The English homework isn't that hard now that Jess explained them to me. I did them in an hour and there was no need to call her. It's almost 8:30 in the evening now and I'm going to play Fortnite before heading to bed. In the middle of queuing for a match, I get a text from Jess. "How's my favorite 11th grader doing?". What does that even mean? We just talked for half an hour and she already called me her favorite? An older, wiser me would have smell the bullshit miles away. However, being a clueless eleventh grade kid, I snap at her text like a hungry dog. Good thing I have to play Fortnite so it takes me about 10 minutes before I actually return her text. "I got it done. Ez pz". I hit send and resume to play another match. She doesn't take long to reply to my text. "wyd?" or "What are you doing?", I really gotta know these girlspeak because reading acronyms is confusing. Why can't they just type the full words out? We don't get penalized for writing proper English in messaging anymore. Not that my English is any better but at least I'm trying. Fatigue is getting to me and I decide to tell Jess I'm going to sleep soon. She teases me and says I'm such a good boy for going to sleep early. It's 10 PM for god's sake. Don't we all have school tomorrow? Jess says she's bored and she wants somebody to talk with.
I jokingly reply "Man, ain't nobody got time fo dat". She types "LOL, ahahaha" followed by "you're such a jerk". I'm thinking if I'm a jerk, why are you still talking to me. Is that a mixed signal or what? We talk some more and then I finally go to sleep. There is a little butterfly in my stomach though, like a promise of an exciting opportunity is coming up. Weird, I've always thought talking to girls is hard. It turns out you just have to talk to them the same way you talk to your guy friends. Always making fun of them seems to work wonderfully for me. The last thing I think about is Jess' wavy blond locks on her shoulder before dozing off to sleep.
I walk by Anna on my way to class. She completely ignores me, doesn't even toss a glance my way. I'm perplexed as to why since we haven't ran into each other since my English tutor session. I'm feeling down as I haven't seen Jess all day either. Why are girls making my life so complicated? I was perfectly happy and content before I met any of them. Absentmindedly, I try to open the door to my English class. It's locked. No one is inside. A note on the door says to go to the large lecture hall for today lesson. I take a photo of the note with my phone and run like hell. Barely making it to class and as I look up, the lecture is also empty. What the hell is going on? I ask a guy nearby who holds a bunch of binders under his arms while carrying a cardboard box also full of paper. "Excuse me, I'm from Mrs. Johnson class. Do you know if this is the place I'm supposed to go to?". He answers yes along with some information about some guest speaker from a major tech company who is here to give us some suggestion about our future choices in college. He also says it doesn't start until 2 PM and that's probably why no one is here yet.
I pick a seat all the way in the back, to avoid getting attention from the guest speaker. Maybe I'll just play on my phone or doodle something to pass the time. Fiddling on my phone for about five minutes and I see one or two people start coming in. Many of them choose to sit in the back but as the row fill up, more and more have to sit in front. Apparently, they all try to sit next to their friends and since I don't have that many close friends in class, nobody is sitting next to me. It's good though, more elbow room for me. The lecture hall is getting to capacity. Noise from talking, shouting, laughter is getting louder now. The hall is alive with sound unlike ten minutes ago. People call their friends, change seats, shuffle into their group, showing each other their phones, texting one another. Quite a scene, quite a crowd, this guest speaker must be important enough to gather almost four classes into one place like this.
Everybody is settling down now, the guest and his entourage comes in. They set up their mic and speaker, their projector and pointer while the rest of us just look at them curiously. The very last of students is coming in now and one of them is Anna Jin. She looks around and find every seat is taken. She starts walking up and down the stair looking for a chair. Everyone is looking at her now and I can see a little panic in her eyes. She starts moving toward the back and before I know it, I clear out the only empty chair next to me. She takes it with relief and sits down almost immediately. The speaker begins his talk, pointing at his presentation on the wall. Anna takes out a notebook and a pen, writing down who knows what from the speaker. I also take out my notebook and start scribbling some stuff but I'm not really listening. My mind goes blank as I try really really hard to focus on the talking. For the life of me, I can't remember what that guy was talking about even now. I have no recollection whatsoever of those two hours aside from Anna Jin.
I can only tell you from what my memories can remember. I know that as I get older, it will slowly deteriorate and everything will become fuzzy. I hate how I can't store it in a crystal ball and just re-experience the feelings at that time, at that place again. However, it is one of those moment that I'll cherish as long as I live. No matter how many girls I had before (which is none) nor how many I'll have after, it will be ingrained in my mind forever.
She is sitting there in her short shorts and her tank top. Her long slender legs cross each other as she leans back and takes notes. The chair is right next to each other and we share an arm-rest, my left arm against her right arm. I let she has the arm rest and move my elbow down on top of my stomach. There's really no more room for me to put my arm and I don't want to make it look awkward with me leaning away from her. So I just leave my arm there, with my elbow next to the arm rest, touching nothing of her. For some reason, as she calms down, she becomes a little jumpy, if that makes sense. She no longer in a panic but she realizes it's me who's sitting next to her. She keeps writing and our elbows touch. I still leave mine in one place but she keeps bumping into it. I'm not even on her side of the chair, my elbow is resting completely inside my chair.
She acts like she's taking a lot of notes, moving her position left and right, changing her notebook placement. I just sit there, enjoying the moment, smelling her perfume that is slowly invading my space. Her perfume suits her well. It's not overwhelming like some girls who douse themselves in it. It's light and soft and it reminds me of summer flowers in early morning. Man, that must be some really expensive perfume. I try my hardest to keep composure but I can't help but glance at her once in awhile. She must notice it too as she would flip her hair over her shoulder whenever the speaker moves toward her side. Maybe I'm assuming too much, but her hair is brushing against my shoulder, and one time, almost hit my cheeks. It's that same fragrance, the same gentle but brisk smell that makes me looking without seeing, hearing without listening. I'm scribbling things down without understand what I'm scribbling while she's writing down and flicking her hair back carelessly. You could say that if I was clueless before, I'm definitely interested now. I start keeping count of her hair flips after fifteen minutes. In the span of one hour and forty five minutes, she flips her hair fifteen times, all of them brushing me in one way or the other. That amounts to a hair flip every seven minutes. I never know girls flip their hair over their shoulder that much.
That was one hell of a class. We never talk during that time and by the time the bell rings, we both rush to pack things up and head to our next class. I can't help but smile for the rest of the day. I don't know why but I feel like I'm on cloud nine and I smirk as if I just won something big. Her fragrance stuck onto my shirt sleeve and I can still smell it until I go home. You might say I'm imagine things but my younger brother smells it too. He tugs at my sleeve and asks why do I smell like a girl today when I pick him up from school. I didn't answer as I was still daze from my encounter with Anna and only managed a stupidly proud smirk.