Mark

"Yes, there is actually." What the hell was that supposed to mean? Moreover, why was this guy talking to me? Apparently, whoever raised him forgot to tell him that talking to strangers wasn't advised.

"What?" I said, sighing impatiently and briefly closing my eyes. Without answering, he moved closer to me. His eyes dropped from my face to my phone. For a moment, I thought he was going to take it, but instead, he put his fingers on the volume button and pressed down, making the sound coming out of my ear buds decrease.

"It's a little loud," he said, grinning at me as he moved his hands back closer to him. "That's not good for your hearing and it's also kind of annoying."

He got up and left to go back to what I assumed was his seat before I could respond. To say I was in disbelief would have been an understatement. I looked over at him for a moment. Was this how people made friends? Worse yet, was this how people flirted? I felt a shiver go down my spine and turned away.  

Only a few more minutes had passed and class was just about due to start when I felt something hit me. I looked around me, not seeing anything on my desk or on my backpack. But then I looked at the floor and saw a piece of paper folded into an airplane. I sighed, having a bad feeling about who its creator was but picking it up anyway. When it opened it up, the message inside read:

By the way, my name is Jackson just in case you were curious ;)

He was smirking again when I looked at him and I scoffed under my breath. Then, still looking at him, I crumbled it in my hand, aimed for the trash can across the room, and threw it. Swoosh, it went right in the can where it belonged. Thankfully, no one seemed to make too big of a deal out of it, as no one made any comments. The guy looked impressed, but his smirked never faded, at least not before I turned away.

I just wanted to have a quiet semester, be a random face in the hallway that people only vaguely remembered. And I knew if I hung around this Jackson person, neither of those things would happen.

First period finally came to an end and I couldn't wait to get away from him. Even though I was pretty clear when I threw away the paper that I didn't like him, he kept making eyes at me all through class. I never returned his looks, hoping it would discourage him from even thinking about me. So I was glad when class ended, as I quickly packed my stuff and scurried out of the room to my next one.

Hoping he'd given up, I looked behind me when I was half way down the hall and took a deep sigh of relief when I saw him walking in the other direction. I made it to and through second period peacefully, but it was when third period creeped around that my luck, or lack thereof, seemed to get even better.

I was just sitting at a table by myself working on some homework during my study hall so that I would have less to do later when two girls sat down across from me. They stared at me for a while, as if they were expecting me to say something to them first. I did, but I don't think it was exactly what they were hoping I'd say.

"Can I help you?" I asked. 

Jackson

After I tried to get the new kid budge a million times, I gave up. I was seriously thinking about following him down the hall, but I quickly realized that I better not. He may have seemed quiet, but I'm sure he could get real pissed sometimes. And I didn't want to be the cause of one of those times.

I skipped geometry and walked around school for the period. When I circled around at least twice, I decided to go to the library and take a nap in one of those comfy chairs they had. Of course, I'd have a book over my face to make it look like I was being productive. I pushed the big swinging doors open and started to look for a book that seemed interesting enough to make people believe I'd read it. As I was skimming and trying to look occupied, I saw the new kid. I could tell it was him by the blank and utterly uninterested expression. There were two girls sitting across from him.

"Already picking up girls. Kid's got game."  I laughed to myself. 

This thought quickly changed though when I overheard him say in an annoyed tone of voice, "Can I help you?" I didn't get a clear look of the girls' faces so I walked a little closer. I saw who they were and knew exactly what they were up to before they even opened their mouths. So, I put back the book I picked up earlier and walked over to the table. 

"Excuse me ladies," I said as I slid into the chair next to him, "in case you haven't noticed new kid over here isn't interested in talking to you, so it may be in the best interest of you and your pride to just walk away with what little dignity you have left." 

They both looked at me with their mouths open, insulted. "What are you gay or something?" one of them asked.

"Are you gay or something?" I asked, mimicking her annoying voice. "Just get lost. Go bother that one Asian guy on the football team or something."

"Whatever, let's just go. ing loser," the other girl said. They stood up and left after that and I looked back at the new kid, whose expression hadn't appeared to change. He put his ear bud back in after a minute and shifted his attention toward his paper again.

"You're welcome," I said. He looked up, but not the whole way, and met his eyes with mine. 

"Why should I thank you?" he replied without even sparing me a glance.

"Because I saved you from being the next victim of racist Koreaboos," I answered, motioning toward the doors they left out of.

He paused whatever he was writing down, narrowing his eyes and slightly turning his head toward me. "But I'm not Korean." 

"Doesn't matter, they don't care. They'll call any Asian guy they see oppa if they get the chance. I think they think they're quirky and different, but they're just really ing annoying."

"More annoying than you?" His eyes finally met my face.

"You barely know me. It's not nice to judge a book by its cover," I said.

"Because I can tell what kind of person you are," he replied. "Which is why I've been trying so hard to avoid you if you haven't noticed." 

"Well, if you are going to do that then I feel like I should at least know your name."

"Why?"

"So I know to avoid you back. I can't very well justify avoiding someone whose name I don't even know." We engaged in some kind of staring contest, which luckily for me I was very good at, so eventually, he groaned and turned away.

"Mark. My name is Mark," he answered with slightly gritted teeth.

"Okay then. Now Jackson knows to avoid Mark because Mark is avoiding Jackson," I said, earning another annoyed scoff from him. I grinned and chuckled to myself. "I guess I won't be seeing you around, Mark. You're welcome again."

I left the library after that, deciding to just do some more laps around the halls. But even after I went to my next class, his name kept running through my head.

Mark.