Flattery Perhaps

     “Agghhhh” I growled to myself as I made my way to english class. As usual the narrow school hallways were crammed full of noisy teenagers trying to make it to the next class. I attempted to break through the crowd only to be shoved out of the way. And of course, whoops! There went my binder! I looked down to see large sloppy piles of paper spread gleefully along the hallway. For a moment I flinched as if to bend down and hurriedly try to pick them all up, but then I thought hey, what the hell. Decidedly, I stood and just watched them all go by, leaning leasurly against the lockers wearing my best I hate school expression.

     As soon as the hall was clear I bent down and slowly began to collect the papers only to be reassured by the sweet sound of the bell. "Huh. Great.” I said to myself.

     Once I had my belongings together, I strutted straight to the door and shoved it open. As usual, I walked in only to feel the familiar feeling of ‘all eyes on me’. ‘Since when is it a crime to be late to class? You know you guys look like a bunch of creepy ghosts when you stare right?’ I thought. 

    Once I had arrived at my seat (naturally in the front of the classroom) I sat down hard and glared at the wall in front of me. “Maria do you have a pass for being late?” Ms.Pastely asked.

     “Nope.” I said indignantly. 

     “Thats the fifth time this week, looks like you’ll be joining Mr.S for detention this afternoon.” she said snappily as she pursed her lips.

     “Nice one.” James said giving me a playful punch.

     “Gee, thanks.” I said rolling my eyes.

     As usual english class drawled on for an hour as Ms.Pastely dissected lines of Shakespeare that I at first thought was written in another language. “She doth teach the torches to burn bright...” Ms.Pastely said as her eyes watered from the emotional impact of the pathetic love story. She sniffled once and continued to read as if we all felt the same way about Romeo’s pathetic attempt at expressing flattery.

     ‘Bla bla bla bla’, my mind drawled on as I entertained myself by making up escape scenarios if some guy ever came into the school with a gun. You wouldn’t believe how entertaining it is.

     Then suddenly my personal life found it way into the mix of mainstream thoughts in my life. As I pondered, I glanced across the room at Andrew who I would’ve sworn was looking at me two seconds earlier. Yup, its true, he asked for my number, on facebook. I don't know, it just sounds like a sloppy way to do things. I mean why not come up to me and ask? And yes its true, he has dated two of my very close friends. Nope, wait, I take that back, three, he’s dated three of them... Honestly I don’t know what to think about him, he seems nice but I’m not sure. What would my friends think if we started hanging out?

     Suddenly the bell rang and I was jerked back to reality. As I packed my stuff to leave I glanced at him, no smile, just a blank expression. He’s totally sending me mixed signals here. ‘Ya your probably right,’ I said to myself, ‘its never a good sign when they’ve had soo many girlfriends you cant keep count’. 

     And then, for the first time in a long time, I left a classroom with a smile on my face. I even smiled on my way to detention, even Mr.S was surprised to see I showed up on time. Ha, you think I’m an idiot? I’m not gonna waste several hours of my life pining over that jerk, not in this lifetime...

Author's Note

highschool life fiction