away from him a little, but he only got closer.

"What?" she asked him a little self-consciously.

"Nothing," he said. "I just figured… My bus isn't coming for a while. There's nobody else around. Figured we might keep each other company." He flipped his hair to the side, then turned his hazel eyes on Rae, simultaneously flipping the heart in her chest.

"O-Okay," she said uncertainly. After a short silence, she asked him, "Finish your English?"

"Nope," he told her simply. "Never do."

Another awkward silence followed, and the question bubbled up and jumped off of her lips. "So… why don't you have a girlfriend?" She nearly slapped herself for letting it escape. "I mean, just out of curiosity. You just seem like you're really interested in girls and all…" She made herself shut up. As long as she'd known him, he'd never really gone out with anybody, although he was such a "playa."

He smiled as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, torturing her with his gaze, before he countered. "Why don't you have a boyfriend?"

"Oh," she stuttered. "Male… people… not really my type…" Right after she'd said it, she realized how it could be taken, and literally hit herself on the forehead. "I'm not gay," she clarified, knowing her face was beet red.

Jack let out a laugh. "That's good to know," he chuckled. She laughed along with her face buried in her hands.

"Hey." His laughter had died down, and she looked up when he called. She saw him leaning forward and had no time to react before he was kissing her.

He didn't try to touch her, or pull her closer, or lengthen the kiss. He pulled away, just as her bus was pulling up.

"So… Are male people your type now?"

She was too stunned to answer, and in the seconds she was trying to mouth some kind of response, he hopped off the wall and made his way to his own bus stop.