My heart beat fast when my blue eyes laid onto him. I couldn’t help but adjust myself in my chair when he walked through the classroom door. His head was an inch away from the top door frame, he basically could hit it if he hadn't ducked quickly. Already, a senior, and he had scruff on his chin. Honestly, I thought he was a young substitute, but no, he took a seat to my right and slid back into his chair. His legs stretched far under the desk before him and the awkward nerd scoffed at him. I don’t get why he would scoff so loudly, but it got the guy’s attention. 

“And you are?” The shortest and oldest teacher in the school asked. She completely dropped her sentence about conjunctions and stared at the cute guy.

“Parker,” he said with a deep voice. 

I felt my face flush red and I quickly looked down at my notebook with nothing written down on it. I fumbled for my pencil and pretended to write, but I was drawing a simple flower. 

“And why are you in my class?” The teacher snorted.

“Because it’s on my schedule,” Parker stated in such a chill tone. He pulled out his paper with his schedule on it and held it up.

Mrs. Becker stormed over to Parker and swiped the paper out of his hand. He retracted as if she cut him, but I glanced and saw no blood. Her wrinkles grew as she peered at the schedule. She hummed and slapped it onto his desk.

“I was not informed.”

“I’m a transfer student,” Parker said and shrugged his shoulders. His leather jacket tightened around his broad shoulders and I focused on the teacher. 

My heart still beat quicker than usual. I really didn’t know what was going on with myself, this never happened before, ever, not even with my middle school boyfriend and girlfriend in freshman year.

“Well, you better have a notebook and pencil, because we’re in the middle of a lesson,” Mrs. Becker said and marched back to the front of the classroom.

It was small, despite being a big public school. The building dated back in the 80’s and may have been remodeled once, so some of the classrooms were small before our town grew larger over the years. The LED lights were dim though, they could be replaced… The room was in the dead center of the building so there were no windows to the outdoors.

About thirty kids were in class, including myself and now Parker. It was general English for seniors, and boy it's a small class. The advanced and AP classes for seniors were packed because everyone wants to get into college, including myself, but I struggled with school. I had taken an advanced class once and almost failed, so I had to settle with basic grade classes. Because of that, I got stuck with all the nobodies in school, the nerds, and the lonely ones you’d suspect shooting up the school or some shit. 

I brushed my long blonde hair back and bit my lip, only to get some lipstick on my teeth and taste it until class was over. I couldn’t help but glance over to my right and see Parker adjust himself in an odd way, until I realized he was leaning over to me.

“Uh, can I borrow a piece of paper and a pen from ya?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” I stuttered and my pencil slipped out of my palms from nervous sweats. I grab my tiny but flashy backpack. It was the most popular one for this year. It was pink with jewels embedded on a checkered impression on the leather. I loved the thing, especially since my parents gifted it to me for school this year. I open the singular compartment and grab my spare binder with paper. I opened it, grabbed two to three pieces and handed it over to Parker. Then, I get my sequin pencil bag and hand over my oldest pencil, one I could part with, especially if Parker was the one to take it. 

“Thanks,” he said as I locked eyes with his deep brown irises. It complimented and yet blended in with his brown hair. Man oh man, that guy had a fine chin line. I couldn’t care less about the few zits on his chin and forehead, because everything else drew me in. 

Mrs. Becker continued on about sentence structure and grammar related to college essays, since that was the point of senior year to prep students for college, and nothing else mattered.

Once the notes were over, it was time to practice our college entry letters, which were essays about ourselves to stand out from the crowd. Apparently it’s a way for applicants to get a higher chance to be accepted, especially at fancy colleges. 

The classroom was at mid tone, meaning some people chatted in a kindly manner or others quietly worked. I had no one to talk to, so I began to jot down my ideas on my essay, or so I thought…

“Hey, thanks for letting me use these,” Parker whispered. I froze as his breath hit my right ear. He wasn’t awfully close but enough that I felt it. I turned and forced a smile on my red hot face. 

“Sure, no problem.”

“We literally just moved into the house yesterday, so all my school stuff is packed away in some box stored in the garage.”

“Oh, sounds stressful,” I said. I don’t know what it’s like to move, I have always lived in the same house my entire life. Part of me felt bad that I couldn’t relate. “Where did you move from?”

“Oklahoma,” he scoffed and rolled his eyes. I couldn’t help but smile. “Guess Colorado could be better…”

“Not as many tornadoes here.”

“That’s nice,” he sighed. “Can I find you at the end of the day to return this to you?” He held up the pencil I lent him.

“Keep it, and here,” I quickly grabbed more papers from my binder. “Take these for your other classes.”

“Thanks,” he nodded his head and then pulled out his smartphone.

I frowned, thinking that maybe we would talk more, but we didn’t. He browsed the internet, from what I saw briefly, and I started a list.