Grace

Chapter Two

"When our worlds collided, my heart decided."

We all shuffled into the quiet lobby of the planetarium. There were dozens of flags from different countries all lined up. The secretary smiled as we all awed in how many there were.

“Dr. Cran has a flag for every country in the world. The ones with check-marks are the ones he has been to,” stated the secretary.

There were check-marks on almost every flag. It was incredible. I only spotted a few that did not have a check-mark stamped on it. This guy must be rich.

Fiona, the most Irish-proud girl you will ever meet in your life, immediately spotted Ireland. She called my name, “Look, Grace! It’s our flag!”

I was Irish, among three hundred other things. Just kidding, not three hundred, but I was a classic European mutt; I was everything white in that continent. It was insane. Nevertheless, I looked pretty Irish, with the freckles and everything. So, Fiona liked to portray me as her fellow Irish native.

I smiled at her. Then I spotted the Filipino flag, “Hey Kim! There’s your flag.”

She glared at me like always. It made me laugh. I was so used to it, but every once in a while it made me worried.

Dr. Cran then welcomed us, and brought us into the planetarium. Everyone filed in, and we were told to sit down anywhere we liked. Usually I would pick a seat near Kim, but today I just sat down in the second to last row. Kim was up front with the other girls, and I just wanted to enjoy the show.

I sat down in the theater-like seats, and suddenly Chester sat down right next to me. He didn’t ask; I didn’t ask him. I couldn’t breathe. At that moment, God performed a miracle for me. Amen.

I tried to keep my cool, so I just smiled at him and then looked away. Trying to keep my self occupied I adjusted the arm rest. Just my luck. The arm rest was stuck. I struggled to get it to work. Chester obviously saw my frustration.

“Just flip it over,” he said.

I did. It worked. Of course.

“Oh,” I mumbled. I was so stupid.

He laughed. I blushed. Do you see a pattern?

We sat quietly while the rest of the class chattered. It was just me and him in the second to last row, the rest of the class was in the rows in front of us. Again, we had our own little oasis, except this time it was way more private than the bus, it was all our own.

He broke the silence, “So, how do you like May Rose so far?” It was a simple and safe question. I like his approach.

It was only October, and we all just started to get comfortable around one another, “It’s good. There’s so much work though, I spend forever doing homework.”

“Yeah, same here, I mean if I actually did it at home; I usually sneak it in on the ride in the morning.”

We both were in advanced classes. The only advanced class we actually had together was math. Otherwise, I was in advanced History. He was in advanced Latin. I barely saw him in the actual classroom. I mean we had the mandatory freshman courses together: astronomy and literature, but besides those classes and math, that was all I got to see of him throughout day. Curse our stupid schedules.

“I did that in middle school, not anymore.” I said matter-of-fact-ly. I wanted to keep the conversation going before the show started, and I wasn’t doing a very good job.

He shook his head and clenched his jaw. Then he let out a sigh, “Middle school… a place where not my fondest memories were made.”

It hit me. Why did I bring up middle school?! I’ve heard rumors about him being harassed before May Rose. I didn’t want to bring him into an awkward situation, but it seemed as if I already have, “To be honest, me neither. It was a battle field out there.”

“At least we survived right?” He smiled. I looked deep into his brown teddy bear like eyes. I saw true compassion. I saw … qualities I never saw in a person before.

I probably took ten seconds to answer. I was literally lost in his eyes, “Yeah, good thing.”

Mr. Sanders came sauntering in, “Alright my fellow astronomers, “Please give a warm welcome to Dr. Cran!” Then he sat down. We all applauded.

Dr. Cran came out in a large white lab coat. He said some introduction I don’t remember. I honestly didn’t care. I was replaying everything that happened today in my mind over and over again.

The lights dimmed and it was pitch black. Suddenly, loud music played from the stereo system. I jumped in my seat. The sound was so loud my heart must have stopped for a second or two. Next, Chester looked at me and just smiled, “A little jumpy today?”

I shook my head and smiled, “I guess so.”

He leaned back in his chair, “Well, just relax and watch the show.”

I nodded my head and leaned back too.

Once the movie started playing above us, I got more comfortable and actually started to relax. The narrator spoke about the night sky, and how the stars are made into constellations. My arm was resting on the arm rest, and my hand was dangling over it. About fifteen minutes into the show, Chester shifted in his seat, and casually took his hand into mine, intertwining our fingers

My heart stopped again. My world from then on was turned upside down.