I Know it Sounds Cliche [kam high school au] [kotlc]

Chapter 3

Tam POV:

Tam silently wished he hadn't come to school. Today, the class was lucky enough to talk in front of everyone. They were going to have a 'discussion'. Bonus, it was about a subject he had absolutely no relevant knowledge of, and the teacher was going to call on them randomly.

He was tempted to stand up and walk out, but the idea of everyone's attention being directed at the abrupt action gave Tam mild panicked nausea. He tapped his fingers against his leg in an attempt to avert his mind.

Voices slowly started to become more than just background noise, and Tam was then abruptly brought back to the present.

He turned his head towards the direction of the voice, a girl with dark brown hair in tight curls, who was seated a few desks down in the row behind his'. A...nna...? Ann...ikka? He tried to recall her name, but a definite answer seemed to be just out of reach. All he could remember is she was, almost irritatingly, smart.

Okay, she knew how to sound smart. Tam had heard her talk before, and honestly couldn't tell if she actually knew what she was talking about as well as her word choice suggested.

He glanced at the teacher, slightly entertained by the blank look of confusion across their face once she had finished her speech. "I– Uh... yes, sure. Let's stop there," they replied, stumbling over their words, before turning back towards the front of the classroom, most likely in an attempt to continue their lesson. The "let's stop there" was extremely relieving, as Tam had not even the faintest idea what the lesson was.

He glanced at his phone. 9:36. He was about to place it back in his pocket, but, unfortunately, right at that moment, the teacher turned back towards the seats. Immediately noticing the device, they cleared their throat. "Tam, you know the cellphone rule. Please, put that away."

Tam impulsively scowled at the teacher, but quickly regretted it as they gave him a small look of disappointment. "Wrong move," it seemed to say. "You know... nevermind. I think it'll be safer at my desk. Until the day's over, that is."

Fucking 'knee-jerk reaction', Tam scolded himself, remembering what Linh had called it. His 'knee-jerk reaction', or whatever. She had claimed that Tam 'instinctively' fought, or wanted to fight, any confrontation. She'd basically implied that he was a bitch.

He took a brief glance around the room, and cringed when he saw how many people were staring at him, their faces showing one of three things: amusement, pity, or secondhand embarrassment.

"Sociopaths..." he mumbled softly, silently praying to not have been heard.

Reluctantly, he stood up, his heart rate now similar to the blinking of a strobe light. Tam tensely walked over to the teacher's desk, eyes down, not wanting to look at anyone's face. Gently, he placed the phone face down on the light brown, wood grain table.

The bottom corner was further away from the edge of the desk than the top, leaving it at a slight angle. He itched to adjust it, but feared further humiliation, and painfully turned away, walking back to his seat.

Face hot, Tam fiddled with the bleached tips at the front of his hair to hide his discomfort.

"Thank you. Now, I was planning on continuing the lesson, but it appears we are nearly out of time. Looks like you have to teach the rest to yourselves, as well as the homework assignment. I will email all of you a link to the document," the teacher declared, poorly imitating a look of sympathy.

The rest of the students groaned, some slapping the table in frustration, for reasons Tam did not understand and found moderately dramatic. He grabbed his bag and slung it over one shoulder, feeling a tiny stab of hurt as he noticed a few people glare at him. Possibly blaming him for the cause of their pathetic ten minutes of extra work.