Page 2 of Accidentally Falling For My Best Friend
There goes any chance of a forced-neighbor friendship.I’m sure Mr.Popular isn’t looking for any new friends.
He’s got dark brown hair that’s styled like the kids on TV and bright blue eyes. He smiles at me, and his teeth look very straight; he probably won’t even need braces.
I reluctantly sit down and start to place my supplies into the desk as the teacher begins a summary of our plans for the day.
“I’m Oakley,” the boy next to me says, and I quickly look up at him, surprised that he’s talking to me at all.
“Like the tree?” I hear my mouth ask, even though my brain never gave it permission to.
See, this is why I don’t have friends.I say things without thinking and offend people, or I take too long to think about what to say, and then they think I’m dumb or ignoring them.
This kid is going to think I’m teasing him, and he’s going to tell all of his friends I’m mean, and I’ll be all alone, yet again.
A laugh bursts out of his mouth. “Ha. Yeah, like an oak tree.And you’re Parker like a park,” he says happily. “We’re nature name buddies, it’s like it was meant to be,” he adds.
I am so confused.Did he say buddies?
“Um, what’s meant to be?” I question, not following at all.
“Us, being desk buddies. It was meant to be,” he declares casually.
Oh, he just means like neighbors. Not that he wants us to be friends.That makes more sense.
“Okay class, I know that I warned you all about this before Christmas, but it’s officially time to move on to multiplication,” Mrs.Ashley announces. There are a few groans, including one from Oakley.
“Don’t worry, multiplication is easy,” I whisper to him for some reason. I’m not usually a whisper to my neighbor kind of kid, but he was being so chatty, I guess it made me more comfortable.
He gives me a skeptical side-eyed look. “My older brother said multiplication is the hardest part of third grade,” he challenges.
“Oh. My dad taught me about two years ago, and we work on it a lot, so if you need help I can show you the tricks he’s shown me,” I offer.Why did I admit all of that?He’s probably about to call me a nerd or tease me for doing homework for fun.
“No way! Really? That's so cool,” he whisper-shouts, earning us both a look from the teacher. We smile back apologetically as she tells the class what page to open our textbooks to.
“Sure,” I say to him in a much softer voice.
“I think I’m going to like being your friend,” he whispers back.
Did I hear that right?He definitely said friend that time, not buddy. Maybe he does want to be friends with the new kid.
Don’t get ahead of yourself.Once he actually gets to know me, he’ll realize that he’s way too cool for meand leave me alone. It’s happened before, people want to talk to the exciting new kid, but then they realize I’m me, and that there’s literally nothing else that’s cool about me. Suddenly being new is no longer that interesting.
We get through the lesson, listening to Mrs. Ashley explain what to do before having time to practice problems in our workbook. I finish quickly and glance at Oakley struggling with the second problem.
“Here, try this,” I suggest, before writing out the way my dad showed me. I can do this stuff in my head, but I think the visual will help him.
“Ohhh, okay, that makes sense,” he agrees, trying the next one. “Thanks, that’s way easier!”
“No problem,” I say with a smile before pulling out the Rubik’s Cube my parents got me for Christmas. I’ve had a few in the past, but the colors were starting to wear off with how much I played with it, so they got me this new one. It’s still a bit stiff, but the colors are bright.
I finish off the second side when Oakley notices it.
“There’s no way you can actually finish that,” he challenges.
“Sure I can,” I say with a laugh. I do these all the time, my dad taught me how to last year after I found one in his desk. I picked it up quickly, and I like to carry one around with me to keep busy when I get bored.
Oakley stares at me, he must have finished his work by now too, and when I turn the last row into place a minute or two later, he grabs it out of my hand to inspect each side.
“Are you like a genius or something?” he asks, giving me a disbelieving look like he’s actually impressed.
