Caught In Time

Chapter 2: Present Day

My god can this class be over yet?  It was third period English and James had enough. He was bored and didn't particularly care about comma splices or structuring sentence paragraphs. The only source of entertainment was staring at Cassedee's long brown hair. She had on a purple sweater and jeans. Her black converse were beat up with little small hearts and designs on the top. Her eyes were a light brown with little hints of blue.

She was new to the school and town. Some kids said that she had moved from Alaska but with skin like hers, you couldn't question it. Nole had encouraged James to ask her out but he never was able to get the courage up to do it. Nole had even offered to ask her out for him but James refused. 

She was absorbed in whatever  Mrs. Blenski  was saying, whatever that was. He glanced over at his other friend, Nole. Nole was a short kid but stocky with black hair and dark brown eyes. He always had luck with the ladies and smooth talked his way into just about anything. 

His biceps bulged  out of his shirt and his solid frame could be seen against the maroon t-shirt he had on. His beard was trimmed and had a smile that made women melt. 

Their classroom had posters of motivational quotes on them and reminders of when times get tough to always maintain a positive attitude! James always thought this to be ridiculous. No one is ever that happy. Certainly not him.

Their whiteboard lay behind the teachers desk, which was cluttered with student's assignments and graded papers. Mrs. Blenski began to write the four most important influential authors of the 1920s. As if he cared at all. 

James on the other hand was the true definition of a nerd. Tall and lean with sandy brown hair and light green eyes, which sported short rimmed glasses in front of them. He had on a t-shirt with space travel and aliens on it with dark colored jeans and vans. His backwards baseball hat felt like the only disconnect he had in the nerd world. 

He wasn't terrible looking, just never felt as if he was ever good enough looking. He was not in the best of shape and barely had any raging biceps to impress the ladies with. He never had a girlfriend and always wondered whether it would happen. 

He was already eighteen and talking to girls terrified him. James always became friends with them then eventually never left this zone.

The friendzone.

The most dreaded place in human existence. 

Sighing, he glanced down at his notes. Nothing. The only thing he had written in his blue spiraled notebook was the date the paper was due. Two weeks, he chuckled to himself. I got this, no problem. 

Ah, Cassedee you beautiful creature. His heart fluttered at the thought. The only sonnet writer James truly loved was William Shakespeare. Whenever he read the works of Shakespeare he always was reminded of the beauty in the beautiful...Cassedee.

Maybe one day...maybe one day you will be mine to call me yours.

The bell rang just as Mrs. Blenski had finished telling them about the due date for their papers.

"Don't forget!" She croaked out. "Your finals are due in two weeks. That's two weeks from now!"

"See you all again next weekend, Monday...and you, Mr. Hootzer." She raised a finger at James and he could feel the heat poking at his face. 

"Don't be late for my class again otherwise you will spend the next day in my class in detention!" 

Nole snickered and James shot him a cold look. The students frantically packed up their stuff into their backpacks and began making their way out of the classroom.