The Angel,The Devil,The Nerd

Chapter 7 - He knows...

CHAPTER 7 - HE KNOWS...WAIT,HE KNOWS??

When I entered the gym, once ready, I found all my peers, like always, spread around it, chatting with their friends, but ready to start class. I was punctual, oddly, but the teacher wasn’t there yet.

What caught my eyes was the odd sight of somebody who’s become familiar this week but that, despite being already January, I’ve never seen in this class … Eric.

He was sitting on the left side of the bleachers, fourth row, pretty far from the other kids sitting. I bet those kids chose to be far from him. He was leaning over, hands clasped together, looking as stern and impassive but … angry as always. Pensive too, I’d say.

Sometimes I wonder what is it that bothers him so much, but then I remind myself that it’s none of my business, especially considering that he most probably hates me and would gladly tear me apart. Although I guess he would do that to anybody if he didn’t have any self control, because I can’t really think of something I might have done to him to make him hate me. I mean, the first time he ever realized I existed was on Monday, when I sat in between him and Kyle and my life took a sudden turn. If for the better or worse, I wouldn’t know.

I lowered my glance when Eric’s eyes snapped to me, like he’d felt I was watching him and I could feel his eyes studying me for a long moment as well. When I glanced back up, just to see if he was trying to make my head explode just with his intense gaze, I was startled and kind of agitated to realize his gaze was still on me, yes, and it was intense, yes, but … it wasn’t that hard as I would have expected it. It wasn’t gentle either, but he didn’t look like he wanted to murder me...

I tried to be kind and … crack a smile, but just as I did, he looked away, kind of … irritated. I guess he really doesn’t even stand my face.

When the door of the coach’s office opened, my eyes focused on that spot, but I was surprised to see a man walk towards us instead of Mrs., well, Coach Smith. "Hello, everyone." The man greeted, his voice booming as it echoed in the gym, approaching the middle of it. "Mrs. Smith left to reach her husband I don’t know where and don’t really care. I’m Coach Nichols. You can only call me that. I am, and that’s pretty obvious, your new PE teacher." He explained, then mentioning us his rules, like never wanting to be contradicted, everyone must participate if they want to pass this course, no exceptions, and so on.

Said we’ll be playing different sports, that he doesn’t expect us to be all champions, but at least we must try to improve, considering also that our grade will depend on our performance in class. I didn’t even worry, I mean, my mark was already decent and while I am not really a sportswoman, I at least can play with a ball without fearing it.

Soon, we were set to start warming up. There were a few kids on the bleachers that didn’t move and coach Nichols noticed them, so he quickly walked towards them. "Didn’t you hear?" He boomed, his voice always strong. "I want everybody participating. Everybody. No exceptions." The two kids that were on the right side of the bleachers looked at each other and then joined us on the field.

Still sitting on the fourth row of the left side was, guess who, Eric Rivers in all his glory, looking like he didn’t give a damn about the new teacher’s orders.

"You!" Coach Nichols called, in front of his side of the bleachers. Eric barely glanced at him. "What’s your name?" No response. I was one of the last in the line we’d formed to exercise, so I was pretty close and therefore I could see the coach’s jaw clenching, his voice getting stronger as he repeated the question.

Eric fixed his icy blues eyes on him and they held a stare contest for a moment, the first one being as calm as ever, the other one quickly losing his temper. Somehow, I’d say it was better that it was the coach to be losing it …