Maybe I'm the One You Like

We talked until the bell rang, signaling the beginning of first period. I said goodbye to my friends as they hurried off to their first period and after glancing at my schedule I headed upstairs to math, algebra, to be exact. The warning bell sounded and the students around me immediately picked up the pace, dashing into the classrooms in order to avoid being marked late on their first day back. Me, I kept my slow but steady pace and arrived just as the last bell rang, signaling the start of class. Math class, aka nap time.

"Nice of you to join us," the teacher scoffed as I entered. "I was just about to start class. And who might you be?"

"I might be Alex Gaskarth," I smirked. "But it varies from day to day."

The class laughed and I smiled, satisfied with myself.

"Take a seat, Mr. Gaskarth, right over there next to Miss Arnette." The teacher said with an eye roll. She was unusually tall and her hair was tied back into a tight bun, pulling her hair away from her weird, piercing green eyes. I told tell this was going to be a dull class right off the bat.
“Sit, Gaskarth,” she said again, and pointed to an empty seat next to a girl, who I immediately noticed as the new girl from this morning. Oh hell yes, what were the odds of this?

I slid into the seat beside her and tapped her on the shoulder. "What’s your name, beautiful?" I whispered, smirking as she fidgeted in her seat.

She rolled her eyes and shifted away from me. "Peyton," she muttered, and wrinkled her nose as if she would rather be doing anything but talk to me. I grinned.

"Peyton, huh? Are you new? I haven't seen your pretty face around here before,” I whispered. “Believe me, if I had, we’d have been introduced a lot sooner.”

"Shut up, Alex, let the poor girl be."

I jumped and turned around to see Jack’s girlfriend Megan sitting behind me. I waved.

"Meg-meg, how have you been? I haven’t seen much of you since we got back from tour this summer. You and Jack must have been busy.”
“I don’t know about Jack, but I’VE been busy,” she smirked. “I’ll be at band practice later though.” I nodded in approval and was about to open my mouth to respond when the teacher beat me to it.

"Mr. Gaskarth, as fascinating as I find your personal life, I’m going to have to ask you to save your gossip for later," she warned. "If it's alright with you I'd like to start class."

"Fine with me, do your job, Teach," I said, earning a scowl.

"That's Mrs. Jenson to you," she said sternly. "Now pay attention."

She started talking again about the code of conduct and her class rules and so on and so forth, but I was able to tune her out rather quickly. Act like any of us cared about what she had to say anyway, I bet you couldn’t find ten people here that find math intriguing. Instead I leaned over toward New Girl Peyton gave her a quick once-over, deciding that yes, she was definitely suitable to bring to whatever party was being thrown this weekend, and hell yes, she was definitely suitable to get to know better at said party.
“So,” I whispered, making sure to keep my eyes on the Mrs. Jenson, who had begun to talk about our weekly quizzes. Gross. “You’re new here. You don’t know anyone. Congratulations, you’re just met your first friend. And, as an added bonus, I am willing to meet with you after school at any time to show you just how friendly I really am.” Her faced darkened a shade and I smirked.

"No," she said flatly. "Please get away from me."

"Oh come on, sweetie, what better way to get to know people than spending time with them? I was thinking dinner and a movie at my place tonight?”

She pushed me away and I snickered to myself. "What’s the matter, Peytie? Tell you what, we can skip dinner and go straight to a movie at my place. You need don’t need the meal anyways."

Peyton's eyes widened considerably and she smacked my leg under the table. "How dare you!" she hissed, biting her bottom lip. "You’re disgusting." She muttered. I rolled my eyes because seriously, this has never been this much of a project before. Usually it was as simple as asking, and the girl was as good as mine. But Peyton, she was different, and I could tell she’d be a tough nut to crack. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to put in the effort, but it did seem like a good project to work on.

I glanced over at her once again and did a double take; she was staring straight ahead and looked about to cry. Not exactly what I was going for, so I figured for now it was time to back off. "So we're not gonna tango after school today?" I whispered. Peyton sniffed and chewed her bottom lip, as if she was considering her options. And just when I thought I’d won her over, she sniffed again and turned toward me.

"I would never, EVER want to do anything with a rat like you."

Ouch.

Notes

How am I doing so far?