If That's Your Excuse Ch. 02

I sat for the rest of the class, pretty sure that the embarrassed blush I had gotten when he first walked into the room never went away. For a second when he'd said my name he'd looked at me and smiled, and I'd been surprised. Most of the teachers, or anyone for that matter, would have probably been pissed off after what I did. I mean it wasn't on purpose or anything, but that didn't matter. Either way, I knew I'd have to apologize to him at the end of class, even if it was just to ease my conscience. I spent most of the period figuring out how to word my apology so it didn't come out sounding stupid or fake, but by the time the bell rang I still had no idea what to say. As everyone started to file out of the classroom, I stayed at my desk, just stacking up my books. He sat down behind his desk as the rest of my class left, and he didn't seem to notice I hadn't gone until I finally shuffled up to desk. He glanced up and then smiled.

"Ah Lexi, wasn't it?"

I bit my lip and nodded. "Look Mr. Birnbaum I just wanted to apologize... you know for earlier in the hallway. I swear I didn't do it on purpose, I was just running late and I know I should have stopped, but I didn't want to make a bad impression on you for the first day.'

I finished my speech and let out a breath, waiting to hear the verdict on all of this.

After waiting a few seconds to make sure I'd finished, he smiled again. Every time he smiled it seemed so.. genuine. I don't know why, but it seemed contagious.

"Lexi, look I really appreciate you taking the time to apologize, but I promise I'm not mad. Like you said it was an accident and I do get the whole running late part, because if I hadn't have been, I would have noticed you standing in the hallway and we wouldn't have crashed. So please don't worry about it, alright?"

Relieved after hearing how honest he sounded, I gave him my first real smile.

"Oh thank you Mr. Birnbaum I really appreciate it and I promise I won't happen again. Well, at least I'll try." I glanced up at the clock on the wall, my smile dropping. " I kind of have to go, I have to get to my next period. But thank you for understanding." I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door.

"Bye," I say with a wave and walk out.

"Bye Lexi," I called back as she walked out the door. There was something about her. I couldn't really place it, but she seemed special. I shake my head quickly, trying to get back to work. First day, and I'm already picking out favorite students, I joke to myself.

After a long day of classes, I headed home and had a drink, heading off to bed. I was already exhausted, and it was only Monday. I changed into boxer shorts and a t-shirt, and climbed into bed. Before I fell asleep, I could almost picture Lexi's face in my head as I drifted off.

I decided to stay in library through lunch today, trying to memorize the chapter for Business class. I figured after embarrassing myself the first day, I should probably make sure it didn't happen again. As I thought about class, my thoughts drifted to Mr. Birnbaum. He had been just as cute as Maggie had said. And more, really. It was strange for me though, because even though I'm a teenage girl and I'm always watching for cute guys, I've never really been one to like older guys, especially teachers. But I don't like him I corrected myself. I'm just.... Agreeing with Maggie's opinion. Sure that was logical. I've gone out with guys before. Just nobody I really cared about, and we really never did anything. Speaking in baseball terms, I hadn't gone past first. Not that it really bothered me. I've never been one of those girls who went around bragging about how far they'd gone and with who. It was never that important to me I guess.

After reading the chapter as many times as I could take, I glanced up at the clock. I decided I'd go a few minutes early today, hoping to change his opinion of me. Slinging my book bag over my shoulder, I walked out of the library down to Senior hall.

I started copying notes on the board, from a notebook on my desk. Today would really be the first official class, since the past few had really only been introduction days. Last night I'd been exhausted, but I'd still dreamed. And I could still picture Lexi's face. I didn't know why I couldn't get it to leave my head. It must have just been pure exhaustion and thinking about that dumb shirt, which probably still had a stain on it, even though I must have washed it three times already.

After a minute of this, I finally looked up and realized I'd written the same note on the board four times. I started to erase the last couple of lines when I heard someone walk into the room behind me. I turned around quickly to see Lexi sitting down at her desk in the front. I noticed today though that she seemed to be carrying her whole day's worth of books.

I smiled and pointed at the bag. "Teachers giving you a hard time?'

She smiled back, seeming a little more sure of herself today.

"No. Just me giving myself a hard time."

I turned around surprised by her answer. "You mean you voluntarily bring all that with you?'

"Well yeah. Otherwise I'd have no way of getting everything done that I have to. My schedule is a tad overloaded this year."

"Oh yeah? What are you taking?" I walked around the front of my desk and leaned against it.

She thought for a second and then started ticking classes off on her fingers.

"Spanish 4, Calculus, Honors Government, Chemistry, AP Literature, and, well, Business." She brushed some hair off of her face.

I didn't say anything, stunned into silence.

"You're taking all of those classes? In just this year?"

She nodded.

"Wow that... wow. I never would peg you as an academic."

She fidgeted in her chair, and seemed annoyed with my answer.

"Oh, thanks I guess."

I could tell I made her mad, so I quickly tried to correct myself.

"No don't get me wrong-it's not that you seem stupid or anything, it's just that you look good."

Even as I said the words out loud I tried to take them back. She immediately blushed and ducked her head with an embarrassed cough.

Shit how stupid am I, I thought to myself.

"Well I mean you just don't look unorganized or anything- like you would if you were taking too many difficult classes," I finished quickly, sounding like a complete idiot as I tried to cover my ass.

"Right. Um.. ok," She mumbled back clearly seeing through my cover.

Before I could even begin to change the subject, some kids started filing into the room, too warped in their own conversations to notice the obvious embarrassment on both of our faces. I stepped around my desk and sat down giving fake smiles as the class filled up.

Once the bell rang I started talking about the introduction chapter. After a few minutes of noticing some blank stares I asked for a show of hands of who actually read the chapter. Only two or three went up, and one of them was Lexi's. I decided to cut the class a break and didn't give a pop quiz, though that's usually how I'd get kids to read the homework. I said I'd talk about the chapter, and I asked for a volunteer to copy the rest of my notes onto the board, a bunch of hands shot up, but none of them who actually read the chapter.

"Lexi, would you mind writing up here?' I asked trying to end this awkward feeling between us.

She looked up and nodded, though she obviously didn't want to.

Unfortunately, I was one of the only few who actually did the homework, not like that surprised me. So it made sense that he picked me, but I didn't like it anyway. I walked up slowly as if to my death. He held out a notebook, which I grabbed from him, our fingers brushing for a second. I could feel the warmth of his hand, even though it was only a few seconds.

"Thanks," he said, trying to continue to teach.

I rubbed my hand for a second, but went and started writing on the board. He took notes by hand, so I had some trouble making out the words. After a few minutes of hearing him get more and more frustrated with the unresponsive class, he finally just told them to read the intro chapter themselves. Once all the books were open the room was quiet.

Finally, after a minute of trying to decipher a sentence, I turned around.

"Uh, Mr. Birnbaum? Can you tell me what this says?"

He looked up from some paper he was reading with an embarrassed smile.

"Yeah sorry about that, I don't really have the neatest handwriting."

He walked over standing next to me.

"Which part?" He asked.

Now that I was this close to him, I could smell his cologne. It made it hard to focus.

"Um.. this sentence," I mumbled finally getting the words out.

He leaned over my shoulder, looking like he was having trouble reading his own writing. I tried to suppress a laugh, biting my lip and broke out in a grin.

He looked over at me with a confused look.

"What's so funny," he asked.

"You can't even tell what it says can you," I asked teasing him.

He smiled and said ", Well you know there aren't many great teachers in history who had readable writing."

I smiled again.

"If that's the excuse you want to go with, I'll buy it."

"Thanks for understanding," he said taking the notebook back from me. "I won't subject you to my scribbling anymore. Thank you Lexi."

"No problem," I said with a smile, as I nudged his shoulder and walked back to my desk.