Fix Me

Chapter 2.

*****

I sat in the vacant hallway staring down at the notebook on my lap as scribbled down some lyrics that flowed into my head.

"Excuse me?"

I didn't move, no one spoke to me, by now everyone had learnt that I kept to myself so there was no way this person was speaking to me. I continued with what I was doing as if I had not heard them.

"Uh... Excuse me, you with the notebook, black hoodie, looking down. Yes." I looked up, my hood shielding my face from the person before me, but I could see them.

It was a man. He wore a white button-up shirt and formal black trousers, his clothing along with his physical features made me assume he was too old to be a student. He had black hair that was cut short and styled back neatly and dark. I didn't take him in too much because I didn't want it to seem like I was staring. He looked young though... Student-teacher maybe?

"Y -" I cleared my throat when my voice came out low and groggy, "Yes?"

"You're not allowed to be here, are you?" He asked. I shook my head in response. No one was allowed in the hallways during lunch, which was why it seemed like the best place to be to me. "Well, since you're here and aren't allowed to be, I'm punishing you by telling you to help me carry some things to my classroom."

"Your classroom?"

"Yes, I'm new. Call me Mr Creed... I'll be teaching English." He said. Oh. He's a teacher.

"In Miss Henley's place?" I asked.

"Yes. You're in one of my classes?" He asked. I nodded. "So... I don't get a name?" He asked smiling politely.

"Uhm... Hannah." I said making it sound like I was uncertain of my own name. He chuckled.

"Well, Hannah, come help me." He nudged his head towards where we would be going.

I nodded and got up slowly trying to avoid wincing as I moved.

"Are you alright?" He asked sounding concerned.

"Yeah, been sitting too long." The explanation for my slow movement flew from my mouth naturally, "What should I carry?" I asked.

"It's in the teacher's lounge, follow me."

I followed him to the lounge and greeted the teachers that we saw there because it was obligatory before he gave me a box of papers and stacked a file above it. He then grabbed a couple of boxes of his own and we made our way to what used to be Miss Henley's classroom.

"It's... very colourful." He muttered running his eyes over the classroom walls as we walked in after he unlocked it.

"The complete opposite of her personality," I said without thinking. I didn't usually speak to teachers at all, but he didn't feel like that much of a teacher.

He laughed, but it was true. Miss Henley was a forty-year-old woman who was very grumpy about everything. She wore colourful, patterned and romantic-style clothing but I would not classify her as a hippy. She was always angry about something.

"The colours are making me dizzy." He said.

"And she wondered why people always skipped her class to go to the nurses' room." He laughed again and I tilted my head, he seemed like a happy person. Miss Henley hadn't taken anything from the walls when she left so it was littered with colourful posters.

"Help me get this down please, Hannah." He said pulling some of the colourful pages from the wall.

I did the same trying to stick to posters at my level so I didn't have to stretch to reach anything and we left a selected few about literature on the wall. We seemed to finish just as the bell rang signalling the end of lunch.