Status: :)

All That Glitters

perception.

Braylen held tightly onto the transfer sheet Mr. McIver had given to her, looking down the hallway and looking into the classroom and only seeing a couple of people she recognized, but the room was still relatively empty due to fact she had come early. Braylen walked through the door and tried not to stare at the students in her peripheral vision as she made her way to the teacher’s desk.

“Braylen?” Ms. Allen smiled, holding her hand out for the paper in Braylen’s hand. She simply smiled and nodded, passing it over to her. “Alright, Mr. McIver called me to tell me there was someone transferring into my class, here is your syllabus. Since all math classes are on the same lesson plan you should have no problem with the jump,” She pulled out a seat-assignment and scanned the vacant seats, “Alright, there’s an open seat, second row from the front next to the window,” She smiled sweetly pointing to the desk for her.

“Okay, thanks,” Braylen spoke softly, she was already enjoying the change to another teacher. She looked around and saw motivational posters and formulas all around the room, she sat down in the chair and crossed her legs, struggling because the desk was tiny. She pulled out her notebook and a pen, her eyes scanned the clock another time and started doodling in the heading, resting her head in palm while she illustrated different kinds of flowers.

She nearly shot up when the bell rang loudly, not even noticing the room filling up. She couldn’t help herself, she began looking for John only to see that he wasn’t there. Was he skipping today? She asked in her mind, before setting her pen down and paid attention to Mrs. Allen standing in the front of the classroom with her hands clasped together and a kind smile on her face. Braylen studied her, she had to be a least twenty-five, but that was still relatively young for a teacher, she wasn’t exotic or gorgeous, but she had a plainness and kind eyes that made her pretty in her own way.

“Alright guys, pull out your homework and pass it to the person behind you, oh Braylen, don’t worry about it I’ll give it to you after class! By the way, we have a transfer, Braylen Huntington,” Mrs. Allen said peppily before pointing to Braylen, who was caught off guard. She turned to see thirty eyes staring at her and she just gave a shy wave and a smirk.

The boy in front of her passed his homework back to her and she grabbed a pink highlighter, to ensure someone doesn’t change their friend’s answers. As soon as Mrs. Allen began working out one of the problems John came sprinting in and Braylen let out a chuckle, masked by the laughs of everyone in the class. Mrs. Allen, frowned.

“You’re still tardy, John,” She said while raising an eyebrow and pointing towards the desk. “Please, take your seat and take out your homework and exchange it with someone.”

“Yes ma’am!” John smirked as he took the empty seat next to Braylen, she looked confused, why Mrs. Allen would put her next to him. “Oh hey, Braylen!” He exclaimed and Braylen just gave him a small smile as if to say hello, before returning her attention to the teacher who was staring at the two of them.

“John, don’t bother her on her first day in class, could you at least wait for a couple of weeks,” Mrs. Allen rolled her eyes sarcastically, a couple of people chuckled in the classroom. Braylen wasn’t sure if it was because of the sarcastic remark or because they had gotten a text message of a questionable picture. After they were done going over her homework, Braylen passed the paper back to the shy boy in front of her and started writing down formulas and notes in the class.

“Okay, now what is the value of ‘x’?” Mrs. Allen turned around looking at her students, Braylen looked at the complicated formula on her notebook paper and raised her hand shyly. “Yes, Braylen?!” Mrs. Allen said with a surprised look on her face, usually getting answers from this class was like pulling teeth.

“Forty-three point four?” Braylen answered still doubting that she knew the formula enough to be correct.

“Correct, well done,” She smiled before turning back to the board. Braylen did her best to pay attention since she was no longer sitting next to a genius, but there was a burning sensation on her side of her face. She turned to see John with a confused look on his face, trying to read her paper.

‘What are you doing?’ Braylen mouthed, pulling her notebook away from him.

“John! What did I say?” Mrs. Allen, scolded before he could respond. Braylen just shook off the moment and put her face in her cheek as she followed the lesson till they had thirty minutes left. “Okay, I’m passing out homework, feel free to work on it together, but that does not mean you can copy each other’s papers!” She stressed counting papers before passing them back through the rows. Everyone immediately sprung up from their assigned seats and making their way to their friends.

Braylen received hers and passed the rest of the stack through the rows, and as soon as she wrote her name perfectly in the top right hand corner the sun she heard a bunch of girls giggling. “Hey John, do you wanna be in a group with us?!” Four girls smiled, shamelessly flirting with them, their body language was screaming it. Braylen just chuckled and started on the first problem, she wasn't sure why she didn't feel jealous, maybe it was because she knew John either wouldn't or already had been there. Either way, she was his present.

“Sorry, I’m in a group with Ryan and Bray,” John said with his eyes shifting, looking back and forth attempting to get himself out of the situation. Braylen couldn’t help but watch the scene unfold as she eavesdropped. Her eyes grew big as she had four pairs of eyes, filled with scorn glaring at her. They burned into her back, but she knew they probably already hated her from what they had heard and if they weren't going to take the time to get to know her than she didn't care about them anyway.

“What? So are you two like dating now? I mean we all saw the picture,” One with bleached blonde hair at the end sneered with her arms crossed and hip out. Braylen rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh as Ryan, another baseball player came to sit next to her.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” John spoke lowly and gave them a wink, which seemed to suffice for them and they waved goodbye and gave another glare to Braylen before retreating to the corner in the other side of the room. Braylen could barely hold in laughter as she raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

“God, seriously?!” She laughed before John pulled his chair closer to them. Braylen and Ryan had already finished the first problem and Braylen stopped to pull her long hair up into a ballet bun on crown of her head.

“Wait, how did you get that? You guuuuys,” John whined trying to look and copying random numbers and letters as he saw them. Ryan just chuckled and shook his head, he was clearly more serious than John.

“Well, ‘that’s for me to know and you to find out’,” Braylen mocked, deepening her voice and furrowing her eyebrows to mock him, before finishing another problem Ryan. John let out a squeal and bounced up and down in his seat evidently whining. “Fine, okay, all you need to do is memorize the formula, then you plug in the variables, like this,” Braylen explained, reaching her body awkwardly to write on his paper so he could have it for later. John looked at her blankly and blinked, she sighed as she explained the word problem over and over until John understood it.

“Oh!” John finally exclaimed loudly, and Braylen let out a laugh, a blush creeping on her cheeks as he began to laugh too. His fingers brushing her hand still on his desk. She quickly withdrew her hand and played off her embarrassment. She noticed that almost everyone, including Mrs. Allen, was staring at them, she let a stray hair fall into her face and tried to ignore them.

“You finally get it?!” Braylen laughed, before they realized it the bell rung loudly, Braylen cursed under her breath and tried to pack up her stuff as everyone evacuated the room already putting their things up five minutes earlier. She turned to see Mrs. Allen smiling in awe at her and John, having never seen John do anything remotely considered work in her class, she smiled awkwardly before gathering her makeup work from her and waited in the door frame for John.

When he finally caught up to her, they both looked up to see a crowd of people staring at them, Braylen blushed and looked down as she began to walk. Normally, she couldn’t give two fucks what people thought of her, but something about the enormity of everyone thinking terrible things about her made her so insecure. She was surprised when she felt fingers intertwining with hers, she looked up to see John smiling, standing tall and proudly. She looked up and saw people whispering, instead began to tell him about her birthday party this weekend, a warmness swelling in her stomach.

The insecurity soon dissipated with John’s thumb rubbing the back of her hand, they both smiled and everyone else seemed to fade away. Everywhere they went, people seemed to stare, double taking at their hands joined together. She looked around and to see they were finally alone, she gave John a big hug and kissed his cheek, “Thanks for that,” She added.

“Anytime, if people think we’re together, it sort of loses the scandalousness of the situation, besides who cares if a couple makes out with each other...” John shrugged, in an all knowing tone. Braylen’s mind hung on the word ‘think’, but decided to shake it off. “Shall we?” John offered his hand to her with a big smile.

“We shall,” Braylen laughed as she held his hand walking with him until they had to split ways and travel to different locker rooms, a bunch of underclassman gathered around both of them. Braylen and John seemed to be in the same league as far as their lack of relationships, whether it was out of pickiness or inability to commit. They were both commended wildly for being with the other. They were almost like a celebrity couple in the eyes of underclassmen, when Braylen finally got into the Sundancers locker room, she was greeted with a mass of people asking questions about John.

Braylen sighed, wondering why people even cared, but she faked a smile and lied saying they were dating. After all, if his plan worked, then people would probably just feel dirty about looking at the picture if it was an intimate moment between boyfriend and girlfriend. She thought of John proudly grabbing her hand and she blushed, her stomach flipping. She tried to get dressed in her typical black spandex capris and tank top, but everyone wanted to know what John was like. How she had finally tamed the wild playboy and honestly, she had no answers for them.

After they all poured into the gym, Mrs. Bixby made sure they were concentrating on dance only, but on the other side of the gym, John was experiencing the same thing. Braylen hadn't dated anyone from their school since she was in eighth grade, not for lack of attempts by the male population. They all slapped John's back, except for Sterling, who was having trouble believing that one of his best friends would be dating someone she had met two weeks earlier. He kept his mouth shut, waiting to hear it from her lips.

Braylen tried to let her mind clear as she concentrated on moving her body, she didn't want to think about social drama, school or boys. She just felt air enter and leave her lungs and her body swaying to the music. She closed her eyes and somehow a whole period had passed, she took her time changing, waiting for everyone to leave the locker room before she came out and changed. She didn't care if she was late for her third period, she wanted a moment of silence. However, when she came out of the locker room she saw John standing awkwardly with his hands in his pockets, completely alone in the huge gymnasium. Braylen felt a smile on her pink lips and she sighed loudly.

"You know, I never would've touched you if I knew I would get harassed by half the girls in school. Apparently, there's a lot of girls who hate me already, just for holding hands with you- nothing else. Crazy right?" Braylen laughed, breaking the silence. They stood there for a while, his hands on her hips and he let out a raspy laugh.

"Seriously, you could've at least dated a couple of guys so it wouldn't be such a big deal that I'm with you. Everyone was asking how I managed to get you to date me, apparently all it takes is initiative. You're not that hard to get," John laughed, before he realized what exactly he had said. Braylen's eyes widened at second thought before she raised an eyebrow. "Not saying... that you're easy I'm just saying, no one probably even tried to date you... you know? God, not that they wouldn't date you-" John continued to stick his foot in his mouth.

"Shut up," Braylen smiled, before pressing her lips to his mouth, stepping up on her toes to reach him. She stared at him for a while, wondering who exactly he was. After all, he had a reputation for a reason, but she hadn't even seen that side of him. "Do you maybe wanna get the hell out of here? We can get food," Braylen said with a convincing smile.

"You read my mind, let's get food. Then you can tell me why Brian Miller is so bitter whenever someone brings you up," John laughed, relieved that she had ignored his less-than-suave ranting. He wrapped an arm around her as they walked towards the parking lot. For a second, Braylen let herself think that maybe they were perfect for each other, but then her stomach growled and she quickly thought about what kind of food they were going to get. A sharp voice in her mind reminded her they weren't actually together. He was doing her a favor and she better remember, because Braylen Huntington didn't fall for guys without a safety net.
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