Classified ☑

[ chapter 04 ]

The next morning I was in Mr. Hall's class, scrolling through my phone to distract myself before he started class. Shelly was sitting next to me and going on and on about drama happening around school. I didn't really pay attention.

"That's weird," Shelly whispered.

"What's weird?" I asked, pretending to be interested in the conversation without looking up from my phone.

"Cole's here on time."

My head shot up and sure enough, Cole was walking to his desk in front of Shelly. Even Mr. Hall watched him suspiciously.

Since our talk last night, I dreaded having to see him. I was scared he was going to try to talk to me about what happened last night.

Cole kept his brown eyes on me as he sat in his seat.

"Do you need something?" I asked him. That was the first time I'd started the conversation between us.

"Did I say something?" Cole asked me, mockingly.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "No."

He winked at me as a smile took over his face, turning around to face the front of the classroom.

Grunting, I turned to look at Shelly who pretended to not listen to our conversation. What gave her away was the wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

I grabbed my pen and tapped the end of it on the desk rhythmically. Something about him made me tick. He was able to get under my skin and it irritated me.

Cole turned back around to face me and smirked when he saw me tapping my pen on the table. I smacked the pen onto the desk, mashing my lips together to keep from saying anything. He seemed amused as he raised his eyebrows.

After the bell rang, Mr. Hall stood up and talked to us, letting us know what we'd be doing today. "All the slides you'll need are already back there by each microscope. Find a partner and get started."

Chairs scraped against the floor as voices filled the room. Other students easily found their partners and headed to the lab desks in the back of the room.

Shelly stood beside me, smiling shyly. "Want to be lab partners?"

Cole, who was still sitting in his seat, looked at me expectantly. As if he was daring me to say no to her after our talk in the gym yesterday.

"Sure," I said to Shelly, wanting to get away from him as fast as possible.

She smiled, bouncing on her toes before leading the way to the back. She picked a lab desk that was empty, but it didn't last long. Cole sat on the stool across from mine, giving me that half smile of his. His friend slid into the spot beside him, across from Shelly.

"Hey, I'm Mark," Cole's friend said, reaching his hand across the table for me to shake.

I watched his hand for a couple of seconds before putting my hand in his to shake. He smiled at me before sitting back down on his stool. "Nina."

Cole's brown eyes caught mine. I could tell he was trying to figure something out.

Mr. Hall spoke before either of us could say anything. "The different slides in front of you are different types of tissues in your body. Your job is to look at each one and sketch it while making observations about it that makes it unique from the other tissues. Understood?"

Everyone nodded their heads before starting.

"Which slide do you want to look at first?" Shelly asked me.

"I don't care."

"You seem to not care about a lot of things."

Mark, Shelly, and I turned our heads towards Cole who was staring directly at me. His tone was joking but there seemed to be an underlying meaning behind it. In my peripheral I could see Mark and Shelly glance at each other awkwardly.