I had never seen Frank before that Monday, and now he seemed to be popping up everywhere I went. I would see him in the halls, off campus, he was even in my Physical Ed class. I would always plan conversations with him in my head, starting off with a simple "Hello," but in reality, I couldn't even look at him. Whenever I caught a glimpse of him, I would stare at my feet and pray to God he wouldn't talk to me. There wasn't even a reason for him to talk to me, so in actuality I was being unreasonably foolish. With the way he made me nervous one would suspect I had a crush on him, when I didn't. I honestly just wanted to get to know him.

The bell rang and a few seconds later Frank walked in, the teacher shot him a look as if those few seconds really made a difference. Frank acted like he didn't notice as he made his way to his seat. His face was healing nicely, only faint discoloration was left.

"Okay, Class," Mr. Merril, the chemistry teacher, said loudly, trying to overpower the morning talk of the students. "Today we are going to be finally working in the labs. This is when Chemistry really gets exciting!" He paused, as if waiting for some sort of reaction from the students, they just stared blankly at him. "You are going to need a lab partner, so I will just be assigning them alphabetically." There were a few groans from the students, but most kept quiet. He named off pairs off people, I just picked at my nails.

"Frank Iero, Cher Isles station number seven." I froze. I didn't dare look back to him. Suddenly the strong desire I had to talk to him was gone. Mr. Merril continued through his list, but I could still hear mine and Frank's name ringing in my ears. When he finished reading off his list, he directed us towards the other half of the class room. There were 12 large black desks that had sinks set at the end of each of them. There were a few erect knobs and metal wires coming from the desks, presumably for hooking up equipment we would be using.

I picked my bag up and walked towards station seven. Two stools were set next to each other, I picked the one furthest away from the teacher. Frank walked up to the desk, examined the laminated sign stuck to the table stating "Station 7" and sat down next to me. He didn't even glance in my direction, he just looked down at his feet.
"Hello," I said. My voice sounded quiet and unsure.
"Hey," he replied simply. He looked up at me and gave me a short smile then looked back down. I wasn't sure what to say next, but Mr. Merril began to explain our first project. We were learning how to bend water using static electricity. I had done this before, so I tried to block out what he was saying, I kept glancing at Frank. He didn't seem to be listening either, he was tapping his feet together and resting his chin on his knuckles. I looked over him closely for the first time, he had two piercings: his lip and nose. His hair was pushed to the side, it fell in soft waves.

My attention quickly drifted to the front of the classroom when I hear Mr. Merril exclaim,
"Frank! Are you listening?" Frank lazily drew his gaze to the front of the room to where Mr. Merril was standing.
"Of course." He replied. I gave a soft smirk, then looked down at my feet.
"Eyes up here Mr. Iero." Was all Mr. Merril had to say in return. He continued talking about ways to form static electricity, and what static electricity actually is. He ended his lecture with an order for us to come grab one balloon for our stations.
"I'll get it." I volunteered. Frank nodded as I walked to the forming line. I was fidgeting while I waited, which I never did. But I was nervous. I didn't want Frank to be my partner, I didn't want to talk to the boy I had been so desperate to meet. When I reached the table I quickly grabbed a red balloon and walked back to our station.
"Thanks," was all Frank said as I sat down. I took a deep breath.
"Okay, do you want to blow the balloon up or should I?"
"You can if you want." He replied. I quickly blew it up, turning my head to the side so he couldn't see my face as I blew it up. I tied it and sat it down in front of him.
"Rub it against your hair." I said grabbing out my notebook.
"My hair?" He questioned.
"Yeah, we need to make static electricity." He gently rubbed it against his hair as I reached across him to turn the faucet on. When he removed the balloon from his head, as expected, his hair stuck up a bit. He smoothed it down and handed me the balloon. He watched me bring the balloon to the water. The stream of water bent towards the balloon. I pulled it away. I figured he saw what happened, so there wasn't a need to explain. I began to write the questions on the board into my notebook. Frank followed my example. We didn't say anything for a few minutes. I began to shake my leg as I concentrated on the questions. Suddenly, my foot hit against his shin. My leg froze, I quickly looked up, our eyes met at the same time.
"I am so sorry!" I said, I could feel my cheeks heating up. "So sorry!" I said again. He gave a small smile.
"It's fine, don't worry about it."
"Okay," I said softly. It took me a second to start writing again. But when I did, my foot started to swing absentmindedly once more. I hit his leg again.
"Sorry! I honestly didn't mean to!" I couldn't even bring myself to look at him. I just uncrossed my legs, hopefully preventing it from occurring again. He just gave a soft laugh and said,
"You're fine."
It wasn't even a minute until I felt his leg hit mine. I looked up. He gave me a smirk.
"I'm so sorry," He said in almost a mocking tone. We both let out small laughs. It felt nice, laughing with him. I kicked him a bit harder.
"Shut up," I murmured with a small smile. His foot hit against mine.
"Feisty," he smirked while saying this. I just shrugged and looked down to my paper. Our feet kept gently hitting against one another's without a word until the end of class.

---

I was walking around a small cluster of stores that were by my school. I decided the only way I could make enough money to get a car would be a job, so I spent that afternoon gathering applications. It was around four when I finally wandered into a grocery store. I found customer service and asked if they were possibly hiring.
"We are actually!" The older woman said with a sweet smile. "Would you like an application?"
"Yes, please." I said. She thumbed through some papers until she handed me a clipboard, an application, and a pen. I smiled and retreated for the small bench in the room. I filled out the standard information, my hand was cramping from all of the writing I had done.
"Hey!" I heard a familiar voice call. I glanced up. It was Frank. He wasn't wearing his uniform anymore, he had opted for jeans with a worn out knee and a black polo sporting a nice name-tag.
"Oh, hi." I said, I was surprised to see him here.
"Are you applying?" He asked.
"Yeah, I need a job."
"Well, I'll put in a good word for you. Even though this is literally the worst place to work."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, working with customers is a bitch." I nodded. "Well, I have to go actually," he said, motioning his hands towards the line of cash registers behind him. "I'll see you around." He left before I could say goodbye.

As I filled out the rest of my application, all I could think of was Frank. I wasn't sure if him working there made me want the job, or not want the job. I knew we wouldn't see much of each other if I did work there, but just thinking about seeing him more made me anxious.

Notes

I shouldn't have made the class chemistry, I hate chemistry. I was tired when i wrote chapter one. I had to look up actual labs for this chapter. nopenopenopenope