Girl Meets Boy Wonder: A Prequel

I was sitting in Pre-Algebra, looking up at the teacher, Ms. Delaney, my eyes completely glazed over. I’m about as un-math-minded as a kid can get. Like, if I pay attention and take the notes and practice a couple questions, I’ll get the work ok (I’m not totally retarded), but all those fucking numbers and no purpose to them except to solve them… sigh. Not my thing.

I guess you could say music was my thing. Pretty typical, right? Fourteen-year-old white kid that looks like a little hippie is “into” music. I know, I know. But I am. I play the guitar and stick my nose up at the radio and everything. I’m the music geek package and pretty proud of it, I guess. Well, I’ve accepted it’s just who I am.

So, while Ms. Delaney was burbling away a review about mathematical stuff we should have remembered from last year’s math class, I sneakily threaded an ear bud up the front of my shirt and out my collar so I could put in my ear. I saw one of the popular guys, Trevor, do that last semester in Social Studies. Although he’s popular and I am not and therefore I’m not supposed to like him, I liked the stealth quality of the maneuver and wondered if I could get away with it too…

I seemed to be pulling it off. Although, I sit near the back of the room and all the desks are lined up into single file rows, so there’s a bunch of kids in front of me, blocking Ms. Delaney’s view of my rule-breaking. Does it make me sound totally lame if I say I was getting a rush from this very slight rebellious act? Probably… but I’m usually a pretty big wimp when it comes to breaking rules, so this was kind of a big deal-

“Can I borrow a pencil?” The little blonde girl who sits in front of me turned around and whispered. I saw her face properly for the first time. My imagination suddenly started playing the opening violin strains of “At Last” by Etta James as this girl looked at me.

She had sparkly green eyes and a button nose. No joke; I’m not shitting you. She had just about the cutest nose a girl could have. She smiled at me hopefully, revealing that, yes, her smile was pretty too. I tried to remember her name, but my memory was failing me. In fact, I was having a hard time thinking of anything at all as she looked at me, patiently waiting for me to respond to her request.

It was one of those moments where I should have said something witty or charming. Or… you know… saying anything at all would have been good. Instead, I just gaped at her like a goldfish and then slowly handed her the pencil that I was holding in my hand (yes, like I was mentally handi-capped, fack). She took it from me carefully, since I’d handed it to her so slowly.

“Thanks,” She whispered, smiling again, and then turned back around. I blinked and exhaled. I’d been holding my breath during that entire encounter. That was weird. I mean, usually really pretty girls don’t talk to me, that’s true, but I’m not completely socially retarded. Like, I can talk to girls and, you know, flirt with them and stuff. I can… I think. No, no, I’m pretty sure I can.

“So is this going to be a negative or positive integer?” Ms. Delaney asked. It must have been an easy question, because half the class raised their hands, hoping to score brownie points on the first day. The little blonde girl in front of me raised her hand a bit too.

“April?” The teacher called out. Who’s April? I don’t remember meeting an April last semester.

“A positive one,” The girl in front of me said. Oh, she’s April. Oh! Her name is April! And, oh, she had a nice voice when she was talking at a normal decibel.

“Good. That’s right. Can anyone tell me why, though?” Ms. Delaney asked. The hands disappeared. I was staring at the back of April’s blonde head. I have light blonde hair like baby duck fluff (real tough, right? Jesus), but April had darker hair than mine. And it was shiny and pretty… kinda like yellow ribbons-

“Robin? Can you tell us?” Ms. Delaney called on me. I quickly yanked the ear bud out of my ear and sat up in my chair. Fuck, I felt my heart beat pick up, a blush burn on my forehead, and my brain go completely blank- all the symptoms of being put on the spot.

“Uh…” I stammered. April glanced at me over her shoulder and those green eyes were giving me a sympathetic look.

“No ideas, Robin?” Ms. Delaney asked. I know it kind of sounds like she was being a bitch, but she was just trying to get to respond. Say something. Robin, make anything come out of your mouth… uh… um… shit-

“The product of a negative and a positive integer is always negative,” April muttered very softly over her shoulder.

“The product of a negative and a positive integer is always negative!” I repeated in a strangled yelp, making a few kids snicker nervously at me.

“Good! Very good… you can breathe now, Robin,” Ms. Delaney joked kindly. Everyone giggled, now that the teacher had made it ok to laugh at me. I shrunk back down a little in my seat, half-smiling awkwardly, only a little bit totally mortified.

April looked at me over her shoulder again and gave me an encouraging smile. I managed to smile back at her. She looked at the front of the room again before I could whisper 'thanks'.

I think I have a crush on this April girl. No, yeah, I definitely do. It doesn’t take much for me to have a crush on someone. I have a ton of hormones and very minimal experience, so when a girl is pretty and says a couple words to me, I’m hooked.

And April had even saved me from total embarrassment. Oh yeah. I’m definitely going to have a crush on her, I can feel it my stomach already.

Fack.