Page 24 of Jesse and the Ice Princess
He chuckled at that. "I want to talk to you."
"Why?"
He hated the uncertainty in her voice. Were people at this school really that awful to her? Hadley was so sweet and bubbly. There had to be a reason she’d attached herself to Charlotte's hip.
"Charlie—"
"I told you that's not my name."
"Except for friends. I know. But I want to be friends."
"Again, why?" She drew out the word.
"I need your help."
She shrank away from him and pretended to flip through her notebook. "I don't think I'm the person you want."
"You're exactly who I want, who I need. Charlie—"
"Class," Mr. Thompson called as he walked in. "We're watching a video today that will prepare you for our experiments next week. I'm handing out a worksheet I want you to complete during the video." He walked down the aisles passing out their work.
"Charlie." Jesse tried again.
She held a finger to her lips and pointed to the screen where the video started. Mr. Thompson turned off the lights, throwing the room into darkness.
"Psst," Roman whispered from behind them.
Jesse half-turned in his seat. "Hey, man."
"Why are you sitting with her?" He didn't seem offended Jesse chose Charlotte's table over his, only curious.
"I'll explain later."
He turned back around but couldn't focus on the work in front of him, not with hockey on the brain.
"Charlie." He leaned toward her. "I want you to work with my team on our skating."
Her pencil froze mid-air, and she turned to look at him with wide eyes. "No." She resumed watching the video, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear just to have something to do with her hand.
"Why not?" he whispered.
"Because I'm not an instructor."
"But you could be. Come on, just think about it."
"Jesse," Mr. Thompson said. "Charlotte, we do not speak during videos."
"Sorry, Mr. Thompson," Charlotte squeaked.
She went back to scribbling notes on her worksheet as if she hadn't heard Jesse at all.
With a sigh, Jesse turned to his own work. He'd always been okay at school, never great. Just like most things.
He glanced down at the time on his phone thankful class was half-over. These videos were awful. Their teacher only put it on so he didn’t have to teach them about the phases of matter himself.
With another look at Mr. Thompson, who'd distracted himself in the back of the room, Jesse tapped Charlotte's worksheet with his pencil.
"Please."
