A Daydream Away

Alex’s POV

“Alex! ALEX!”
I jumped at the sound of my name being called and the world came back around me. I was sitting in history class, and Ms. Simpson, my teacher, was blabbing on about the French Revolution or some shit. I turned my head to Rian, one of my best friends and the voice who was calling me out from my day dream.
“What?” I whispered to him. I glanced over to my teacher, who was staring at us. I dropped my head and started pretending to take notes, but instead doodled on my paper. Rian slipped over a small scrap of paper, which probably killed him, since he was an organization freak. None of his notebooks had rips or doodles on them, as opposed to mine, which was a bigger wreck than the popular girls drama filled lives.
‘Daydreaming about Jack again?’ the note read. I felt my face go completely red as I scribbled a message back.
‘So what if I am?’
I heard Rian snicker quietly as I glanced over to the boy we were talking about.
Jack Barakat. Even thinking his name made my heart pound. He was absolutely perfect.
He was tall, taller than me. His hair was spiked up at the top, one half was blonde, but his natural hair was a dark brown. The two opposite colors met up in the middle and tangled together. No one could imagine what I would give to run my fingers through it.
His eyes reflected a beautiful brown, like the first cup of coffee you have on a Saturday morning. His lips were fair and light, parted slightly as he scribbled down the notes our teacher had written on the board. It took everything I had not to press my mouth to his when I got close enough, which was a rare occasion.
He was wearing a Blink-182 shirt, which made me like him even more, since Blink was my favorite band. He played guitar, or so I’ve heard. He’s also never had a girlfriend, but he’s been rumored to have many flings and friends with benefits, but I pretend not to care about them.
There’s nothing about him I dislike. I had tried so many times to find something about him I could use to curb this desire I have for him, but my attempts have fallen flat, usually making me find something that makes me like him even more.
God, what I’d give to just have him say hi to me. To have us become friends. Just friends. Even that would be perfect. Just so I could talk to him and learn about him and spend days with him. I could just picture going over to his house and playing video games with him. We could listen to Blink-182 songs together and laugh about all the stupid girls at our school… I could learn his middle name and his favorite colors and why he likes history class so much. I could learn so much if I just…
“Alex!”
I jerked out of the daydream and my eyes landed on Ms. Simpson, who looked like she had been trying to contact me for a while.
“Yes ma’am?” I replied weakly, my embarrassment shining on my face like I’d been sunburned. If only I could peel it off.
“See me after class. We need to get a hand on your daydreaming.” She said sternly. Half the class let out quiet chuckles, and the other half just looked annoyed.
But, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Jack wasn’t holding the expression of amusement or annoyance. In fact, his face looked almost… pleased.

The rest of the class passed by too quickly, and soon the bell was ringing. Everyone in the class was trying to escape as quickly as they could, and my teacher was yelling last minute homework assignments at them. Rian patted my back in a silent ‘good luck’ and walked out the door after everyone else.
I stayed seated until Ms. Simpson looked at me and waved me forward. I gathered up my books and papers and stuffed them in my bag, trying to buy myself time.
Finally, I had nothing left to do. All my papers were put away and my books were loaded up. I swallowed and headed up to the desk at the front of the room.
I never got in trouble at school. Ever. I was always the quiet kid in class, I always did my homework, and I never did anything stupid in the hallways. I wasn’t a straight A student, but my B’s were always high. Honestly, I was terrified.
“Mr. Gaskarth” Ms. Simpson said, her voice filled with tired annoyance.
I swallowed. “Yes?”
“Although I’ve never called you out, I’ve noticed your daydreams in my classroom many times. Your grades weren’t suffering, so I saw no reason to punish you or feel like there was a problem. But, your test score from yesterday tells me this is now becoming a problem.”
I cursed at myself in my head. Yesterday Jack wore tight skinnys and a white tank top. I didn’t even finish the test, I was so distracted.
“The score isn’t utterly terrible, but it’s completely different than what I expected from you. A C- isn’t at all what you’d get normally. In fact, your second lowest test grade is B! Maybe the cause is because this class is right before lunch, and you’re hungry, or maybe the fact that your best friend sits next you makes you want to rebel a little bit. Or maybe the cause is something completely different-”
‘Oh honey, if only you knew what it was’ I thought.
“- either way, I’m moving you to a different seat near the front.”
I groaned inwardly. I loved sitting next to Rian. But I guess I didn’t absolutely hate anyone in this class. Anywhere would be fine as long as I wasn’t next to-
“From now on, you’ll be next to Jack Barakat.”

Notes