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Logan sat at the back of English class and stifled a yawn. He might be good at memorising plays and films, but as Wendy had once pointed out, books were not his forte. Typically, Wendy was seated at the front and actually seemed to have read the bore-fest of a novel they were studying. Mr. Jeffrey, the English teacher, was smiling at her, as Wendy answered yet another question correctly. Logan listened to her spout off a quote from the book to emphasize her point, and found himself grinning. He was going to have to read some pretty highbrow literature if he wanted to keep ahead of the curve with her. Or maybe not; he’d wind her up far more by sticking to movies and not even attempting to be clever.
At Mr. Jeffrey’s urging, Wendy began to read aloud from the Thomas Hardy novel:
“There is a size at which dignity begins, further on there is a size at which grandeur begins; further on there is a size at which solemnity begins; further on, a size at which awfulness begins; further on, a size at which ghastliness begins. That size faintly approaches the size of the stellar universe.”
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat!” Logan called out, cutting her off mid-flow.
There were snickers from all around the room as several people recognized the line from Jaws.
Wendy turned in her seat and glared at him.
“If you don’t mind, Logan, everyone else is here to learn, unlike you.”
“They do move in herds.” He tried to goad her further, this time with Jurassic Park.
“Cut it out!” Wendy practically howled at him.
“That’s enough, Logan. Would you like to continue, Wendy?” Mr. Jeffrey firmly interjected.
“No, I can’t keep going with him doing that.”
“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” Logan couldn’t resist.
“Thank you, Logan, you can stay behind. As for the rest of you, I think we’ll end the class there.” Mr Jeffrey shook his head in defeat and dismissed them.
Logan was a few minutes late for lunch. He took his tray to the North Tower table and sat down between Cal and Rory.
“Did you get told off?” Rory said, shovelling up a forkful of peas and losing half of them on the floor.
“Yeah, but it was worth it.” Logan grinned to himself remembering Wendy losing her cool.
“What was up with you? Why were you spouting off film quotes?”
Logan shook his head, still grinning, to show he wasn’t saying.
“He was trying to annoy Wendy. The question is: Why?” Cal said, giving Logan a side glance.
Logan stopped grinning, unnerved by Cal’s always seeing past the act.
“Weird Wendy?” Rory looked confused.
“Yeah,” Cal nodded, “If I didn’t know better, I would say he was flirting with her.”
“Didn’t look like flirting to me, looked like she was furious.” Rory dropped more peas.
“You know how when you were younger, if you liked a girl you’d pull her hair and then run away? It’s all about getting attention. These days I think we would call it foreplay. Right, Logan?” Cal gave him a nudge.
Logan choked on his food, and vehemently shook his head as he was unable to speak while coughing.
Cal smiled knowingly, and banged Logan on the back.
“Yeah, but... Logan’s never going to go for someone like Wendy, and she’d never go for him either!” Rory said.
“Why not?” Logan couldn’t help asking, even though it totally gave the game away, at least where Cal was concerned.
“Huh?” Rory looked even more confused, but thankfully the subject was dropped when Alianna sat herself down on the bench opposite them.
“Hi, boys, hi, Logan.” She blew a kiss across the table.
Logan gave her a weak hello, then his eyes moved of their own accord to the far end of the long table where he knew Wendy would be seated.
She wasn’t looking his way; she was in a heated discussion with one of her friends about something. She was jabbing at a piece of paper, and he could see she’d painted her fingernails black. It wouldn’t take long for one of the teachers to notice and make her scrub it off, but it looked sexy. He tried to work out when the heck she had become his type. Or maybe she hadn’t, maybe it was just something about her that got under his skin. He almost couldn’t wait for the day to end so he could secretly text her again.