"I mean, can you believe it?" Natalie Klar, my best friend, frustratedly rants on. "It's only the second week of 12th grade and a guy already asks me to do his maths exercises for him!" She slams her locker shut. "Ooooh, I can's stand this!" She squints her eyes, tightening her grip around her bag strap so much, that her knuckles whiten.

I listen to her carefully, mentally taking notes of her problem, knowing that I might become her therapist in any second. "I don't know why Jonathan thinks he can just ask me anything like that! I'm not his private nerd who does his homework for him! I'm not even a nerd!" She pauses. "Do I look like a nerd Lyzy?" She asks, suddenly quiet.

I chuckle. She stares a second at me, puzzled, before smiling herself. "I really need to calm down," she shakes her head.

"Yes you do," I firmly state. "I think you should just give him like one more chance and then if he doesn't stop... Just tell him directly what you think."

"Ye-" she starts.

"Hey girls!" Jonathan's uniquely high-pitched voice cuts. We both spin around. I surprisedly catch Natalie's cheeks blush. "The other classes told me that in French class the teacher's gonna make groups for a project." He passes a hand through his hair. "Do you already know in which group you're gonna be?"

Seeing Natalie's inner battle deciding on wether to give him another chance or not, I choose to reply first. "Um... No, not yet," I shrug. "You wanna be with us?" I invite. From the corner of my eye I see Natalie's head snap towards me. I feel her death glare drilling holes in my skull.

"Yeah!" Jonathan grins victoriously. "I'll see you girls later then!"

"Cool," I smile nicely. He winks at us before confidently walking away.

"What was that?" My best friend whisper-yells.

"Quit playing with me Nat," I smirk. "You think he's quite good looking, don't you?"

An indecisive look passes on her face. "You really didn't think I wouldn't find out, did you?" My jaw drops dramatically. She giggles, hitting me on the shoulder with the back of her hand.

The bell rings, and we start walking towards French class. I sit in front of Natalie and we chat for another moment before the French professor elegantly walks in. Like Jonathan said, she tells us to make groups and hands us an assignment.

"In fifteen minutes this work needs to be finished! In each group their will be a person in charge of watching the time, another of the sound level, and the last will report." She informs us. "The group which finishes first wins a bonus point on the next test. What are you all staring at me for? Come on! Let's get started!" She claps her hands.

"I'll take care of the time," Jonathan suggests.

"I'll do the sound," I choose.

"And so I'll report," Nat finishes.

We all concentrate hard, Jonathan reminding us from time to time to speed up, and me often shushing them. After a short while, Natalie and Jonathan come to a disagreement on wether a character in a story is stronger than another or not.

"Nuh-uh!" Natalie contradicts Jonathan. He smirks.

"Alright, you wanna bet?" He provokes. "If I'm right you owe me a pack of gum!"

"Okay!" Natalie confidently agrees.

"Ugh. Shut up guys!" I interfere. "Stop fighting over nonsense, I'll ask the teacher," I calmly say, raising my hand. I mentally smile at the irony of the situation: the youngest one around the table is the most mature. The teacher comes to us and asks what is going on. I let them sort out their disagreement and laugh when Natalie finds out she is wrong.

Jonathan dabs, and Natalie throws him a teasing dark look. "No one dabs anymore, Jonathan," she spits, squinting her eyes. "It's so 2016!" We all laugh.

"Why are you all laughing?" The teacher scowls. The three of us quiet down, bearing with the stares of everyone. "That could only mean that you are finished and that'd surprise me because it's only been eight minutes," she crosses her arms.

"But we are fini-" Jonathan starts replying.

"And even if you are done," she cuts. "That doesn't mean you get to laugh around, and bother your classmates!" She turns her back to us, returning to help another group.

"Wow... I got a feeling that we'll get along very nicely this year with her!" Jonathan sarcastically mutters.

We chuckle. We chat quietly for a few minutes, searching for topics to kill the time. "So..." Jonathan slyly starts. "Which boy do you girls think looks good in our class this year?" I look around with Natalie.

"Hmm... They aren't as many as last year..." I comment.

"What about Zack Salvaggi?" Jonathan smirks. "Don't you think he's rather attractive?" I let my eyes rest on the beautiful masterpiece. Zack is friends with Jonathan, and I'm sure both of their egos are unattainable.

"I don't know," I shrug, pretending not to be affected by the charm. "You don't know??" He shockingly replies, obviously not expecting an answer like mine. "Ugh," he shakes his head unbelievingly at me, before turning to Nat.

"How about you Natalie?" He inquires. "Um... I- I don't know either," she stutters, looking down on her paper. I mentally slap my thigh, dying of laughter. Jonathan suddenly grabs my pencil case and and a pen. "Can I write on it?" He asks.

"Sure," I nod. The teacher asks the reporter in our group to give her our answers, and Jonathan hands me back my pencil case. I read what he wrote and smile, feeling my cheeks lightly color.

Hey there, pretty. You're really nice.
-Jonathan

We correct our work and the bell rings. Jonathan speeds up to Zack and both of them turn around to smile at me. Nat gathers up her pens. "Well, I'm gonna have to buy that pack of gum..." She depresses.

"Look on the bright side!" I cheerfully console, walking out of the room with her by my side. "At least we got a good laugh!"

"Yeah" she smiles dreamily. I laugh and shake my head.

\ ~ / ~ \ ~ / ~ \ ~ /

I open the front entrance door. "I'm home!" I shout. My mom walks out from the kitchen and throws her arms around me. She is shorter than me and I tease her a lot about that. We chat a bit and I run off to my bedroom. I check my phone and see a message from Jonathan on Instagram.

"You still haven't told me which boy you find the best looking" I sigh.

"Still haven't thought about it," I reply.

I put down my phone and concentrate on my homework. The buzzing of my phone pops the bubble of concentration. I grab it and read Jonathan's message.

"What about me?" I re-read the message at least five times and laugh quietly. Jonathan was just an egocentric boy, trying to satisfy his huge ego. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, you're okay 😋" I send.

"😉" he simply replies. I sigh and get back to my work.