High School Attraction

On his second day of high school, Sam was as nervous as a clam out of its shell. He entered the building with his head held high. He sneaked a quick downward glance at his schedule to affirm he was headed in the right direction. Chemistry, room 305. He looked up in time to avoid running into the mass of swarming bodies all around him, as his ears strained to understand the screams of glee, curious questions and squelching sneakers of his fellow students. Above it all he could hear a voice in his head screaming get out NOW, while you still have the chance. Sam gave a determined shake of his head, forgetting for a second that he was arguing with himself. Slightly embarrassed, he glanced up to see if anyone had noticed. Although no one was looking at him, he wasn’t entirely satisfied that someone wasn’t going to jump out of a corner and point him out to the general public as a weirdo. He forced his legs to lengthen their stride on the crisp yellow tile. Soon he was at the base of the stairs, following some other boys up. He noticed that one of their shoe laces was untied. Somehow attuned to every little sound, he heard a pencil drop behind him and the cough of a girl a few stairs farther than him. He continued his journey.

At long last, he reached the chemistry classroom. He looked up; there was no sign of a teacher. There were a few other people in the class, so he took a seat next to a guy that looked relatively normal and tried to start up a conversation. Eventually, Sam got the boy talking, and they were able to share some lame jokes to break the ice a little further. His mind went on autopilot as they started talking about video games and movies they’d seen over the summer. As he talked, most of his mind focused on the blurs of the classroom he could catch out of his peripheral vision. A chair here, teacher’s desk, mint green walls, open windows… it didn’t look too much like a cage. As he turned to get a better glimpse of the door, it happened. She walked through. Man alive, his jaw must have dropped about a mile wide before he managed to pull himself together and cut off the guy he was sitting by. Tim, or whatever his name was, didn’t have a problem becoming silent as the angel in the red dress floated through the class, gracefully sweeping up her long legs in a desk not far from theirs.

Sam stood up and moved to an open space in the front of the class. The girl looked up at him with her huge brown eyes, and gave a smile of encouragement. Sam started the dance. He raised his arms in a precise blur of motion to the ceiling, tilting his head back as he did so. He stood on one leg, perfectly balanced in this position. He closed his eyes as the blood pumped through his body, and the extra surge of adrenaline provided all the energy he needed to begin his dance. Faster than speed, he slammed his left foot down to join its brother on the floor. Both feet began whizzing in fantastical patterns on the ugly floor, painting a scene of intrigue and excitement in the little green room. As his feet sped beneath him, he slowly lowered his hands, then began clapping them in tune to the rhythm in his head. His left foot suddenly lifted up again to perch on his right knee, and his legs became still. His arms, however, moved in strangely enchanting zigzags as his waist snapped up, down, to the side, then up again. He finished the dance with a mad sweep of his hands and a loud bang as he once again brought down his left foot, shaking his head back triumphantly as he did so. The hair swished out of his eyes and he was able to see the broad grin on the girl’s face. He bowed, then went back to his desk.

Sam felt as if he had done a good job. He hadn’t made a fool of himself, at least, and it seemed as if he’d captured her interest. As soon as he was finished, Tim got up in front of the girl to do his dance, and Sam watched blankly, as he went over his own dance in his mind. When Tim was finished, he didn’t receive near as big of a smile as Sam had; Sam grinned inwardly, then, as Tim rejoined him, said,

“Nice moves.” Then the teacher entered, and Sam’s first high school class began.