Johnson Hearts Carter

"Mr. Johnson, I am so glad to have you finally grace us with your presence." Everyone’s head in the classroom swiveled in almost perfect synchronicity towards the door that it looked like the whole scene had been choreographed. The students have different reasons for wanting to look at the late comer dressed in his black bomber jacket, plain white shirt, dark jeans and dark RayBan sunglasses. The ladies, of course, gaped at him for his good looks. In fact, most of them needed to stare out of the sheer need for survival. The guys in class quickly adjusted themselves to feel at par with the guy’s level of coolness, checking their hair and their clothes. Meanwhile, the teacher could only feel a sense of dread and exasperation at having to deal with a student like this one. Travis Johnson did not even pause to look at the people in class as he gave a small shrug towards Mr. Matters, the literature teacher, before marching over to the farthest available seat. He was not really a friendly guy and if things were different, he would not be in school at all. He sat on the chair, his dark hair falling across his forehead which gave every swooning lady in the room an obstructed view of his handsome, well-chiseled face. He knew that wearing sunglasses in class is prohibited but he did not care. He did not like it when the girls ogled or commented on his forest green eyes. "I'm sorry, but you have to leave the class immediately and go to Principal Ward's office. You are thirty minutes late, young man! There is no excuse on earth that will keep you in my class!” The teacher’s irate voice sounded like nails being scraped against the chalk board. The girls giggled as they watched Travis give the teacher a languid smile but continued to sit as if he was not in any trouble at all. The guys were secretly betting if he was going to pull out a cigarette any time or do something outrageous as he had often done so in the past.  It was not that Travis liked the attention of being a bad boy, there were other delinquents in the senior year, far more annoying than he was. The only difference is the fact that he is blessed with movie start looks and rich parentage which gave him the upper hand on most guys. Unfortunately, this made him popular as well as one of the most coveted guys in the senior class. Still, he always thought there was something fun in breaking rules and not rolling along with the institution. Life is short, so have fun! Travis did not have any plans for his future so, aside from the fact that education is a mandatory requirement in his family, he came to school to have fun. Case in point, irritating the heck out of his teacher. "Quiet down, everyone! It is bad enough that Mr. Johnson here does not have any respect for the rules. He does not need your hero-worshipping! I always wonder why you have to come back to this institution every school year! You certainly do not seem to care enough for your grades!" There was a scatter of oohs in the class while most students tried their best not to snicker. Everyone was still waiting for Travis to speak up or perhaps get up to obey Mr. Matters. Either way, they were certainly entertained. "Get out of my class" Mr. Matters said once more, his face turning a shade of pink "Why can't you be a little bit more like Miss Carter? She does not give me headaches or multiple tardies in a day!” Half of the class turned to look at the empty seat in front of the teacher's desk. A soft murmuring ensued since the subject of their teacher's praise seemed to be currently absent.  In this moment, Travis decided to speak up "Well, looks like everyone's favorite nerd isn't here" he drawled out in a bored voice.  He did not know who this nerd was and he actually did not care but he still wanted to rile up the guy "my, that must be such a shock to you, Mr. Matters. Imagine a tarnished record from Miss Carter!" Mr. Matters turned an even darker shade of pink and shushed the class once more. It was in fact peculiar that his best student was missing his class. Even when Alexandra Carter was sick, she would suffer through school just not to miss lectures. He resented the fact that the headache of a student had to be the one to point that out. "At least, I made an effort to come to your class, sir" Travis added with a cheeky grin. He pulled off his sunglasses, pushed it up against his hair and leaned back against his chair. There was an audible sigh in the room. Mr. Matters is usually a patient and good teacher but there was just something with Travis Johnson's attitude and demeanor that seemed to make him unprofessional. He gripped his pen to keep from exploding in anger and started scribbling on the pink slip to send the young adult to detention. Lord knows he would rather have him sent far, far away and never to return if he had the power to. Just as he was about to rip off the pink slip from the pad, he got distracted by a figure, dripping wet with red paint entering the classroom door. There was a gasp and then laughter started to build as everyone gawked. Finally, Miss Carter had arrived and she looked utterly miserable and ridiculous. All eyes were now on Alexandra Carter as she made her way slowly to her seat with as much poise and dignity she could muster. Some of the girls pointed out the obvious that her hair was covered with red paint and that despite the tragic look, it did not help her outfit out one bit. There were some students who applauded and wolf-whistled until they were reprimanded to silence. As usual, Alexandra ignored their whispers and stares as she tried her best to wipe off the residual paint from her face. She would have gone to the bathroom to clean up but, it would mean having to miss a class and she just was not that kind of person.  She needed to have an impeccably clean record if she wanted to go to a good college. Unlike some of the students in Ridgemont High School, she did not have the money or the connection to pick any college she wanted. The Carter family lived a modest life thus, if she wanted to achieve her goals, she has to work twice as hard as anybody. So, it did not matter if someone pulled a prank on her where she was splayed with red paint the minute she opened her locker door. The paint covered most of her face, hair and clothes but, she was still going to class no matter what!  She was only tardy because she had to scrub out the paint from her face and clean up her books. She wished it did not happen just as the bell was about to ring because she wasn’t able to clean up properly.  In spite the ludicrous situation, Alexandra managed to seat herself down on the chair and prayed that Mr. Matters would not mark her up as absent or tardy. She pleaded with her eyes at him as he gaped at her, speechless. She waited patiently as the teacher stared, mouth open as if he had never seen anything so outrageous in his life. Unfortunately for Alexandra, Travis could not help but say something. "I know now why Carter is tardy, Mr. Matters. She definitely is on her period!" Mr. Matters finally broke out of his state when the whole class erupted with laughter once more. He turned a sad and pitying look at the paint drenched student in front of him and sighed. Sometimes, life just was not really fair. But the worse part of it is that girls like Miss Carter had to suffer through such incidents to get through high school. "Everyone read chapter 12 of your Catcher in the Rye. I will have a quiz 15 minutes before the bell rings,” He shouted across the classroom. This quickly turned the giggles into groans. He huffed, ignoring the complaints and turned to Alexandra "Miss Carter, you are excused from my class. Please go home and get yourself together." "But Mr. Matters, I have two more classes before lunch, I can't miss those" Alexandra argued, ignoring the poorly disguised coughing that clearly said "nerd" from a bunch of guys at the back. Mr. Matters shook his head "I'll speak to your teachers and tell them to have you excused. Go on, go home and clean up. You don't need to be ridiculed the whole day. I will not allow that." "Yeah, go home, teacher's pet!" Someone from the back shouted and a bunch of giggles exploded. Mr. Matters ripped a pink sheet from the pad and wrote furiously.  "We don't need any of that, Miss Foster. Here, why don't you and Mr. Johnson go show this to the principal. Detention to both of you and zero marks on the quiz." Eliza Foster, the British Queen Bee of the senior year, let out a gasp of outrage. But before she could say a word, Travis Johnson stood up and walked casually up to Mr. Matters and grabbed the slip. She scrambled out of her desk as fast as she could seeing it as an opportunity to have alone time with the school's handsome bad boy.  Alexandra ignored Travis' presence by her desk as he got the slip from the teacher. She was annoyed at him because he had to make that joke and worsen the situation. Still, if she was truly smart, she would just let everything go and focus. What she did not expect was that as Travis passed by her desk, he discreetly placed a white handkerchief on it without a word or a look.  Nobody saw it because everyone's eyes were glued towards Eliza and Travis walking out of the room together. Most of the girls were dying with envy as Eliza linked her arm with Travis while most of the guys were wishing they were cool enough to pull off that bad boy act.  It did not matter if there was a paint splattered student or if there was an impending surprise quiz; nothing was more interesting than the most popular girl in school trying her best to keep up with Travis Johnson. After all, who does not love a bad boy?