Chapter 2

Chemistry is my favorite subject and Mr. Swagner is my favorite teacher. Normally I don’t have to make myself pay attention in this class, but I was having the hardest time focusing. We had finally decided on a Hawaiian luau for the party and I was daydreaming about the decorations, what I would wear, where we were going to have it (important because of it being winter), who would probably come…… “Tory!” I snapped my head up and found everyone including my teacher staring at me. “Uhhh…” I said. Mr. Swagner laughed “Does anyone else who is, preferably, not daydreaming know the answer?” Just then the door to the classroom flew open. Every head looked up curiously at the unexpected interruption. A tall blond boy walked briskly in and handed a note to our teacher. While Mr. Swagner read it the boy glanced at the class. When I saw his face and those beautiful blue eyes my heart skipped a beat. “Well,” Mr. Swagner started “it seems we have a new student; Mr. Jason Luderman. Hmm let’s see we don’t have many empty seats…” The seats in our classroom were arranged in pairs, convenient for labs. I happened to be one of the lucky ones that got two seats all to myself, even if that meant I never had a partner. When Mr. Swagner started looking for an empty seat I panicked. I don’t understand why, I didn’t even know this boy and yet I was scared of him, but still I was panicking. My hand started shaking and I dropped my pencil. I turned and bent down slowly to pick it up, maybe if Mr. Swagner didn’t see me…..I bent back up and jumped. Jason was sitting at the desk right next to me. I quickly recovered and looked straight ahead at the board. Thank God the bell rang shortly after. I was the first one to leave the class.

When I was home later that night and doing my homework I kept thinking about him. What was wrong with me? I mean God I’ve only seen this kid twice in my life! I finally shut my book because I was falling asleep but then my book changed. I looked around me and everything was the same color; my walls, all my furniture, everything. Suddenly they all disappeared and then I was in a sea of blue with one black dot in the middle. Then I realized what was happening, I was drowning in his blue eyes. I couldn’t breathe. Everything was blue I was gasping searching for air and there was this beeping noise which kept getting faster, and faster, and faster….. I jolted up. I had fallen asleep at my desk. My alarm clock was going off so that means that I had been there all night and as soon as I stood up I could tell. My back and neck were so sore I could barely move it was awful. I looked down at my homework and groaned; I had only finished one question on my 20 problem assignment for chemistry. Not to mention the fact that I was supposed to start my English research paper also. I looked at my clock again. “CRAP!!!” I was supposed to be ready twenty minutes ago. I got ready and sprinted out the door, ignoring the confused look that my mom gave me, and called Hannah telling her not to leave and that I was on my way to her house. When I got there she gave me a look. “What?” I asked “Forget to do your homework again?” she questioned. “Well…” Hannah just laughed and shook her head. “Oh Tory, what ARE we going to do with you.”

Luckily I was able to get a start on my English paper during lunch by tuning out Stacey’s jabbering in my ear. Chemistry, however, was still unfinished. When I heard the bell for 7th period ring I cringed, knowing that I was going to have to face Mr. Swagner sooner or later. He may be a fun teacher who tends to get off topic, but he’s very strict on homework. I slowly gathered my books from my locker and then walked to class. I started walking to my seat and then paused for a moment, I had forgotten about Jason but there he was, staring down at his paper. I walked carefully to my desk and sat down. He didn’t look up at me, and I just stared straight ahead, bracing myself for the talk that my teacher was most likely going to give me in a few minutes. The bell rang starting class and Mr. Swagner started with the usual, “Ok kids pass in your homework” I just looked down. When he had them all collected and started looking at them I sank down in my seat and looked anywhere but towards the front. “Miss Hankerson, could I please see you outside for just a moment?” I sighed and stood up, making my way to the door and then closed it behind me. “Well?” my teacher asked, “Are you going to explain why you don’t have your homework for the second time this week or should I come up with an excuse for you? You know about the policy in this class, Tory. Three missing assignments in one week and then you’re gone. You know, I really believe that you enjoy this class but you have been acting so odd lately. I mean ever since your little display awhile back you have been behaving so differently….” I stopped listening right about there. Why couldn’t anyone just forget about that? I even explained what had happened and people still didn’t believe me? Before I knew it he led me back into the classroom and once again I took my seat. Jason looked at me for a second and then began scribbling on a piece of paper. Whatever he had written he just crossed it out. Then he started writing again, and then crossed it out. He did this for a while and before long I stopped paying attention to him, until I looked down sand saw a piece of paper in front of me. Are you Ok? It said. I looked over at Jason but he was looking straight ahead. I turned back to the paper. Umm.. I’m Fine. Why? I wrote back. When I gave it back to him his face changed, he looked, relieved almost. Did he think I wasn’t going to write anything back to him? Right before the bell rang (the class went by really quickly) the paper came back my way. Because you look like a cross between confused and wanting to kill someone. I couldn’t help it, I started laughing. He looked up from gathering his books and smiled. “Do I really look like that?” I asked a little worried. He laughed “Not anymore but you did a second ago. Now you look more like, confused slash stressed.”

“Great, that’s an upgrade.”

“If you saw your face before you wouldn’t be sarcastic about that.”

“Scary huh?” I said as we were walking out the door. He laughed “I was terrified.” He said, and then he was gone. I walked back to my locker and tried to remember what I was so upset about earlier. But when I remembered, I wished I could forget it again.