Second Period Revolution

The story of how Nicole didn't get a boyfriend

Nicole talked to Justin for the fifth time in second period history.
“Um, excuse me, can I borrow a pen?”
They’d sat next to each other for two months.
Her pen really had run out of ink. This wasn’t just a ploy to see his caramel chocolate eyes.
Justin looked at her briefly and then dove his head into his backpack. He checked the main pouch, then the side pockets, the front zip, the main pouch again.
“It’s ok if you can’t find one…”
“No, I got it!”
He was emphatic but he still didn’t pull his head out of his backpack.
Mr. Lamont was asking for examples of ways America could have prevented the French Revolution. Nicole couldn’t think of any but knew Gregory Holbrook and Nina Patil could. So she just kept watching Justin's head bob up and down.
“Nina, thanks for volunteering, but can anyone else add to the conversation.”
“I got it!” Justin said, a little too loud.
“Oh, Justin, nice to hear something from that corner. How could the United States have helped prevent the atrocities?”
Justin looked at Mr. Lamont like he’d never seen him before. Nicole felt horrible. She only wanted to talk to him and now Justin was off the guillotine, paying for crimes arguably out of his control.
“Well, the United States was a young country then, and so they couldn’t have helped as much as today,” Justin said evasively but with the inate confidence that first impressed Nicole.
“Yes, of course, Justin, but how could even itsy bitsy USA have helped back then?”
Justin looked lost but Nicole knew which themes Mr. Lamont harped on.
“Money,” she whispered to Justin.
“Money,” Justin said out loud. “We could have given the king money.”
“Yes, money!” Mr. Lamont repeated emphatically. “A king is easily overthrown without it. It’s how the world goes around. It’s how America…”
Justin turned to Nicole and placed a black plastic ballpoint on her desk. “Thanks, Nicole. You can keep that one.”
“Oh, I couldn’t,” she said, though she knew she’d never give it up.
There was no point in whispering anymore because Mr. Lamont was only listening to himself.
“It came in a twelve pack,” said Justin.
“You sure? It seemed like you were having trouble finding one.”
“I was having trouble finding one without bite marks.”
Nicole laughed and Justin smiled and they both blushed.
When class ended, Nicole took longer to pack up her stuff than she usually did. She carefully put the black ballpoint pen in the front zip pocket. She made sure her book spines all faced the same direction. She knew Justin took a long time to leave. Today, however, he was waiting for her.
“What’s your next class?” he asked.
“Geometry with Mrs. Gushi."
“I have her too!" Justin said. "I like her except she tells too many stories about her son Michael and his piano scholarship.”
Nicole laughed. It was funny because it was true.

“I know more about Michael than I do about triangles,” she said. “And I know a lot about triangles.”
They reached the classroom door, but a high pitched voice kept them from crossing the threshold.
“I have Ms. Kindle for Geometry and she always tells stories about her nephew’s peanut allergy. It’s totally irrelevant,” said Hannah Wendle, whose chirpy voice reminded Nicole of the bird that won’t shut up on a Saturday morning.
Hannah hung out with the football team and with the girls who didn’t have to play any sports because they were naturally thin. She spoke to Nicole only in class, usually to borrow notes.
Nicole was annoyed at Hannah but did not want to show any bad tempers in front of Justin. So she asked Hannah how her Missteps of America Timeline was going.
Hannah ignored her.

“I’m heading off to the west building for English. Any of you going that way?” Hannah said, looking at Justin.
“I am,” Justin said, looking at Nicole.
Nicole smiled back at him. “Not me. See you tomorrow.”
The next day Hannah and Justin were laughing together when Nicole walked in. Justin tried to explain the joke but Hannah kept saying she wouldn’t get it. Justin finally did tell the whole thing about the binder that fell and then the joke that Hannah said and the thing that Justin said and then other thing that fell but it wasn’t funny, especially with Hannah’s chirpy, cheery laughter.
When Mr. Lamont brought the class discussion back around to America’s obsession with money, Nicole felt brave enough to talk to Justin.
“What class do you have next again?”
Justin looked up, but Hannah spoke faster.
“Justin has class right next to mine. Biology with Mr. Schuster.”
“Yeah,” he said.
Hannah put her finger to her lips then pointed to the teacher, whose temples were throbbing now as he orated to the ceiling fan.
A few minutes later, Justin leaned over Nicole’s desk to look at her margin drawings
“I see you’re still using my pen,” Justin said. “Do you take art lessons?”
“Every Friday afternoon.”
Hannah turned around again.
“Yeah, Nicole. Your pictures are really pretty. That one looks like a dandelion,” Hannah said, and pressed her finger hard onto Nicole’s paper.
“So Justin, some of my friends are going to the beach after school tomorrow. Are you busy?” Hannah said, shoving her textbook between two binders.
“Um, I’m not busy. Are you going Nicole?”
“No, I hadn’t…”
“You have art class on Fridays, don’t you?” Hannah said.
Nicole said yes.
“Bummer!” Hannah said.
The next day, Friday, Hannah wouldn’t shut up about how much fun she and Justin would have after school.
The following Monday, Hannah told Nicole about how much fun she and Justin had at the beach.
On Tuesday, Hannah let it slip that she and Justin got frozen yogurt from that cool new place on Jefferson Street yesterday. She had totally forgot to invite Nicole. She and Justin already had private inside jokes.
By the next Monday, Hannah leaned over to Nicole when Justin was talking to Chen and whispered excitedly that she and Justin were dating.
“How wonderful,” Nicole said.
“I know!” said Hannah. “It just happened.”
Nicole looked at Justin’s black ballpoint pen in her hand. She slammed it onto his desk.
“I said you could keep it,” Justin said, holding it out.
“I don’t need it anymore,” Nicole said.

“It was a gift. You might want it someday.”
Hannah turned around. “Quit being so polite. I’ll take the damn pen.” And she plucked it out of Justin’s hand and tucked it behind her ear, where it stayed all period until the bell rang and she put it in her back pocket.
Nicole went to the drugstore after school and bought her own twelve pack.