Peonies - Luck

Donovan

Jeremy nudged me with his arm and motioned for me to follow him with his head. As we walked, I took a moment to inspect him. He was tall. His dark brown hair was cut low and I could see hints of waves. His nose leaned to the right. As if it was once broken. The silver hoops in his ears shined from the sun. His green eyes were peculiar yet beautiful. They resembled young mangoes.

Nobody has ever shown me any sort of kindness before and it scares me because I feel like he has ulterior motives. 

We had English together. What were the odds of that? I guess things were working in my favour after all.

When we arrived in the class, he held the door open for me. He rested the box on a table and set his book down on the table next to it. I walked over to the teacher and explained to her that I was new. She introduced herself as Miss Tina. I looked around the class. Most of the students just stared at me. I didn't know what to do or say.

"Settle down, guys." Ms. Tina said. The class immediately grew quiet. "We have a new student. His name is Donovan. He just transferred here. Would you like to tell them more?"

"My name is Donovan. I transferred here from St Mary's College," I barely whispered. I hate attention and I hate public speaking. I took my seat next to Jeremy and looked at him.

"The crown is a nice accessory. It brightens up our dull uniform," he said smiling at me.

"Thank you." I returned his smile.

As the day continued, I realized that I didn't miss school. English class was horrible, Chemistry wasn't any better. The teacher, Miss Jacobs gawked at me during the entire lesson. I tried to not look at her, but she just kept staring. Her gazes were intense. The class before the recess was Biology; it was my favorite class. I hope it would be better than the rest.

To my delight, Jeremy was in my Biology class. He has been carrying my books from class to class. He dropped me off at Chemistry and waited for me to finish so we could go to Biology. I did appreciate it regardless of my skepticism because I was super weak.

We took our seats in the class as we waited for a teacher.

"Just a warning, our biology teacher is very quirky," Jeremy said with a soft laugh.

"I'd rather have a quirky teacher over a boring one. At my old school, all the teachers were strict." I shivered as I remembered all my teachers. They were all male. The only person that was a female was the receptionist. She was also the only nice adult there.

The classroom was big. There were about 10 microscopes in the corner and lots of other equipment. Posters of animals covered the walls.

A few moments later Mister Williams showed up. He wore bright yellow pants, a pink T-shirt and a green jean jacket that highlighted his pale skin. His black hair was straight and parted in the middle. He couldn't be older than thirty. He looked very enthusiastic for a teacher, seeing that it was Monday morning. "Sup students," he said with a smile.

They greeted him. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "I don't know you."

I stood up and walked over to him. "Hello. I'm Donovan."

"Oh, you're the new student. Hi. I'm Mister Williams." I shook his hand. "Welcome to the school. I hope you have a good year."

"So do I. Thanks."

"Nice crown," he said with a soft smile. "Thanks, "I say while going back to my seat.

"I don't feel like working today. So we're going to watch an educational video. Do you guys know the series The Earth Around Us? Season 3 came out and it's very interesting."

The class just stared at him as he set up the projector. When the video started, he dimmed the lights and took a seat. As the video began playing Jeremy moved closer to me.

"What brings you to this school?" he asked. His head was leaning on his hand as he looked up at me.

"Well. I just decided that I didn't want to go to an all-boys school anymore. "I lied.

"Really? So, I guess you're here for the ladies? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but most girls in our form are taken, well the good ones anyway. "

I laughed humourlessly, "I wish that that was the case."

"You know, I'm happy that you're here. The place has been pretty dull for a while. Don't let the people here stop you from shining. Especially the ones that didn't help you this morning."

I blushed a bit. "Okay."

He smiled. "Do you have a place to sit for lunch?"

"No..."

"I've been having lunch alone for a while. Would you like to join me?"

Does he not have friends? He seems so cool. How does he not have a group of friends to hang out with during lunch.

"Are you sure? I mean, if people see us together they'd suspect things and I don't want to get you in problems. I don't mind being alone. I've had lunch alone for a very long time. I think I can manage."

"I don't care what people think of me. I stopped caring a long time ago. Would you like to sit with me?"

"I would love to."

"Good. Let's start watching the show because Mister Williams is staring at us."

I looked over at Mister Williams and he was indeed watching us. He smiled at me and continued watching the screen.

Jeremy surprised me, in a good way. I feel like I can trust him. He has made it very clear that he wants to be my friend. For the first time today, I've felt happy and I hope I continue to feel this way.

When Biology class was over Mister Williams asked to see me. Jeremy said that he would wait for me outside. I waited for everyone to leave before; I went to Mister Williams's table.

"Hey, I just wanted to check in with you. Do you like the school so far?" he asked. He leaned back in his chair as watched me intensively.

"It's okay."

"Good to hear. So I have your old biology grades, they're great. We've done one lab so far for the year. It would be unfair that everyone did it and you didn't because they have a higher chance of passing, but seeing how well you are at the subject, I don't think you need to do it.

"Then, I won't."

Contrary to what many people believe about me, I don't care for school. I care enough to pass, but I'm not doing extra work.

He gave me a thumbs up.

"Thank you, sir."

He stood up and walked next to me to the door. "It's good to have you here. We need a bit of colour around here. See you Thursday," he said opening the door for me to leave.

"Bye, Mister Williams." I stepped out of the class to come face to face-face to chest with Jeremy.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Lunch, right?"

"Yes ...lunch. Do you have to buy?"

"No. Do you?"

"Unfortunately, I do."

I followed him to the cafeteria. The line was very long. I watched him walk to the front of the line and smiled at one of the younger girls at the front. He told her a few things before handing her his money and walked back over to me.

"Must be nice."

"She thought it was sweet that I was carrying your box for you. You're a pawn in my game."

I laughed. "Really?"

"Yes. Now let's go take a seat over at the benches in the front."

I once again followed him. We took seats on the blue benches.

Opening my bag, I took my lunch out. I noticed the girl who bought Jeremy's lunch was approaching us with another girl. "Your friends are coming."

"Huh?" he said while looking around. "Oh."

The girls came over with shy smiles. They looked between fourteen and fifteen and they were as tall as me.

"Hi Jeremy," they said in unison.

"Hi, ladies. Thank you so much for buying my lunch for me Samantha. I do appreciate."

Samantha handed him his change and food. "You're welcome. Uh... who is he?" She asked motioning towards me.

"This is Donovan. Donovan this is Samantha and Jess,"

"Hi guys," I said with a small wave. Samantha and Jess looked like sisters. Their dark brown complexion, height, and even their hairstyle resembled. They were so cute.

"We've been looking at you since you arrived. Samantha didn't want me to say anything but you're gorgeous. Does it make me shallow that I want to be friends with you because you're good-looking?" Jess said. Samantha and my expression mirrored each other in horror.

"Uh... Thank you? That's nice of you. I don't have many friends so that would be nice."

"See, I told you he was nice," Jess said to Samantha. "She said that you might be high maintenance and boujee because of how you look."

Samantha elbowed her. "Shut up. You're so embarrassing."

Jess did not have a filter. I kind of liked it. "Okay, guys. Talk to you later?" Jeremy said.

"Sure, Jeremy. See you later Donovan," Jess said with a grin. She linked her arms with Samantha as she pulled her away.

"What does boujee mean?" I wasn't sure if it was a compliment or a diss.

Jeremy laughed as he opened his sandwich. "Haven't you heard the song, Bad and Boujee?"

"No..."

"Really? Boujee means high class, I think."

I scoffed. "Do I look high class?"

"A little. Almost everyone wears sneakers to school and you're wearing these fancy dress shoes. The watch on your wrist looks like it cost more than our school fee."

I gasped. "No way!"

"It's true. It's not a bad thing though. You look like you take good care of yourself. It's admirable. Us normal guys, don't even know how to brush our hair properly."

I let out a frustrated breath. It's only been a few hours and I've already made a few impressions that will probably stick. I opened my fruit bowl and started eating. I usually don't eat bread for lunch; too many carbs. I usually ate fruits and drank water.

"Is that all you're eating?" Jeremy asked, his mouth full of food. Gross.

"Yeah, it's healthy; much healthier than that sandwich. What's inside of it? "

"Healthy? More like boring and there are meatballs in my sandwich. Would you like a piece?" He pushed the sandwich towards my face, the sauce smelled good, but I can't imagine how much salt and fat were in it.

"No thank you, would you like some fruits?"

"Nope, fruits are gross."

"Okay, now that's weird. How aren't fruits good? They're nature's candy."

"You did not just say that," he said while opening his soda.

"And now you're drinking a soda. How have you managed to stay so skinny?" I gave him a once over as I felt self conscious. He was in good shape. Muscular arms and thighs were seen through his uniform. 

"High metabolism and I do sports, well used to."

"I wish I had a high metabolism. I definitely wouldn't be eating fruits right now," I mumbled looking down at my bowl. A few strawberries and orange slices were left.

"I can only eat strawberries if there's chocolate on them the same way I can only eat apples if there's caramel on it."

"You've got to be kidding me, Jeremy."

He shrugged. "Sorry, not sorry." The bell suddenly rang.

"See you later? I have two hours of Physics and then one hour of Spanish. I can't be with you for the next lunch. I'm sorry about that."

I was disappointed. "It's okay. I'm thankful that you asked me to share it with you this time."

Jeremy frowned. "I'm sorry again. I feel bad for leaving you with that big box of books, but I have this meeting."

"It's okay. I appreciated your help today. Thank you. See you tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of the day."

"Thanks, you too."

I put on my backpack and then picked up the box. I had Computer Science for the next two hours.

"I can walk you to class if you want," he offered.

"No. It's fine, seriously. Go to class."

"Okay," he waved at me as he walked through the sea of students. I was once again alone. Being around Jeremy for half of the day was a very nice experience; he was easy to talk to. He was very kind to me and he seemed to have good intentions.

All the bad things that happened today have been overshadowed by me meeting Jeremy and it makes me so happy. All I wanted before coming to this school was to make a friend and I think that I have. It feels nice. I hope that I can continue feeling this way.