Chapter 5 - Alexia

Math was okay. We didn't do much. Mr. Davis introduced himself and then asked us some questions. Luke was sitting in the row behind me. I got to admit, I looked at him a couple of times. But, in my defense, he is cute. And, by the way, every time I turned around, he was already staring at me.

Next was Chemistry. This time, Luke was right in front of me.

While Mrs. Bennett introduced herself, I noticed Luke's every movement: a scratch behind his head, the tapping of his fingers, the way he ruffled his hair even more than it already was.

"Alexia!" Mrs. Bennett suddenly asked, "What's the difference between solute and solvent?"

Easy.

"In a solution, the solute dissolves in the solvent. Usually, the solute is the smaller component of the solution which gets dissolved in the larger component, the solvent. An example could be a solution of water and salt. The water is the solvent, while the salt is the solute," I explained.

"Very good. 10 points to Gryffindor," Mrs. Bennett joked.

A couple of students laughed. I was one of them. And so was Luke.

Oh my gosh! He reads Harry Potter! I met my soul mate!

"What Alexia said is correct. Now, would anyone want to explain what a solution is?" the teacher asked.

The lesson went smoothly after that.

Next: Art.

Awesome. I personally like to draw, but...I can't. I can just draw eyes. That's it.

I was about to walk in the classroom when I heard a similar call behind me.

Damn it. She's here.

"Alexia! Why didn't you wait for me?" Vanessa demanded.

"Sorry, Vanessa," I replied. We walked in together and sat down in the middle row. And beside me...Luke. He calmly sat down next to his curly haired guy.

"Hey, Nick," he said to the brown-haired dude.

"Hi," Nick answered, "How was your morning?"

"Fine," Luke replied.

"Hello, everyone," Mrs. Andrews greeted us. "Welcome to the art classroom. For our first project, I would like you to draw whatever you want on the sheet in front of you."

I looked down at the piece of paper.

"Begin, please," the teacher said.

I took out my pencil, eraser and pencil sharpener.

"Can I use this for a second?" Luke asked me, pointing at the sharpener.

"Yeah, go ahead," I told him. He thanked me and took it. After a few seconds, he gave it back. I took it out of his hands and held it close to my pencil.

"Give it!" Vanessa sneered. She snatched the sharpener out of my hands and didn't give it back to me for at least ten minutes.

Finally, I was ready.

I took my sheet of paper, made some brief measurements, then drew. Surprisingly, the eyes came out perfectly. The shape, the shade, the color... flawless.

"Wow."

I turned over. Luke had drawn a beautiful sunset over the mountains.

"Yours is pretty good too, " I confessed.

"Are you kidding? Those eyes are in so much detail, they look like they're staring right at you," he beamed.

"Well, thanks," I responded.

"Do you like this, Lucas?" Vanessa asked from behind me.

I looked over and saw the very detailed erotic image she had drawn. Let's just say it was... actually, no, let's not say anything.

"That's... nice," Luke told her.

I looked over at him and gave him a wide-eyed look. He tried to hide his smile but failed spectacularly. I also failed at not laughing.

Thanks to the noise we were making, we attracted Mrs. Andrews. She came over and asked us why we were laughing.

"Nothing, professor. We're sorry," Luke said.

"They were laughing at my drawing!" Vanessa said.

"Let me see," said Mrs. Andrews. She took Vanessa's drawing and examined it carefully.

"We definitely have some work to do," the teacher finally said. Then she looked over to Luke and me.

"I can see you both have a talent for drawing," she noted. "Those eyes are spectacular Miss Bates. And those mountains are fabulous Mr. Jackson."

"Thank you," We said in unison.

Vanessa grunted beside me.

I was feeling really good about myself. I didn't know why yet, but every time I was with Luke, I would always "rebel" against Vanessa. It was like I knew that Luke would have my back if anything happened with Vanessa. The feeling comforted me but scared me at the same time.

The bell rang.

"Bye Vanessa," I said as I left the room and sprinted for the French classroom.

As I reached for the door handle, I felt a hand tap me on the shoulder.

"Why did you run off so fast?" Luke asked.

"Sorry, I just wanted to get as far as possible from Vanessa," I answered.

"And her drawing," Luke added.

I chuckled. "Yeah, that too."

We walked in and took two seats in the front row just as the teacher came in.

"Bonjour à tous, je suis Madame Badeaux. Cette année, je vous aiderai à apprendre le français."

It was a pleasant lesson. The teacher asked us each a couple of questions. I found out that Luke has a wonderful accent.

After a couple of minutes into the lesson, my stomach grumbled.

Food. Demanded my stomach.

Shut up. I told him.

Sandwiches. He said.

Shut up. I repeated.

He shut up.

After fifth period I went to look for Vanessa. There she was waiting for me with a couple of friends. I approached them, and a couple of girls gave me disgusted looks.

"You still hang out with this girl?" I heard one mumble at Vanessa. She ignored it.

"Always late Alexia!" she fumed.

I didn't answer. Instead, we all walked into the cafeteria, got some food, and sat down. While Vanessa and her friends gossiped about boys, I took out my book and started reading.

I wouldn't have noticed it was time to go to our next class if Vanessa hadn't told me to put my effing book away and take her to her Spanish class.

I did and then walked to Social Studies. This time Luke was sitting behind me.

Mr. Rush, our Social Studies teacher, was not in a rush. When he spoke, time seemed to slow down.

'Hello ... everyone. I ... am ... your ... Social ... Studies ... teacher. Before ... we ... start ... I ... would ... like ... you ... to ... introduce ... yourselves.'

After a couple of students had introduced themselves, it was my turn.

"Hi. My name is Alexia Bates. I'm sixteen years old and I live here in Santa Monica. I like reading and I really enjoy the beach," I announced.

After another couple of student is was Luke's turn.

"Hello. My name is Lucas Jackson. I'm sixteen and I lived in New York City until June. Now I live in Santa Monica. I like writing and swimming," he said.

I scribbled these things in my notebook.

After all the presentations were over, it was nearly time to leave, so Mr. Rush let us go.

Finally. Last period.

I met in the hallway with Vanessa, we took our gym clothes out of our lockers and headed for the gym. I changed in some black leggings, a simple white t-shirt and white shoes.

"Welcome!" Mr. Crum said. "Okay, so looking at you guys I can tell that some of you are already practicing some sports. I would like each of you to tell me what sport you do."

"Football."

"Basketball."

"Tennis."

"Horseback riding," I said.

"Swimming," Luke said.

"Nothing!" Vanessa said, outraged. "I don't have time for sports!"

"Okay!" Mr. Crum said. "Let's start with some dodgeball, okay?"

He made two teams. Luke was on the blue team. I was on the red team. Great.

"Begin!" Mr. Crum yelled.

I ran for the middle ball, but Vanessa, who was on my team, pushed me aside. "I wanna get it!" she told me and ran towards the ball.

Thank god, Luke got to the ball right before Vanessa. He took it in his hands and tapped her with it.

"You're out!" he told her.

"That's not fair!" she whined.

"Miss Wild, you're out. Come sit on the bench, please," Mr. Crum insisted.

I looked as Vanessa stomped away, then turned around to look at Luke, who was already staring at me with the ball in his hands.

"Your turn," he said then threw the ball straight at me.

I sidestepped and let the ball bounce on the floor behind me.

"I don't think so," I assured him. He smiled and we kept playing.

Finally, with five players on each team, Luke and I confronted each other again. This time, I had the ball. I smirked at him, then threw the ball as hard as I could. It bounced in front of him and he caught it easily. He immediately threw it back and I caught it in my hands. I gave him a sly smile. "You're out!"

He looked at me, shocked. At that moment the bell rang.

The first day of school was over.