Chapter Five

Chapter Five Cafeteria- 12.P.M

            I ran to the cafeteria as soon as the bell rang for the end of class. I could not stand pre-calculus. I got embarrassed when I got the wrong answer on the board.  I tried to run to get in line but there are a lot of freshmen this year. I sat at the table in the middle of the cafeteria that my friends use to sit last year. The cafeteria looks the same as always. I saw cheerleaders at the bigger table with the football players, the Goth tables were in the left corner, the quiet kids in the right corner, black kids outside, and Mexican kids hanging by the wall outside the cafeteria. I looked around the lunch room in hope to see Laura and Abby, but they were nowhere to be seen. Then I spotted Blake walking into one empty table next to the quiet kids, and pulled out a book and began to read. I decided to study him. He seemed concentrated on the book he’s reading. I began to wonder if he had a girlfriend. Then the strangest thing happened to me. I closed my eyes and somehow I get this image of me in a white dress, and men were working on the railroads. It looked like the year of 1868, or was it 1869? I can’t remember. Then I saw that I had a bucket of water in my hands. Weird. Then I opened my eyes.

 “Hey Rose!” I was startled when I heard my name. I hadn’t notice that Abby and Laura came towards the table. “Who are you staring at?” Abby asked. “Huh, what?” I said. “Abby just said who were you staring at.” said Laura. My face burned with embarrassment. “Oh, I was looking at the new kid,” I said nervously and pointed at him quickly. Laura and Abby sat down and turned to see and saw him reading a book. “Can I have him?” said Abby, “because his sign says WARNING: FLAMMABLE.” Laura began to laugh. “Abby! Can’t you see he’s taken?” said Laura. “Who?” replied Abby, who looked confused. Laura stared at me, smiling. Abby seemed to finally noticed. “Oh, I see. Rose found herself a man,” said Abby. I looked at Abby and Laura with embarrassment. “He’s not my man. I just meet him this morning. We kind of bumped into each other,” I said. I replayed what happened in the hallway in class many times. “And you didn’t tell us?” Laura complained. “How am I supposed to tell you if we don’t have class together,” I said using my smart tone. “Oh, I forgot,” said Laura.

 “Well, let’s change the subject. Laura, tell her what happened in math class with Mr. Rodriguez,” said Abby happily. Laura turned to me and said, “Well what happened was that Abby and I went all crazy over Mr. Rodriguez. We interrupted the class several times because Abby and I would not stop laughing, well, actually giggling. I mean, come on. He’s hot.” Abby then said, “I know and when he called my name I could not stop laughing. Then Laura told me to tell…..” I turned and stared at Blake. He looked gorgeous. Somehow I had the urge to talk to him. As if he was reading my mind, he turns to my direction and smiled at me.

“Rose? Rose, are you listening?” said Abby. “What? Oh, yes. What were you saying?” I said probably looking dumb. “Laura get me a doctor because Rose doesn’t seem like herself today,” replied Abby. “I’ll get one later, anyways; Abby here was talking about how young Mr. Rodriguez and she asked him if he was married.” I turned and stared at her. “Abby, why would you say that to a teacher?” I replied. “I don’t know. I can’t help myself. By the way, he asked us if we had any questions to ask him. I overheard the teachers said that this is his first year teaching,” said Abby. “Are we going to talk about the teacher all day?” I complained. “No, but we can talk about the new guy. So day dreamer, do you know where he came from?” said Abby. “First of all I don’t day dream and sec-..” I was caught off when Laura said, “Of course you weren’t daydreaming. I was just wondering where all that drool came from.” Laura began to laugh and I bet I turned pink. “Ha, very funny. As I was saying, second of all, I don’t know where he came from,” I said. Abby and Laura eyed at me and said, “Sure, we believe you”. What friends they are. “Ok, whatever. Think what you want.” The bell rang, meaning lunch time is over.

Abby groaned and said, “Great, all this talk made me forget about lunch.” “We can meet at the Diner after school,” said Laura. “Fine by me,” I said. “See you after school,” said Abby. I turned to Abby and Laura and said bye. I grabbed my belongings and put the chair back to the table. I turned around and bumped into someone. Again. “I’m sorry,” I said. When I looked up I saw it was Blake. There was a smile playing behind his lips and his eyes sparkled with humor. “Second time in a row. You seem to like bumping into people a lot,” said Blake. I felt shy and embarrassed. “Yeah, I guess. I mean I can’t help it. I seem to like bumping into people. Wait...no…, that’s not what I meant,” I stuttered. Great Rose you can’t act natural and you can’t even keep a conversation right. He started to laugh. “Don’t you need to go to class? Don’t want to get late again,” Blake said. “Oh, yeah. Um, thanks,” I said. Wait, why did I thank him for? “No need to thank me. Bye,” said Blake. “Bye,” I answered back. I began to stride for my next class. My heart began to thump real hard against my chest. Why is this happening to me?