The One I Loathe

Chapter 7

Settling into Lincoln High wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be. As much as I missed Audrey and Sam in New York, Colorado was really starting to feel like home to me. The next few weeks at school went by relatively quick. Having never been a particularly shy person, I made friends easily.

As far as my relationship with Sophie, going to school together really decreased our loathing toward one another. Our families still got together occasionally, but they weren’t nearly as bad as before. I didn’t hate Sophie, but I still didn’t classify her as a friend yet. I thought about all this while sitting in English class on a Thursday afternoon.

“Mr. Bennet? Mr. Bennet?” Mrs. Barry, our English teacher, pulled me out of pondering.

“Huh? What?” I asked so articulately.
The whole class laughed, and Mrs. Barry glared.

“I asked you what a poem is called when it has five feet of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable in a line, ” She said between pursed lips.

Crap! Since when did poems have feet? Maybe I should have actually listened to the old bat drone on. Suddenly, I saw Sophie holding up a piece of paper behind Mrs. Barry that said “Iambic Pentameter” on it. She was helping me?

“Iambic Pentameter” I said quickly.
She nodded, and narrowed her eyes at me.

“Next time, try it without any aid, Mr. Bennet.” I cringed, then she turned to Sophie. “As for you, Miss Jameson, please refrain from helping trouble makers, like Mr. Bennet here, no matter your personal feelings,”

Ouch. Sophie blushed like crazy. I could tell even from the other side of the room.

“Would the both of you please see me after class?”

We nodded. That usually meant detention.

Detention was no big deal for me. I was in and out of it every day in New York, but this was probably Sophie’s first. Suddenly, I felt really guilty.

After class, Mrs. Barry assigned us both detentions for the next day after school. I grabbed Sophie’s arm as she walked out of the English room. She turned around.

“Look, I’m so sorry Sophie. I didn’t mean for you to get detention too, I know you were only trying to help,” I pleaded quickly.

She grinned at me, and said “That’s ok. Detention’s no big deal. I was feeling left out anyway. I’m the only one of my friends whose never had one!” She laughed.

Wow, she was taking this better than I thought she would.

“Well...um, ok,” I said, scratching my head, “So I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then?”

“Yeah, see you there.” She smiled at me and walked off.

I couldn’t shake that strange feeling I had in my stomach, though. After nearly a month of living here, I was still astounded by her beauty whenever I saw her. I shook off that thought quickly, though, and followed her to lunch.

~*~

Why wasn’t I madder at him? I should be furious at Trent for causing me my first detention. But I wasn’t...not even a little! Why did I even help him in the first place? I knew Mrs. Barry was going to call on him. She always preyed on the weak. He was starring off into space, and obviously not paying attention, and she noticed.

Despite trying to let him fail, I just couldn’t! I felt so horrible letting him go up in flames when I knew the right answer. I tried to be discreet, but I swear that woman had eyes in the back of her head! Plus, I couldn’t believe that remark she made about my personal feelings for Trent! That was so embarrassing!

But then, when Trent talked to me after class, he was so sweet and sincere! I couldn’t possibly be mad at him. My heart was pounding at like a million miles per hour. I couldn’t even think of a clever comeback when he apologized for getting me a detention. I just smiled and said whatever came in my head.

My heart only beat like when I was around someone I liked, and even then it was never that bad! Did I...have feelings for Trent? More than friendship, even? No! That couldn't be it, could it? I pushed the thought out of head, and made my way to the cafeteria.

During lunch, I told Hilary about my detention, and she gasped in horror.

“You got a detention? For what? Making everyone else look bad?”

I laughed and told her about the Trent Incident. She smiled slyly.

“Oh...so you got in trouble for helping Trent? I thought you hated him?” She asked, knowingly.

“I don’t hate him! I mean, I guess I did, but not anymore.” I replied with an unexpected smile appearing on my face.

Unfortunately, Hilary noticed.

“You like him don’t you?!” She practically yelled at the table. Several heads turned around to look at me.

“Hilary!! Will you be quiet?” I whispered urgently at her, my eyes darting to see if Trent had heard anything from his table. Thank God the cafeteria was large and noisy!

“Well, its true isn’t it?” She said more quietly.

I wasn’t sure what to tell her. I didn’t know if I liked him or not.

“I don't know...I guess...maybe! That’s all I’m telling you!” I told her.

Nevertheless, she squealed with excitement.

“Oh I knew it! I knew it! I should have known when you kept going on about how much you hated him! Opposites attract...duh!”

“Hilary! Shut. Up.”

Sometimes that girl could drive me insane.

Unfortunantly, my parents were about the same when I told them how I got my first detention.

“Aww...Darling that’s so sweet!” My mother cooed, “I always knew you two would end up together! Cecilia and I had it all planned out when you and were Trent were born. It was only a matter of time!”

I rolled my eyes. I had heard this story a million times.

“Mom...Mom!” I tried to get a word in edgewise, “We have a detention together, we arn't getting married!”

Well, at least she wasn’t mad.

~*~

The Friday morning sun woke me with a vengeance. I got dressed and went downstairs to eat breakfast. My mom was already in the kitchen making a cup of coffee.

“Trent?” She asked, “Elaine called and told me about you and Sophie’s detention today,”

I cringed. I had forgotten to tell her, and she didn’t look too happy.

“Look Trent, I know you didn’t have the best track record in New York, and I thought we’d agreed that when we came to this new school it would be different.”

I sighed. Here it came.

“It was different...for a while.” I began.

Mom continued as if she hadn’t heard me.

“And what bothers me now, is that you’ve brought Sophie into this too! I know, you didn’t ask her to give you the answer, but Sophie is a very caring person and would give up her perfect record for you.” She stopped and sighed.

I guess I hadn’t thought of that. I had always thought Sophie had hated me. That’s why I never tried to become friends with her. But now, I guess I should give her more of a chance. I mean, she obviously cared about me at least a little bit.

“Just be careful around her, ok?” My mom finished.

“Yeah, Mom, I promise,” I replied.

“Thank you, son. Oh, and your giving Sophie a ride home.”

I nodded, grabbed a granola bar, and ran out to my car. Just like my dad promised, they had bought me a new car. Well actually it was a used Mazda, but hey, it had four wheels, so I was happy.

That day, all I kept thinking about what my mom had said. Did Sophie really care about me? Could we really be friends? We were so...different, to say the least. All my friends were usually exactly like me...but Sophie? That would definantly be new territory.

When, the last school bell rang for the day, I walked to Mrs. Barry’s class room. Sophie, not surprisingly, had gotten there first, so I dropped my backpack and sat down in the desk next to her.

Mrs. Barry was typing on her computer, and Sophie was writing something in a notebook, so I looked around, puzzled on what I should do. Normally in detention I just talked to Sam, but that really wasn’t an option now.

Mrs. Barry looked up from her computer, and said to me, “Please find a way to keep yourself busy for 2 hours, Mr. Bennet.”

2 hours! This woman was crazy!

I found some homework I could do, and went to work.

~*~

I looked at the clock. Had it only been an hour? It felt like I had been there three days already. I looked back down on the poem I was writing.

Suddenly, Mrs. Barry stood up and walked to the door. Right before she left, she turned to us and glared, “I will be gone for 5 minutes. I expect this silence when I return, and don't even think about leaving,”

We both nodded, and she left.
As soon as I heard her clicking heels fade, I leaded back in my chair and groaned loudly.

“Ok! I am never giving you any answers ever again!”

Trent stretched from his hunched position and laughed.

“Good! Because I’m never accepting any answers from you again!”

I laughed, and turned to him. “So what are you working on?”

He held up Romeo and Juliet. “English homework,”

“So what do you think of it?” I asked him.

“Well, when I can actually understand what they’re saying it’s not half bad. But, that isn’t very often.”

I nodded. I had to agree with him. Shakespeare was Hilary’s thing, not mine.

“So what are you working on?” He asked, gesturing at my notebook.

I never really told anyone about my writing before, so hesitated for a bit. But, somehow I knew I could trust him.

“My writing,” I said simply.

He looked impressed. “Oh, a writer, huh?”

“Yeah, poetry and what not,” I said.

“Wow, that’s really impressive,” he said.

“Thanks, it’s my creative outlet,”

He grinned. My heart fluttered a bit. Why couldn’t I control that?

“Mine’s guitar,” He replied.

He played guitar? Who knew?

“That’s cool! I never knew that.”

It’s funny how you can know someone for 16 years and never know all this about them.

We talked until Mrs. Barry came back. The remaining hour went by more quickly than the first. Finally, she let us go, but not before a lecture on ‘bad seeds’ and how to avoid them and avoid being them.

Trent was giving me a ride home, so we went out to his car. We continued to talk on the way home. It was so odd. We had never had a conversation this long and in depth our entire lives! It was really nice. And even when he dropped me off back at my house, I was reluctant to go.

“So, detention wasn’t as bad I thought it would be!” I told him.

He smiled and replied, “Yeah, it was good to talk to each other like human beings, not rivals!”

I agreed, and he added quickly, “But next time you wanna talk, can you just call me, not get detention?” He said with a wink.

My stomach turned at that wink, and since I was at a loss for words, I just laughed. We said our goodbyes, and I went inside. I stood in the entry way, stunned.

I just became friends with Trent Bennet.
~*~

That was the weirdest conversation I’d ever had. I’d barely said two words to Sophie in the three weeks we’d lived there and now we talked like we’d been friends for years. I didn’t hate her. I thought I did once. But now, thinking about what she’d told me and what I’d told her, I didn’t hate a bone in her body. Whenever she spoke, all I wanted to do was listen to her. I always listened to Audrey, but it was different with Sophie...

Audrey. What was I thinking? I was dating Audrey. I loved Audrey! She was perfect for me. I couldn’t let these feelings for Sophie grow into anything more. We were friends and that was it.

Feeling guilty, I called Audrey.