Popular Nerd

Chapter Two// His Phone

"Thank goodness English is last period," exhales Lacy on our way to our lockers. "That means I can proof read my work before I hand it in."

"Who did you find at last minute to do it?" I ask with a light giggle, pinning the combination into my locker and loading up my bag for the day.

"Some girl I found in the library." Lacy replies with a careless shrug. "She was reading To kill a Mocking Bird, so she seemed smart. It was a good job she had read that book we're doing about in English, otherwise I would have been stuck... Paige? Paige?" Lacy waves her hand in front of my face, staring at me puzzled. "Why did you zone out?"

I blink multiple times so my vision shifts away from Nathan and back onto my best friend. "Oh, no reason," I lie, covering it up with the flick of my hand.

Lacy continues her story without any suspicion and I keep sneaking glances over her shoulder to examine Nathan some more. I don't think calling him the 'school nerd' is appropriate. I'm sure there is more beneath the surface than meets the eye about him.

"You ready?" Lacy slams her locker door shut and the immediate bang rings through my ears, making me flinch back to reality.

"Yeah, I'm ready." She sends me a look of confusion then shakes it off. We walk down the corridor on our way to home room. Before we turn the corner, I locate my gaze back onto Nathan for a split second; he is gone.

It is now fifth period and our teacher has got the entire class on the brink of sleep. She closes Macbeth and drops the white board rubber on her desk.

"Everyone get out your reports!" Mrs Simpson barks, our ruthless English teacher that has the tone of voice of a middle aged man. The whole class zips open their bags and present their homework on the desk without hesitation.

Mrs Simpson is the teacher you most definitely don't want to annoy. That was why Lacy was so stressed about handing in a good quality of work on time. Not that she wrote it herself.

"Good!" She bellows from the back of her throat once her eyes have scanned the room with no desk empty. I can taste the tension in the room, bitter and sour, just like her cheap perfume.

I hate sitting right at the front.

The bell for the end of the day finally rings.

"Everyone put your report on my desk on the way out!" She orders over the noise of everyone pulling out their chairs. The end of a school day is always hectic: people either rushing to get the bus, wanting to get home or people going to after school clubs.

However today I am in no rush, thanks to the zip on my backpack refusing to work. I struggle with my face scrunched in frustration as I tug on the little plastic zip, cursing under my breathe as it won't budge. Lacy can't help me as she is already out of the class room, presumably on her way to catch the front seat on the bus.

Thank God I don't take the bus; I would have missed it by now.

Eventually I am able to close my bag and I sign in relief of doing so. My fingers are red and almost numb, but at least it is fastened. I stand to my feet and my back suddenly collides with another.

"I'm so sorry!" I exclaim, shooting around to become face to face with none other than Nathan. I lower my hands from my mouth and I show him an apologetic smile.

"It's ok," he murmurs, his eyes anywhere but mine as he stares fixedly at the ground. Enlarged with embarrassment, his eyes widen with the tremor of his lip. A pink blush rushes up his neck to his cheeks. "I-I'm sorry," he squeaks then squeezes past me and out of the classroom.