A Hallway of Leaves

Ten

I deal with the heavy and lingering stares of countless of students as I slip from one class to another throughout the day. Though no one approaches me at all, I know that they have an assumption that I could possibly be the one who was said to run along with Sam. For years, I've never been so ashamed about myself, nor have I ever tried to humiliate myself. I pity those other red-haired who is probably treated the same way as I do now.

Sam decides it best to stick with his disguise. He even sits on the farthest portion of the room, and since the gossip revealed that he was called as 'Mr. Beltrami' instead of being 'Mr. Siadhail', students turn to his direction whenever the professor acknowledges the students for each class.

I wonder if I'll successfully make it passed another day if it continues to be like this. I am sure as hell that I won't.

My classes end just before noon, and Mom contacts me before my Mechanics class ends that she'll meet me at the campus restaurant. She tells me that she'll be there first and I don't need to worry about what our meal will be. And though the restaurant is packed with a huge number of people, students and professors alike, I easily find Mom, sitting by the corner of the place. On the table is a food for two of steak, mashed potato and steamed vegetables, along with some orange juice to match everything up.

Mom instantly stands from her seat to greet me with a hug and kisses me on my cheeks. When we finally settles down, she asks me with a warm smile, "How's your first day? You skipped my Physics with your class. Something happened?" She eyes me for a moment and realizes what I am wearing, but I instantly hush her.

I reach out for my phone, scroll down the messages and show her that message of Chitchatted UCD Gossip. I watch her while drinking some of my orange juice as she reads it quietly, scanning it with her eyes lightly. And midway in her reading, she frowns.

Afterwards, she hands me back my phone and leans closer on the table. She holds my hand and worriedly asks me, "Are you alright?"

I bite my lower lip and nod timidly. "It's just the first day and this thing happened."

"Does anyone recognize you?"

"I doubt it, especially now with this whole disguising that I need to do... I don't have a wig to hide my hair, and red-hair is quite common so it will just be fine. But the students on the same class as mine in Chemistry, as well as Professor Seaghdh, will surely remember me and Sam together. It's true that we ran."

"How do you evade such crowd?"

"Fire exit."

She gapes at me. "You know that you can't use that until emergency."

"But the scenario clearly screams 'EMERGENCY' in my head."

"This disguising is Sam's idea, is it?"

"Yeah. We couldn't risk being followed everywhere. We separated ways and acted that we don't know each other."

"How about Sam? How is he? Is he all right?"

I look at her intently and within my sight, I notice students and people seated onto smaller tables outside the restaurant. Through the open window, I can hear their chatters as well. But just exactly at within my sight, I notice Sam completely geared up on his disguise. He is looking at my direction with tinted sunglasses covering his eyes. No one even dared to approach him at all since he looks like an ordinary young man right there, especially with him still wearing that blonde wig of his. I expect that he's eating lunch, but all I could hint to be placed on his table is a coffee mug.

"Yeah," I answer to Mom's question before she could see that I am staring outside. "He's fine. He's playing it low-key."

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