Classmates

He always had his attention elsewhere.

I would often sneak glances at her in between lessons that droned on and on. Never realizing how often I would do it, I would try to catch a glimpse at her trying hard to stay awake in class just like the rest of us and also take down notes in her notebook, at least I thought what she wrote were notes.

Once or twice she would catch me looking at her and I would snap my head back to the uninteresting blackboard and an even uninteresting professor in the front. I could sometimes feel her gaze boring into me that would often produce a tingling sensation down my spine but I would dismiss it as my imagination on overdrive.

At lunch I purposely skipped out on my daily visit to the cafeteria so that I could be in the same room as her at a time that was not another excruciatingly boring class. Another perk being, I had opportunities to see different expressions on her pretty face when she giggled and gushed with her friends.

She didn't laugh like the other girls, it was not guarded or conscious. It was free spirited, it was radiant and resembled a delightful cackle that would sometimes lead me to chuckle a little myself. She always had this twinkling in her eyes when she smiled or was excited about something, call me weird, but I definitely considered it an adorable sparkle.

She seemed to like sandwiches and cheese, since her lunch always consisted of those ingredients and I think she was definitely fond of strawberry milkshake because I would see that she barely shared the small pack of the beverage with her friends as much as the rest of her lunch.

I observed too many things about her and had a faint sense of stalker-ish feelings come over me. But that hardly stopped me.

She would run her hands through her hair more than normal, it seemed like she was unaware of that habit of hers, she would do it in the middle of conversations, when she walked down the hallway, when she would take down notes or while she just stared at the black board.

I wanted to talk to her, to have casual conversations with her just like the other guys in class. And god knows I tried, I really did! But failed every single time except for that one time when I bent down to pick up the eraser that rolled down next to my bag on the floor. I turned to find the owner to return it, and found her with her outstretched hand signalling me to toss it her way. There were a good three desks between us, but I tossed it anyway and she clumsily caught it between both her hands. I noticed her body reflexes were a little slow and couldn't hide the ghost of a smile on my face. She gave me a sheepish look and mouthed a Thank you!' While all I could do was nod in acknowledgment.
That was about the only interaction we had other than the usual morning greetings that everyone gave each other, and I was starting to feel more like a wuss.

Lessons would take forever to end, but when they did the whole class would let out a sigh of relief in unison. It was funny actually, how a school population that was socially stratified on the basis of number of friends you have, or how many people knew you or how rich your parents were; had one thing were everyone stood on the same side, same level: lectures were torturous'

I would take my own sweet time picking my stuff and packing up. Mainly just to be able to hear her chattering with her friends about nothing really… it never really made sense to me, her conversations, that is; but it was pleasing to listen to her talk even though it was not to me.

As I picked up my bag and turned to walk out the classroom I heard my name being called out, I knew who the voice belonged to and my face would break into a smile that, I was sure, made me look like an idiot. Nevertheless I turned to look at the owner of the voice who had a similar smile on her face, the only difference being hers made her look pretty.
"See you tomorrow?"
It seemed like it was more of a question directed to me than a goodbye greeting. It seemed like she wanted me to say 'yes' or probably anticipated my presence at school, in class every day. It made me have hopes and it was a little unsettling since hopes can be shattered and that didn't seem like a very nice feeling to have. But to be honest I subconsciously always had hopes the moment I started paying more attention at her and her quirks than my own business, so what's a little more going to make worse.
"Yeah 'course! See you tomorrow!"
Maybe it was just my imagination but I think I saw her smile widen a little. I turned and walked out of the door and I'm pretty sure my smile had widened tenfold all throughout my jog towards home.

Author's Note

Please review and places where I could work a little more on my narration and flow of the story. Just about anything really.

Reviews

[Cagan]

I love your dialogue and descriptions, all really lovely.
I can't tell though if these are elementary schoolers or high schoolers or between? Maybe that can be your point, that this story applies to all ages.
One piece of advice I would give you is try to work on not having any runon sentences. They ruin the otherwise great flow of your story. Also, maybe vary sentence length a bit...you have beautiful long sentences but when you only have beautiful long sentences, they blend together. Add some shorter ones for emphasis, or just to mix things up!
Good Luck! -Cagan

[quill&pens95]

Thank you so much! I will be sure to work on the length of my sentences. Thanks for taking the time to read my piece.