I Choose You | ✓

Chapter 4: "You guys are meant to be. It's fate!"

S O P H I E W I L K I N S

"What's your name, young man?" asks Mrs. Stratford.

"Andrew Dalton."

"Perfect timing," she smiles. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Dalton. I was just about to tell Miss Wilkins that one of the other boys playing Romeo will have to help her out in her scene since we were short a boy, but now we have all of the roles completely filled."

She pivots her body back towards me, "Miss Wilkins, you'll be playing Juliet in Act 2, Scene 2 with Andrew Dalton as Romeo."

Andrew turns his head in my direction and smirke. Of course. Of all the people in this entire school, the one person I'd like to see the least shows up.

Aria's face transitions from excitement to anger as she notices Andrew's gaze locked on me. She spins around and shoots me a scowl.

Mrs. Stratford assigns the rest of our roles and her next words make my stomach flop, "Alright, I've made a seating chart of where you'll be sitting." She projects a seating chart onto the whiteboard and I search for my name.

My name was next to the window in the left column with Andrew on my right. Finding Bree's name, I notice that she's sitting next to Bryan two rows ahead of me. Bree and I frown at each other and gather our things, moving to our new seats.

Andrew takes a seat next to me. For the rest of the class, Mrs. Stratford goes over Romeo and Juliet and explains to us when the project due and what her requirements are.

I tried to pay attention as best as I could, but something, or should I say someone, was distracting me. Throughout the entire class, I could feel Andrew's eyes piercing through me. The only time he glanced away from me is when Mrs. Stratford called on him to answer a question.

Surprisingly, he was able to answer her question correctly, even though he paid zero attention to anything that she said.

Brrring!

"Alright class, don't forget that you'll be performing the beginning of next month. I expect you to have all of your lines memorized and perfected."

I gather my things quickly and rush towards the door, Bree already waiting outside. We saunter down the corridor and split off at the end, heading to our next classes that we sadly don't have together.

A rough hand gently takes a hold of my arm and halts me in my tracks.

"Hey, you ran out so quickly I didn't get a chance to ask you—"

"No, I'm not going on a date with you," I interrupt.

"Woah, relax. I was just going to ask you what time would be good for you to start practicing our lines?" Andrew questions, a smirk tugging on the right side of his lips.

"Oh." My cheeks are burning up with embarrassment. "Can we figure this out later? As in, not when we have to get to class within the next minute?"

"Sure, I'll see you during lunch." He responds. We both start walking in the same direction. Why is he still following me?

I decide to brush the thought off of my shoulder and head into my next class, Calculus.

Andrew follows me into the classroom and quietly speaks to the teacher. I take my seat once again in the back of the class.