CARE LESS MORE ━━ Jalen Green

vii. midsummer

August 27th, 2019.

NADINE WAS ALWAYS LATE TO MOST FUNCTIONS, a quality of hers that Aira hated. Whether it be games, classes, or practises, the earliest she'd ever seen Nadine was on the dot.

By the second day, Aira figured out that second period English class was her favorite because not only did she know the subject, it was one of the classes she had with Nadine. There was first period chemistry, but she hated chemistry; she never understood anything that came out of it.

The half empty classroom was already noisy with only half of the students in. She takes her seat near the window in the third row. Aira always thought this was the best spot; the front row was reserved for the teacher's pet and with her limited eye sight, the back row wasn't exactly the best spot.

Joshua and Kenny walk into the classroom, loudly talking amongst themselves about basketball. It was kind of hard to miss their entrance as their voices alone could fill ip an arena. Joshua takes the seat behind Aira as the seats were slowly filling up. Aira, eyes glued on her phone, doesn't notice the entrance of the two boys.

"Yo, Aira," Kenny calls from behind her, seated next to Joshua. "You busy this weekend?"

Aira turns around to face both the boys. "Uh, probably not. Why do you ask?"

"Gio's holding a party," that alone causes Aira to purse her lips; she wasn't much of a party person. "Well, not really a party. It's kind of like a get together. Everyone from lunch is going."

"Oh... I don't think my mom'll let me," Aira excuses, pretending to be sad. She had no problems with anyone, but she dreaded going out. And more often than not, the strict mom excuse always worked, even on Nadine.

"I mean, I could always have my mom convince yours," Joshua shrugs. With nearly four days into their friendship, Janella and Fatima were already pretty close. He'd heard that whenever Aira's mom had a night shift, she'd spent the mornings drinking coffee or tea with her newfound friend.

"I don't think that'll be enough to convince her," she says, turning back to face the teacher as the bell rings. Mrs. Kierstyn stands up from her desk, greeting the class. The class responds back with a mumbled good morning. She didn't really mind as it was still pretty early in the day.

Mrs. Kierstyn was on the younger side. Her blonde hair was pinned with a brown claw. Based on class yesterday, she could tell that Mrs. Kierstyn was pretty easy-going.

The attention suddenly moves from the white board to the door. There stood Jalen with a questioning look on his face. "This is English with Mrs. Kierstyn, right?"

Mrs. Kierstyn, a pleasant smile on her face, answers, "Yes. Take a seat anywhere."

There were currently three empty seats: one directly in front of the teacher's desk, one next to Aira, and one in the fourth row next to Breanna. The decision was pretty much a no-brainer as he saunters towards the empty seat next to Aira.

It wasn't his intention to end up in this class. In a rush to hand his application to the school last minute, he accidentally signed up for the wrong English class, something which Gio and Dame clowned him for.

The moment Jalen sits down, Mrs. Kierstyn finishes what she was writing on the board. Neatly in red, her cursive read "A Midsummer's Night Dream."

"For our first study, we'll be reading A Midsummer's Night Dream by Shakespeare," she announces, the class staying silent. "Some of you may have already heard or even watched it as it's one of Shakespeare's more prominent works," Mrs Kierstyn states as she grabs the pile of books on the shelves, handing them out.