Bloods Gem by Gloria Conway Page B

make it hard to concentrate on my
school work.
    I put my journal back in the nightstand and
laid there for awhile just thinking about what I would say to
people who approached me at school.
    “ Hi, I’m Faith. Nice to meet you.” Or,
“No I’m from California, not from around here.”
    What would they think when I told them where
I was from? I wondered how they viewed California. Maybe they think
it’s full of violence and smog. I wouldn’t blame them for thinking
it. I was biased against rednecks and cowboys, before moving, but
still had not seen one guy In a cowboy hat…
     
    My first day of school began
disastrously. I fell walking up the stairs to my first class. Some
guy helped me up, but I had turned bright red and kept
walking. I had six hours left of feeling
self conscious. I wanted to curl up under my desk and
hide.
    I tried to relax but I was tense the whole
time. I let myself zone out for awhile since I already knew the
material.
    It was in English class when I met Chris. A
cute guy with a nice body. Spiky dirty blond hair and green eyes.
Our class had to partner up to write an essay together and he
picked me right away.
    “ Can I have you? Um can…we…” He
stuttered.
    I giggled and we both turned red. “You
wanna?” I gestured to the empty seat beside me. He sat with his
head down, smiling.
    “ If it makes you feel any better, on
top of it being my first day, I fell on the steps going to my first
class,” I said
    He glanced up and we both started laughing.
His eyes lighting up as he laughed. It felt natural being around
him.
    “ So, you're from California?” He
asked.
    “ How’d you?” I looked at him
sideways.
    “ Talk, things get leaked quick around
here,” He said.
    “ Ahh” I said raising my
eyebrow.
    “ So how are you liking
Arkansas?”
    “ Well I haven’t seen much of it, but
so far it’s decent.”
    He kept staring at me like I was going to
say something else. I looked down at my paper scribbling out of
nervousness.
    “ So what should we use as a subject?”
He finally asked.
    I thought for a second. “How about
mythology?” It just popped in my head.
    “ I don’t know much about that subject
but we can try.” He kept nodding while looking at me.
    I started getting red again. “Sorry,” He
said, then quickly looked away. Before class was over he asked me
if we could get together after school to work on our essay. Of
course I wanted to, he was so cute and smart, I just wanted to be
around him.
    He told me he would pick me up in front
after school and we’d go to his house to study. I called Mom and
told her not to worry about picking me up that I would get a ride
home.
    She sounded excited when I told her a boy
was involved and tried to question me. I hung up without
responding.
    Hoping to see Chris in my math class by
lucky coincidence, but he wasn‘t there. But later, I found him at
science class, waiting at the door for me. “Are you in this class?”
I asked.
    He smiled, nodding.
    We stood in the doorway flirting, until
other students filed in between us. Then he talked a friend into
trading seats with me, so I could sit next to him.
    His eyes remained on me
the whole time. It felt good to be admired for once. Even with
dating in the past, which was short lived, no one ever looked at me
the way Chris did. I was flattered.
    Slipping me a note under the
table, You have beautiful
eyes , it said. I glanced at him, smiled and nudged his
arm.
    Continuing to pass notes, I sent one back
telling him to stop distracting me.
    After class we went to the cafeteria,
where he introduced me to his friends. “This is Mike, David,
Melissa, Kate and Drew.” They were all very nice. Kate was the quiet type, which fit my
personality. I c ould see her and I being friends.
Melissa was loud, obnoxious even. When she laughed it was like
nails on a chalk board across my nerve endings. Mike was laid back.
He didn't talk much. David and Drew were much like Melissa except
the opposite sex.