Nina’s POV

The bell for the next class had just rung when I entered Mrs. Manning’s room. Hate her. Love her subject.
Everyone walked straight to their places, typing the “talk to you later” texts messages to their friends or too busy holding so many books, that no one noticed the room was empty. Except for me. I had always been the kind of girl who is not really into speaking, but is constantly watching everything that is happening around.
I looked at Mrs. Manning and she had an evil grin on her lips. That scared me, and all I could do was keep staring at her, until she met my gaze, making me look away very quickly.
“Class, pay attention,” she started, putting her forefinger up. “As you can notice, the room is empty.”
“Where are we supposed to sit?” a voice in the back asked. I recognized that voice.
“On the floor, if you want,” she replied with a fake grin. “Make yourself comfortable, Mr. Barakat.”
I assume no one was expecting Jack to actually sit on the floor. However, that was exactly what he did. And so did his best friends: Alex, Rian, Zack, Tessa and Cassadee.
“What? There’s no way I’ll be standing up during the whole class,” Tessa said as she noticed the frightened look in the eyes of all of our classmates.
No one ever dared to do something like that in one of Mrs. Manning’s classes. But they were not like this. They were the cool kids. They did all they wanted. And they looked so reckless it scared me sometimes, but deep – or not so deep – in my heart, I loved it.
The others started to sit on the floor as well, probably thinking it was the best way to wait for whatever Mrs. Manning had planned for us today. I did the same, sitting next to Claire Smith, the quietest girl in class. She looked at me, almost smiling. Claire and I had a bond. We didn’t like to talk so much, but I wasn’t like her. I communicated with other people. She didn’t. Unless it was extremely necessary.
Mrs. Manning seemed to accept the fact that Jack Barakat took her advice seriously, which was supposed to be a joke. Clearly, she wouldn’t follow her own advice. Instead, she grabbed her chair, placing it next to Bradley Johnson, the captain of the football team, and told us to form a circle. On the floor.
We did what she told us to, staring at each other’s face, almost dying to know what was about to happen.
“So, I’m going to give you small pieces of paper. Then I’ll call each of you to stand in the middle of the circle and your classmates will write what they think about you. Or something they want you to know about you. They will put those papers in a box and I’ll read what they have to tell you.”
I opened my mouth, ready to protest. I didn’t want to know what were their thoughts about me. Okay. Maybe that’s a lie.
“Do we have to sign our names?” I heard myself ask.
Everyone looked straight at me for just a second after their gaze turned right to Mrs. Manning’s.
“If you want to, yes. Otherwise, you don’t have to.” She looked at me and I nodded, grabbing a piece of paper that Claire had held me.
After a while, when everyone were already with their papers, Mrs. Manning called a name. Alexander Gaskarth.
Alex smiled to his friends, standing.
While he walked to the middle, he looked at Mrs. Manning and asked, “Can I sit here too?”
“Can’t you stand, Mr. Gaskarth?” She snapped.
“I can, but-“
“Good. Do it.” She looked to the rest of us. “You can now write what you think about Alexander.”
Alex turned to look at her again.
“Will you be in the middle of the circle too, Mrs. Manning? Because I would write how much I hate it when you call me Alexander. I told you plenty of times that it’s just Alex.” Obviously, he made everyone laugh. Including Mrs. Manning, but her laugh was fake and everyone could notice that.
Two minutes later, Mrs. Manning told us to put the paper in the box. I didn’t know what to say at all. What could I possibly tell Alex? What do I think about him? Well, that was easy, but I didn’t want him to know that I think he’s cute as hell.
I was running out of time. Claire was throwing her paper into the box. I quickly wrote something, throwing mine in the box when Mrs. Manning stood in front of me. Dammit.
After she collected everyone’s paper, she sat on her chair, crossing her legs with the fucking box on her lap. Shit.
“You’re very attractive,” she read. “Do you know who said that?” She asked him.
“Could have been anyone here, as far as I know,” he laughed.
“We’re gay together.”
Everyone laughed.
“Why are you telling everyone our little secret, Jack?” Alex joked, pretending to be mad.
“Sorry babe,” Jack said, sending a kiss to Alex.
Mrs. Manning rolled her eyes, opening another paper.
“You’re so damn hot, Alex.”
“Thanks, whoever you are,” Alex smiled to anyone in particular, just being nice.
Mrs. Manning kept telling what people thought of Alex. Of course, he didn’t know who could have said those things, except for his friends, who were pretty obvious.
For a while, I was good. But it was when Mrs. Manning told Alex that there was just one paper left that my heart started to pound in my chest. It was mine. My paper. She hadn’t read that yet. Alex was about to listen to what I think about him. Or what I wrote in that damn paper.
“I kinda like him.”
Alex smiled.
“So?”
“Oh,” he said. “I don’t know who said that, but can I keep it?” She nodded, giving him the paper.
He sat on his spot, next to Jack and Tessa.
“Okay, Lisa, your turn.” Mrs. Manning called.
“What? My name starts with L,” Lisa complained.
“Nice. Mine starts with J,” said Mrs. Manning, sarcastically. “Come on, Lisa we don’t have all day.”
Lisa stood in the middle of the circle while everyone wrote their thoughts on her.
After her turn, was Claire’s. Then Bradley’s. And Sarah’s, and Jenny’s.
And before I could’ve notice, it was mine.

Alex’s POV

It was fun listening to what my classmates think about me. But, honestly, I didn’t care. That didn’t change anything in my life, so what would I care? Exactly. Of course, what my friends think of me means a lot, but that was it. Everyone else could think the shit of me and I wouldn’t give a fuck. But they don’t. They think I’m cool and stuff.
The only thing that was holding my attention was that last piece of paper Mrs. Manning read. I kinda like him. The words were sort of shy and cute at the same time. The girls were saying I was hot, while the guys told me I was cool – except for Jack, of course. But that last piece of paper made me want to know who said that. And when my eyes met hers, I just knew it.
I was looking to the girls every time Mrs. Manning read the papers, so I sort of had an idea of who said each thing, because they couldn’t help themselves. They had to whisper “that was me” to their friends. It was loud enough for me to hear it. But like I said, I didn’t care.
But with the last one, there were only two girls who stayed quiet the entire thing. Claire, the quietest girl in our class, and Nina, the second quietest girl in our class, if that makes any sense.
Claire was staring at the floor, like there was no one next to her. It wasn’t her at all. She probably was the one who said I was a jerk.
Nina, on the other hand, was nervous. Like she had just been caught doing something bad. Something she didn’t want anyone to know. She was biting her lower lip, looking to anyone but me. Her cheeks were bright red and she was playing with her fingers like it was the most interesting thing to do.
Before I could notice, I was smiling. It had to be her. I wasn’t sure until she stared at me. It was like, for two seconds before she looked away. Like she had to make sure I didn’t know it was her. But I knew.
And I was happy with it.
I was happier when Mrs. Manning called her name. She got up, walking to the middle of the circle. She waited for everyone to write and for Mrs. Manning to start.
“Okay, Jones, let’s start.” Mrs. Manning said. “The first one: nerd.”
Nina rolled her eyes. She was used to people calling her nerd.
“Could’ve been from anyone.” That was the only thing she told Mrs. Manning.
“I wish we could be friends, but you probably think I’m an idiot and that I’m not as smart and responsible as you. –T.” Nina’s eyes met Tessa’s, who was sitting by my right side. They smiled to each other.
“Tessa is the only one whose name starts with T, so…” Nina said.
“Do you want to answer her?” Mrs. Manning asked.
“Nope, I’ll answer later.”
Nina heard a lot of “quiet”, “smart”, “cute” and even “I don’t like her” without knowing who said that. But she didn’t seem to care. She was just waiting for it to be over. I know that because the same happened to me.
It was when Mrs. Manning read my paper out loud that I saw Nina blushing. She was so adorable. I couldn’t help myself but smile.
“I think she’s pretty cute and I’d totally go out with her.”
Everyone ‘aww-ed’.
She laughed. I could see she was nervous once again. Even more than when Mrs. Manning read what she said to me.
“Um… Thanks, I guess. But I don’t know who said that.”
I wanted to tell her it was me. But I didn’t.
Mrs. Manning read two more pieces of paper about her and that was it. She sat on her spot on the floor one more time, waiting for other papers to come.
She was cute. I always knew that. It only took me a lot of time to realize that…
…Yeah, I kinda like her too.

Notes

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