Reading Between the Lines

Chapter 2: Acquaintances

Friday-

Mr. Amber-Eyes' directions for Econ paid off. Now, I officially accomplished the goal of not getting lost! I'm kinda glad I talked to those guys on Monday, I not only got to resolve the awkwardness of all the looking we kept doing but it also made me less tardy.

I really thought those guys would forget about me, but every time I see them, they always wave at me! They even stopped sometimes to make small talk too. But you know what the funny thing is?

I still don't know their names.

It's really stupid. I talk to them every other day yet I still don't know who they really are. But even then, maybe it's kinda good. They're like my tri-weekly entertainment. Even if I do or don't learn their names, it won't change anything.

Most importantly, now that I'm not constantly looking for my classes, it's given me time to look more. Not at classrooms, though; No, we're looking around.

Yeah, those guys were nice, but do you really think I would just forget how weird they were around me? Like, I've never seen people that weirded out by a compliment before. And they basically implied that I was dangerous for no reason.

I don't think it was me, though. I may be a little... unpredictable, but strangely enough, they didn't seem weirded out by my being. No, no, no. I think it was something else. The way they kept studying me in curiosity, and the way they were so overly curious about me being here was as if they were trying to learn about me. Figure me out, you know? Like I was some alien.

Then two girls did it to me right after that too. And then a group of guys, then a random group of teachers, and then-

Okay, you get the point. I became a spectacle out of nowhere. Worse? I have no clue as to why.

And you know what that means...

It's time to reignite my Scooby-Doo love and investigate. The only way I know how:

Observation. Because I don't have a magnifying glass with me.

As I walk to Biology, I look around at the students walking, eating lunch, or just doing whatever. So far, this is the first time I've seen a place where people just seem so happy. So into whatever they're doing yet so aware of others around them. This college is like a canvas, and there are multiple strokes that come in different colors, sizes, and spectrums, that come together to form a beautiful painting. It's like a little heaven, completely isolated from our fucked up reality. It kinda reminds me of Finland. Finland in a school. It's peaceful here.

Earrings wasn't kidding: this school just seems so... chill. I thought it would be suffocating like Harvard's environment, but I'm breathing just fine here.

While I walk past a staircase, I feel someone's eyes on me, burning holes like last time. Gosh, not again. Weren't these last two weeks enough?

I pinpoint the gaze coming from the stairs as a girl walks down. Even from down here, her staring is so obvious. Subtlety is not a thing here either, I guess. I should probably write that down.

Like the past few stares, the way she looks at me seems different. It isn't like she's staring at me in a judgy way; with the way her eyes are widened and her mouth is kind of clenched, she looks at me as if I was having a medical emergency on the spot. It was like how the puppy guy looked at me. Not like I was hot or like I was weird either. It's like she's trying to figure me out. Her dark-brown eyes go all over my limbs that kinda protrude in my t-shirt and leggings before just landing on my neck. She's so focused on visually dissecting me that she doesn't realize that I'm looking directly at her and stopped in my tracks.