Travis stared at the chalkboard, unable to keep any of the information the teacher was teaching in his head. His left leg was bouncing up and down from nervousness. He stole a glance at Mary, who was calmly writing down notes. How did it come to this?
He glanced at Chris, who was doodling on a piece of paper. Travis thought back to the last conversation with him.
"Can you two do me a favor?"
"Depends on what the favor is."
Chris walked up to the two girls. "I need you to talk to that Mary girl and casually bring Travis into the conversation."
"What is it worth to you?"
Travis winced. I don't have much money..and why is Chris doing this to begin with?!
Chris took out two twenty dollar bills. "I'll give each of you twenty dollars."
…Where did he get the money? I thought he told me he was broke.
The two girls stared at the money and took it. "Alright." They glanced at Travis. "Be ready lover boy. We'll get you that conversation."
The two girls walked away from them. Chris walked back towards Travis. "I thought you said you needed help to distract the other girls, not bribing people to 'casually' get me into a conversation with her."
"Change of plans. I can and will distract them all, with my irresistible charm."
Travis rolled his eyes. "If this backfires…I don't know what I'll do."
Chris slung his arms around Travis's shoulders. "Relax, everything will work out fine. Have any of my plans ever failed?"
"Quite a few actually."
"Name one."
"The 'Break Into My House' plan didn't work so well. We had to explain to the police that we were just locked out and not breaking the law."
"Hey, if only that new neighbor didn't call the police, it would have worked."
"But it didn't."
Travis was shocked back into the present by the teacher. "Earth to Travis. Are you there Travis?"
Travis jolted from surprise. "Huh? What?"
The rest of the class snickered. The teacher cleared his throat. "I understand that I may tend to be boring at times, but please, don't make it too obvious."
The teacher turned around and continued with the lesson. Travis was bright red, blushing like crazy, while Chris was having a hard time containing his laughter.
Yeah yeah laugh it up…this is your fault you know.
Travis picked up his pen and looked at the teacher, too afraid to look at Mary. As soon as class finished, Travis set the pen down, and sighed. Please…please…don't implement the plan after—
"What were you daydreaming about?"
Travis turned and looked at Mary, who was had turned in her seat to look at Travis.
"I—I was just remembering something me and my friend Chris did a few years back."
"What did you do?"
"Ah, just trying to break into my house after locking myself out, but a new neighbor called the police thinking we were trying to rob the place, and I had to explain to the police what happened."
Marry giggled. "My brother did that once. He was only eight at the time and got scared when a neighbor asked him what he was doing."
Travis smirked. "Well, I know how he felt. So how many siblings do you have?"
"Three. I'm the oldest. One brother and two sisters. What about you?"
"Just one, an older sister."
Mary smiled. "So you're the baby of the house then."
Travis slightly laughed and looked down at the ground. "In a way, yep. My sister treats me like one anyways."
Mary giggled. "Reminds me of what I do to my sisters. I guess it's just an older sibling thing."
Chris was looking at them talk, smirking. See? What did I tell you? Things are going well.
The two girls walked up to Chris. "Looks like we're not needed."
Chris lightly laughed. "Yeah…it looks like it."
"Oh, and we have a 'no refund' policy. We'll be taking the money."
The two girls walked away, Chris following them begging them to return the money.
Travis glanced over seeing Chris following the girls and started chuckling.
"Something funny?"
Travis pointed to Chris. "Ah, just my friend. So, anyways, you're from New York?"
"Yup. I was born in Nevada, but when I was in first grade, we moved to New York due to my dad's job."
"Was that why you moved here then?"
"Ah…no…well…yes too…he did get transferred here, but he requested to be transferred here."
"I see." Travis could see Mary visibly tense up. "Well, I'm sure you'll love it here. Yeah, the summers can be blazing hot, but the spring and fall seasons here are to die for. For a few weeks, the temperature is JUST right to do whatever you want."
Mary smiled. "What is there to do around here? We only moved in yesterday, so I haven't seen what's around."
Travis started telling Mary about the amusement park, zoo, shopping district, and many of the local parks they had, when the bell rang, signaling the next class to begin. Mary looked at her book from the previous class. "Well, we better get ready for the next class. We'll have to continue this conversation at the next break."
"Yeah, definitely."
Travis put away his book and took out his book for the next class. Christian had returned from following the two girls, looking forlorn and dejected. "I take it you didn't get the money back."
"Shut up."
Travis started laughing. "Serves you right though."
The next teacher walked into the classroom. "Alright students settle down, settle down."
Travis stared forward at the teacher, pen and notebook ready to take notes, his heart pounding. I…I talked with her…and she wants to talk with me at break too!
Travis started smiling widely, taking notes, when a piece of paper hit his notebook.
"So 'lover boy' since I lost my money to the girls because of you, it's up to you do repay me. Oh, and you look like a turd again."
ns 18.68.41.139da2
