Andy Squared (2 page)

Andrew stared at the pile and sighed before picking up the mess of papers. He shoved them back in the locker.
I should probably clean that at some point
, he thought. As he grabbed his math and history books, he heard a high-pitched shriek from close behind him, and he cringed.

“Andy! Hi! There you are. I've been looking all
over
for you this morning.” Cynthia, varsity cheerleader and current girlfriend, came running over and threw her arms around him from behind. He fought a grimace and somehow managed a smile before turning to face her.

“Just got here.”

“Oh, it's okay. I missed you. I'm sorry I had to cancel our plans last night. My parents had to go out of town, and like, they said I had to watch Justin. Little brat got sick,” she said, making quotations in the air with her fingers.

“It's fine. I didn't mind. I hope he's feeling better.”

“He's fine. But listen, you should come over tonight, okay? My parents are going to watch his tournament and won't be home.”

Again, he fought another grimace. “I've got soccer practice after school, and then I made plans with Dad, sorry. Chores and all that, you know how it is. Can't get out of it.”

“You're not even going to try?”

“Can't. He needs to get it done, and I already offered to help. I can't just back out on him.”

“Oh…well, maybe later then…”

Andrew nodded and shouldered his bag. “Look, I gotta get to class. I'll see you at lunch.”

Before she could protest, he took off in the direction of the office, relieved to get away. As he walked and waved at his classmates, he debated ending it with Cynthia.
It's been two months. That's gotta be long enough.
But how could he let her down without causing some sort of a scene? He snorted and shook his head. Breaking up with her was going to cause a scene no matter what. Cynthia loved drama. She lived for it.
I'll wait for the season to end. She'll be less distracting then.

Andrew arrived at the office and opened the door. The room was pleasantly warm compared to the cooler hallways, and much quieter. Andrew approached the front desk and leaned over it. Next to him stood a boy he didn't recognize. After a cursory glance he ignored him and pulled out the forms his mother had given him.

“Hello, Andrew. What do you have there?” the secretary asked, a bright smile on her face.

“Some papers Mom wanted me to hand in. Forms or something.”

“Oh, I know what they are. I'll take those, thank you.”

“I'm finished with these, uh, Mrs. Conway,” the boy next to Andrew said, leaning over the desk and letting the papers drop down in front of the secretary. His arm knocked into Andrew's as he did it, and Andrew knew it was on purpose.
What a jerk
, he thought as he pulled his arm out of the way and turned to leave.

“Sorry,” the boy said, turning to face Andrew. He smiled and Andrew stepped back, caught off guard by the intense green of his eyes.

“See you later, Mrs. Conway,” Andrew finally said with a harsh intake of air.

“Bye, Andrew. Okay, Mr. Coltrane, here is your class schedule…”

Whatever else she said to the boy, Andrew didn't hear as the heavy office door slipped shut with a soft
schik
behind him. He navigated the halls by slipping between the crowds of students between the office and first-period history on the other side of the building.

So he's new here
, Andrew thought as he walked.
Wonder where he's from
. The warning bell for first period interrupted his thoughts and he picked up his pace through the crowded, noisy hallway. Students loitered by their lockers and in doorways, greeting friends, laughing and joking. Someone was pushed against the lockers and an argument broke out, but a teacher stood nearby and broke it up. One small freshman fell into him as he passed by; Andrew caught him.

“Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Andy!” the smaller teen said.

“No worries.” Andrew gave him a smile and shrugged before ducking into his classroom.

Mrs. Appleby was not there yet. He moved to the back of the room and the last row where he sat and dropped into his seat. He piled his books in front of him and opened his notebook. His friend Sarah was sprawled in the seat in front of him, her head down on the desk. Her breathing deepened, already asleep. Andrew reached over with a mischievous grin and nudged her shoulder. “Sarah, wake up.”

She grunted in response and pushed at his hand.

“Come on, you can't be sleeping
before
class, you cheat.”

“Andy,” Sarah whined. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, stretching, and leaned back to rest her head on his desk. Her long, chocolate-colored hair pooled there. He flicked a strand off his book. “I had to study for Mr. Jackson's calc test last night. Do you know what time I finally managed to fall asleep?”

“No.”

“Guess,” she demanded.

“One?” Andrew raised an eyebrow.

“No! Try three. Three in the morning!” She groaned again and sat up, yawning. “I need coffee. No. You know what would be great? If they made caffeine an injection, like a drug? Yeah, I'd do it. Straight to the vein.” She sighed heavily. “Sad thing is I'm still going to fail that test, even with all the studying. I hate calculus. What a waste of time.”

Andrew laughed and shook his head as Mrs. Appleby walked in. “You're terrible.”

“All right, class, let's settle down. Take your seats. Josh, get off your desk. We have a new student joining us today. Please be nice and welcome him, and none of the pranks you pulled last year, Michael,” the teacher said, standing in front of her desk.

“Aww, Mrs. Appleby! No idea what you're talking about,” Michael responded, and the class laughed.

“I'm sure you don't. Ryder, take a seat in the back next to Andrew.”

Andrew looked up at the sound of his name and saw the student from the office walking down the aisle toward him. Sarah straightened up in her seat and giggled, then leaned to her right and started whispering to Karina, who leaned across the aisle to get her attention.

“This my seat?”

Andrew nodded. “No other one open.”

“I'm Ryder Coltrane.”

“Andrew Morris,” he replied. He noticed a small accent, but he couldn't place it exactly. It sounded Southern, but which state, he couldn't tell. “Where you from?”

“Texas. Just moved up last week.”

Andrew looked at him, curious. The sound of his voice enticed him, and he asked another question to hear more of it. “Texas? And you moved up here, to New York? Talk about a change. Must be a hell of a lot colder up here.”

“Man, you have no idea. During winter in the South we don't get anywhere near this cold. But it's all right.” Ryder shrugged and opened his mouth when the teacher interrupted.

“Enough chatting. The two of you can get to know each other later. That goes for the rest of you, too. Stop gossiping. Josh, I told you before, get off your desk. Hand this book back to Ryder, please. Now, open up to page two hundred thirteen, and let's pick up where we left off. Ryder, see me after class and I'll give you copies of the notes for this chapter to catch you up.” Mrs. Appleby moved behind her podium and opened her own book.

For the rest of the class, Andrew faded out. He followed along and spoke when he needed to, but he couldn't get into the lesson. Instead he focused on the guy sitting next to him. Even when sitting quietly, something about Ryder attracted attention. More than once Sarah turned around and looked at him, and then passed Karina a folded-up note. Andrew was tempted to lean over and snatch it out of their hands just to see what it said.

Ryder was tall, even when in his desk and slouched over. From standing next to him in the office Andrew guessed him to be six foot two, a good five inches taller than his own height. He had his hair cut longer than the style Andrew was used to seeing, and it fell to his chin in brown waves, just a shade or two lighter than Sarah's chocolate color. Ryder looked over at him at that moment and grinned. It was lopsided and…sort of cute, Andrew figured.
At least that's what Andrea would say
. And his eyes. A bright green that shone in the fluorescent lights. He noticed the color was unusual in the office, but now there was a light in his eyes that made them even brighter. He wore a dark green, long-sleeved shirt under a lighter green button-down, which only made his eyes stand out more.

Andrew jerked his head back to the front of the room and tried to focus on the teacher's words as his pulse raced. He frowned and tried to breathe, a little confused.
What's wrong with me? Am I coming down with something?
As he focused on his sudden condition, the bell rang.

“Remember, test on Friday for chapter seven. I expect an A from everyone!” Mrs. Appleby called as students began to file from the room.

“What class do you have next, Ryder?” Sarah asked, quickly crowding his desk with Karina and a few other girls.

“English with Mr. Ray.”

“Oh, he's pretty cool, but I don't have him this year.”

Andrew turned and walked up the aisle to leave.

“Hey, Andrew! Hold on a sec. What class do you have next?” Ryder pushed through the crowd around his desk and caught up with him.

“Study hall.”

“Oh, damn.”

Andrew shrugged. “See you at lunch, maybe.”

Ryder grinned and tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, maybe.”

*

Andrew focused on the rest of his classes and made it all the way to lunch with barely any thought of Ryder. He met up with Andrea, Sarah, and Charlie, his friend from the soccer team. They got their lunches and sat at their usual table in the back corner of the cafeteria by the large windows that overlooked the school's courtyard. Andrew sat with his back to the room and poked at the mystery meat on his plate. The fork stuck and he removed it with an ominous sucking sound. He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

“So, Andrea, do you have any classes with Ryder?” Sarah asked as she poked her own mystery meat.

“Who?”

“The new guy,” Sarah said with surprise. With a school as small as theirs, everyone knew when something big happened, usually within an hour of it occurring. And a new student definitely qualified as “a happening.”

“No, guess not. No one new in my classes this morning,” she responded.

“Oh, my God. You have to see him! He's so hot, isn't he, Andrew?”

Andrew rolled his eyes. “I don't know, Sarah. He's a guy.”

“Right. You only do the cheerleaders. Then ditch them.”

“Whatever.”

“So what's going on with Cynthia?” Sarah asked, looking at him with wide eyes, clearly ready for gossip.

Andrew looked across the table at Charlie and suppressed a shudder. “She's getting annoying. This morning, she—”

“Ryder!” Sarah yelled and stood up, waving her arm. “Come sit here!”

“Ooh, he is pretty hot,” Andrea agreed under her breath when he got closer. Andrew shook his head.

“Hey,” Ryder said as he set his tray on the table and sat in the open seat next to Andrew.

“How's your first day, Ryder?” Sarah smiled flirtatiously, which he returned.

“It's going fine. I was pretty much at the same place y'all are in your classes back at my old school, so I'm not too far behind.”

“That's cool. Hey, this is Andrea and Charlie.”

Ryder nodded to them and then looked at Andrea, leaning across the table a bit. “You look familiar…are you in one of my classes?”

“No, but my brother is, apparently.”

“Yeah? Who?”

Andrea laughed and nodded her head to Andrew. “Him.”

Ryder turned and looked at him, then back to Andrea. And then back again. “Wait, you're twins? Wow. You look a lot alike.” He stared at them both. Andrew knew what he was looking at: their identical dark blond hair and pale blue eyes. The only real difference between them, besides their gender, was the length of their hair; Andrew had his hair cropped short and spiked up with gel, and Andrea's hung just a little past her shoulders. Today she had pulled it back into a ponytail.

“We get that a lot,” they answered in unison.

“Whoa, cool. Y'all do that twin speak thing often?”

“Twin what?”

“Twin speak. You know, talking at the same time, saying the same things. Can you, like, read each other's minds?”

Andrea stared at him. “No. We just spend so much time together, that's all. We used to be in the same classes together, too. But this year they split us up,” she added with a small frown.

“Well, cool. I see where Andrew got his looks, then. He's real pretty like you, Andrea.”

Everyone laughed, except for Andrew. His face turned a dark shade of red and he went back to poking at his lunch. “Ha ha. Funny.”

“Aww, Andy. Don't get all upset. Don't mind him, Ryder. He just gets that. A lot,” Charlie snickered, and he leaned back to avoid Andrew's hand as it reached across the table.

“We take after our mom. Andy's still a little touchy about that. Should have seen him when his hair was a little longer,” Andrea said. “And when we were younger we were on the same soccer team. The coach mixed us up all the time.”

“Yeah, they were nearly identical,” Sarah agreed as she took a bite of her food. “I remember one time in third grade—”

“No!” Andrew lunged toward her and pressed a hand against her mouth, nearly falling over the table to do so. “He does
not
need to hear that story, okay?”

Ryder leaned forward. “What happened? You have to tell me now.”

“Come on, don't, please,” Andrew begged.

“Oh, just a little something.” Andrea winked. Andrew felt her foot move past his leg while she kicked Sarah and Charlie under the table. “Maybe we'll tell you later.”