A Moment with Her

Response

Elias POV:

"Um, hi!" I said softly. 

I was late, and I knew I was late and I should have gotten straight to class, but Dany and Brandon just wouldn't shut up. The only way I could make a quick escape from their impending debate was to just nod my head and slowly inch away, and hopefully by the time either noticed I would already be halfway down the hall. I slipped on my headphones in case one of them called after me. The halls were practically empty by the time I was nearing the portables. On my way there, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Great! What now? When I turned around I was expecting one of the security guards from my school asking me to question my "tardiness" but instead I was to meet by a pair of pretty brown eyes staring back at me. I pushed back my headphones, and she then gave me an awkward smile and started with;

"Hi, I'm so sorry -"she began. 

"Nah, don't worry about it," I responded.

She was cute, and her shyness just added to her charm.

She gave me a bashful smile and said. "Hi, I'm a bit lost can you help me find this room?" The girl then held up her phone, showing me to the school's app where her schedule was displayed onto its screen. I took her phone and scanned it, an exciting jitter sourced through my knees as the realization settled it that we had the same class. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Well, you're not going to find your classroom in this building,"

The girl tilted her head in confusion. "No? well then, where is it?" she asked.

I handed back her phone and attempted to not trip over my words.

"It's out by the portables." When I opened my mouth, I noticed the flat tone in my voice. 

She blinked at me for a moment and said;

"Oh, well, that explains it." She spoke nervously with a laugh.

"I can take you there?" My attempts to sound helpful and calm came out worse. I now sounded uninterested, and I know she noticed it too because the next words coming out of her mouth were;

"Oh, that's okay." She replied, tucking her hair behind her ear as her eyes looked down.

"No-"I blurted before catching myself and continuing "I have a class there. If we hurry, we might get there before the bell rings." I said cooly.

She agreed we both ended up speed-walking through the doors of the building and into the portable that was by the side of the school.

When we entered everyone was seated, but the room jittered in excited chatter as only a few minutes remained before class started.

"Ripley! Hi!" when I looked Sarah was waving at the girl who had come in with me and she responded with a wave. I couldn't help but inwardly groan. 's**t! she's one of them too' I said under my breath so I pushed passed her and the groups of people huddled together chatting about their summer. 

Sarah is my ex-girlfriend and current day to day pain in my ass. Granted she does have a right to be but sometime last year there came a point where I had to stop empathizing with her because to be quite frank she scares me.

When I reached the back of the classroom, I threw my backpack on the floor and slumped down onto the desk. I slipped on my headphones and when I looked up, Ripley was looking through the room almost like she was searching for someone. Why didn't she just sit with my ex-girlfriend and her crew of wannabes?

Ripley looked around a bit more before sitting down at the desk next to her and 'lo and behold' she also sat next to Jason Presson. 

Jason Presson is the lead pitcher for the school's baseball team he was also my childhood best friend. He was my rock and confidant but after that night he's never looked at me the same way. A part of me misses the old us but the smaller part of me is hurt because of how it all ended and unfortunately, that's the part the speaks the loudest.

Jason and Ripley briefly gave each other a polite smile before going back to what they were both doing. My jaw clenched before looking down at my phone, as I attempted to scroll through my playlist. 

END OF POV:

____________

Ripley wondered where that nice guy had gone off to. She never got a chance to thank him, although he probably went off to sit by his friends. It's a shame she thought. She would have loved to ask him about his sweater. It was of her favorite Anime. 

As class began the English teacher Mr. Rodriguez or as he preferred to have his class call him Mr. R began the course with a brief introduction to who he was and the syllabus for this quarter. 

After the first twenty minutes of class went by, he said;

"Alright, guys! Enough of me, I want to get to know you." Mr. R said smiling, "I want everyone here to say three things about yourself, like; Where were you born, your favorite hobbies and the last book you read? Let's start with Serah. As each student stood up and introduced themselves selves, Ripley couldn't help but feel a little nervous about being next. Ever since what happened at her last school, she's hated the feeling of people staring at her. But despite how much she worried like everything else in her life, she had to just go along with it.

Ripley stood up and said in a soft voice; "Hi, my name is Ripley. I'm originally from Puerto Rico, but I've been living in the states for three years. A fun fact about me is that my mother was a really big film person, and she named after the lead character in the movie "Alien" and the last book I read was Silence of the Lambs".

Mr. R's eye's widened "Oh, Puerto Rico my sister in Law in from there." Ripley awkwardly smiled and nodded her head slowly.

"Cool, which part?" she said trying to be polite although this forced small talk was not her ideal conversation.

"Oh, I don't know." He said bluntly.

"Okay" She responded awkwardly before quickly sitting down.

The class went on and so did her ever-growing nerves she began to wonder if anyone else noticed.