After School

He also observed his classmates as they came in. Some recognizable from old classes, most not. He saw them walk by, most going to the other side of the class, none sitting that close to him. The closest was a girl who sat in the same row as him, but two seats in front. He didn’t get a good look at her face as he did with most everybody else in the class. He noticed how long her hair was though, long past her shoulders. He liked that.

The teacher came into the class shortly before the bell, and wrote her name on the board, “Ms. Garcia”. She started addressing the class for about 3 minutes, when the door opened, and another student came in, and this one Jerry knew well, it was his friend Michael, a burly kid of average height.

Ms. Garcia was mid sentence when he opened the door, she looked at him glaringly and nodded for him to go sit down, and he gave a cheesy grin for a split second and went to go sit down.

You wouldn’t have been able to tell, but Jerry was happy to see Michael. He looked different than when Jerry last saw him though, he looked bigger, and had some facial hair. How he came into the room was familiar though.

Michael didn’t see Jerry as he came in. This didn’t surprise Jerry, he knew that he was easy to miss considering where he was sitting. Michael saw a couple of people he knew on the other side of the classroom and sat with them. As he sat and faced the class, he looked at Ms. Garcia, and realized she was hot. As he looked out to the rest of the class, he saw Jerry. A smirk came upon his face, and he waited for Jerry's glance to come back towards him, and as it did, they made eye contact. Michael and Jerry smiled at each other, Michael's more toothy and animated, Jerry’s more polite and reserved, while Michael gave Jerry a peace sign, and Jerry gave Michael a short wave.

As the class went by, Michael sat in his seat restless, leg shaking, fidgeting. He tried talking to one of the people next to him, but he was louder than he expected, and Ms. Garcia shushed him, and the person looked at him, annoyed. He then pulled out a notebook which was drawn on intricately, and opened to the next blank page. He then started drawing a few things; a cartoon character, his name in a graffiti style, and other small doodles.

After Ms. Garcia finished her lecture, she handed out some papers to fill out to each person in the front row to hand back, and announced, “Fill these papers out and leave them on my desk before you leave”. As the girl who was in front of Jerry handed him his papers, he got a good look at her, and she quickly turned back around. He thought she had a pleasant face. Jerry looked over at Michael, and saw him chatting with his two friends that he didn’t know. A few moments went by and the girl looked for something to write with and couldn’t find it. She turned around towards Jerry and said, “Hey, do you have an extra pencil?”. Jerry knew that he had a pack of lead pencils at home that his mom got him, that he brought 3 of them, and that they were in his backpack. He didn’t respond right away though, and took a couple seconds to say what was on his mind. “Yeah, I do. My mom got me a pack, and I brought 3”. He pulled out one, and held it out. The girl gave Jerry a curious and wry smile, and grabbed it. “Thanks… You have gel pens, don’t you?” she asked. Jerry was surprised that she asked this, but he was happy she did. “Yeah I do. They are better than ballpoint”.

“Good to know,” she responded dryly, but engagingly.

“Do you want to borrow one?” Jerry asked, even though he realized he had already lent her a pencil.

She again gave him a curious and wry smile, “No, I’m OK for right now. If I need one, I will let you know though.” And she turned back around.

As this was happening and the papers were coming up Michael's row, he looked over at Jerry and saw him talking to the girl in front of him. He saw this, and realized how long it had been since he saw Jerry. He also realized that he hardly had ever seen Jerry talk to girls, and that he was happy to see him doing that right now.

As the class let out, the girl in front of Jerry got up before him, put on her backpack, picked up her paper, and went towards him. “Here’s your pencil back.” Jerry looked stoically at her for a second. “If you want, you can keep it.” Jerry looked away from her for a moment, and then looked back. He realized that he did want his pencil back, and he wasn’t sure why he said that. He also noticed that she smelled nice. “Thanks, but I’m alright.” she replied in a friendly manner. “I lose them all the time, and I have more at home. If I forget it again though, will you lend me one?”

“Yeah, sure.” he replied, still stoic, but with some inflection in his voice.

“Cool. See you later.”

“Bye Erika”.

She gave him a mischievous smile, “I didn’t tell you my name.”

“I saw it on your paper” Jerry said dryly, pointing at her paper.

“Ah.” Erika went and picked up Jerry's paper, which was still on his desk, looked at it quickly, and put it back.

“Later Jerry.” she said, and then she walked away. Jerry watched her leave and sat for a few moments. He then got up, left his paper on Ms. Garcia’s desk, and walked out of the class.

Michael was chatting with the people he knew, and he saw Jerry get up and leave. Although he hadn’t been planning on it, he got up quickly, said bye to his friends hurriedly, and went to catch up with Jerry. As he exited the door, he looked around and spotted who he thought was Jerry, and he jogged up and greeted, “Hey foo!” as he gave him a firm pat on the shoulder. He realized as the person turned around and looked at him, that it wasn’t Jerry. The person gave him a confused look and walked away. Michael was embarrassed, but not enough to dour his mood.

“Hey Michael,” he heard in a familiar voice, and turned to see Jerry, who had stopped when he heard Michael say his name loudly. “That wasn’t me,” Jerry said, smiling slightly and poking fun. Michael laughed. “Hey dude, feels like it’s been forever since I seen you!” as he ran over and playfully punched Jerry in the stomach, as he turned his body and met Michael with a soft shoulder bump to his chest. “Yeah, it has been. That assembly last year.” Jerry responded. ’Damn, yeah it was.” Michael said as if it had been too long. There was a pause where both boys were trying to find what to talk about next, but neither found it right away.

Michael then blurts out, “Hey, lets go to my house?! You haven’t come over since even longer. ” Jerry stared at Michael's face for a second and then looked to his left and thought to himself for another few seconds, as Michael looked at him enthusiastically. “Yeah, let’s go.” Jerry finally responded and quickly led the way in the direction towards Michael's. Michael caught up with Jerry, and they made their way toward his house.

They walked silently for a while, the conversation still not there for them, but they were comfortable in the company of a familiar friend. As they walked, Michael saw someone he knew and went to go talk to them. Jerry didn’t follow, he waited at where Michael had noticed. Michael exchanged simple conversation about what classes they had and about the mutual people they knew and had in other classes. It took a moment for Michael to notice Jerry hadn’t joined him. He told his friend goodbye,went back with Jerry, and they continued walking to Michael's.

“How come you didn’t come and talk to Aaron?” Michael asked, puzzled, but not surprised.

“I don’t know him.” Jerry responded plainly.

“Yeah, but you could get to know him. He’s cool.”

Jerry silently thought for a moment, “Most of the time people don’t seem to want to talk much.”

“Well, you don’t really seem to want to talk much either.”

“What do you mean?” Jerry asked, dryly, but his brow furled a bit.

“Like when we talk, you don’t really show emotion. I think that most people do that when they talk.” Michael responded.

Jerry walked silently, this time for a long time without saying anything, looking around at Michael and the surroundings. He didn’t fully understand what Michael meant by that, but he had an idea. Michael noticed this drop in mood from Jerry, although you wouldn’t have noticed it from a distance.

Michael then gave Jerry a playful punch on the arm, “I don’t mind it though.” Jerry nodded lightly.

“What do you think of health class?” Michael asked.

“It seems fine. I don’t think it is going to be that hard.”

“Nothing is hard for you in school, asshole.” Michael responded.

Jerry shrugged. “Math can get hard sometimes.”

“That shits hard for everybody though. There’s always something harder.”

Jerry thought for a moment and responded, “True… What do you think of the class?”

“I think Ms. Garcia is pretty hot.” Michael responded, excitedly.

Jerry looked at Michael, nodded, then looked away, but didn’t say anything.

Michael smiled curiously at Jerry. “Do you think she is hot?” he asked.

Jerry thought for a moment, “She has a nice shape.”

Michael was silent for a moment, then started laughing. “Yeah, she does have a nice shape, huh?” he asked jokingly. Jerry then smiled slightly at him.