January's Holiday

Holiday

I had to admit, I was more than a little curious. The attractive, black-haired boy standing next to Gwen looked like he really liked her. He didn't look like he was just hitting on her because she was pretty though, he looked like he actually cared about her. I could see the pain in the recesses of his eyes when she shrugged his arm off her shoulder, and I could see his facial expression rise at the hope of a promised later encounter. I hoped for the best for him.

"You don't seem to like him very much." I sated. "Why? He seems nice and he obviously really likes you." Gwen contemplated this for a moment.

"I don't know." She finally said. I looked at her for another few seconds, ready to interrogate her further on this mystery man, before I spotted something beautiful in the distance.

"Who is that?" I asked Gwen quietly. I was referring to a cute boy walking in the distance. He had brown curly hair and a narrow face, and even from here I could tell he was insanely attractive.

"That's Nick Jonas." She told me. "Not to burst your bubble, but pretty much every girl is after him. He's one of the few attractive, straight, single, nice guys here."

I nodded, my eyes still glued on him.

"Wow. They definitely don't make them like that anymore."

---

I made it to my first class, English, five minutes early thanks to my unimaginably helpful roommate. I was grateful to have her, and we were definitely getting along. I could tell it was the beginning of a great semester.

I made my way up to the front of the classroom, to the teacher’ desk. I handed my new English teacher a form which she skimmed over. She then smiled at me and pointed out my desk. I sat down as the other students were filing in, and my heart practically exploded as a familiar head of curly brown hair sat down in front of me. I told myself to calm down almost right away. After all, he was just a boy.

"Welcome back, class." The teacher said. "I'd like to introduce you all to our new student, Beatrice Holiday." I winced.

"Bea for short,” corrected her quietly. "Bea Holiday."

"Bea it is then." She said. And with that she began a lecture on the use of commas and semicolons.

I pulled out a piece of paper to take notes, and as I was about to slap it on my desk, I noticed a folded piece of paper there instead. Puzzled, I opened it up and read what it said.

So, you're new here?

Confused, I looked up for the source of the note, and found Nick Jonas staring straight at me. Oh. My. God.

Yep. Just got here yesterday, I wrote back.

I folded the note back up, waited for the teacher to turn around, and tossed it back onto Nick's desk. In the blink of an eye, it was back on mine. Someone's had a lot of practice, I thought.

Do you like it so far?

I sighed and scrawled a quick response, trying to be as cute and charming as possible, which was something I had zero practice in. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to take the Be Myself approach, I told myself.

Well, the dorms are nice, and my roommate is really cool, but there's this annoying guy in my English class who keeps passing me these notes, keeping me from getting anything written down.. Satisfied, I passed the note back.

I heard him open the note, and a soft chuckle escaped his lips. He tossed the piece of paper back with two simple words written on it.

Message received.

I smiled and tucked the note into my binder, making a mental note to show it to Gwen later.

---

The day was only half over, and I was already exhausted. I wasn't a stranger to being the new kid on the block, and this was the feeling I got every first day at school. An overwhelming mix of unfamiliarity and exhaustion.

I headed to the cafeteria where Gwen had told me to meet her at lunch. I walked over to the table she had pointed out to me, and noticed that she was sitting very close to a familiar black-haired boy. They were both bent over a book, and Gwen was gesturing wildly. Strange, I thought. As I got closer, I realized they were arguing. Now that makes a little more sense.

"Hey guys." I said as I sat down in front of them.

"Mitosis is so much simpler though!" Gwen was saying, clearly exasperated. She barely paused in the midst of her argument to glance up at me and wave hello.

"Yeah, but cellular respiration has a bunch more drawings, which will fill up the poster, and a bunch of written stuff that we can use for the report." He replied, calmly.

"Fine!" Gwen said, slamming the book shut. She drew a few stares from other tables.

"Uh, guys, what's going on?" I asked them.

"Joe and I got stuck together for a semester-long biology project." She said, crossing her arms. I raised my eyebrows. There was no way this could be a good thing.

"I see." I said. "Well, it's been fun, but I have to go back to the dorms. I have a couple things to grab for my next class"

"Nonsense." Gwen said. "You have all lunch."

"Which is exactly how long it may take me." I said, getting up. "I'll talk to you guys later." Ignoring Gwen's protests, I walked out of the cafeteria and into the snow.

I was digging around in my bag, looking for my iPod, while looking for a hallway I could slip into at the same time to stay dry and warm. I was definitely not, however, looking at the ground, and before I knew it, I was slipping on a particularly icy patch of cement. I would have fallen and cracked my head open had a strong pair of arms not caught me. Flustered, I turned around and found myself face to face with Nick.

“Careful,” he told me. I nodded, and smoothed my hair. I hoped that my cheeks were already pink from the cold, so Nick wouldn’t notice my sudden blush. I started to walk again, and he fell into step beside me.

“I’ve been calling your name for the past five minutes.” Nick told me.

“Oh.” I said, even more embarrassed now. “Um, I read somewhere that snow absorbs sound.” Nick laughed.

“Maybe you just weren’t paying attention.” He said.

“Maybe.” I said, smiling. “You wouldn’t happen to know the way to the girls’ dorms, would you?” I asked him. He nodded.

“Alright.” I said. “Lead the way.”