Wrong Place, Wrong Time

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♪ "Heads in the clouds, but my gravity's centered..." ♪

The morning fog sat quietly atop the empty track field, not a soul in sight. This was the way young Elizabeth liked it, this was the one peaceful time of the day. Although it wasn't often she arrived on time, on those days she did she could experience this on her walk to school before the buses arrival. Less people meant less eyes that could catch her enjoying her breakfast. A small black coffee and a cigarette - a habit she had recently picked up.

Stopping at the double doors, she took the last sip from her white foam cup followed by a long drag from her cigarette. Setting the empty cup on top of the trash can (deliberately) and flicking the but to the ground she made her way inside.

As the song on her mp3 player changed, she found herself walking to the beat - making a stop in the girls bathroom as to follow her usual routine. Because she left so early, Elizabeth had a tendency to do her makeup after her arrival. She wasn't a fan of going natural, believing she needed it to look passably decent. Which was ironic because she went out of her way not to look like the student body's idea of "pretty". Her wardrobe, her makeup, her hair. Black, black and more black. A stark contrast to her pale skin, she fit the gothic look quite well.

Singing along with the song, she fixed herself up until the sound of students out roaming the halls grew more prominent. The buses had arrived, and with them hundreds of people she'd rather not get to know. Exiting the bathroom with bag in hand, she turned her music up louder and threw her hood over her head, quickly weaving through bodies to make it to her homeroom without any problems.

It was more than likely a few students had tried to harass her in their own special way, which is why the headphones proved to be so useful. It wasn't often anyone said anything to her face - but when they did, she had a hard time ignoring it. Which usually ended badly.

Taking her seat in the back of homeroom, she sat her bag down and put her head on the desk. It was almost over. Half way through senior year, and she was almost out - never having to see these people ever again. She had no attachments to the people in this school, or even this town for that matter. Needless to say, June couldn't come soon enough. And if it became too much to bare, she had solutions...

As the arrival time of Rusty's school bus grew nearer, he completed the last objective of his morning routine. Hands quickly flew to his sides, tapping the pockets of his shorts, verifying he had his keys, his cell phone, and his wallet. The school's mandatory student ID hung freely atop his bright and vivid Hawaiian shirt, Rusty being one of the only people to follow the policy many others viewed as superfluous. Before opening the door to leave for the bus stop, he assured himself that everything was in order and that he was ready to begin the day.

Approaching the stop, Rusty noticed how quiet and somber his peers appeared to be, and attempted to liven them up with some morning chatting. No one followed suit, but instead stared at Rusty with looks of annoyance and perhaps disdain. Feeling a sense of failure, he continued to wait in silence at the stop until the bus arrived. Upon its appearance, Rusty made sure to be the first in line to grab his usual seat up front, next to the window and by the door. During the trip, he observed his fellow classmates around him, noticing how abundant immaturity was among the others. Their topics of conversation all disinterested Rusty, who decided he would be better off ignoring their senseless chatter.

The bus finally stopped in front of the school, the doors opening soon thereafter. Rusty was the first off, and nearly the first inside. Unfortunately, the entire student body was right behind him, and moving at a pace faster than his own. His attempt to speed up to get ahead of all of these students was futile. The doors, capable of only passing no more than four or five students at a time, was crammed full of young and dim-witted minds.

Finally arriving inside, Rusty first saw the madness that was the short period of time before homeroom, whereupon kids would roam the halls causing trouble and talking loudly about the parties they had attended the night before. It was next that Rusty heard a rumble coming from his stomach, drawing his eyes immediately to the vending machine at the opposite end of the hall, nearby his homeroom. After his healthy helping of cereal earlier that morning, even he was surprised his body wanted more. He promptly made his way toward the machine.

Nearing his destination, it was then a young lady dressed in all black quickly brushed past him, slightly bumping in to him on the way by. He recognized this girl from his homeroom, only knowing her by her first name - Elizabeth. There wasn't much Rusty could say about this girl, as he hadn't talked to her once since their initial homeroom assignment. Growing tired of his lonely, mundane scholarly pursuits, it was then he decided he would attempt to talk to her, maybe even get to know her. Rusty hastily inserted his money and made his usual selection from the vending machine, B4...a nice, generic, strawberry-flavored Poptart-esque treat. Grabbing his snack from the bottom, Rusty ran inside homeroom and took his seat, luckily being able to see Elizabeth from the corner of his vision from his position. He wondered to himself how he would go about talking to her. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to end this year without making some sort of impression on her.

The room grew louder and louder as students began to file in bit by bit. The first bell rang, and their homeroom teacher Mr. Thompson went on to go over the morning's notices and upcoming events to be aware of. And right on time, the morning announcements came through the loud speaker, beginning with the pledge. Students rose up with their usual lack of enthusiasm, some sipping coffee's, others still eating, but despite their lack of understanding they continued doing this every single morning just because it was routine. Elizabeth remained seated.

"Elizabeth... come on, now. Do we have to do this every morning?" He asked, signaling her to rise from her chair as well. Sighing, she took to her feet and kept her hands at her side. "And hood off, please." Taking a deep breath she pushed the hood off of her full head of raven colored hair, making sure to exaggeratedly roll her eyes. Mr. Thompson wasn't a bad guy, he was just annoying.

I'm hungry.

She thought, realizing she had quite some time until lunch and probably should have made time to eat something. Too bad she had no money, and too bad the house didn't have anything to eat in it.

I wonder what's for lunch....

She started to zone out, something she did frequently. Not realizing the class had already taken their seats, leaving her the only one standing, oblivious that a few were staring at her until she heard someone laugh under their breath. Snapping out of it she suddenly became self aware, turned bright red and quickly sat back down in her seat.

This is why I don't stand up in the first place.

And homeroom went on until the second bell rang it was time to disperse to their first class. As students began to file out of the room, Elizabeth made her way down the hall on autopilot. There was someone in her homeroom who attended the same first class as her, so every morning she found herself following a few steps behind him, not really paying attention to much, just going wherever the loud pattern seemed to go. Rusty wore a differing obnoxious Hawaiian shirt every day, which made him stick out like a sore thumb. But the fact he didn't seem to care, made him a little more tolerable than the rest of the kids in school - so she couldn't knock the unique style.

Walking into class, Elizabeth found her seat, throwing her bag under the desk by the window, three rows back. As she took her seat, her eyes finally fixed themselves to the writing on the board.

Senior Research Paper!
1.) Find a partner
2.) Choose a topic
3.) Plan

"Shit." She whispered under her breath, a sudden anxious feeling creeping through her. Not only was this probably her least favorite part of English class, it would involve acquiring a partner. Which... was not going to be fun. Nobody spoke to her in class, and she wasn't going to be the one to reach out to someone else. Maybe if she kept to herself everyone else would pair up and she'd be the odd one out, allowing her to work alone.

But as if to read her mind, Mrs. Kelly spoke up from behind her desk in an unbearably chipper tone for this early in the morning. "It's a nice and even 22 in this class, so everyone will have a partner! I want you to get started on this as soon as possible so don't take too long pairing up!"

Raising her blue eyes from her desk to scan the room, she soon realized she should have called out sick today.

The morning announcements started playing, and one of Rusty's favorite homeroom rituals was to sing the pledge loud and proud, purposefully pushing the buttons of all those around him who opposed the pledge. Mr. Thompson spoke to Elizabeth, who had been sitting down, ignoring the signal to rise for the pledge. Following Mr. Thompson's instructions, she stood up and pushed her hood down, revealing her long, beautiful hair, a quality she had that Rusty adored. He smiled as he witnessed her rolling her eyes at Mr. Thompson, clearly making sure he saw the act as well. The pledge came to a close, and the announcements ended, causing all of the students to fall back into their seats...except for one person, Elizabeth.

Nearly all eyes were on her as she stood there, motionless, unaware of what was happening around her. Rusty took advantage of this moment to get a good look at Elizabeth, something he hadn't thought of doing until that morning. He found her absolutely, jaw-droppingly beautiful. Her long hair, her light-toned skin, her sense of style. This girl was clearly her own person, and Rusty found that ravishing. A look of embarrassment appeared on her face once she came to the realization that she was still standing after the announcements had ended.

Rusty wanted to say something to her, but he couldn't find the courage. "Plenty more opportunities will arise, that's for sure," he thought as the last homeroom bell rang, signifying the end of homeroom and the beginning of the first class. His eyes traveled back to Elizabeth before he made his way out of the room, seeing her still slightly red-faced, head slumped at her seat. If only he had the guts to say something. He made his way out of homeroom and onto his first class.

Taking his seat, he read the assignment up on the board, which directed him to find a partner, choose a topic, and start a research paper with said person. This was the perfect chance to say something to Elizabeth. Almost every student quickly rose from their chair, appearing to know exactly who they wanted to partner up with. Normally, Rusty would not care at all. But today was different.

Getting up from his seat, he took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself, and made his way toward Elizabeth. Her lovely blue eyes were a match for his, just as bright and kind. Slowly, he continued on his path closer to her, trying his best to not present himself as an awkward creep, running through his mind the many different ways he could approach her. After what felt like a lifetime of walking, Rusty made it to Elizabeth's desk, where she had still been sitting. Rusty decided to keep it simple.

"So..uh..would you like to be my partner for this assignment?"

"Uhh..." She didn't expect this, in the slightest - and was pretty caught off guard. "Sure, if you want." She said, trying to be as casual about it as she could. From what she knew, Rusty was a pretty good student. Not a slacker like her. Was he going to push her to do a lot of work? At least it was Friday, so they probably wouldn't have to do much aside from agree upon an idea and then they wouldn't have to work on it until Monday if they wasted enough time thinking about ideas.

But once again, Mrs. Kelly piped up like the damn mind reader she was. "We won't have a lot of time to work on this in class due to exams, so I expect you all to make time to work on this together this weekend!"

Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. This was going to be awkward. She wasn't social. This kid was pretty friendly, chatty and not to mention almost as peppy as Mrs. Kelly. She couldn't invite him over her house. It was run down, embarrassing and her mother was an absolute mess. Unlike most teens her age, she couldn't drive either... which would only make things more difficult.

But at least it was Rusty. Alright. Enough staring at him. Elizabeth nodded to the open desk in front of her, signaling for him to sit down. "Lose a bet or somethin'?" She asked, snarkily, assuming he'd have better options than her.

Despite surprising Elizabeth with this question, she replied quickly, albeit a bit lackadaisically. "Sure, if you want," were the words she chose to respond with. Inside, Rusty was about to explode with excitement, but on the outside he retained his casual demeanor as best he could. He wondered if they'd be able to even spend some time together working on the assignment outside of class. What topic should he suggest? Should he wait for her ideas first? Before his mind could race any further and faster than it already had, Mrs. Kelly, the English teacher spoke up, informing students that there would not be much time to work on this in class.

Rusty almost let a yelp of enthusiasm escape, trying his hardest to contain any sign that he was ecstatic to be working on this assignment with Elizabeth, doing his best not to scare her away. He knew nothing about this girl, and now was his chance to find out about her. All he knew was that she was quiet, very pretty, and usually kept to herself. Elizabeth signaled to him to take a seat at the empty desk before her. As he sat, she spoke again, asking, "Lose a bet or somethin'?"

"No, not at all! We've never been partners before, and you seem like a pretty good choice to me." Rusty smiled at her, trying to be as friendly and welcoming as possible. "So, is there a particular way you want to do this? If we're not gonna have much time in class to work.." He thought to himself, would it be too much to ask if he could come over to work on the assignment? He decided to ask anyone. "You can always come over my house! Or I can go over to your place. I don't have a car, but I do have a bicycle, and I'm halfway decent at riding it." He laughed. "What do you think?"