Helping Emmet

Emmet wore plaid today. I noticed around lunch time. Plaid reminds me of someone. I won't say who. It doesn't matter.

Emmet was late to math class. I was almost worried he wouldn't come. At the last moment he came in the door with his familiar walk. His walk was unique because he recently got some surgery in his leg. I didn't remember exactly where in the leg, or even which leg it was. All I knew was it effected his walk. It made him unique. I watched him in math class. He got a question wrong. Twice. By the third time, he turned to me for help. I just handed him my paper because I didn't know how to explain it. He finally got it right on the fourth try. By the end of class, he had turned to his books. I still watched him. We had the next class together, english. I followed him.

English was easy. I opted out of reading the same book as the rest of the class for religious reasons. Emmet hadn't. He had to take the quiz. I hadn't. Emmet tried turning to his book only 10 minutes into class, but I quickly took it from his hands. I flipped through it calmly, looking at the words that he must have read. He grabbed the book back, turned to a page close to his bookmark, and pointed out a paragraph. He handed me the book and I read it. He told me about how interesting the math of it was, or something. I nodded and started reading from the beginning of the book. I was halfway to where his bookmark was by the end of class and he made a few comments on how far I had read. For some reason, I was proud.

That night I started thinking of Emmet. I didn't know why. The girls I was with were singing to the radio. I didn't join in. That's not my thing. So, instead, I turned to the rain running down the window, listening to the voices in the background. I know where Emmet lives and we were so close, but far enough that a suggestion to visit him would be shut down immediately. The song ended and a new one started up. The girls started dancing by that point. I stayed completely lost in thought to the beat of the music. Why was I thinking of Emmet? You don't have to answer that.

The next morning, I thought of Emmet again. This time I knew why. About a month ago I was cast into the school play, Macbeth. Emmet had decided to join tech crew. That meant I saw him almost every day at rehearsals. Today he would be managing stage right, the side all my entrances are on and I would be required to converse with him at least once. I was excited and scared all at once. I hoped I didn't make a complete fool of myself. I probably would.