Finally Free

07

S O P H I A | mamacita

"Hey Maddie!" Someone calls out from behind us.

"Hey Chloe." The girl walking up to us, Chloe I'm assuming, has black hair with purple streaks and olive skin. Her eyes are also black and have hints of violet in them. She's very pretty. That's what I've noticed. Every girl here is pretty.

"This is Sophia." Claire introduces me. She reaches out for me to shake her hand. "I couldn't help but hear you guys talking about Mr. Carter Marquez over here." She smirks.

I feel the heat rise in my cheeks. Am I blushing? No...

"Just giving Soph here a crash course on the inner workings of the school." Maddie tries to laugh it off, obviously embarrassed that they could hear us.

"Don't worry, his bark is a lot worse than his bite." Chloe assures me looking back at Carter. He's running his hands through his hair and joking with his friends, he spares me a quick glance and I instinctively look down the minute his eyes meet mine.

"Claire, I'm so sorry about Anthony, you deserve a lot better. In fact... Hunter is still single." Chloe points towards a blond boy, who keeps staring at Claire like a lost puppy.

"Aw thanks but I'm not looking for anything right now."

"Just merely a suggestion."

"Nice to meet you." Chloe says in unison with the bell.

The school day had officially started. We walked up some stairs into a long hallway. "We have AP Lit over here." Claire says.

"Bye, Sophia catch up with you after class." Maddie says as she walks down to the end of the hall into another classroom.

We walk into a classroom full of students talking up a storm. An old woman with glasses and gray hair approaches Claire and I.  She keeps a stern look on her face.

"Hello, you must be Sophia Carrington, I'm Mrs. Williamson your AP Literature teacher this year. I've already had a chance to get to know my other students over the summer so it's nice to meet you. And I hear you moved from New York." The woman says in a very sweet, kind tone of voice.

"Hi, nice to meet you." I say in the same tone.

"You and Claire can sit over there."

She points to a two person table in the middle of the room. As we take our seats Carter and one of his friends walk into the classroom. He's staring at me smirking and takes a seat right in front of us. What is it about him that draws me in?

"Welcome to your Senior year AP Literature class, I'm Mrs. Williamson, and by the way your current seats aren't permanent, but for now I'll let it slide."

She talks about the syllabus for this year, her policies, grades, projects and a bunch of the usual stuff that teachers say on the first day. I tune most of it out.

"I know it's more of a spring book but as you know I assigned The Great Gatsby as your summer reading." I'm glad I've already read it. "Now class, if you are new you might not have read it."

She eyes me with a questioning eyebrow raise. I just simply smile and nod.

"Now class, we will be spending the rest of this class time and this week talking about your views on certain situations that happened in the book. It is my favorite way to really talk about the book because I love hearing your opinions."

"To start off, we will be discussing one point of the book, the love conflict between Tom and Daisy and the motives he had to cheat on her which leads to much bigger issues." She continues.