Goody, Like Two Shoes

As always, the weekend flew by, and, on Monday morning, Millie almost died when she saw me at my locker.

She tucked her hands into her jacket pockets, "So, he didn't kill you?"

"'Obviously not," I laughed, shoving my chemistry book into my bag, "Since I am standing here; and I appear to be breathing."

"So it seems." she smiled, "Or maybe you're just a hologram, eh?"

"Oh, touché." I laughed.

I grabbed the rest of the books I needed, and then linked arms with Millie and headed to our first class of the day: higher level calculus.

"So, tell me what happened!" Millie nudged me, "All details, please and thank you."

I pondered for a moment, "Well, he came over, he studied, I helped him, he left."

She gave me an unsatisfied look; one that read "Oh, come on. It's me you're talking to, so spill the beans."

I filled her in on everything - from when he'd walked in the door, to when he'd left - and once we had leaned up against the wall outside of our class, ignoring the dirty looks that were hurled our way, she asked, "So he was nice?"

"Well, you know, just friendly-ish; not too much of a oaf, to be honest."

Millie scratched her chin thoughtfully, dodging an oncoming ball of scrunched up paper that was aimed at the trashcan, "You think that you've had a breakthrough?"

"Hmm," I shrugged, "I don't know. He's pretty much beyond comprehension."

"Now, that really is an understatement." she tilted her head and glanced down the corridor.

"I have to agree with you on that one." I replied as the bell rang, and we were let into the classroom; Millie and I taking a desk in the front row.

The classes up to lunch were all quiet, and even the classes that Frank, Millie and I had together were uneventful; even though Frank would usually like to make a scene. But, today, he only glanced at me when he entered the room.

I'd never known Millie to be the slightly aggressive one; since I'd first met her, she had been the quiet, shy girl, who'd do anything that she was told to do.
Today was different, though, as a rather short, familiar, clad in black, boy sidled up to our lunch table, where we were sitting with a few of our loose friends from the chess and computer clubs.

The book, Hamlet, was tucked under Frank's left arm; under the other was a lunchbox, and he awkwardly tapped my shoulder without dropping any of his belongings.

"Hey." he began, for once seemingly nervous in front of my friends, who he had classed as geeks, in the past.

"Hi?" I mumbled through a mouthful of apple, "Do you want something?"

He balanced his weight from one foot to the other, trying to ignore the looks he was getting from numerous people - it was fact: boys like him never socialised with "geeks" like us.It was, as I'd heard people call it, off base; a rule of high school that should never be broken.

"Yeah, uh, can I sit down?" he motioned at the vacant, yellow, plastic chair that was at my side.

An outbreak of mumblings commenced; students in a few of the surrounding tables watching on with amusement.

"Ye--" I began, but was cut off by Millie.

"No," she spoke up, examining the contents of her sandwich, "There's no room."

"Mil--" I was about to talk, pointing to the vacant chair.

"No." she shook her head again, "There's no room for people like him."

"All I want is some help to study." Frank said pointedly, "I'm sitting down whether you like it or not."

I watched with baited breath as he set his book and lunch on the table.

Millie's hand reached out suddenly, and the lunchbox was sent over the edge of the table.

I practically choked on my juice.

"Fine." Frank stood up, collecting the bits of his lunch that had been scattered across the floor, 'Whatever.'

"What was that for?!" I asked Millie, who was watching Frank retreat from the lunch hall, "He didn't do anything."

"He just got a taste of his own medicine," Millie replied simply, "And he didn't seem to like it."

I shook my head, disappointed. If Frank and I had made a breakthrough with all the snide remarks and torments, I doubted that it would last for very long, thanks to Millie.

Millie was the talk of the school for the most part of the day. Never, in the history of whatever, had a member of the "geeks" stood up against a member of the "cool kids".
I, however, was more distressed than enthralled.

Last class of the day came - study hall - and Millie had gone to the bathroom as the late bell rang; a few lone students entering the teacher-less room.

I had been drawing diagrams for a couple of science experiments when the chair next to mine scraped along the tiled floor, alerting me to Millie's presence.

I turned; it wasn't Millie who was sitting next to me, but a smirking Frank who had kicked Millie's schoolbag out from under the table and into the aisle.

"'Uh..."' I began warily.

"Hey!" Frank said chirpily, dropping Hamlet onto the desk with a 'bang', then flicking to the right page.

"H-hi/" I stuttered. Shouldn't he be angry with me?

"Guess what."

"Uhm, what?" I asked, twiddling my thumbs.

"I did four pages of questions, on my own." Frank looked pleased with himself, "Will you check them for me? Finish whatever you're doing first, if you want."

I nodded, trying to push the thought of what Millie might do or say to Frank when she returned to the class, out of my head.

"So," Frank yawned, "Do you have any more encyclopaedias that I could borrow, maybe?"

I looked up at him, my eyebrow raised, "You want to borrow encyclopaedias?"

Two rows of white teeth came into view as the boy grinned, "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Um, no. I just though that -- oh, never mind." I shrugged, looking back to my book.

"You thought what?" he teased, closing my book.

"It doesn't matter." I replied, opening my book again, only for it to be closed as soon as I had found the specific page I wanted; and, this time, Frank kept his hand on the white and blue cover.

"Tell me." he said, "No, actually I think I know; you think that I aspire to be nothing but a lazy bum who works as a cashier in Wal-Mart, don't you?"

I simply stared at him.

"When, really, I want to be a hardworking musician - not that that has anything to do with encyclopaedias; but everything counts."

"I never knew that "hardworking" was in your vocabulary." I said quietly, and that only made his grin expand.

"Oh, puuuhlease..." he rolled his eyes, "'I'm not as stupid as you think."

"Really?" I played along, "But you failed English literature."

"Okay, okay; so maybe I failed that..." then he cleared his throat and plucked my glasses off my nose before putting them on the bridge of his own nose, "but that does not mean that I am not highly intelligent in the subjects that interest me."

"You're really confusing." I reached for my glasses, and he let me take them.

"So I've been told." he laughed, chewing on the end of a blue biro, "Oooh, it looks like your little friend is none too happy with me."

I looked up and spotted Millie walking towards us; she didn't even say anything as she picked up her bag and moved to an empty seat at the back of the class.

"Oh, cranky teenage girls...such a turn-on." Frank rolled his eyes, and I got back to finishing up my diagrams.

Class was almost over and I'd just checked Frank's work; I was quite impressed.

"So, I did good, huh?" he tilted his head, glancing down at his notebook.

"Yes, you did."

"Do I deserve a cookie, or something like that?"

"How about two low-fat, imaginary cookies?"

Frank curled his lip unenthusiastically, "Eh, no." and he began to pack his books back in his satchel as the bell rang.

We exited the class and Millie headed towards us, "Walk home with you, Sasha?"

"Ahahaha," Frank laughed, "That's only if you want to walk with me, too; I need to borrow some books."

Without a word, she turned away.

"So you want those books today?" I asked Frank, watching Millie walk away, feeling kind of upset now.

"f that's okay with you?" he shrugged.

"That's fine."

"Okay, I'll wait for you at the main entrance." with that, he turned and headed down the corridor in the direction of his locker.

It was good that Frank was becoming a little nicer towards me; but what worried me was Millie's change of attitude.

I guess I'd have to take it all in my stride.