Accident Or Not?

A 'new' friend?

My phone zoomed. The alarm went off. I looked at my watch, and it said it was almost 7.00 am. My phone had a new message. It's from Sara.

''Hey Ava! I hope you are feeling a little bit better. My parents wanted me to send you this:

Our condolences on the loss of your father.

Greetings from England.

At least they care about this whole thing. I am really grateful for that.

''Good morning Sara. Ty for your concern. I'm alright I guess. It has been pretty boring, that's all. By the way, please tell your parents thank you for me. :)''

After getting dressed for school, I went downstairs. Mother was just about to leave for work. She said hi but because she has been ignoring me and Jackson lately, I did the same thing.

Because I didn't say anything back, she left. For now, it would be for the best.

15 mintues later, Jackson came downstairs when I had just finished making breakfast for us both.

''Morning Ava. Are you okay?,'' he asked.

''No,'' I answered. It was horrible. He already knew the reason why.

1 hour later.

I sat at the back of the class on my own. Everyone was talking, but surprisingly not about me.

When I stepped into the classroom, everyone looked at me. They stared at me, but didn't say a thing to me or even about me.

The teacher hadn't arrived yet, so I grabbed my geography books and read a bit about it. Climates to be more specific. Every subject has its interesting spots, I must admit.

When I was almost done reading, I felt someone sitting beside me and looking at me. Out of curiosity, I looked back, and it was Caleb. He kept staring at me. It almost annoyed me to death, so I looked up again and said:

''What do you want?'' I could see he was pretty surprised to see me react like that.

''Just wanted to sit here if that's okay,'' he said.

''Caleb, if you are here to humiliate me or something, then please go,'' I said firmly.

''No that's not it,'' he held his hands up.

''I know we had a pretty bad start...'' which he obviously refers to all the gossip, ''... and like that, but I just wanted to let you know that it was not me who spread all those rumors,'' he said.

We have been in the same class, but we never really talked. Sometimes he would smile at me, but now that I'm thinking about it, he never teased me, spread some gossip or said something awful about me. It's just the others are annoying.

Caleb sighed. ''What I just wanted to say, is, I'm sorry for what has happened, Ava.''

''What about your friends?,'' I asked carefully.

''Oh, they are not my friends. Their parents are on the parent council, and they have lots of contact with my father.

''I hope we can hang out sometime, if that's okay with you?'' I nodded. Maybe I can be sure who Mother is cheating with.

It was good to hear that Caleb didn't mean to hurt people.

Our geography teacher walked in. He announced that we had to do a project with two people. Our teacher explained some things, and now we had to make groups.

''Do you want to work with me on the project?,'' Caleb suddenly asked me. I was stunned for a minute. Nobody has ever asked me because they don't want to get picked on by working with me.

''Uhm, sure. What topic do you want to do the project about?,'' I asked. He looked at the table of contents.

''How about climate? Or culture? Those can be interesting''

''Culture is fine,'' I said.

The teacher said we don't have to work on it at home and that we have time to work on it in class. That was a relief. Because Father isn't there anymore, I could use some time at home to mourn him.

While Caleb did some research, I wrote it down in my notebook. To be honest, it was pretty fun or something. I never felt that because I worked alone for a pretty long time. Not only that, Caleb is smart too, for someone who always walks around with the g**g around him.

I guess you should never judge someone, before you get to know them.