The Things You Don't Know
Chapter One, Part 1
The warning bell rang as I opened my locker. Five minutes to get what I need and get to class. Just as I go to shut my locker, I felt an arm around around my waist.
"How you feelin' today, Em?" I turned around to see the smile of Katy looking at me. She knew James and I were fighting again last night. I smiled back at her and said, "better than I was. Thanks." She just looked at me, the smile fading, knowing I lied. She sighed, and then said, "well, alright." She hugged me tight and said she had to get to class. I leaned with my back against the locker as I watched her walk away. I walked down the stairs to class, and got in the room seconds before the bell rang. I pulled out a notebook to take notes after the morning announcements.
The day was uneventful. Until lunch, that is. I walked toward the cafeteria with my head down and my books held tightly against my chest. I didn't even notice I was about to walk right into a tough-looking football player. I ran into him head-on, and my jaw dropped as apologies spilled out of my mouth. He laughed, put his hands on my shoulders, and said, "Hey, it's no big deal. Don't worry about it. Really." I smiled a little and continued my journey to the cafeteria.
When I got there, there was no room at my usual table. Typical. People don't seem to care if I'm there or not. So I sat at a table in the corner, isolating myself and opened up my math homework to work on. The football player I had just run into made eye contact with me while walking into the cafeteria, and surprisingly broke away from his pack to come over to me. He said, "Hey. Emily, right?" I just looked up at him, frozen where I was. "I'm Matt. I sit near you in study."
"Oh yeah, that's why you're familiar."
"Haha, yeah. Hey, where's your lunch?"
"Big breakfast. Not hungry." I lied through my teeth.
"Gotchya. Wow, how do you do your algebra so fast?" He asked noticing my open math book, and sat down across from me.
"I love math. It's easy for me."
"Maybe you could tutor me sometime." He said winking at me.
"Um, maybe." I got a nervous tingly feeling when he winked. The good kind of nervous though.
"But how does such a small body hold so much information?" He jokingly teased, noticing my short height of 5 foot 2 when I stood up to pick up my bag.
"I don't know." I half-smiled and started to pack up.
"Hey, where are you going Emily?"
"To the elevator. I recently recovered from a broken bone in my lower leg."
"Ohh. Can I be your elevator buddy?" He smiled at me.
"Sure, if you really want to."
"Okay!" He gestured while saying "ladies first" and giggled a little.
I smiled. When we got to the elevator, he started asking about me.
"Are you free this weekend?" he eventually asked.
I frowned a little. "I'm sorry, I have a boyfriend, and we have plans this weekend."
"I understand. Well, could you at least come to the football game tomorrow night and cheer me on? I have a spare jersey you'd look adorable in." He blushed slightly.
"Well, I guess I could rearrange my schedule and outfit for you." I winked at him and then laughed. When he smiled, I noticed he had dimples. I love dimples.
"He looked like a kid in a candy store. "Awesome! I'll bring you my jersey tomorrow! Meet me at locker 1153 at 7:10 tomorrow morning."
"That works out! My locker is 1177, right down the hall!" I smiled again at him.
"That's so cool!" He laughed as we stepped off the elevator. The bell rang, and he said, "See you tomorrow morning Emily!"