Tame Chapter 1

Miss Daniels was giving us a lecture about the Quadrilateral Formula, but despite her catchy teaching style, I found myself staring out the classroom window. I was recalling how in Biology I had spent over twenty minutes talking to a junior named Dan and telling him just about everything that I knew about Heather, hoping that by informing him of her likes and dislikes he would have a better chance at making her fall for him.

When I told him everything that I could remember about Heather, Dan listened attentively only interrupting to ask questions or to clarify something that I said. It felt slightly strange teaching him about Heather, but I didn’t allow this to interfere with what I was doing because I knew that if he could sweep Heather off her feet then that would be one less person I had to worry about that was pursing Mr. Richwood.

After recollecting on this, I began to wonder how I was going to join the Art Club. I thought that maybe I could convince someone who had signed up to quit and then ask them if I could take their place, but this idea was quickly diminished by the realization that almost everyone who had signed up for the club only did so because of Mr. Richwood. The only way they would give up their spot in that club was if I found some way to intimidate them or guided them to someone far more charming than Mr. Richwood. However, at our school there was no other adult who could fill that role.

When the bell rang to dismiss us, I was slightly caught off guard by it’s sound and I suddenly realized that I hadn’t written down the assignments that were due. As the class trickled out into the hallway, I quickly scribbled the work that was written on the board into my notebook and then gathered my books together.

“Amanda,” said Miss Daniels as I was attempting to flee by her desk to escape into the hall with my peers. “Do you have a lot on your mind?”

Miss Daniels was standing in front of the classroom erasing the dry erase board she had spent fifty-five minutes writing on while I stood near the doorway eager to escape her class. I wasn’t in a hurry to get away from her, but instead to find Dan to see if any of the advice I gave him was useful.

“Uh, yeah.” I then asked. “Why do you say that?”

“Well for one thing,” Miss Daniels said as she took a seat behind her desk. “You were staring out the window during the entire time I gave my lecture.”

I felt a guilty grin spreading across my face. This was an aspect of Miss Daniel’s personality that I liked. Most teachers would call students who weren’t paying attention out on their poor behavior, but Miss Daniels simply let it slide. Her ideology was that if you didn’t do the things that were required of you, in my case paying attention, then it would only ruin your future.

I walked over to her desk to be polite so that she wouldn’t have to talk to me from a distance.

“Yeah, I think I do have a lot on my mind. Sorry, I’ll try to pay attention.”

“What’s on your mind?”

There were a lot of things on my mind: I was in love with my teacher, but had to keep it a secret from everyone, my only friend and I were no longer friends and now were fighting for the same guy, I had promised Mr. Richwood that I would join the Art club, but I wasn’t even signed up for it, and now I was relying on Dan so that I wouldn’t have to worry about Heather taming his heart. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell Miss Daniels or anyone who asked me what was wrong with me any of these things because these weren’t problems they would necessarily know how to address.

Miss Daniels stared at me waiting for some kind of response. I was under the impression that she was one of those teachers who wouldn’t pry into your life, but would investigate a great deal until they discovered what problems you may have. I decided to reveal to her my Art Club trouble, since it seemed to be the less significant of the other problems I was facing.

“Well, I signed up for the Art Club, but Mr. Milnan said my name wasn’t on the list.”

“But I saw you sign up for it,” Miss Daniels said seriously. “I remember you telling me that you signed up for it. Why wasn’t your name on the list?”

I certainly couldn’t tell Miss Daniels that Ashley and Lydia had scratched my name off the list because then she would want to know why and I would have to reveal that the reason they did that was because I took Heather’s name off the listen. Then after linking the events together they would discover my crush for Mr. Richwood and Heather’s purse of him. To avoid this, I simply acted oblivious to the problem.

“I don’t know. He said my name wasn’t on the list.”

“Well I’m going to talk to him later and see what I can do. I know for a fact that I saw you sign up.”

“Wait,” I said sounding relived. “You’d really do that?”

“Of course, I don’t mind.” she reminded me. “But please don’t get your hopes too high. I’ll just talk to him and see what I can do about this.”

I felt a heavy burden being lifted off my heart. If Miss Daniels could get me back into the Art Club then this would be one less problem I would have to deal with. I wasn’t sure why she was being so kind to me, but I welcomed her kindness with open arms.

“Thank you so much Miss Daniels. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“Don’t mention it,”

I thanked her again and then made my way to the door only to be halted by her once more.

“Oh and Amanda,” she then continued once I turned to look at her. “You know you can come to me any time and talk if you need someone to listen to you. It can be about school, Math, or even things at home. I won’t mind talking to you.”

“Thanks,” I said allowing myself to smile.

_________________

It was lunch time. I was about to head toward Mr. Richwood’s classroom, but I was determined to talk to Dan first to see if any of the advice I had given him earlier today had actually worked.

I caught him just as he was making his way into the cafeteria. He was slightly caught off guard by my presence, but when I addressed him, he grabbed my arm and pulled me down a more desolate hallway to avoid having us seen by anyone as if to say our presence combined together was capable of causing trouble.

In a sense, he was right to do this because if Heather or any of her friends caught us together then saw Dan around Heather they would be suspicious and feel that I had collaborated some scheme to get back at them by using Dan which wasn’t exactly what we were trying to do.

“So did you talk to Heather yet?” I asked eagerly.

“Did I talk to her?” he sounded stunned by my suggestion. “It’s not that simply Amanda. She’s popular. You don’t just walk up to someone whose popular and start talking to them. It doesn’t work that way.”

“Look,” I said looking over his shoulder at students who were walking by to see if any of them were part of the cool crowd, but only to find that they were lagging freshmen. “You have to talk to her soon before someone else does. Have some confidence, okay?”

“I was going to talk to her in lunch,” he said quickly. “But now I think it’s going to be much more difficult.”

“Why?”

“Well because I was going to talk to her as soon as I went in the lunch room, but you approached me.”

“Oh,” I said sounding surprised I had interfered with his plan. I began to push him gently a few paces in the direction of the lunch room. “Alright, do it, do it,”

“Okay,” he said allowing himself to walk on his own.

I sighed and then made my way toward the Mr. Richwood’s classroom. I opened the door and found him sitting at his desk in the middle of sketching some very detailed image. When I entered the room he looked up at me to grin which made my legs weak and caused them to tremble.

“Hi,” I said taking my seat. I then asked. “So what are you drawing?”

Mr. Richwood held the half complete sketch up. The paper he was drawing on was three times the size of any regular sheet of paper. His hands were covered in black soot, probably a result of using the pencil to shade.

The image he constructed on the paper was of a large building that on the scale he drew it stretched extremely high into the sky. At the bottom of the building was a the dark silhouette of a human being, probably a male based on the shape of his body, staring up at the building.

The sky consisted of thick dark clouds that surrounded the building and painted this ominous appearance in the atmosphere. Mr. Richwood had sketched the gray-scale image in such detail that each window drawn on the building appeared very detailed.

As I admired his Art Work I began to wish I could draw as good as he could. I was pretty good at drawing, but Mr. Richwood was a pro when it came to Art.

“It’s…really good. I wish my drawing was as realistic and detailed as yours is.”

“Everyone has their own drawing style. Sometimes people who participate in the world of Art, whether it’s music, writing, or drawing, sometimes their personalities tend to surface in their work. So each artists has a different style.” He then asked. “Did you catch the hidden message in the drawing?”

“I think…”

Mr. Richwood laughed and then began to explain.

“This sketch represents humanity’s attempt to progress further technologically even though it’s unnecessary.” Mr. Richwood began to explain. “See the sky scarper is unusually tall. Humanity isn’t satisfied with where the structure is at so they try to build it as high as it can go. The dark clouds represents the danger and problems that come when you progress unnecessarily. That’s why this man at the bottom is watching as the structures they design even further causes all these problems.”

“That’s really cool,” I said revealing how impressed I was by his work. “Where did you get the idea?”

“Technology,” he said after a short pause. “I just thought about how quickly it was advancing.”

“Maybe people just want things to be easier for them so that they don’t have to do so much since technology can do it for us.”

Mr. Richwood nodded appearing impressed by my response which sent waves of relief through my body. He studied his sketch for a moment and unconsciously I found myself studying him. He didn’t notice me staring at him because he was looking at his art work, most likely reflecting on the message he was trying to convey through it.

I probably shouldn’t have been checking him out at a time like this, but what started as me staring at him led to me studying him. His dark hair was comb back in a sleek manner that illuminated his handsome face. I had never encountered anyone in my life whose eyes were as pretty as his.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I told myself to look away before he caught me staring at him, but my eyes had a mind of their own and appeared to be locked on him. No matter how hard I pleaded for them to look away so he wouldn’t catch me watching him, they refused to listen to me and eventually what I had been desperately warning them would happen happened.

Mr. Richwood lifted his eyes onto me and caught me staring at him. When his eyes met mine, I literally felt my body tremble, due to my heart’s rapid beats. I quickly stared down at whatever it was that was on my desk, which happened to be my unwrapped lunch. My face began to become unusually hot and I could feel my eyes getting red. I must have appeared startled in Mr. Richwood’s eyes because I could feel him raise an eyebrow at me.

“You okay?” he asked in a joking way.

“Yeah,” I heard, what appeared to be my voice, say quickly.

After a moment I allowed myself permission to sneak peek at him only to find him staring at his sketch appearing amused by something that I was certain wasn’t in his drawing.

_______________

When I made my way to my locker around dismissal time, I found Ashley and Lydia leaning against it waiting for me. I sighed unsure of what it was that they wanted from me now.

As I approached my locker, they stared at me, not bothering to move out of my way.

“Can you move?” I said in an annoyed way.

“Hey,” Lydia said with a mouthful of gum. “Heather wants to know where you disappear to everyday during lunch.”

I placed my eyes on Lydia, hoping that she couldn’t read what I was trying to conceal in them. If Heather and the others found out that I went to Mr. Richwood’s class every day for lunch, then there was no doubt in my mind that they would try to get in on our private lunches.

“Why does she care? She should come talk to me directly instead of sending you two goons.”

“Heather is busy and that’s not what Lydia asked you.” Ashley said sharply. “What do you do, eat your lunch in the bathroom?”

“Yeah,” Lydia said as she narrowed her eyes at me. “That is so gross.”

I would prefer that they were under the impression that I ate lunch in the bathroom than they figured out that I went to Mr. Richwood’s classroom everyday.

“Yeah, so, who cares? It‘s better than having to sit in a lunch room with you two.”

Ashley shook her head at me and motioned for Lydia to move out of my way.

“I know you’re lying.” said Ashley. “But don’t worry, we’ll figure out where you eat lunch at eventually. Come on Lydia.”

“Have a great weekend,” Lydia said as they made their way down the hallway.

Great, I fixed one problem only to gain another. Now I was going to have to be more careful when I made my way to Mr. Richwood’s classroom.