Page 6 of The Heart That Breaks
I look at Nathan, and I swear I don’t know what makes me do it. But I smile. And he smiles back.
***
AFTER CLASS, I take an extra long time putting my book and notebook in my backpack. Nathan had left the room without acknowledging me further, so I chalk the whole thing up to a fluke as I head for the door.
Mrs. Sawyer looks up from her desk as I walk by. “Excellent take on the story, Ann-Elizabeth. I wish you were willing to speak up more often. Perhaps I’ll seat Mr. Hanson next to you permanently. It seems to have had a positive effect on you.”
My cheeks are fire engine red by the time I reach the hallway. Nathan is standing against the wall outside Mrs. Sawyer’s room, one foot propped up with his knee bent. I realize he’s heard everything she said.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” he says, stepping out to walk along beside me.
“What?” I ask, pretending I don’t know what he’s talking about.
“Us sitting next to each other.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“I think it does.”
“What are you doing?” I ask, giving him a direct stare.
“Walking with you to your next class,” he says.
“Why?”
“Why not?”
“Ah, because you’ve never done that before?”
He shrugs. “First time for everything?”
I lean back a little, gripping the straps of my backpack with my thumbs and give him a long look. “People usually have an ulterior motive for doing things they don’t normally do.”
“Not always.”
“What’s yours?” I ask, ignoring the denial.
He laughs. “You don’t cut a guy any slack, do you?”
“What would be the point?”
“Not making it so difficult to get to know you?”
“Since when do you want to get to know me?”
“Since the second day of school when you asked Mr. Bellingham if we would ever use Geometry in real life.”
I feel my face redden at the memory of my impertinence. It had gotten me lunch detention the following day, during which I got to write five hundred sentences on respecting my teacher along with the potential after-life uses of geometry.
“One of my finer moments,” I say, not bothering to hide the sarcasm. “I could see why that would make you interested in getting to know me. By the way, there weren’t any cheerleaders in detention.”
“That’s because none of them wants to buck the system.”
“Neither do I.”
“Yeah, you do.”
“No. I don’t. My goal is to get through high school with as few people noticing me as possible.”
