Free The Opposite of Hallelujah by Anna Jarzab Page B

friend.
    “I’ll probably forget that,” Pawel told me.
    “Okay, so what’s up? I have to get to physics, too,” I said, gazing after Erin forlornly.
    “Building 2, room 307?” Pawel asked.
    “Um, yeah?” I briefly considered the possibility that Pawel might be a crazy stalker.
    “Me too.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “I have no idea how to get there, and I thought maybe you’d be going in the same direction. Well, I hoped you were. Can I walk with you?”
    “Well, it would be awkward for you to just follow me there,” I said, smiling. “So yeah.”
    “Thanks. So what’s your real name?”
    “Carolina,” I told him, picking up the pace. We would probably be late enough as it was, and I knew our physics class would be organized in lab groups of four per table. I expected Erin to save me a seat, but it might not be possible. She was quite popular in science classes and well known in the geek world for being a great partner, because she understood everything and would take the lion’s share of the work.
    “I have a cousin named Carolina,” he told me. “We call her Karolcia.” He pronounced it Ka-ROL-cha .
    “That’s way prettier than Caro,” I said.
    “Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “They both have their charms.”
    “Karolcia,” I repeated. “So you’re, like, really Polish, huh?”
    He laughed loudly. “As opposed to fake Polish?”
    “As opposed to kind of Polish, the way I’m kind of Irish,” I said.
    “My parents are from Poland,” he said. “If that’s what you mean.”
    “Yeah, that’s what I would call ‘really’ Polish. Do you speak Polish?”
    “Yeah. I had to do years and years of Polish school as a kid.”
    “You speak Polish and French?”
    “Well, I mean, once you know one language, it’s easier to pick up another one,” Pawel said. “And French is a breeze compared to Polish.”
    “Easy A, then, I guess.”
    “Yeah, pretty much.” He ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck.
    “Stairs,” I said, opening a door to my right that led to a staircase. It was almost empty now, which meant the bell would ring any second, which it did. “Damn.”
    “You care about being late?” Pawel asked, sounding surprised. He had this lazy, casual way about him that suggested he didn’t take boundaries like schedules and school bells all that seriously.
    “A little.” I cared a lot, actually, but I knew he’d probably think I was a huge tool if I said so. “The likelihood of getting to be in Erin’s lab group is slim to none now.”
    “So you’re one of those girls who has to be with her friends, like, every second, huh?” He gave me a curious expression, like he was trying to figure me out.
    “No,” I insisted. “Erin’s just really good at science. Everybody wants to be in her lab group.” I was also good at science, so it wasn’t like I was going to fail without Erin, but I didn’t want to get stuck with a bunch of slackers who would heap all the work on my shoulders.
    “Sorry,” he said, grinning. “I guess you’ll just have to struggle through on your own.”
    “Thanks for that.” I stopped in front of room 307. “This is us.”
    Pawel opened the door for me. “After you,” he said gallantly. I shook my head at him and walked into the classroom, where Mr. Tripp was already going over the syllabus.
    “Glad you could join us,” Mr. Tripp said sarcastically. “What are your names?”
    We told him and Mr. Tripp pointed right in front of him to lab tables one and two, each with one empty seat. Erin was at table number three, on the other side of the room. She gave me a sad face as I trudged to table one and dropped my bag onto the floor. Unfazed, Pawel did the same at table two. He was sitting right behind me again, but this time his back was to me.
    Mr. Tripp handed us each a syllabus and then resumed going over it line by line, pacing the room as he read. When he had passed us by, Pawel leaned back and whispered,