As soon as I walked into my homeroom class, Nakayla grabbed my arm and pulled me aside near the trash can.
I was trying not to be annoyed too much when I asked “What did you do that for!?”
“Because, I wanted to talk to you about the volleyball try-outs today!” she gushed.
I immediately smiled. Nakayla and I had tried out for a local teen girls volleyball team being hosted at our school this summer, and we had made it to the second and final round of choosing for teams. I felt I was ten times more excited about it than Nakayla was.
“I can’t wait to see if I made it on the team.” I told Nakayla. “If I do, what spot do you think I’ll get? Right side hitter? Outside hitter? Middle blocker!?”
“I got no idea girl. But I know one thing for sure. I made it on that team.” Nakayla told me as we began to walk to our seats.
“How do you know for sure?”
“Mary, I’ve been spending my weekends practicing for four straight weeks. I’m sure the coach has seen enough of my talent to save me a spot on the team, and I bet I’m going to be setter.”
“You wish.”
Nakayla gave me a playful push. “See you at practice after school today.” And with that we went our separate ways to our desks for the ELA teacher to explain what we’d be doing for the day.
Mrs. Johnson showed no signs of hurrying up with her set up for class. I turned to the back of the room to see Elijah and his crowd of friends back there. They seemed to be talking about random nonsense from pets to what’s the best battle royale game. But it was obvious who the center of attention was. Elijah Thompson easily stole the show with his gorgeous flat top and nice choice of black shoes.
“Elijah! You ever been to that non-GMO food truck that be sellin’ those nasty ‘true burritos’!? the people there tryna’ act ‘all natural’ and stuff.” A boy named Josh said.
What I wondered was why he was hating on the ‘Free Farms food truck.’
“I actually like the food Free Farms food truck sells. They sell chicken from free range farms and cook tomatoes that actually grew out of the ground and weren’t created in a lab. They don’t ‘act’ all natural. They are.” Elijah said exactly as I felt about the amazing food truck. It was as if he had read my mind.
And with that there was like a second of silence. But you know how school is. Instead of Josh saying he was wrong about the Free Farms and admitting he was just hating on something, he said he had meant all that about another shabby food truck and started to talk about a basketball video game.
Finally, our teacher Mrs. Johnson stood up from her desk. “Okay. All students from class 1 of twelfth grade are here right?” We all nodded, though she still took attendance for us. Out of the four twelfth grade classes, class 1 had the best attendance.
“As you know it is the last week of school and everyone’s ready to have fun and chill out. But that’s not what you guys are going to do. This class decided that instead of working on finishing their assignments they wanted to be rowdy and talk with their school friends all year. While that led to one school project you all didn’t even start working on. But don’t worry, you’ll be working on that project starting today and finishing it by Thursday so you can get your grades for it put on your report card this coming friday.”
A Lot of uuuuuuUUUUUHHHH’s erupted from the classroom along with some rude comments whispered about our teacher.
“I thought our report cards were already finished being typed up, so how you gonna put another grade on it?” one kid who cared that much asked.
“I told the principal personally that this class was missing a grade on their report cards because they had an incomplete project they didn’t even start on. So the principal is giving y’all four days to finish it up.” Mrs. Johnson replied.
More groans. And questions like “Why do you want to torture us so badly?” were asked by my classmates.
I asked, out of frustration, “What is this project even supposed to be about?”
“Good question.” Mrs. Johnson answered. “This project is about what you're going to do to get by in life. For instance, do you have a passion for coding or acting that you’re going to use to produce income for yourself as soon as you're on your own? If you don’t, what job are you going to take to support you while you figure that out? And where are you gonna live? You can do this alone, or with up to two other people to help you. BUT, if you work with others, that automatically means you don’t know what you’re going to do with your lives, and will have to find a way to all make it in society together. There could be a business you all start up, or something. Make pictures of yourself in the future doing your passion, or bring in something that shows what you're gonna do in life. Be creative.”
The whole class sat quiet for a moment.
“Go on. Start your work or go find a group to start with. You’ve only got four days.” Mrs. Johnson reminded the class.
While some kids opened their laptops and began typing their essays, others got up to go find friends they were gonna team up with.
My eyes had already went over to find Nakayla and Shella, but I thought about my crushes. I promised myself I was going to talk to Elijah and Houston today. I still thought it was too crazy that I had fallen in love with both of the Thompson brothers. I wondered what made me like them. Was it because of their irresistibly handsome faces? Did I like them both because they looked the same and I enjoyed that same handsome face on two people? Wait, did they look the same because they were identical twins? Were they even identical!? I needed answers and I felt the only way to get them was to get to know those two in person. But Houston wasn’t in my homeroom class, so there was really only one option.
I turned to Elijah. I found him already looking at me. Our eyes immediately locked onto each other. I was staring into his velvety dark brown eyes, and like a black hole, they're pulling me into his inner soul.
I found myself getting up and walking over to him instantaneously.
I sat there looking down at him at his desk like an idiot.
“Uh… yeah?” he asked me.
My brain yelled, “Mary, you better not make us look dumb. Say something!” So I said, “Yeah, you wanna work on this school project together?”
Yeah!? Who starts off with ‘yeah’ in a question!?
But Elijah didn’t seem to mind. “Sure,” he replied.
Nakayla and Shella saw this from their post at the front of the class. Nosies. While Shella just glared at me, Nakayla came speedwalking over. I shouldn’t have forgotten about the crime that is not working with your threesum on any school prodject.
“You’re not gonna work with us?” Nakayla asked me.
“Uh, No. Not this time.” I said as if there was going to be any other time to work together on another school project in the last week of school.
“Okay.” she turned to Elijah during this awkward conversation. “Hey Eli, guess who’s gonna be on the volleyball team this year?” she asked him.
“I don’t care who. I don’t think there should even be a volleyball team anyway. They replaced the football team with that crap.” He looked up at her, annoyed.
“Oh well, okay then. It really is a shame they replaced the football team.” Nakayla said monotony before heading back over to Shella.
Wait. Who was that girl!? I know it was not my bestie Nakayla talking like that! Nakayla was cool, showy, and unafraid to stand up for what she believed in. Not at all that monotone, shy, awkward alien that just walked up and talked to Elijah. It’s a shame they replaced the football team? Please Nakayla, you don’t even care about football!
I turned to Elijah. He stared at me blankly as if he didn’t know that that Nakayla who had just walked up here was not the real Nakayla. And Elijah thought volleyball was crap!? Forget this. I had to pee.
I raised my hand to go to the bathroom and left. I was just getting a drink at the water fountain when I heard music and laughter coming from outside of class two’s door. There was a rectangular window outside every classroom door, so of course I took a peek at what they were doing in there.
They were watching a music parody video on Youtube while eating chips someone had brought in for the class. Aw man, they’re having so much fun in there while we’re slaving away in Mrs. Johnsons’ class. I thought to myself.
I heard Mrs. Johnson’s room door open and close. I pulled my eyes away from class two’s door and to whoever just walked out into the hall.
Believe it or not it was Elijah.
He took one glance at me, and looked at the other classrooms around us. He walked up to Mr. Bash’s classroom window, glaring as if something in there was not right.
“Mr. Bash’s classroom is having a full on party in there! They’re watching a movie and some people got their phones pulled out!” Elijah said, though his eyes never left Mr. Bash’s window. I couldn’t tell if he was talking to me or himself.
I got my answer. He soon turned over his shoulder and said, “You seeing this?”
“Yeah.” I said quietly. I didn’t want the other classes to hear us and notice we were spying on them, but then again, how could they hear us over all the fun they were having? “Mrs. Jackson’s class is having fun too. They’re watching music parodies.” I rolled my eyes.
Elijah shook his head east to west, disgusted of how mistreated our class was compared to the other twelfth grade classes. “And Mr. Smith’s class has the nerve to not even be in the school right now.” We stared at class three’s empty room with the lights turned off, the only light being from the windows giving the whole classroom a blue hue.
“They’re probably outside having the time of their lives.” I thought angrily. Okay, I knew I was over exaggerating a tad, but come on! Compared to having to work on a stupid project for the last week of school, what everyone else was doing seemed amazing.
After staring off for like, two seconds, Elijah turned to me and said, “Let’s ditch school.”
I didn’t hesitate.
“Sure.”