f o u r.

I looked behind me: Karsen was a few steps away. I raised my hand and pointed to the door on my left, “that’s Mr. Mueller’s room, you’ll have him for second block and after him you go back to Mrs. Haywood for third block �" which is basically first lunch and then thirty minutes to do whatever �" then you go to Ms. Ness for fourth and fifth, then Mr. Martin for sixth,” I explained to him, he nodded and looked at his schedule again.

“Heh, thanks....uh I forgot your name,” he said, a small blush creeped into his cheeks, “What was it again,” he asked.

“Peyton.” I answered, and laughed lightly, "call me Pate; if you see a girl with neon pink hair, her name is Lauryn and she’s my best friend,” Karsen and I were now walking side by side down the hallway.

“Cool,” he said, “do you guys have any soda machines, I’m dying for a Mountain Dew.”

I scoffed, “Mountain Dew? You suck. MD is just…so nasty, Pepsi for life,” I exclaimed. Karsen scrunched his face up in disgust.

“Ew, you are nasty, miss. Pepsi makes me have heartburn.” I rolled my eyes at what he said, of course Pepsi ruled over Mountain Dew.

“Oh hey, you guys skipping too,” a familiar voice said. I turned my head and saw Lauryn walking out of a classroom.

I smiled and shook my head, “no Laur, we most certainly are not. I’m just showing the new dude around.” Lauryn raised her eyebrow and I pointed to Karsen.

“HEY, NEW DUDE!” Lauryn yelled, startling Karsen. He turned, a scared expression in his eyes. I covered my mouth to stifle my laugh as Karsen and Lauryn introduced themselves to each other and shook hands.

“Take care of my girl,” Lauryn said, shooting Karsen a look, “I’ll kick your a*s to Japan and you’ll have to deal with the after effects of that tsunami and my foot up your a*s if you hurt her.” Once the words were out of Lauryn’s mouth, my face flushed bright red.

“Shut up Michelle,” I exclaimed. Lauryn glared at me: I knew she hated her middle name.

“You, Alice,” she smiled. Karsen gave me an awkward look.

“Any-who, I’m gonna get back to Jakobic’s class. Talk to you all later,” she said, she did a little wave and walked back into the classroom.

“Uhm…” I said. As if on cue, Karsen started laughing. I raised my eyebrow and gave him a confused look.

“You guys seem awesome, just saying,” he said. I couldn’t help but smile as the bell rang and students began to fill the hallway to get to their second block class.

“Think you can manage from here,” I shouted over the noise of people talking, lockers slamming, gum popping and about a million other sounds.

“Yea sure! See you in third block,” Karsen shouted back.

I was suddenly swept into the crowd and yelled back, “you know it!”

I tapped my pencil against the desk: I looked up at the clock.

Only five minutes left Pate, chill out. I scolded myself and stopped the pencil. I looked down at the paper I had been handed, it was blank. I had spent most of the hour of second block thinking of Karsen.

I began to chew on my lip and count the seconds. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the bell rang. I grabbed my books and stood up. I felt someone walk into me, I stumbled forward and my books went flying, I put my hands out in front of me to brace my fall and landed on my knees.

I bit my tongue to keep from crying out. Tears welled in my eyes but I blinked them away. I stood up on shaky legs and picked my books up off the floor and rushed out.

I walked into Mrs. Haywood’s class and set my books down and put my head down. I brushed the tears that were falling from my eyes away. No one--especially not Karsen--didn’t need to see me cry. I had gone this long without breaking down and bawling, and today would notbe the day.

“Hey Peyton,” Karsen said. I lifted my head up from the desk and put on a smile for him. He smiled back as everyone sat down in their seats and waited for first lunch bell to ring.

“Hey,” I replied. I looked at the door, expecting Lauryn to pop in since she had second lunch bell, but she didn’t show up. Five minutes into third block we were on the way to the cafeteria.

I sat the tray of school food down and pushed it away. I never ate lunch: it was too early. Hell, I never ate anyways.

“Hey,” Karsen poked my arm, “eat miss, you’re too skinny.” He kept poking my arm, I rolled my eyes and picked up the pizza they were serving and took a bite.

He grinned, “from now on, you eat lunch got it? You’re so small, I’m sure I could like, snap your bones if I wanted to, and I really don’t wanna.” I couldn’t but smile as his sillyness.

Well, I can honestly say I think I’ll like first and third block a lot more, I thought to myself with a simple smile as I took another bite of pizza.