The Ashes

Chapter 12

Hey girl heyyyyyyy
~

Before I can attempt a second glance he's whisked away by the river of students. I was expecting him to shoot daggers from his eyes, yell at me like last time, even, but no. He walked straight past me with only a half smile to show for it. This kid makes no sense at all. First he tells me to never talk to him again and now he's smiling at me? And what was the deal with him bunking off five days of school?

Shaking my head I turn to climb the stairs. As soon as my left foot makes contact with the first one a bony shoulder shoves mine deliberately and my bag skids to the flow, opening and regurgitating books all over the floor, sliding them across the polished marble surface. Furiously, I whip around to find the person who did this and I'm met by a sight that nobody should have to face on a Monday: a maliciously grinning Courtney.

"Oops, sorry, babe." She smirks, before sauntering off, bathing in the giggles of her followers.Bitch.

I suppose this is meant to be the moment in which a unrealistically perfect guy picks up my books for me, gives me his phone number and walks me to class, but no. I'm left to scramble on my knees trying to stuff everything back into my bag amongst a few sniggers travelling through the air. The thrum of voices quietens and the block of students thins out to a sparse stream of late stragglers. I'm going to be late now, and the fact that the biology floor is on the other side of school isn't helping.

Panting, I reach the door. I'm seven minutes late already, and I contemplate not going in purely for the reason that I'm sure to get a detention; the teacher already hates me enough. Bracing myself, the door handle clicks down, and suddenly I regret walking in even more. I sit next to Gabriel in Biology, and my brain chose now to remember that.

"Detention, Miss Crowler. Take a seat, if that works with your own important schedule." the teacher glares at me over the fat wire frame of his glasses. My face glows bright red and I walk to the back of the classroom with my head down. I can sense Gabriel tensing as I sit down next to him, as far as I can.

"Dissection time!" the teacher announces gleefully. "Pick up a pair of sterile gloves each, go back to your seat and I'll bring over a sheep's eyeball to each pair. The aim of this lab is to identify the different parts, which you should know if you've been paying attention for the last week."

We do as he asks and animated chatter fills the room as the other pairs squeal at the gruesome deformed lump in front of them. Examining mine, I come to the conclusion that it looks like nothing like an eye, having lost its round shape and adopting the rough form of that potato at the bottom of the supermarket basket that everyone refuses to buy.

In the border of my vision I see Gabriel turning to face me, so I let my eyes meet his. There is no emotion in his blank stare, even once he opens his mouth to speak.

"Do you want to start?" he asks. It's disconcerting, he seems almost robotic. I pick up the scalpel in response, starting to split the thin membranes. I deliberately keep my eyes on the task at hand. After about five minutes of reasonably neat cutting, relatively to the other dissections I have failed, I am interrupted.

"Um, Thalia?"

"Yes?"

"You're cutting all the way through the iris."

Oops. I sigh and put down the blade.

"Could you do it? I suck at biology." I ask, still staring at the now unrecognisable chunks on the worktop.

"Okay."

He takes the scalpel by its handle which is partly covered by my hand, with the attitude of a soldier diffusing a bomb; meticulously cautious and extremely unwilling to trigger a response. Once he has it he slides the dissection towards him and starts salvaging anything that hasn't been diced by my unsteady hand. Cold footsteps clap on the floor behind me, coming to a rest on my left. Of course, it's that prat of a teacher on my case again.

"Miss Crowler. I hope you realise that this is pair work, so you do in fact have to take part in the dissection. Well done, Mr Fayers."

"Yes, si-" I begin, not even bothering to argue.

"Actually sir, she did most of it." Gabriel says, still refusing to meet my gaze. I turn to him, surprised. The teacher, after a brief pause, rolls his eyes like a sassy teenager and goes to pick on someone else.

Gabriel and I don't exchange another word for the rest of the lesson.

~~

Kat is nowhere to be seen, despite the fact that lunch break began almost fifteen minutes ago, and that we usually meet at her locker. As though summoned by my thoughts, however, I see her long length of black and blue-highlighted hair distinctly rounding the corner ahead, shoulders pushing against the stream of people.

As I begin to jog after her, I remember that I don't exercise. And for a valid reason, too. I've barely come forty metres and my breath is already short. She rounds into the girls' bathroom, the door swinging shut behind her. A few seconds later I'm opening it again, looking down the row of stalls. It's completely deserted because the school recently refurbished the one two corridors away and this is one is ancient in comparison.

"Kat?" I call out uncertainly.

No reply.

"You okay?"

This time, a quiet. sniffle answers my question, but still no words.

"Do you, um, want to talk about it?"

"Just leave." she says quietly through the door, her voice cracking slightly. "Get out."

~~
So I won't be able to update for a while as I won't have access to my iPad for a week or two but yeah that means a pleasant cliffhanger for you... I was going to make this longer but people are calling me out to do stuff and I still wanted to update so yeah...

I love you guys!
Vote and stuff
And yeah
Bye
-Alice xxx