Ten
Okay. Deep breath, you got this.
"I'm ready. Let's go." Callie said as she moved her graze from out the car's windshield to glance at her boyfriend in the drivers seat. It was just them in the car, the other kids went with Lena in her car. At first, she was worried about Jude arriving to their first day without her but after a reassurance from Lena, Jude and Brandon, she reluctantly got into the passenger seat of Brandon's car.
Brandon, who has been watching his girlfriend watch the school since they pulled up five minutes ago, raised their joined hand off the center console to his mouth to give hers a quick kiss. "It's going to be fine. Mama was able to get you in all of my classes except for history, english and free elective. And I have a funny feeling you are going to like advanced photography over my free music period."
She cracked a smile at his last comment, something he was absolutely aiming for. "You know I could watch you play every second of every day and never get tired of it."
"I'm sure you could but not now. We really need to go." He gave her hand another kiss before letting go and getting out of the car. Knowing she will need a little extra push to get her going, he then walked around and helped Callie out of the car before grabbing their backpacks out of the back seat. With both bags over his shoulder, Brandon grabbed her hand yet again and proceeded towards the door inside.
Once the pair visited both Brandon's and Callie's lockers, they headed toward their first shared class of the day, biology. Throughout the entire journey to the science lab, Callie could feel eyes on her everywhere. She knew vaguely what she was going to be walking into this morning. She knew Brandon was fairly popular in the school, for being highly talented and all. And she knew that their was a fair amount of the girls who have been after him since freshman year. They had once ran into one of the girls he went to school with, a rightful bitch that one, who had completely ignored the fact that Callie was sitting on the other side of the cafe table while she was discussing English homework with Brandon and laying a hand in him any way she could, ever when he had introduced her as his girlfriend. Later, after she left the coffee shop, Brandon explained her in a way that made her sound like some obsessed fan. It was weird and now walking through the halls, she got the sense there were far more of those types of girls after Brandon than just the one psycho. It made her inch towards Brandon just a little bit more as they walked down the halls with their joined hands.
When they reached biology, the pair took a seat at one of the lab benches towards the front of the room. Once introductions were made between Callie and their teacher, it was determined that the two were going to be allowed to be each other's lab partner, effectively kicking Brandon's friend Matt to the next bench over to become partners with someone else. Similar situations happened through out the rest of their shared classes that day, it seemed they were successfully able to convinced all the teachers to put them next to each other.
Everything was well until the end of last period, which happened to be both Callie and Brandon's elective periods. It was quite strange actually, Callie was pretty relaxed and enjoying the day more than he though she would have. He was hoping for her to be able to talk after school and that was high hopes. However, her good mood took a complete 180 by the time he picked her up from the photography classroom. She immediately latched onto him the second he was in arms length of her.
"Hey. Everything okay?"
Callie shook her head and mumbled and inaudible 'not here'. Brandon, always in tuned with her, caught on right away and lead her out of the school to the car.
Before he allowed her to open the door and get in, Brandon drew Callie into his arms once more and repeated his question, leaving no room for her typical non-answers.
"It was nothing and kind of stupid. I'm sure you know that the typical people that take photography classes for easy grades and I guess some of them are 'fans' of yours," Callie paused to add air quotes around the last part, "and a couple of them came up to me during work time to tell me to stay away from you. I don't know, I guess things were going so well until then that little bit just upset me a little." She moved her head so her chin was resting on his chest and she was looking up at his slightly angered faced. She knew she wasn't angry at him but rather the people that upset her, typical Brandon.
"It's okay Brandon. I'm a big girl I can handle it. I was just caught a little off guard, that's all."
He moved to look down at her, a face that has faced way to much than it should have and today just adding to it. He moved some hair off her face before resting his hand on the side of her face and smiling at her. "You shouldn't have to deal with anything like that. Let me know if it happens again, I'll set the record straight, even though us being us should have been enough for all those wannabe's."
And just like he has done many times before, he caused a smile to crack onto her face before she said, "You're such a weirdo!"
"Yeah but you love me for it."
"That I do, that I do"