Eudaemonia

Chapter 4

Songs for this chapter: Problematic - Bo Burnham

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~*-*~ 3 days later in science class~*-*~

I, Theodore Solano, am severely regretting being a little shit. Originally I didn't say anything about us all sitting at this table because I knew it would annoy Sharpie. And I mean, I was right, for the record. It annoyed her for about thirty seconds until she promptly ignored us.

Now that stupid teacher has assigned us a group project. By table. Which means that I am stuck with that stupid Sharpie Girl. And the table was wobbly. Stupid Teacher. Stupid Sharpie. Stupid table. Stupid project.

"A newspaper?" Ryan said, fiddling with his neon yellow cheeta print fedora. What a stupid fedora.

"A scientific newspaper, my friend." Liam said to him, smirking averagely.

"It shouldn't be that bad.... Right?" said Quinton as they looked cautiously over at me. I knew what they were thinking. We are never going to be able to do this without me or Sharpie getting killed.

I didn't get a chance to complain, since as soon as I opened my mouth the teacher interrupted me, "Oh and by the way, this is a very long project, and it will be worth 50% of your grade."

My eyes bugged out of my head and I sat up in my chair. "What? 50%?" I groaned and put my head down on the desk. R.I.P. to my grade, I guess. I wish I could go home and rant to Buddy about this because he always understands how I'm feeling.

I heard Cory mutter under his breath something along the lines of "We are not surviving this."

"I can't do this," I said as I stood up. I could feel all their eyes on me as I walked towards the teacher, but Sharpie's gaze burned holes in the back of my head.

Once I had gotten permission, I escaped that suffocating classroom and made my way briskly down the hall to the bathroom. I didn't actually have to use the washroom, so I stood in front of the sink and stared into my own green orbs.

I pushed my wavy brown hair out of the way and splashed some cold water on my face. The water droplets mingled with the freckles on my cheeks while I tried to collect my thoughts. This was going to suck. Moving on auto pilot, I walked back to class and sat back down in my seat.

"Now that everyone is here," Cory said with a sharp tone, obviously directed at me, "We can divide up the tasks. There's a lot to do here."

Sammie put down the book she was reading. It looked like a stupid book. Without saying a word to any of us, she stood up and collected the correct amount of outline sheets and brought them back over.

"If we don't want to fail this class, we should probably get started." she said to us.

As much as I disliked her, I had to agree. I didn't want to fail this class. So, that's what we did, we got to work.

I must say, Liam and Ryan did a decent job at diffusing the (many) disagreements between me and Sharpie.

At some point during that time, another classmate, Cooper, had thrown an arm around his boyfriend Jack's shoulder at the table behind me. It was fine with me, obviously, but I couldn't help but notice the stares that Sharpie was sending their way.

There were only two minutes left in class, but I couldn't take it any longer. It felt like she was always staring at them! "Hey, Sharpie, are you homophobic or something?" I snapped.

The whole table went quiet. I watched Ryan and Liam exchange a glance.

She looked at me with a confused look on her face. "Why would you assume that?" she asked calmly.

"You've been staring at Cooper and Jack all class! Jack is Cooper's boyfriend, if you have a problem with that, go on, say it!"

Even Cory started to look worried at how upset I was.

Sharpie, however, looked unbothered. "I really couldn't care less who Cooper is dating, Theodore. And I wasn't staring at them. I'm done with my part of the work for today, I already finished my book and so people watching is the only option. And they are the most interesting thing to look at right now."

Just then the bell rang, and Sharpie gathered her things and left. I sat there for a second, processing what she had just said. She really didn't seem bothered at all. That was... refreshing. Maybe Sharpie Girl wasn't actually a terrible person. She wasn't homophobic, and that was something.

Ryan gave me a look. "What was that about, dude?"

"Nothing." I said, and I followed Sharpie out the door.