by Karla Luna
I actually really liked her smile…
After that, we all went to sleep. And when I woke up at 6am, I already found Evelyn gone, when I went to check and see if she was already awake. Mom said she had gotten this huge present from this guy she knew back home, but she didn’t get the chance to tell me what it was since I had to get to school on time.
Jesse picked me up and took Ethan and I to school (as usual). When we got there, I looked all over for Evelyn in the parking lot, but she was just nowhere in sight.
Why was I so worried? Oh yeah, because your mother said to keep a good eye on her.
Well, how was I supposed to do that when I didn’t even know where she was?!
I didn’t even realize all three of us were walking toward the school entrance already, when I heard my name being called.
“Hey, Zavier! Mind helping me chain up my bike?”
I turned to see a boy that always wore dress shirts with suspenders, and was on my Mathletes team. His name was Gregory and he was actually a pretty nice guy. He just got sick a lot that he almost reminded me of that one guy from iCarly that would sneeze every time a single word escaped his mouth.
Gladly, Gregory didn’t cough or sneeze so much. But he did have a very runny nose – one of the reasons I gave him the tip of carrying disinfectant wipes for the sake of others.
I jogged over to him and helped him place the chains on his bike to the rack. It took me some time since the chains were pretty hard, but Gregory was a super skinny dude so I wanted to help him out. After a minute or so, I finally got it in place. I just hope he’d be able to yank it off after school though.
“All right, Gregory, there you go…” I started to say, but when I turned around, he was already gone. I just shrugged it off and looked inside my front jean pockets for my school ID that we had to wear in order to enter the school. “You guys coming?”
I looked up to see Jesse, Ethan, and every other person in the parking lot looking out in the exact same direction.
What was going on?
I looked over the crowd to see a red motorcycle and a girl hopping off it. I guess it was pretty weird seeing someone in this school with a motorcycle – but seeing a girl on one of them was doubly strange, and just not something you’d see very often.
Once she took her helmet off, my eyes went wide once I saw that the girl was Evelyn. She moved her head from side to side, gracefully shaking free her lovely hair that's seemingly moving in slow motion. She smiled, and even had the courage to wink at a few guys gawking at her.
I noticed she wore very tight black leather all over, which seemed to attract most of the male population (and some of the female population as well).
“Whoooa, new girl? Damn!” I heard Jesse yell and then whistle. He was about to walk over to her when Ethan grabbed his backpack to pull him right back. But Ethan himself couldn’t tear his eyes away from her either.
Next thing I knew, Evelyn was directly right in front of me, making everyone – and I mean everyone – stare at her as she walked up to me.
I suddenly felt nervous, but then that was normal for me, being nervous around a girl. I just knew that I was going to have to get used to Evelyn.
I cleared my throat and felt all the heat crawl up to my cheeks. I really hated attention, too. And if she came any closer…
“Zavier, my teddy bear!” She suddenly hugged me and gave me a long kiss on the cheek. I blushed an even deeper shade of red as she took my hand and led me away from the crowd. But I still felt all their eyes on me.
Meanwhile, I made eye contact with Joss by the entrance. She seemed confused, and even a little bit disturbed by Evelyn. She gave me a warm smile with a questioning nod, but I just looked down, messing up my hair a bit in the process. Evelyn had red lipstick on, so I think the shape of her lips was right on my cheek for everyone to see.
Dang it, Evelyn!
I stopped us dead in our tracks and faced her. “What are you doing?”
“Coming to school, duh.” She laughed and moved some of her dark hair away from her beautiful face. Wait, why’d I ask that? Get it together, Zavier! “Ugh, high school sucks major balls, you know. Why do you want to be a teacher again?” She bit her lip and looked around as if she were standing near an old Dumpster.
“To teach kids right,” I quickly replied, trying to wipe off her lipstick with a tissue I found in my backpack. “My mom has registered you already, right?”
“Yessss…” By now, she looked a little annoyed as she pursed her lips.
“Great, let me see your schedule then,” I demanded, holding out my hand.
“My what? Oh… I thought that was supposed to be used as toilet paper. Damn, my bad!” She smirked.
I gave her a disgusted look, but she only rolled her eyes and kept that smile that reached up to her eyes. She seemed happy to be here…
Oh no, I really had to keep my eye on her. She’s been kicked out of plenty of schools already. I mean, that smile could most likely only mean one thing – trouble.
“I’m joking, teddy bear. Here…” She handed me her schedule and I took it, but I just couldn’t get that nickname out of my head now. She’s called me that twice already. And at first I thought she said it just to say it, but now that I think about it…
“Why are you calling me that?”
She pinched my cheek again and kissed my nose. Even though I blushed, I still looked at her while slightly frowning. “Because… you’re cute, adorable, and cuddly. But in all honesty…” She grabbed my collar and pulled me close, making my heart skip a beat. I looked down at her soft lips without thinking about it. “I just wanna take you to bed and do very naughty things to you.”
Jesus Christ, you do not do naughty things with a teddy bear!
She put her arms around my neck next, but I just cleared my throat, looked around at all the snitches, and backed away from her. I checked her schedule and found out we were in many of the same classes.
Mom.
If she really wanted something, she was willing to bribe people to make it happen. No kidding. I bet she bribed our principal into putting Evelyn and I in most of my classes, just so I have no excuses to keep my end of the bargain. But the problem was, I mostly have AP classes. I just hoped she could catch up. Although, just because you were a delinquent didn’t mean you weren’t smart enough.
“All right.” I blew out a deep breath. “We have AP U.S. History first, then.”
“Great, let’s go. Lead the way, handsome,” Evelyn snickered and grabbed my hand to entwine her fingers with my own. I just let it slide for now as I pulled her down the hall with me. The sooner we got to class, the better. I hated how intensely people were staring at us, as if they’ve never seen a beautiful girl before.
All of a sudden, Jesse and Ethan stopped us. I almost bumped into Jesse himself as he looked back and forth between Evelyn and me, while Ethan just looked like a lost little puppy. He was clutching on to his lime green binder, looking down rather shyly – probably since Evelyn was directly right in front of him and he had nowhere to look but at the ground.
“Zavier! Hey buddy, you didn’t introduce us to this precious new student.” Jesse wiggled his eyebrows at me as if to say ‘nice one, bro!’ but I just brought my hand up to my neck and gestured my forefinger across my neck, so that he’d get the message to just shut up and move along. Mentally, I’m muttering, Go do whatever it was you were doing, Jesse! Capisce?!
“Well, hello!” Evelyn yelled out excitedly, letting go of my hand to jump on Jesse, just for a simple hug.
Once they pulled away, Evelyn went over to Ethan, grabbed his face, and kissed him… right on the lips.
Jesse and I practically stood there, gaping with wide eyes as Ethan looked around. Then he looked down at their lips touching, and his eyes practically came out of their sockets. Evelyn pulled away and giggled, looking at both of us.
“Whoa…” Jesse muttered with a huge grin plastered on his face.
“To be hones
t, I was gonna give Zavier that kiss.”
Everyone turned to me, but Ethan still seemed flabbergasted, staring at Evelyn, as if she was the female version of God now.
I just looked at Evelyn, blushing and messing my hair up a bit. I did that a lot in situations like this, if you could tell.
But Ethan already probably kissed a girl, and it was probably seven minutes in heaven at a middle school party that he wasn’t even invited to. But nevertheless, it would still have been a kiss.
“Jesse, you’ll get your kiss soon, buddy… from a very special girl.” She winked and Jesse just smiled dreamily. But I don’t think Evelyn meant herself when she said 'special girl.' “And Zavier,” she paused to look at me, “it’s so clear you haven’t kissed anyone either, so I didn’t want to take that away from you guys,” she said in a very sweet tone.
“Dammit, you lucky ass!” Jesse yelled, hitting Ethan on the top of his head, while he, on the other hand, was clearly still in a trance
“Well, goodbye, boys. I will see you all… later.” Evelyn winked and walked in between Jesse and Ethan, taking us down the hall.
“We’re talking later, man! Wait... now that I… is that the girl that’s…? Oh, hell no!”
I just shook my head at Jesse and left for class with Evelyn.
Well, this was probably going to be my most interesting day in school.
Once in AP U.S. History, everyone – including our teacher – just stared at both of us. I was still holding Evelyn’s hand as she waved at a few drooling guys we passed to get to the teacher’s desk.
“Hello, why are you late?” Mr. Workhizer asked, staring at us both in disappointment. “Zavier, you realize that’s your first tardy ever.”
Honestly, I didn’t care. So I just ignored him and showed him Evelyn’s schedule, as he took his feet off his desk and looked it over.
“Sorry Sir, I was just helping our new student out.”
“I see. You’re off the hook then.” Mr. Workhizer brought his hand over his imaginary beard in a thinking motion. “Evelyn Jo, welcome! We don’t have a seating chart, so sit anywhere you’d like.”
“Why, thank you, sir.” Evelyn let go of my hand and went to the back of the class to find a seat. She waved her hand, urging me to follow her to a free desk near some guys I never liked. I just shook my head and pointed to a seat at the very front of the classroom. I took my backpack off and put it on the ground, starting to take my textbook and notebook out.
But when I looked up, my heart jumped when I noticed Joss sitting at my left now. I frantically looked around a little, asking myself how the heck did she appear there so quickly.
She did do track once. Yeah, I would know. I watched her from the sidelines sometimes.
Okay, that just sounded very creepy and perverted – so please, forget I ever said that.
“Hi, Zavier, how are you?” she asked, as she flipped her hair out of her face. I noticed she was wearing a sundress today and it fit her body perfectly (don't worry, Mom did inform me that ‘checking out’ a girl’s body in that way, was very disrespectful… so I averted my eyes).
“I-I’m good, thanks,” I responded, starting to open up my textbook for today’s assignment. “How about you?”
“I’m great, thanks.” She smiled and then turned to her left. When she turned back around, I was already starting to read the assignment on the board. I mean, those were really the only words she usually said to me, but I felt that she wanted to say something else this time. And she did. “So… who was the girl that came in with you, holding your hand? Is she your girlfriend?”
I started choking and coughing a bit as soon as she said that, but I tried to laugh it off. Did she really just ask that?
“What? N-no, no, she’s just…” (Insert bad word here). I was getting all frustrated now. Everyone had been looking at me differently as well. I even had a few of the ‘popular’ guys either eye me up and down as if to say ‘why him and not me?’ Or give me a nod of approval at my supposed achievement. Heck, while Evelyn and I were walking down the hall together, one guy actually whistled approvingly and was brazen enough to grab my wrist and lift my hand up so that he could high-five me.
“It’s okay,” Joss laughed it off, “she just doesn’t seem like your type, is all.” Shrugging, she started writing something down on her spiral notebook.
I just nodded, understanding. Evelyn was obviously one of those bad girls who don’t give a… fig (yeah, let’s use that word now… what the heck), and I was like the little dorky good boy. She and I? We didn’t go well together. Why would she ever be interested in someone as boring as me? Well, I should know, considering I’ve had my eye on a girl I’ve liked for years now and there seemed to be no indication she’s in any way interested, which was just plain ridiculous and depressing at the same time.
Yeah, everything was just dandy (note the sarcasm).
“I know, she’s just…” Jeez, I didn’t want to tell her the actual truth. I didn’t think Evelyn would appreciate it at all. “… a family friend staying with us.” Then I shrugged, hoping she would believe me. I was surprisingly talking better than I expected around her. Believe me though, I was also a really bad liar. Sometimes, when I lied, I would just crack up for no reason at all and end up looking like a crazy man. Or I would come up with a completely idiotic lie that probably wouldn’t even be possible. Oh yeah, I couldn’t go see you because I was… interviewing Clark Kent for the school newspaper. Totally a lie that I wish was actually true…
“I see, that’s good… I mean, are you gonna be able to make it to Mathletes after school today?”
What was that first thing she had said? I shook my head and chuckled. I was reading too much into things now, right?
“Uh… yeah, I-I’ll be th—”
“Hey, teddy bear!”
I sighed deeply and turned to look back at Evelyn, seeing her wave at me with both hands to get my full attention. I just nodded and mouthed ‘what’ at her, so that she could get on with it. Why did she have to interrupt right now? I was actually starting to have a decent conversation with Joss. Probably the longest one, too.
“Stormy said it was fine for you to ride with me after school, just so you know not to go to that nerd club of yours later!”
I rolled my eyes, noticing Joss also turning around to look at Evelyn. I think I even heard her scoff. I knew why. We hated being called nerds just because we were in that certain club.
“Mathletes!” I hissed, as a few heads turned my way now. But Mr. Workhizer was just reading a magazine since he never cared if we talked while working, as long as we finished our work – which most people didn’t, by the way.
“Yeah, same thing!” Evelyn insisted.
Well, to her it was. And yeah, probably to a couple of other people, too. But did Mom really have to tell her about it if she was just going to make fun of it?
“I got an awesome Ducati motorbike from my buddy Drake this morning! Isn’t he just… awesome for that?”
Ugh, I almost forgot she had that thing with her this morning. No way was I getting on that! Did she want to get rid of me already?!
Wait, why did my mother even approve this? Then again, she never really said anything bad about motorbikes. But still, I heard a lot about accidents and people killing themselves on those devil contraptions. Was I willing to get on it? To be honest, I’d rather walk the few miles home. And even in the heat, too!
But if Mom really did tell Evelyn to give me a ride… I couldn’t argue with that. We barely knew her, it has only been a few hours after all, but Mom seemed to trust her already. And I could never disobey my own mother.
•Evelyn•
Wow.
High school sucked. It really did. No wonder I was trying for years to get myself kicked out of every single one I went to! But even though I really hated school, I had to stay in this one for my own sake. I wouldn’t want to get sent to a boarding school – or worse, the damn Orphanage. I didn’t tell Zavier about th
e Orphanage thing but Stormy already knew, and I asked her not to tell him. He didn’t need to know all of the things that happened there. I hated pity, of all things, and Zavier seemed like the kind of guy who’d readily give others his sympathy. Then again, I didn’t fully know him yet.
It was finally lunch now and I was starving! Learning, reading, and writing could get your tummy real empty (I didn't do any of those, by the way). Plus, I only grabbed a random granola bar and left for a spin on my new Ducati that morning. Seriously, that thing was heaven on wheels. Simply beautiful. I couldn’t wait for Zavier to ride it with me later. I needed company and I was sure he was brave enough to do it.
Entering the cafeteria, I noticed almost everyone looking at me. It made me roll my eyes. Seriously, why did they have to stare? At first I just ignored it, like, ‘oh hey, it’s probably because I’m a new student and all.’ But now? They should really mind their own damn business and carry on with their lives. I mean, if they had any.
Some of them seemed scared to come up and be friends with me. The boys just checked me out and winked, which sometimes seemed like they were only having a twitch, or perhaps a stroke. And don’t even get me started on the girls. They gave me dirty looks as if I was a slut. But hey, at least I covered up most of my skin in public and didn’t try to get it on with a random guy in the poor janitor’s closet.
I now spotted Zavier and his little friends – who, now that I thought about it, hadn’t introduced themselves to me quite fully – at a table near the front.
I strolled over there, obviously still feeling all eyes on me. But just as I was about to sit down on the chair closest to Zavier, this one Barbie doll came and sat down there instead. She placed her hand on her chin and smiled at him.
“Hey, Zavier,” she said in the sweetest tone possible.
“Oh… h-hey, Joss?” Zavier smiled at her, but I didn’t miss the faint blush on his cheeks. Oooh… Did he like her? And did she possibly like him?
