Pretty Girls

Pretty Girls

The snow fell steadily outside, lightly dusting the world in a fine white
powder. A small squirrel scampered across the courtyard, twitching its nose in
discontent at the steady increase in precipitation. I sat there, watching its
jerky movements for a few minutes and trying to figure out why it was out in the
snow in the first place instead of hibernating. I sighed a little, turning to
back face the blackboard.

“So what’s the deal with Pavlov’s bell? It’s not like he conditioned the dog to
eat the bell! Am I right?” Dr. Phillips said. As usual, his joke drew nothing but silence from the class. Sure, I appreciated that he was at least trying to be funny, but he came across as an incredibly bad version of Jerry Seinfeld.
Maybe he‘s doing that on purpose, I thought.

I struggled to fight it, but boredom was quickly setting in. My eyes were
getting heavier by the second, and I was yawning at regular intervals. I’d been known as the sleeper in all of my classes, and I’d resolved to change that this time around. So much for that. Just before I nodded off into dream land, I
caught a glimpse of her. She sat straight across from me, on the other side of the classroom. The center of the class was strangely empty, so my view of her was unobstructed. My heart fluttered a little in my chest. There was just
something so… attracting about her. Her hair was usually pulled back into a large ponytail, leaving her face completely open, and her thin rimmed glasses framed it in the just the right way. She was definitely pretty, and that wasn’t
even her best feature. Her bust complimented the rest of her body perfectly, not too big or too small. Boobs were great, but a nice rear end was even better. Puerto Rican girls were well known for the size of their backsides, and she was
no exception. All in all, she was the complete package, as close to a 10 as anyone could naturally be. Before long, I caught myself staring, and I wondered if anyone else had noticed. She obviously had, and was returning my look with an inquisitive one of her own. I quickly turned back to the front of the room. If I
could blush, I’m sure I would have been doing so right then.

Class continued uneventfully, with Dr. Phillips doing his best to make psychology as interesting as possible. Every now and then I would steal a glance at her, going over what I was going to say to her in my mind a dozen times.
Unfortunately, I didn’t even know her first name. Part of the problem with taking a class during winter break were the time constraints, so the doc only referred to us by last name only. I only knew her as Colon. It was an advantage
though, since it was the perfect conversation starter. I would introduce myself, I would learn her first name, and then we would go from there. It was perfect. All I had to do was wait for the end of class. Only ten more minutes…that
dragged on forever. By that time, I had run the scenario in my head hundreds of times, and a fair amount of them ended in failure. Damn it, don’t over think this! Just do it! I kept trying to tell myself.

“Okay class, have chapter seven read for class tomorrow, and make sure you do your paper on second hand smoke.” Dr. Phillips said one last time as the class gathered their things to leave. I looked over, and she was still there, putting
her books in her bag. Allright, this is it. Here’s the perfect chance to talk to her. All I need to do is gather up my confidence, walk over there, and introduce myself. No sweat. Piece of cake. I kept encouraging myself, gathering the
confidence to approach her. I was still gathering my confidence as I watched her put on her coat and book bag, and walk out of the classroom. No! She’s getting away! Say something! I tried to call out to her, but all that escaped my throat
was a pathetic whimper. She turned around for a moment, and I rubbed my nose with my sleeve, pretending I had just sneezed.

“Bless you.” she said, then walked away.

I stood there for a moment, dejected. I couldn’t even muster up the courage to say “Thank You” after the fake sneeze. God, I suck. What the hell is wrong with you? I’m sorry, I tried! All of a sudden, I was standing in an empty classroom,
arguing with myself about how much I sucked at talking to pretty girls. If only Colon could see me now.

* * *

Today is the day. TODAY! Just walk right over and introduce yourself. The worst
she can do is reject you, and that’s not so bad. It was the next day. While I was reading Chapter 7 last night, all I could think about was her, and how I let the opportunity to talk to her slip away. I’d need some sort of plan to talk to
her today, but what? I almost completely tuned out Dr. Phillips as the gears in my mind slowly turned.

I could try what I was going to do yesterday…No. If she walked out of the classroom before I got my thoughts together, then I would have to wait for tomorrow again. I needed a chance where if I chickened out, I would have another chance to see her. But when would that be? I thought for a few minutes, glancing
up at the clock to see how much longer we had until break. Break! That’s it! I can talk to her when we go on break! And if I punk out the first time, she still has to come back for the second part of class! I was smiling like an idiot in
the middle of class, but I didn’t care. This time would be different! This plan was actually fool proof.

“Ah, I see someone’s finally started laughing at my jokes, eh Mr. Ransom?” Dr.
Phillips looked at me and winked.

“Uh…yeah. Ha ha.” I said, slinking down into my seat. The whole class laughed a
little, including Colon. Well, at least she thinks I’m funny…or a dummy. I must have only looked at the board for about 10 minutes the entire morning, between looking back at the clock and across the room at Colon. Finally, the hour of
destiny struck. 10:00 AM. It’s go time.

“Allright class, it’s break time. Let’s take 15 minutes, and meet back here at quarter after.” Phillips said. With that, he raced out of the room. It was funny, but he was always the first person out of class during break. His strange quirks made the class interesting, at least. Time to focus, I thought, turning
my full attention to Colon. I hadn’t noticed what she’d worn to class today, and when I did, I definitely focused. She was wearing a low cut tan blouse, and while it didn’t reveal an outrageous amount of cleavage, it was more than enough
to get my imagination going. But the main draw were the brown stretch pants she was wearing. They hugged her hips as close as legally possible, and fit perfectly. She dropped a piece of paper, and must not have realized I was still
in the room, because she bent over right in front of me.

Dear God…I thought, openly staring. It was a thing of beauty. A butt like that
was one in a million, and I wasn’t going to let this chance to see it at its best pass. My imagination was in full gear now. Even though I was a virgin, I’d seen more than enough porn to be able to think of a few positions I’d like to
have her in. I shook my head firmly, coming out of my hypnotic daze and prepped myself to go talk to her. I’d already thought of the perfect reason: I was going to ask her how I felt about second hand smoke. Ready to go, I began standing up when I felt something brush the underside of my desk. Confused for a moment, I looked down at my pants. What the…oh, Dear God! Of all the days to wear sweat pants! I quickly sat down, pulling my shirt over my lap. There was no way I
could go talk to her like this! It’s not like I had nine inches or anything like that, but with the sweatpants on, there was very little left to the imagination. I tried to think of anything that would make it go down. A cold shower, playing
baseball, my mother…that last one really creeped me out, but it worked. I moved my shirt to see if everything was back to normal, and I was okay. I turned back to her, but she was already on her way out. That’s what I get, I guess. I smiled
a little as I watched her switch as she walked out of the classroom for break. But it was worth it. I sighed a little. Okay, that’s only strike two. You’ve still got one more chance. She’ll be back for the second part of class.

I sat there, rereading my paper as the rest of the class trickled in. Colon was
the second to last to enter, right before the teacher. He was always the first one out, and the last one back.

“Okay, class, I’m going to try something a little different today. I just realized I don’t know any of your first names. Some teacher, am I right?!” A few people snickered, but I’m pretty sure that was just out of pity. “So today, as I
call your first name, come up and bring me your papers.”

I sat straight up. What? No! He can’t do this! Finding out Colon’s first name was my excuse to talk to her in the first place! I sat back, sighing loudly. With that plan out the window, I had nothing left. It looked like I would be going home again, having accomplished nothing. I listened, though. At least I would find out her first name somehow.

“Amarie? Amarie Colon?”

“Here.” she said, rising to bring him the assignment. I purposefully diverted my eyes as she walked up front. I’d already had one embarrassing moment, and when he called my name, I would have to stand up this time. I blanked out the rest of the names as I thought about hers. Amarie…Well, it’s original, at least.

“Rashad? Rashad Ransom?”

“Here.” I stood, walking towards the front. On my way back, I tried to avoid
looking at any of the people in class. We were only going to be together for three weeks, so it didn’t make sense to try to make new friends. I tried especially hard not to look at Amarie, but I found our eyes meeting despite my best efforts. I quickly looked away.

I focused intently on what Dr. Phillips said for the rest of the class. Thinking about Amarie wasn’t getting me anywhere, and I figured it was best to just forget any of the plans I had made. Class seemed to fly by, and I only
caught myself looking in her direction once. Before I knew it, I was packing up my bag to head home.

Amarie was packing her things too, and she had a folder and her notebook on the
edge of her desk. Someone in our class walked quickly by, knocking her things onto the ground. Papers and books flew everywhere, scattering like dust in the wind. The person continued on their way, either unaware that they had knocked
her things over, or just not caring. Amarie threw her hands up in exasperation.

“Thanks a lot, cabron!” she exclaimed, kneeling down to pick her things up. Wow, she’s feisty, I thought. A smile immediately went across my face. This is it! This is the perfect opportunity! Normally I would help anyone pick their things up, but this turn of events served my ends so well that I couldn’t help but smile. I walked over quietly, and without saying a word I stooped over to help her gather her things. It only took about a minute, and afterwards we stood
there for a moment.

“Thank you,” she said, holding her notebook against her chest.

“De nada,” I replied.

She looked confused at first, then smiled and laughed a little. “Tu hablas espanol?”

I shrugged. “Un poco.”

“Yeah, I can tell, because your accent is terrible.”

We both laughed. Wow, that was easy. And I didn’t even have to plan it! I thought. I could feel that I was grinning like an idiot again, but I didn’t really care. She was too, so at least I wasn’t the only one who looked like a fool. What are you doing you dope! Say something!

“I heard the teacher say your name earlier, but I really didn’t catch it. I’m
Rashad. What’s your name?”