Becoming Normal

Chapter 5

Now that he was partnered up with Autumn, Tanner turned to face her expecting her to come up to him to get started on the assignment, but instead, she just sat there with her face down as if she barely moved. But knowing he had to get something started, he got up and sat in the seat next to her.

“Hey Autumn."

But just like before, she said nothing while still keeping her face down.

“Um-” he continued while thinking of what to say “In case you don’t know me, I’m Tanner.”

“I know” she suddenly mumbled.

“Oh,” he replied, a bit surprised that she already knew his name when he’s never told her before “Well uh, great.”

So far so good, but he had to keep going.

“Um, can you tell me what the assignment’s about?” he asked with an embarrassed smile “I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Once again she didn’t reply, but he wasn’t giving up.

“Autumn-” he sighed as he reached his hand out to touch her shoulder “Can you please talk-?”

But right as he placed his hand on her shoulder, she suddenly jumped as he quickly moved his hand away, not knowing what just happened.

“I’m sorry” he quickly apologized with guilt as she crossed her arms again and rubbed her fingers against them.

He could hear her breathing rapidly but quietly. Still having no knowledge on why she jumped when he touched her, Tanner tried to think of what to say to get their minds off of it.

“So um-” he started to say “About the assignment, can you remind me what it’s about?”

Silence again, and he was beginning to get a bit frustrated.

“Autumn-” he said calmly “Can you please look at me? I can’t have a conversation with you if you won’t look at me.”

But that just made her look away more so that the back of her head was now facing him.

“Look I understand you’re shy and all-” he sighed “But I wanna help you on this assignment, and we both won’t get the grade if you don’t cooperate with me.”

The sound of her quiet but rapid breathing sounded as if she was having a panic attack at the spot. Fearing that he had done something wrong, Tanner sat there not knowing what to say when Autumn suddenly raised her hand.

“Yes?” Mr. Turner asked.

“Can I go to the restroom?” she asked quietly.

When he allowed, she got up and left the room in a hurry. Fearing that he had caused her to have a panic attack, Tanner could feel the guilt rise while imagining her going into the restroom, locking herself in a stall and breathing heavily.

“Dude” Max suddenly said to him “What did you do to her?”

“Nothing” he replied a bit confused “I just tried to have a conversation with her. But I think I just caused her to have a panic attack.”

“Yikes” Max bit his lip “Way to start off on the wrong foot.”

Having no idea what was up with Autumn, Tanner was beginning to think partnering up with her was a bad idea, that is if she keeps ignoring him.

Throughout the rest of the class, Tanner and Autumn didn’t say a single word to each other. Tanner even went back to his seat to avoid causing her to have another panic attack. And when he looked back at her, she had her head buried in her arms on the desk. Even though he had no idea how bad her suffering was, he too felt the pain of not being able to communicate with his classmate.

__________

By the time he made it home, he couldn’t stop thinking about what happened in English. Laying with his back down on his bed, the whole mystery on who she is just baffled him. All of these thoughts and questions crowded his mind when he was interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing as he reached out to his phone beside him and answered the call from Max.

“Sup?” he answered.

“You still gonna be working with Autumn?” Max asked.

The sound of her name made Tanner rubbed his forehead with a groan.

“I don’t know man,” he sighed “If she keeps this up then I may have to switch partners.”

“Well if that happens I’m willing to trade my partner to her.”

“Yeah like she’s gonna talk to anyone” he scoffed “Hey did you managed to get what the assignment was about?”

“Oh yeah, on the paper it says we have to choose one of the books listed and do what the assignments for them are.”

“Wait what paper?”

“You didn’t get the paper from the front? Wow, how the hell are you gonna leave high school?”

Tanner rolled his eyes “Autumn must have gotten a paper, but since she won’t talk, can you tell me what are the book options?”

“Yeah let’s see here.”

He waited as he listened to Max pulling out the paper and began to list out the books.

“There’s “Pride and Prejudice”, “The Great Gatsby”, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”.”

“Oh man,” Tanner groaned “They’re all classics, that means they’re gonna be harder to understand.”

“Well, you gotta pick one, unless Autumn’s already chosen one.”

“Well if she doesn’t tell me I might as well flunk the assignment” he grumbled.

“Dude, just give it time. I know you guys kinda started off on the wrong foot but, we just need to get Autumn out of her shell and learn how to cooperate.”

“And how do you suppose we do that?” Tanner doubted “I mean, you saw how it went today.”

“The trick is, if you wanna get a girl to open up, you have to start by making her laugh. So the next time you see her, maybe in the library tomorrow, say or do something that makes her laugh.”

He raised an eyebrow “You think it’ll work?”

“Trust me.”

“Then how come whenever you do it you always get turned down?”

“Dude-” he heard Max frown “This isn’t about me right now, just try it out okay? And if it doesn’t work, try something else?”

“What else am I suppose to do to bring someone like her out of her shell?”

“Try talking about something she likes, you see her writing in that notebook a lot, maybe she likes writing.”

“Maybe” he shrugged.

Perhaps Max was right, Autumn does seem to be clingy to that notebook of hers, maybe she does like writing.

“Alright I’ll give it a shot tomorrow” he declared.

“Sweet, don’t screw things up.”

“Oh please-” he smirked, “You screw up more than me.”

“Hey!”