Contagious Chemistry

Harper solemnly walked down the halls of McKinley High with her gray hood pulled tightly around her dip-dyed hair. ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ was blaring through her crappy ear buds, which seemed to be her only escape from the sweaty and hormonal teenagers around her. Most people kept their gaze on the ground, or anywhere away from Harper. She wasn’t one to seek out attention and preferred being shut in her room with her headphones on rather than out at a party or smoking a joint. The once larger-than-life school was now so small she could fit it in her mind, and the classmates she used to call friends were mere strangers now. Her grades were average but weren’t enough to suit her father’s needs. “You can do better than this”, “What do you think you’re doing?” and “You should be studying more” were common phrases heard in their household, so common that Harper ignored him most of the time. Little things such as concerts and album releases, music videos and new lines of band merch were the only things that kept her going throughout the years, but with one year left of school she wasn’t sure if she could last.

She trudged into her first period class and took her usual seat in the back row. Instead of being dead silent the classroom was a buzz today. Girls were in small groups whispering rapidly and squealing about something, and even the boys seemed a bit excited. Something scandalous probably took place at Trisha’s party Harper thought, resting her arms and face on the cool surface of her desk. Trisha was a tall, brunette softball player at the top of the school food chain. She took the softball team to the State Championship, and was on varsity since her freshman year. Harper didn’t need to admit she hated her. In freshman year both of them were best friends, but for whatever reason Trisha approached her one afternoon and simply said, “We can’t be friends anymore.” Harper concluded their friendship stopped because she wasn’t in the “in crowd” and let her be. The break-off hurt, but she eventually got over it.

The bell rang and her teacher stepped into the room. He had dark circles under his eyes like most of the other teachers, and always wore clothes that didn’t match. His voice during lectures was monotone and drove Harper to sleep, which might explain the F she had in his class.

“ Good morning class,” he began. Harper could already feel her eyelids getting heavy. “Today’s lesson is going to be on European exploration in the Americas. Please turn to page 257 in your textbooks. Also get out a sheet of loose leaf and do the questions on the last page of the section.” The students groaned and the sound of turning pages soon filled the room. Harper opened her book to a random page and laid her head on the side of the book, looking over the words but not really reading them. The teacher’s gaze fell upon Harper and he let out an exhausted sigh. “Harper, would it kill you to participate? I know it’s first block but please…” Harper looked up at her teacher indifferently before lifting her head. She proceeded to get out a sheet of loose leaf and acted like she was doing work with the rest of the class. Her teacher smiled, clearly content at her effort. He walked out of the room once more and Harper let her head fall to the surface of her desk. The girls who were eagerly chatting before class turned to face one another and continued where they left off. Semi-curious, Harper moved her head to the left side of her desk and eavesdropped on their conversation.

“Okay, so who is this new kid?” One girl asked. “I have no idea, all I know is that he’s from Australia” said another.
“Correction: He’s from England. Does anyone know his name?”
“Josh Fransomething. I saw him in the office this morning and let me tell you he’s mega hot.” The girls began to giggle and Harper rolled her eyes. “I heard Trisha already got dibs though. She said she saw him walking around her neighborhood yesterday.”

“Ugh, why does she always get the hot guys? That’s not fair.” Their teacher’s voice became close and the girls quickly turned back to their seats as Harper lifted her head. She continued on with her fake work, keeping what the girls said in mind. Curiosity was brewing in her system as she tried to figure out for herself who the kid was. Being from England made him an easy target for the popular girls at the school, and he’d probably make easy friends with all the jocks. He might have decent grades, possibly play a few sports…hell he could be a pretty good guy. Too bad he’ll get sucked into the in crowd Harper thought. It’d be nice to have more than one friend in his hell hole…

Her teacher returned, but this time he had someone accompanying him. Harper looked up once and had to do a double take. The person with her teacher was a young boy—clearly her age—dressed in baggy jeans and a graphic tee. There was an oversized beanie consuming his head so she couldn’t get a good look at his hair. She looked over at the girls next to her and tried her best not to gag as they dreamily gazed at him. When she glanced over at the boy she felt herself jump. He couldn’t have been looking her, could he? His mischevious smirk answered her question, making her cheeks become warm.

“Attention class. This,” the teacher motioned to the boy. “-is Josh Franceschi. He’s a new student here who just moved from England.” The class said an enthusiastic greeting and all Harper could do was look down in her lap. Why was she getting so worked up about this? He was just a guy, he probably wasn’t even going to talk to her. “Welcome to McKinley High!” Josh forced a smile and fidgeted with the beanie on his head. “You can take that empty seat next to that lovely lady in the back corner. She’ll help you out with this assignment.” The eyes of envy fell upon her as she looked up at everyone. He was sitting next to her? Of all the people, the teacher had to put him with her? Not that she was complaining. Josh walked over and slid into the seat next to her, clearly aware of the discomfort he was causing her. The rest of the class turned their attention back to the task at hand and Harper tried to do the same. She saw him open the textbook out of the corner of her eye and prepared herself to answer him if he asked what page number.

“ ‘scuse me but, what page are we on?” he murmured, his accent thick and lustful. Harper turned her head to face him and found herself lost in the ocean of his eyes. “P-page 257” she stuttered, feeling her cheeks go red again. “Thanks. Nice hair by the way, I love that color.” he replied before beginning his work. She turned back to face her work and pulled on a red-dyed split end. They sat in an awkward silence for most of class. The girls that were whispering about him beforehand would give her glares every once and a while and she made an effort to keep her head down. One of them passed a note to Josh that had a series of numbers on it and he winked at her. Shoving the piece of paper in his pocket he cleared his throat. “So, what’s your name?” he questioned. Harper acted like she didn’t hear him and continued on with her work (which, to be honest was just a bunch of doodles on her loose leaf) until he leaned in close to her. “I said, what’s your name?” His breath smelt faintly of mint and Harper shivered slightly and turned her head to face him. “Harper…”

“Harper??” He said her name multiple times, each time he did it sounded more like Hopper instead of Harper. “Hopper, like a grasshopper?” He laughed obnoxiously next to her. “Hopper, what a funny name, especially for a girl.” He sing-songed her name until she let out a frustrated huff. “Do you mind?”

“Do I mind what, Hopper?” She looked to the teacher’s desk to see him squinting at his computer screen, clearly unaware of the harassment that was happening to her. “Can you quit calling me Hopper? My name’s HARper, not HOPper.” He put his hands up and shrugged. “What can I say? They both sound pretty similar to me. Blame my English blood, love.” The bell rang and the class rushed to gather their things before huddling around Harper and Josh. Clearly unwelcome, Harper packed her bag and headed towards the door. She looked back at her seat and saw him smiling and flirting with the girl that gave him her number, along with her other groupies. He grazed the crowd around him and stood when he saw Harper leaving. Alarmed at his gesture Harper bolted out the doorway and down the hall, purposely getting herself in the midst of a thick crowd. She hid behind a row of lockers and watched as he searched the crowd for her. The girl who gave him the note appeared at his side almost instantly and steered him the other way. Breathing a sigh of relief she walked back out into the hall, turning her iPod way up and heading to her third period class.

The rest of her day went somewhat normally. She found out that Josh was in her Criminal Justice class, along with Pre-Calculus. Throughout those classes she waited for the Hopper harassment, but it never came. When the day ended she watched him as he left but he didn’t say a single word—not even a glance in her direction. “Fucking boys,” she said aloud to no one in particular. She hated herself for even having the slightest thought of him liking her or wanting to be friends. Her assumptions on him being a jock were right. Harper made her way out of the building into the parking lot, bummed and pissed at herself and the day she had.