I smirk at James as he raises an eyebrow at me in question. "So, how exactly are you planning to break into a classroom?"
"We're not breaking in, we're just going to use a classroom as our room of choice. Then we enter." I state.
"Okay, how are we going to 'enter' a classroom?" he makes air quotations.
"We twist the door handle and walk in."
He rolls his eyes, "You're impossible."
***
The weekend passed by as quickly as it arrived. Sunday was a particularly boring day that consisted of me waking up early for church and praying for those two moody, crying teenagers to just do everyone a favour and get back together. I also felt like a therapist to Carol, who was still trying to get to Mark. Of course, Mark hasn't talked to me since he hung up on me.
Luckily, I have a plan. And lucky for those crazy teenagers, they always seem to work.
James and I sit at our desks in the middle of second period Biology. Mrs. Lewis explains another concept regarding animal cells and what not while half the class is dazed or dozed off. I think she's getting tired of choosing me to answer every single question.
Hey! I didn't volunteer! I raised my hand for one question and now she's expecting me to answer everything. The only reason that I'm the only choice is because everyone else is not willing to participate. Apparently, the whole "we're all in this together" thing does not apply to my non-singing classmates.
I don't want to answer anymore! My throat is dry and I am parched!
Suddenly, Mrs. Lewis stops teaching and her eyes light up as if she remembers something. She scurries over to her organised desk and pulls out a pile of papers.
"Class, I almost forgot to tell you, we have a field trip this Friday!" she exclaims happily.
At the words "Field" and "Trip" everyone comes to life and starts shouting. The last science field trip I went on last year was quite scarring to be honest. But it was hilarious at the same time.
We went to the nature conservancy and there was a hike. James tied my shoelaces together when we were sitting down at a table, listening to the guide. I didn't notice, so when I got up I fell face first. Then, we went out for a hike. This is where it gets interesting. James decides to show off in front of some girl by flexing. What did oh-so wonderful Lara do? She subtly stuck her foot out while he was walking and conversing with female-0102.
Hilariously, he fell face first too. But in the mud. And in front of female-0102. Long story short, female-0102 latched onto some other guy and Lara laughed at James.
James also tried to murder me after that but as you can see, he didn't succeed.
"Yay!" I hear the person beside me yell. I look at him and see him pumping his fists in the air. "Where are we going?" he asks.
Once the noise level lessens, Mrs. Lewis starts to speak again. "We will be going to Ripley's aquarium!"
Another rounds of yays fill the room and we all cheer. I've never been there but I've heard it's really nice. I've also seen super cool pictures in tourist magazines for Toronto. Most of the people in this class are not even excited about the place, but the fact that we'll be out of school for a day.
"Here are your permission forms." she says while handing them out. "The fee for this trip is 25 dollars. You must hand it in by this Thursday at the latest."
We shove the forms in our backpacks. Just in time, the bell rings and we exit the classroom to our next class. Math. We enter the math class to see Ms. K doing something very, very strange. She's at her desk absorbed with some writing. What is normal for some teachers is bizarre for Ms. K.
I mean, where are the daily memes? Where is the generic pop music playing? Why is there nobody dancing?
"Yo Ms. K, did someone die?" James calls out, laughing.
The students that are sitting in class early, minding their own business, just stare at James with no expression on their faces. Like, how do they do that? Whenever I stare at him it's always with anger, annoyance, irritation...
Subconscious: He does make you laugh too y'know. Don't tell me that he didn't make you feel all happy and giddy when he lent you his jacket. Or when he bought you ice cream. Don't forget, he always walks you home. Oh, and that time when-
Me: Okay! I get it! My mortal enemy is kind of a good guy. So what?
"Not yet, James." she answers simply. Well that escalated quickly.
"Yet? What does she mean by yet?" he leans down to whisper to me. He isn't the best whisperer though because Ms. K answers before I do. I had Ms. K before and whenever she was acting bizarre it would be because-
The bell rings and she goes to the door to close it. "James, by yet, I mean one thing," she turns to everyone, "I hope you've all prayed for your souls because today we will be writing a pop assessment! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!" She rubs her hands together for dramatic effect and I can't help but stifle a giggle. Sure it's a test, but I must admit this is funny motivation.
"Who the heck give pop assessments? I mean, pop quizzes yeah, but pop assessments?" he blurts out.
She chuckles. "I may be a cool teacher but all teachers have to torture their students sometimes. I mean, that's the only fun part of our job! Why do you think I became a teacher?"
A student named Joe (who never really speaks) answers the rhetorical question, "Oh! Because you want to aid the future generation and-"
"Wrong!" she cuts him off and everyone laughs. "I became a teacher to have power over students and create my own minion army that I will use to take over the world!" she exclaims.
Everyone, including I, is staring at her wide-eyed.
She breaks the silence. "Kidding! Anyways, you guys have the whole period to do this. You can start once you get it." She hands out the papers.
I look at the assessment. Well, looks like I won't be able to ask her about borrowing the classroom this period.
Crabapples and sauce.
***
At the moment, James and I are waiting for the last of Ms. K's fourth period students to get out of her classroom so we can try to convince her to let us use her classroom.
James stares at me, probably wondering how I'm going to convince her to "borrow" her classroom.
Reading his mind I mutter, "Just let me do the talking."
He chuckles, "Whatever you say."
Finally the last student leaves and I knock on the open door. Ms. K turns around and smiles when she sees us. "Oh hi! What are you two doing here? Have you guys finally got along and stopped fighting?"
James shoots me a wink before wrapping an arm around me. "Actually, yes. We're getting along so well. We're together now."
I glare at James. Why does he never listen! I'm doing the talking!
Her eyes widen and before she has the chance to go into cardiac arrest I jump to control the situation. I laugh nervously, "By together, he means that we're conducting an experiment together. Which is the subject that we came to discuss." I jab James' side with my elbow and he grunts.
"Oh. So you guys aren't together?" she asks, almost disappointed, for confirmation.
"No, not at all." I confirm, wanting to add, why does that even matter?
She turns to James too. "Yeah, she's not my type." he shrugs casually. Wow. Okay. That was a bit unnecessary, but okay. You're not my type either, FYI, I want to tell him. I look up at him and I catch him eyeing me up and down.
"What? Why are you scanning me?" I blurt out.
"Scanning? Really? Nothing, just looking at you to comfirm that you are definitely not my type." he chuckles, shaking his head. I roll my eyes.
No. You don't get to do this, James! I'm supposed to be saying that you're not my type. Not the other way around! Oh well, I'll just consider it a compliment that I'm not your type. I'm so glad that I'm not in the category of your "type".
Totally not triggered right now.
"It's too bad that you're not into smart, confident, and opinionated girls." I retort back, grinding my teeth in frustration. Okay maybe the confident part was a lie, but I do have fake confidence.
"Why? Do you want me to be? Do you want me to like you?" he raises an eyebrow and a smirk forms on his annoying face. Grrr...
"No, actually. I find this works well. For the record, you're not my type either." I tilt my head to the side and cross my arms.
He takes a step forward, closer to me. "Really? And what is your type exactly?" He crosses his arms and bends down to let his face hover just above mine. We stare into each other's eyes, so intensely that everything else around us seems to be gone. Then it starts happening...
My heart starts beating-just kidding! No, that is not what is happening between us. In fact it is so much more than that.
Staring contest!
For the record, I am queen when it comes to staring contests. I can go without blinking for a while, which may be the reason for the terrible eyesight and thick glasses. We stare at each other, not one of us blinking. It reminds me of those wild west scenes where they zoom in the camera to the enemies' intense glares.
He's still not blinking. Oh it's freaking on, Bryer.
Suddenly, we get pulled out of the contest as a finger snaps in front of our faces, causing us both to blink. "Guys? Hello?" Ms. K says. Oops.
"Sorry." James and I apologize at the same time.
"Now that I see that you two still aren't the best of friends, how about we move on and you guys tell me what you need?" she smiles. Usually a teacher would be really impatient with us right now but Ms. K is cool.
"Do you think we could borrow your classroom for our psychological experiment?" I ask, smiling innocently.
"You take psychology? That wasn't in your schedule though." she wonders, confused.
"I'm planning to take it next year," I lie, "I asked Mr. Hernandez if I could try out one of the assignments to see what I would be going into."
"Oh. That's very thoughtful. I'm so glad that you are taking charge with your education. Most students don't even know to do that now a days." she compliments and I just smile and nod.
"What about you James?" she looks at him.
"I'm with Lara. We're doing this project together. She convinced me to be her partner since she clearly can't find anyone better." he turns his head to wink at me again. I roll my eyes.
"Oh James, stop teasing the girl! She already has two classes too many with you." she jokes and James acts with mock offense.
"And of course you can use my classroom! Could I just ask, what exactly is the experiment?"
"Well, we are going to be examining the reaction of two people within a confined space," I explain, "We are going to analyze how the human mind works during the unexpected. Our subjects will not be expecting to be trapped in the room, so they will most likely react. On top of that, we will be seeing if they can get along for an hour and without the use of any personal devices."
Hopefully that sounded legit. I honestly have no clue if that was believable. But teachers usually trust me so I hope she doesn't doubt anything.
"That's very interesting! I'll be in the school until five at the conference room so return this to me when you guys are done. Lara, watch that James of yours and make sure he doesn't set anything on fire." she says, handing me a lanyard with the key to the classroom.
"I may not be good at math, but I won't set anything on fire!" James argues.
"Well you're pretty well known for your pranks, mister." she responds.
"I haven't pranked anyone since freshman year!" he complains.
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him." I tell her and she nods.
"Tell me how the experiment plays out!" she calls as she strides away.
When she gets far enough, out of hearing range, I look at James, who is staring at me like I'm crazy.
"How the heck did you just do that?" he looks at me, dumbfounded.
I smirk, "Powers of being a good girl."
"Now you get Mark and I get Carol." I order. He salutes me and we part ways, ready to conduct our "experiment" with our subjects.
What an I say? I'm a science geek.
Update!! Woo hoo!!
I just had my first week of summer and I didn't know what to do. My whole year practically revolved around school so I don't know what to do with life now...*cries* I know, I'm sad. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this one! If you did, press that star and leave a comment! Another thing, I'm going to Ohio tomorrow! Yay, I'm not going to be bored for the next few days! See you in the next chapter!
-Summer :)
P.S. Thanks so much cause HTBTBTW won first in the Eminence Awards humor!!