On the average day, I would go to my science class and know who will be waiting for me to be their partner. But this year, something tells me that is going to change.
Our lab partners are always chosen for us. It's a way for them to keep things "fair." It's not. It never is. To call something "fair," it must actually be that way. In this scenario, it most certainly will not be. But why is this?
Chemistry is my last class of the day. I have it with Ashton and Abby. When we walk into the classroom, the teacher already has the place cards set out. We walk around trying to find our spots and to my surprise, mine is not next to Malissa Sanders. I have no idea who the person is but they aren't in here yet.
"Welcome class to Chemistry. This is not an easy class but it required for you to graduate. My name is Mr. Foust. Please take your seats while I pass out the syllabus. I ask that you try your best to be here everyday because this is a class that you do not want to get behind in." He starts walking around the room passing out the paper.
The teacher hands me my paper and I nod my head in thanks. I look over the front page when suddenly the door into the room opens and in comes someone I've never seen before.
"Young man this class started 5 minutes ago." Mr. Foust says to him without missing a beat.
"Oh I know. And I don't care." His voice has a thick English accent. He walks in further when I look up to see who came in the room. He is tall, lean but muscular, and has wavy dirty blonde hair. I would see his eyes if it weren't for his sunglasses. He walks over to my table and sits next to me wit a smoothness I have never seen before.
"What are you looking at?" He asks me almost sneeringly. He turns his head to look at me from the side.
"I'm sorry, you just kind of made a surprise entrance. You must be Alexander." I say and hold eye contact the best I can with him still wearing his sunglasses.
"Alex. I like to make big entrances. My mother says they are what keep us interesting." He says taking the paper in front of me. I reach to grab it back but he pulls it away again and grins. His grin is so mischievous I can't look away.
"Your mother sounds like the complete opposite of mine." I say grabbing the paper, almost climbing on top of him to retrieve it. "Mine is the one who encourages people to stay quiet and not bring attention to themselves."
He chuckles lightly, barely even there, "I don't doubt it."
Right as I was about to question what he meant by that last statement when the teacher starts talking again. I sit there and listen the best I can while trying to decipher what he meant when he said he "doesn't doubt it." Is he calling me stuck up?
---
"So who's house are we going to this year?" I ask the group as we meet back up after school.
"I vote Sam's house. He has the best food." Ashton says. He is the pig out of the group. Nothing can fill up this guy.
"That's fine. Just take over my food. I don't care. It's not like I'm a growing boy at all." He rolls his eyes in Ashton's direction. We all head towards the cars and head their way. Everyone can drive except for me. I just love my decision to wait to drive.
When we pull up to Sam's house Preston falls back to walk with me. He is the quiet one out of the group. He is very reserved in public, but when it's just us, he is just as crazy as we are. I don't know why but they kind of made me the leader. I don't particularly like it, in fact I tried to push it off to someone else, but I am anyway. I don't really enjoy it. At least we aren't like some cult or something. I'm just here to make sure no one does something stupid. Mainly Sam and Ashton.
"Who do you think will start it?" He asks referring to what is sure to come in the near future.
"Definitely Rile." I point out, as if its the most obvious thing in the world.
"No. My money's on Ashton." He replies, thinking he'll be right. We walk in the house and set our stuff down like we always do. I head to the basement where all the "hangout" area is. Sam's parents set this up when we all first became friends in kindergarten. His little sisters use it too.
"Who wants to play Mario kart?" I hear, knowing the voice instantly. I look over to Preston and he rolls his eyes while I just smile at him.
They all sit down with their snacks from the kitchen and start to play. They play the original version for the Wii from 2006. We tried to play a newer addition and it just felt wrong. We like the old one. It's authentic to our childhoods.
"So Lily. Who is sitting next to you in Chemistry?" Abby asks me wiggling her eyebrows. I scoff and look away for a second.
"His name is Alexander but he goes by Alex." I say, eating the bag of peanut butter M&Ms I brought with me.
"And does this Alex somehow like our Lily?" Ashton asks, looking at me in a somewhat "big brotherly" fashion.
"Considering he basically called me stuck up, no. Lily most certainly does not like this Alex." I say and they turn back around to play another round. They move as if I scared them. I'm not that scary.
"Hey Sam, where's Sydney and Sarah?" I question.
"They had a doctor's appointment. Mom's with them and Dad is still at work. He'll get off at 5." He says not missing a beat with the game. His twin younger sisters are 7. They are my favorite part about coming to Sam's house.
"Do you guys want to come over to my house Friday after school and for the night?" Olivia asks the group. We all agree to go, which is nothing new. We stay at each other's houses all the time. Our parents don't really mind at this point. They don't even care that it's boys and girls.
We have a rules in our group. Not those stupid rules that suck and make everyone miserable. We have rules that keep us all friends. 1. You can date someone inside the group, just don't cause a rift if you breakup for some reason. 2. Always be there for one another, no matter what happens. 3. Never leave one person alone when they are having a rough time with something. I didn't make up these rules, we all did. We sat down one day and just talked. We talked like a normal group of people and did something to protect us all. But rule 3. It is getting to me now. Because if they only new what was happening every time I went to sleep, they would be there in an instant to try and find someway to help. But they can't, and that's why I'm choosing to try and deal with this on my own first. No matter how hard it may be.