Changes

I looked up to see that the student I would be helping was the guy with the hypnotic blue eyes. Like the past two times we just sat and stared at each other. We both knew the other meant no harm, it was just that we were getting a feel for the other person. He had strands of black hair falling into his face while the rest of his locks were tufted out in various angles. The middle of his bottom lip was pierced and his left ear had an industrial going on. Much to my desire to keep gawking at him I forced myself to look at his file once again.

“James Sullivan?” I asked to make sure I had the right person.

“Colleen Schulz?” he asked back without any emotion.

“Actually, it’s Colie.” I corrected with a smile.

“In that case, I’m Jimmy.” he said correcting me as well.

“Well then, lets get started. If it’s not too much to ask, why did you miss an entire year of one class?”

“It was the first thing on my schedule and I’m not a morning person.” he stated simply.

I kept looking through his paperwork to see what he had to make up when I asked, “Do you remember the last thing that you were supposed to learn?”

“Sex.”

I looked into his eyes and blushed. What is wrong with me? Sex? How old are you Colie, seriously.

“The next unit was about what makes us attracted to the opposite sex.” he said, this time with more of a smirk on his lips.

“So looking here all you have to do in order to get credit for this class is to show a basic understanding of Biology, complete a project, and take a couple of tests throughout the year to gauge your comprehension on the subject.”

“Fine with me.” he said.

Fifteen minutes into the lesson I was explaining the mating ritual of the American Grebe. Their synchronization and gift offering were very similar to humans. Jimmy was in the middle of a worksheet and was having slight problems.

“Ok, I’m still not sure what I get when I cross a homozygous grebe with a heterozygous one.”

My teacher instincts kicked in as I crossed over to his side of the table so that I could see what the difficulty was.

“Here’s your problem Jimmy. The capital letters are the dominant genes.” I said pointing it out with the tip of my pencil.

“Ok so all I do is switch them then.” he said.

As he grabbed the pencil from my hand to correct his work his fingers grazed the tips of my knuckles. His fingers felt like death. I wasn’t kidding. Then again, Kourtney’s hands are always cold to. This explains why Jimmy wore those black knuckle gloves. He must have sensed my brief state of discomfort.

“Sorry about my hands. I’m not sure why they are always that cold.” he clarified quietly.

I remained silent and returned to my seat so that he could get back to work on his worksheet. He continued on his work and that let me escape into my mental depths.

You know, he looks kind of cute when he sticks his tongue out in concentration.

Jimmy smiled to himself and I could have sworn that he also laughed, but I was probably imaging things. I checked the clock on the wall and discovered our hour had just finished.

“Well, Jimmy, it seems that our hour is up. We’ll pick up where we left off for tomorrow.”

He simply nodded and picked up his book and left. I stared at his back as he walked right out of the gym.

“A thanks would have been nice.” I mumbled to myself.

The trees rustled over head as I walked home through the park like I usually do on my way home from school. A cool breeze blew through them sending a shiver down my spine. It was still daylight out but the sun had already begun to set. I was coming up to a part in the path that intersected another one and I noticed a older guy in his mid-twenties walking toward me. The odd glint that he had in his eyes made me very nervous but I brushed it off. He still hadn’t taken his eyes off of me and was about fifteen feet in front of me.

“Hey Colie!” someone shouted from the other path.

To my right I saw Jimmy walking towards us and stopped right as the guy got near.

“Sorry, excuse me.” he motioned toward the unknown man.

The dude simply glared at Jimmy and threw one last look at me before he stalked off down the path. I was about to talk to Jimmy but when I spun around to look at him, he wasn’t there. In fact, he wasn’t anywhere near me.

“I’m not surprised to see that he skipped Biology at all now.” I said to myself, yet again talking to no one in particular.

My mind was worn out from all the stressful thinking it had endured so the moment I got into my bedroom I did a face plant on my bed and fell into a deep sleep.

The Next Day at School

I walked into my second class of the day just as the bell had rung. English was one of my favorite classes and Mr. McManus one of the better teachers that I had. The seat that I usually sat in was taken so I had to opt for the far back row of the class. As far as I could see the only option for me was a vacant desk next to one of the guys in Jimmy’s group. Strange, he wasn’t in this class yesterday. I sat back in the seat and avoided his eyes which had been on me since had walked into the room. This became easy once I had zoned in on Mr. McManus’ voice.

“As usual, we will be doing some short group projects so that we can get to know people in the class better. Get into pairs with a person near you and complete the questions on the board.” Mr. McManus stated.

Of course, nobody wanted to go with the dark, scary looking kid in the class and I didn’t have anyone else since Kourtney called off sick today. I spun around in my chair and faced him. Now that I had an excuse to look at him I had a better chance to take in his exterior. His long black hair came down to his shoulders and was just as scruffy as Jimmy’s had been. Also like Jimmy, he had stunning eyes that called you to him. But his were a warm chocolate brown hue and not the sparkling blue color that Jimmy had. The boy’s facial features were stunning though. He had perfectly sculpted cheekbones that brought his face together. He ran a hand through his hair which allowed me to see the tattoo of the number one on his thumb. When he finally spoke I was shocked at the warmth that emanated from his voice.

“Well partner, I’m Brian and what do I call you?” he asked with a smile.

“You can call me Colie, Brian.” I answered while returning the smile.

After introductions we got started on the in class project. We were supposed to ask the other person provided questions and stand up and give a little speech on them. This was a way of letting the class know some basic information about fellow classmates. Mr. McManus gave us twenty minutes and then called up people to speak.

“Colleen Schulz please come up and state who your partner was.” he instructed.

“Today I will be telling you about Brian Haner Jr., who is the world’s ‘sexiest mofo’.” I said while using air quotes. “Brian says that his favorite color is purple just because it is awesome. Playing guitar is his favorite thing to do. He said that he really doesn’t have a family but considers his friends just as that. When it comes to music he claims that he doesn’t have a type he usually listens to because he has seen a lot of music scenes over the years. The last thing he wants the class to know is that his favorite drink is a Bloody Mary.”

“Thank you Ms. Schulz and thank you Mr. Haner for supplying those colorful answers. Now it is your turn to tell us about Colleen.”

He got up from his seat and stood up tall in front of the class. They were apprehensive to hear him speak because he does so little of it to anybody.

“The first fact about my partner is that she would rather have people call her Colie.” he stated as he stared directly at the teacher who just cocked an eyebrow at Brian. “Her favorite band is Metallica. The favorite thing in her life is her cat Mr. Crowley. Apparently music flows through her veins which I don’t believe for one second. She loves to fish, play video games, and just hang with her best friend Kourtney. It touches my heart to know that she doesn’t really have a family either because her parents are always away on business trips. Lastly, her favorite movie is Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

Brian took the desk next to mine again and Mr. McManus went on with class. The one thing that I couldn’t wrap my mind around was how Brian could be so charismatic while Jimmy came off so cold. They were supposed to be friends right? They seemed to be polar opposites. The bell rang in the middle of the last girl’s speech and I stood up to leave for my next class but Brian stopped me before I could get away.

“Colie, I noticed that your friend wasn’t here. Eat lunch with us. I’ll wait for you in the cafeteria.”

He walked out of class before I had a chance to either say yes or no. Art was my last class before lunch and it seemed that the moment I sat down at my station the bell went off again for meal time. Everything in the lunch line looked unappetizing so I skipped out on the school food like I usually did. Brian was leaning up against the door frame when I found him. Seeing that I showed up he escorted me out to a tree where the rest of his group was. I’m not sure why I came with him. I didn’t even know these guys. Maybe because I was glad that Brian seemed to accept me and maybe because I wouldn’t be alone. All conversation stopped the moment they saw that their friend brought me.

“Guys, this is Colie. Colie, these are the guys.” he smiled brightly.

“Uh, Brian, do they have names?” I asked.

“Right yes they do.” he laughed stupidly. “Guy with purple hair is Zack Baker, guy with stick shoved up ass is Matt Sanders, shorty over there is Johnny Seward, and tall, dark, and mysterious over there is Jimmy Sullivan.”

They greeted me in some way but Jimmy. He continued the stare down that I now associated with him. Brian sat in the grass and patted the open patch next to him. I sat down nervously between him and Zacky looking around the circle. They still stared at me like I was some window display for a department store. Losing control I did the only thing that would solve my anxiety.

“What’s with all the staring.” I asked.

“Oh, sorry,” Zacky said from his spot beside me, “it’s just weird for someone to sit here and even weirder that Brian brought you.”

“Why is it weird that I came with him?”

“Well, he usually is already making out with a girl before they are even introduced.” Matt informed.

Horrified, my eyes shot to Brian who was laughing.

“Please don’t think too much about it. I would never disgrace you by putting moves on you already and I don’t think that that will be a problem.”

“Why aren’t there girls with you more often then?” I asked, quite curious now.

“They don’t stay around for long.” Jimmy coldly stated.

“What Jimmy means is that Brian gets his ‘Flavor of the Day’ girls.” Zacky said quickly, laughing nervously.

“Colie, where is your lunch? Do you ever eat?” Johnny asked.

“Yes, I eat.” I said almost hurt.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that you borrowed some food from your friend the other day.” Johnny reworded.

“I’m not into school food since I found a fingernail in my mac and cheese when I was in the second grade. There also isn’t much portable food at my house.” I explained.

After the little chat about my eating habit’s the group broke off into different topics. Everyone seemed to contribute in one way or another but Jimmy. He seemed to be glaring at something over Zacky’s shoulder the entire time. I had taken a liking to Zacky. I found it hard to take my eyes off his. That’s another thing that I noticed about them. All of the guys had mesmerizing eyes that seemed to emit a unearthly glow. I just loved looking into them. The bell rang and we all stood up from our spots on the grass. The guys said their goodbyes and so did I. Little chunks of grass clung to my bare legs so I stood there brushing off the blades. A shadow was cast near my feet which caused me gaze to look at the person who took away my light. Jimmy stood there with his hands shoved deep in his pockets waiting for me to acknowledge him.

“Yes Jimmy?” I asked awkwardly.

“Instead of doing desk work I want to start on that required project. Be at this address after school.” he said as he handed me a piece of paper with scribbles on it.

Jimmy left me standing there alone in the open quad. It seemed that the day wanted to get over as soon as possible because the rest of it was a blur like art class had been. Without even realizing it I found myself staring up at the house where I was told to go. It was a two story brick house with wrap around porch. Chimes met my ears as I pressed the doorbell. Expecting Jimmy or one of his parents I was surprised to see that Johnny greeted me at the door.

“Not to sound mean or anything Colie, but what the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.

“I’m Jimmy’s tutor. He told me to be here so that I could help him on a project for Biology.” I murmured.

“No way! You’re Jimmy’s tutor? He wouldn’t say much about it when we asked how yesterday went. Wow, that’s weird though. Well come on in.”

Johnny held the door open for me so that I could walk into the house. The house on the inside wasn’t much. It wasn’t terrible or extravagant. Just a normal living room. I noticed that it lacked the touch of a family, but then again, so did my house. He called out Jimmy’s name as I continued to look around the living room. I was absent mindedly gazing at the room when I turned around and smacked my face into someone’s chest. Rubbing my nose I saw that I had run into Jimmy which sent the evil scarlet color to my cheeks.

“I see you found the house alright.” he stated quietly.

“Yeah, it was no problem.” I responded in almost a whisper.

“I have some stuff for the project set up in the basement where it won’t get destroyed by the guys.”

He led me into the basement where I saw a small card table set up with various pieces of things. I wasn’t sure what he had in mind so I asked him.

“Jimmy, what do you plan on making?”

*************************************************************

OK BOYS AND GIRLS, HERE ARE THE CHOICES FOR THE SCIENCE PROJECT.

1. Volcano
2. Potato Light bulb
3. Maze with mouse and piece of cheese

IT MAY SOUND STUPID, BUT EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON! REMEMBER THAT