Stuart Meczes - The awakening

“Uh okay, it says here you’re in class A Six. I think it’s the second door on your left once you go inside. It’s a double lesson so it lasts for two hours.” I grimaced. I’m pretty sure she knows what a double lesson is! “Um, it also looks like this is your last lesson today. A half day. I uh, don’t have any of those, although I start later on a Monday.” I handed her back the timetable.

“Thanks Alexander. I’ll see you tomorrow then. You okay to meet me at the main entrance in the morning?” she tapped her timetable with a white tipped fingernail. “I don’t know where Performing Arts is.”

The butterflies began fluttering around my stomach again. “Uh yeah, that would be amazing, I mean fine. Um…yeah…no worries. Well…I better go to class and um-” Gabriella mercifully cut me off from my stammering. “I’ll see you in the morning. Shall we say eight forty?” I drew in a deep breath, composing myself. “That sounds good.” “Oh and Alexander, don’t let those guys bother you. People like that always get what’s coming to them in the end.” “Uh…yeah I guess so. Bye Gabriella,” I said with an awkward wave. “See you tomorrow,” she replied, a slight curve of a smile on her face.

As I walked away, I plucked up the courage to glance over my shoulder, hoping to catch a final glance of the incredible girl that had chosen to talk to me.

But she had already gone.

I glanced at my watch. Five to nine.

I was sitting on the main steps to the school, bag lodged between my legs. I'd arrived at half eight, much to Mikey’s annoyance, not wanting to miss the chance to show Gabriella to her lesson. I’d watched the first drips of students arrive, the mass flow as time had swept on and finally the dregs. There had been no gorgeous brunette in the crowd.

The familiar ache of disappointment curled through my chest.

Of course she isn’t here.

I stood up, scanning the area one final time. Throwing my bag onto my shoulder, I shuffled inside, getting barged from side to side as people overtook me.

A stab of pain in my temples made me delve into my bag for some Paracetamol. Once again I’d slept badly, this time mainly due to the vicious headache I’d been sporting since the previous morning. I washed a couple of tablets down with a swig of water.

As I made my way towards Maths class, I heard someone calling my name. I turned to see Tim weaving his way through the crowd.

Tim’s full name was Timothy Clement Matheson. In my opinion that was far too many M’s and T’s for one person to handle. He stood over six feet tall, topped by a mound of wavy blonde hair. He was a bit geeky like me, but better looking and therefore far more socially acceptable. As far as school life went, Tim had a pretty successful one. A fact I was very jealous of. He waved, a foppish grin smearing its way across his face and fell into step beside me. “Hey man, how’s things?” he said, patting me on the back. “Uh yeah, not bad I guess. How about you? Good weekend?” I asked, trying to sound interested, despite my aching disappointment.

“I’m good thanks mate. Had a wicked weekend! Saturday, went to Bakoo with Baz and Charlie and got smashed. Baz — the idiot, got so wasted he took a swing at a bouncer! Earned himself a trip down the front steps. So then Charlie tried to have a go! Pretty sure they’re barred now.” He carried on chuckling and I squeezed out a laugh. “Then on Sunday my sister guilt tripped me into taking her to see that new horror film with James Franco. Seriously mate, biggest waste of eight quid ever! I fell asleep after an hour. So what did you get up to?”

I struggled for a way to make my weekend sound interesting. My action packed Saturday had consisted of finishing Rebecca for the second time then helping Mum make lasagne. My equally riveting Sunday had involved History coursework. The day had culminated by playing Call of Duty on-line for five hours straight, whilst arguing the semantics of sniping with a prepubescent American kid.

“Uh, not too much, went out for a couple of drinks myself on Saturday. Was a bit worse for wear Sunday so just chilled really, had a big session on Call of Duty with some mates.” My blatant lies seemed to satisfy him.

“Cool.”

“Um, so what lesson you got now?”

Tim’s smudged smile spread, “None mate, got a free period for an hour. Thought I’d head to the library, work on that equation Mr Norman gave us in Maths club last week. You done it yet?”

I nodded. Yet another night sacrificed to the God of academia.

“Cool.”

We kept walking in silence for a few moments, and then Tim piped up again. “Oh dude I meant to ask, who was that hottie you were with yesterday? Mate she was awesome!”

I felt a jolt in my stomach as I thought about the new girl. I gave a shrug, trying to appear nonchalant. “Oh, you mean Gabriella? She’s just a transfer from Italy who asked me to show her around the school.”

Tim raised his eyebrows. “She asked you?”

I glared at him.

“Oh no, all I mean is a girl like that, you would think she’d ask the most popular person she could find, that’s what most new people do.” “Well maybe she isn’t like most people,” I snapped. Tim raised his hands, his tone apologetic. “Yeah sorry, you’re probably right.” “Besides,” I continued, “she seems genuinely nice. She even stood up for me when Terry picked a fight.”

Tim was the only person that I’d ever told about Terry and even then I didn’t tell him just how often he roughed me up. Tim slowed, eyes narrowing in concern. “Again? Screw who his Dad is, you need to speak to somebody. He’s bad news.”

I sighed. “Come on Tim, you know that if I get the school involved, It’ll just get worse. Anyway I’m sure he’ll get bored soon and move on. Then I only have Andrew and TJ to worry about.” I laughed, trying to sound unbothered, but ended up sounding a little hysterical.

“Well it’s your life dude,” he shrugged.

Tim was never bleak for long. He ran in front and spun around so he was walking backwards. “Anyway, you gonna ask her out? I mean, she asked you to ‘show her around!’” He used his fingers to invert the words. “Mate, if you got with her, she would be worth at least ten normal girls, easy!” As he gesticulated, his backpack collided with a first year coming in the other direction.

“OWW!”

“Sorry about the face buddy!” he shouted after the boy, cringing theatrically. This time my laugh was genuine. It was hard to be down around Tim. He was always so high on life.

“Look, don’t get me wrong,” I said, still laughing, “as much as I would love to ask her out, I’m pretty confident I’m not her type. I get the impression she just felt unthreatened by me.” I paused and then tacked on, “have you seen her today by the way?”

Tim shook his head “Sorry mate, not at all. Trust me, I’d remember.”

We reached the Library and stopped by its sweeping glass doors. Tim shrugged his backpack onto his opposite shoulder and held out his knuckle. I went to shake it, but managed to curl my hand into a fist at the last second and bump it against his.

“See you later.”

“Peace broseph. Good luck with the hottie!” Tim turned and disappeared through the doors.

I continued to my lesson, keeping an eye out for Gabriella. There was no sign of her, before my Maths class, or after it. I spent double History chewing my pen to the nub and wondering why she hadn’t turned up.

When the bell rang for lunch, I took a slow walk down to the canteen. I avoided the shortcut across the football pitch, not wanting to chance another accidental meeting with Terry and Co.

As I headed up the path, an uneasy feeling swept over me — a feeling of being watched. I stopped walking and stared around. There were a lot of people about, but as usual none of them were paying me any attention. As I scanned, I saw a flash of black fur through the hedge across the road. The leaves rustled as whatever was behind them darted away. Intrigued, I headed over. Stretching on my tiptoes, I glanced over the top and looked from side to side. There was nothing there. I shrugged.