Jeraud took his seat at the lab bench while the gorilla began chatting with Mrs. Hessefort, their science teacher. Mrs. Hessefort was already laughing and joking with the circus freak. People just seemed attracted to her for like flies to horse crap for whatever reason. How she effortlessly gets along with strangers really irritated the easily jealous boy and he tried to ignore it. He couldn’t believe that he was actually a tad bit jealous. He was angry at himself for being even a teeny bit jealous.
"Who is she?" He heard a snobby voice growl behind him, obvious envy in its tone. Jeraud turned around for a quick peek of Melanie, the cheer leading captain. Her concealer-caked nose was scrunched up as she loudly chewed her gum.
"I don't know. She must be new." Innocent Marissa, who was unlucky enough to have to be partners with dumb Melanie, informed her. She fiddled with her long, dark hair and nervously chewed on the inside of her cheek.
"Ugh, look at the way she's talking to Mrs. Hessefort," Melanie sneered, quickly pointing out the troll's faults. "She must be a little teacher’s pet."
Jeraud smiled grimly, knowing Melanie’s disdain for the circus freak would automatically keep others from being her friend as well. Sometimes he just loved how freaky the mountain gorilla naturally is.
The bell rang for the start of class, but Mrs. Hessefort continued chatting with the mutant as if suddenly deaf. It made his insides burn. He couldn’t believe that this creature managed to make punctual Mrs. Hessefort delay teaching.
A moment later, though not soon enough for Jeraud’s liking, Mrs. Hessefort cleared her throat before calling for the attention of the rowdy class.
“This is our new student. Please give her a warm welcome before she introduces herself.” The teacher commanded as she started clapping. Slowly, other students unenthusiastically joined in. Jeraud didn’t even bother lifting a finger for her.
Everyone’s eyes rested on Rosalind as she beamed at the crowd of upperclassmen, basking in their attention. “Hi, everyone!” she began, waving her arm high up in the air in greeting. Some of the freshman laughed while others waved. Jeraud simply glared at her, anger heating his insides. She turned around and wrote on the chalk board behind her. “My name is Rosalind. But you can call me Rose. I don’t mind at all. I was an orphan.”
Jeraud felt his throat clench and his heart began to race. Was she going to tell everyone that his family adopted her?!
“But I was adopted and now I live here. I am…”
He sighed in relief as that crisis was averted, her introduction of herself fading in the background until someone spurt out “You’re only thirteen and you’re in high school?!” I looked up to find Mikey, his jaw flat out on the desk. Other teens began to whisper and gossip to each other, but they all looked impressed, even Mrs. Hessefort did. Jeraud was disappointed that Melanie had stayed quiet so far throughout the mutant’s introduction.
“Well, yeah… I skipped the second grade…” Rosalind explained.
“So that must mean you’re really smart, right?!” Mikey added, his voice never seeming to lose bewilderment.
“Not necessarily!” she denied with an embarrassed smile, shaking her hands at him.
“Well, it certainly is remarkable. You can’t deny that, Rose.” Mrs. Hessefort encouraged.
ROSALIND smiled sheepishly at her, “I guess… Yeah…”
“You are cool, Rose.” A student added.
“And pretty cute!” someone else called out in an unmistakable voice. Jeraud turned viciously at Mikey, as if he had spoken Latin backwards. But all the other students laughed.
“You certainly have character, Rose. And, thanks to you, this class finally has an even amount of students. So that means we all have partners!” Mrs. Hessefort seemed to be the only one excited about it.
“So I’ll have a partner? And they could help me?” her eyes sparkled up like a child’s on Christmas morning.
“You sure do!” Mrs. Hessefort confirmed with a confident smile.
“Who?!” Rosalind was practically jumping up and down from excitement.
“cel Frumos, please raise your hand.” Mrs. Hessefort called out.
Rosalind stiffened up as all of the visible color drained from her face. Jeraud almost chocked on a laugh at the sight of it.
Romeo raised his hand, a scowl on his blushing face.
Jeraud smirked in pleasure. She was going to hate it here, making his job to get rid of her that much easier.
“That’s cel Frumos.” Mrs. Hessefort told her, turning on her teaching tone. “It means-”
“Romeo the handsome… I know what it means…” Rosalind whispered. She turned to Mrs. Hessefort, desperately hoping for an alternative seating arrangement.
“Okay, since you know, go on and say hello.” Mrs. Hessefort nudged her towards Romeo and her new seat, not noticing the desperation plastered all over Rosalind’s face.
She slowly dragged her sandals over to the lab bench, taking as much time as she could. Romeo didn’t even look her way as she lugged the chair back, making a huge creaking as she pulled it out, and took her seat. They both simultaneously scooted to the far sides of their table, attempting to be as far away from one another as possibly allowed.
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