Love Isn't Something You Can Beat

Just as we were finishing up eating, the bell rang. We stood up and threw away our trash.

“That was close.” I said, gathering all of my things off the ground. Everyone else murmured their agreement. Normally there would have been more people joining us, but since we didn’t tell anyone we were leaving, there was no one left.

“See you guys later!” I shouted toward the three.

“Hold on.” Mark said. “I’ll walk you to class.” He stepped forward and linked his arm with mine. “Let’s tango!”

“Mark…” I said giggling, looking over my shoulder to wave a final good-bye to Cory and Ginger. They returned it and went off in the other direction. “…your class is on the other side. Why are you walking me?” I asked bewildered.

“I just wanted to.” He said smiling. “Come on I’ll race you!”

“I don’t want to run Ma—!” I called, but it was too late. He had already taken off. Cursing under my breath I started running as well. What a sight we must have been. For one thing my class was upstairs and Mark decided that it would be quicker to run up the stairs where people were walking down.

“Mark!” I called, barely at the bottom whereas he was at the top already. “Wait for me!” He turned to look at me briefly and stopped promptly where he was. I made it to him by somehow passing the crowd.

“Took you long enough!” He said laughing like crazy. I just shook my head at him.

“Whatever.” I said. “Come on I’ve got to get to Physics. And you’ve got to hurry up so that you can go to studio art or whatever.”

“All right, come on then.” He said, and we linked arms again. We both walked into my classroom where half of my classmates were already there. I knew a couple of them, but I never really talked to them.

“Okay now run off Mark.” I told him, hugging him. He let go and said. “All right, see you after school all right?”

“Sure.” I called to him as he walked out of the room. I walked back to my seat and sat down. Why did this seem as a repeat of what happened during my calculus class? I shrugged it off and waited for the bell to ring. When it finally did, Mr. Wister—the physics teacher—took role really quick and told everyone to stand to one side of the room in a line. Then he made the announcement.

“Class today you are going to be getting your partners for the four week project. I don’t want to hear any complaints and know that the partner you get is the one that you are going to stay with. No exceptions. I don’t if she slept with your boyfriend or he stole your girlfriend. That’s final.” He said. A couple of people chuckled, but otherwise the room was quiet.

“First off, Gomez and Chavez. Choose your seats.” He read from a sheet of paper. The people stepped forward and went to find their new seats.

“Arnez and Rodriguez.”

“Smith and Willard.”

“Rhode and Zackory.” I looked up at the sound of my name and stepped forward. I looked to my left and saw that the guy standing two feet away was my new partner. We walked towards the back of the classroom. Not much had to be said to make that decision. No one really enjoyed being in the front of the classroom where Mr. Wister was bound to talk and boss you around.

“Hey I’m Annabelle.” I said to the guy sitting next to me. I had never seen him around before.

“I know.” He said. “You’re quite popular you know. My name is Edward.”

“I am not.” I said, modestly. It didn’t really work. He smirked a bit and took out his things. Truth be told, I thrive on attention. I like it when people tell me that I’ve got it all. However, lately I don’t believe them because I know that it’s not the truth. It’s Ethan that’s got it all. I may have had it all once, but now he’s the rightful owner of it.

“Yeah, so anyways. I guess we’re partners.” Edward said.

“I guess so.” I said. We sat in silence for about five minutes. What was there to talk about with a person that I didn’t know was in my classroom?

“You aren’t a new student are you?” I asked, prepared for a blow.

“No.” He said serious. “I’ve been here ever since freshman year. As a matter of fact I was in your geometry class before.”

“Oh.” I said completely embarrassed. I mean I’ve basically admitted to his face that I’ve never remembered him at all. If anyone ever told me that, I’d probably end up ignoring them. “I’m sorry. I just don’t pay much attention to the people around me.”

“Well I guess you’d have to be like that in order to have such top grades right?” He said casually. “I wouldn’t expect someone like you to remember me.”

“No, really I am sorry. I should have remembered you.” I said.

"It is fine. It’s what you need to do to get to the top anyways.” He said, brushing it off. I laughed.

“What’s so funny?” He asked.

“Haven’t you heard? I’m no longer the best.”