Heartbeat, Part 3

“Allison.”

“Okay Allison, where would you like to sit?”

I pretended to take my time thinking, there was only one table left.

“I’ll take the one in the corner,” I replied to this trick question, my outstretched arm signifying where I desired. Everyone laughed.

Chris smiled. Next to me was Walter, a super smart French kid who was taking calculus in sixth grade but didn’t know how to do a factorization tree (reminding me of my annoying brother). Across from me sat Collie, a girl with super light skin that loved everything pink. On the other side of the table was Sally, a girl on the cheerleading squad who also loved pink, loved style even more, and Walter already drove her crazy. At least we had something in common.

On that day, most of my time was spent daydreaming. I went to art, I went to gym, daydreaming. Matching schedules with Laura, it happened that our schedules were the same except for the fact that we had different Spanish teachers.

Our homeroom time approached, more daydreaming.

“I can’t believe I’m in his class,” my hushed voice whispered to Laura, who had just emerged from Mr. Topon’s room. Laura, of course, knew I liked Chris.

“I’m happy for you too, but I wish we were in the same class,” her voice replied as she stuffed her reading glasses back into their case.

“Me too. Just looking at the best,” the bell rang as soon as my words started to echo into the hallway. “See ya tomorrow!”