The City Calls to Her

Rachel sat in her next class wondering if Gabe was going to show up. She took it that she lucked out when the bell rung and he never walked in...unless he was late yet again. Ten minutes later, he still hadn't shown up. She allowed herself a sigh of relief after fifteen minutes. She listened to Ms. Kenny lecture. What she was talking about was review for her since she had already covered the material at her old school. Rachel zoned out after a couple minutes and found her thoughts concentrating on Gabe Saporta. He was actually the first guy to not question her nonchalantly about the possibility about there being a boyfriend back home. Some she said no to, others she said it’s questionable to. Gabe didn't ask. At all. But then again, word probably got around anyway. Maybe he's actually not interested. That'd actually be a relief she thought to herself. Part of her though, wanted him to be interested. She wanted him to find her as interesting as she found him to be. She let out an audible sigh and the twins sitting near her looked at her and then each other. One started to stare though. She glanced at him in hopes he would realize she knew and look away but he didn't.

"Mr. Leone, the board is this way," Ms. Kenny said and pulled his attention away from her. This caused other people to look. Rachel blushed and sank lower into her seat. Right now at this moment, she'd rather be getting stared down by Gabe.

Rachel still had yet to figure out which twin was Nathan and which one was Matt but everyone else seemed to somehow know. Maybe it was a personality thing.

After another forty minutes, Ms. Kenny started to wrap her lecture up and let them know what was coming tomorrow. She told Rachel and a girl named Jenni to see her after class and then the bell rung. Rachel grabbed her books and stood next to a girl with light brown hair. She was the same height and all.

"Jenni, I hope you don't mind being Rachel's psych buddy."

"No, not at all."

"So Rachel, if you ever need anything like if you miss class or something, Jenni will let you know what we did we did in class and she'll give you any handouts and things of that nature."

"All right." Rachel nodded her head. The girls walked out of the room and just around the corner, the twins were waiting. The girls exchanged numbers.

"This is Matt and Nathan Leone." Jenni introduced her to the twins. "Matt usually has a dyed black spot in his hair but he got lazy for some reason."

The boys both said hi and Nathan continued to stare once again. This time after a few prolonged seconds, Matt elbowed him in the chest. Nathan blushed and looked away.

"So what do you have next?" Matt asked.

"Chemistry with Ms. West," Rachel read from her schedule.

"Nathan too, awesome!" Matt exclaimed a little excitedly. The girls wondered why but then again they also weren't there when Nathan confessed to thinking that the new girl was cute.

"You two should probably get going since the room is on the other side of the building," Jenni said looking at her watch. Nathan and Rachel nodded their heads and she turned to follow Nathan.

"So...what brings you out here so late?" he asked.

"My dad got a job offer. I guess they're like, letting him run the entire place by himself. I don't know. I can't really say I care at this point."

"It's not that bad out here. We usually go to the city a lot."

"I gotta stop at my locker," Rachel said and pointed over at it. Nathan nodded his head and followed her for a change. He stood against the one next to her's as she put the combination in. She didn't notice that on the other side of the hallway, Gabe saw her. His eyes glanced over to Nathan and then back to Rachel. When she turned around, he quickly turned around and faced the locker he had been leaning against.

"Dude, what the hell?" Heath asked and made a questioning face.

"Nothing," Gabe responded and pretended to be picking at something.

"So anyway, have you seen the new girl? I heard she's really hot."

"Yeah, she's pretty. Prettier than most of the girls here anyway."

"Where'd you see her?"

"I have Music Theory with her and she just walked past with one of the Leone twins probably a minute ago."

"One of the Leone twins? What? Dude...the Leone twins?"

"Whatever floats her boat," Gabe said and shrugged. "I gotta get to class." The two boys said their goodbyes and headed their separate ways.

* * *

"Oh I messed up," Rachel said.

"It's okay. Just keep going. You almost got it," Jon said as he watched her play a Green Day song on the acoustic guitar he bought for her for her last birthday. She kept playing even as their mom pulled up in the driveway and got out of her car.

"How was school today?"

"Good," Jon said.

"Whatever," Rachel responded and shrugged her shoulders.

"I'll be right back," Jon told Rachel and followed their mom into the house. "She hasn't quite adjusted to being the new girl. Then there's also the fact that I'm going to be fighting boys off with a stick because these boys are acting like they've never seen a girl as pretty as her."

"Well it's not my fault I have the three most beautiful children in the universe," Mrs. Douglas joked.

"Oh mom," Jon gushed and pretended to be embarrassed. "Stop it." He swatted at her. She smiled and shook her head. She started setting various food items on the counter so she could start making dinner.

Rachel looked up from her guitar when she heard a car drive by. She quickly looked back down when she saw that it was Gabe.

"Hey, I didn't know Gabe lived across the street," Jon said as he walked out. Then he waved Gabe over.

Rachel sighed. "Great."

"What?" Jon asked.

"Nothing." Rachel continued to play her guitar. Once Gabe was over and she heard his voice, she started to mess up. Gabe looked at her from the corner of his eye and watched her get frustrated.

"You should have played a C there," Gabe said.

"I know what I'm doing," Rachel snapped and went inside.

Gabe raised his eyebrows.

"Long day," Jon said and shrugged his shoulders.

* * *

A few weeks later, Gabe sat next to Rachel as he always did in Music Theory. He hadn't said a single word to her the entire period. He decided to once the bell rang.

"Hey Rach," he said after she got up.

She stopped and turned back. "Yeah?"

"You uh, you wanna do something together Saturday night, like just hang out or go see a movie or something?"

"Oh...I already had plans. Sorry," she said and walked out.

Gabe saw why once he walked out of the classroom. He held back his disappointed sigh and watched Nathan Leone walk over to Rachel and kiss her.