Gray

Sunlight peaked through the blinders of the classroom, attempting to bring life into the otherwise bleak room. Students slouched over their desks, focusing on the test before them. Alex leaned back, mindlessly staring ahead, the clock ticking above the whiteboard monotonously. She was mostly finished; there were only a few equations left that dared to mock her in all their unsolvable glory.

Philip Dodgerson, who sat diagonally from her, began tapping his pencil on his desktop, snapping Alex out of her daze. She glanced over at him, watching as Philip ran his fingers through his hair. A bead of sweat rolled down his cheek. His obvious anxiety was amusing, but she was far more intrigued by the girl directly beside him, Bethany Walker. Beth had long since noticed his frustration and understood that he wasn't finishing the test anytime soon. When the teacher looked away, she leaned over the aisle and craned her neck, her intentions clear. Alex smirked when she heard Beth think, Is he ever going to answer the next question?

The schools most notorious Stoner sat in the front, and popped a bubble of gum. The obnoxious snap permeated the silence that generated from their collective focus. Philip curled his fingers into his hair further, tugging at it in small but forceful jerks. Alex sat up in mildly curious anticipation; seeing him crack would make the day so much better.

Although he was incomprehensibly screaming on the inside, Philip took a deep breath and placed his hands on the desktop. He closed his eyes and thought about nothing but positive words and things. Cake, puppies, a pool, his father. A pang of disappointment jolted through her as his anxiety subsided. She slunk back in her seat, doodling a little stick figure holding a sword. When she was done, she took to looking at the Stoner once again.

Gabriel wasn't an unattractive kid, with some fuzz growing around his full lips. Unfortunately, all charm was lost by his stringy, greasy black hair. Gab sat lazily, his arm slung around the front of his chair as he peered over his shoulder. Behind him was the smartest one in class, Maxxie. She sat with perfect posture, her long brown hair hiding her face and, in turn, her answers. She glanced up and realized Gab was staring at him, What a creep! Is he trying to cheat of me? She rolled her eyes at him and covered each answer with her free hand. Gab shrugged, What's another bad grade?, and turned back to his own test.

Eddie sat in the very back to use his phone on tests, only this time the teacher had confiscated electronics. So now he was hustling to the teacher with questions he knew wouldn't be answered, and each time he's shove his chair so hard the legs screeched against tiled floors. Alex winced, her ears burning. But the girl who sat beside him paid no mind, and stared at his butt every time he stood up. There he goes!

Alex automatically rolled her eyes. Every week the same girl-- Rella, was it? Alex could never remember --was thinking about a different guy, imagining all the dates and things they'd do together. This was just another pointless crush to get her through each day. Hearing her excessive squealing had long become unbelievably annoying, so annoying that Alex pretty much gave up on listening to her thoughts altogether.

There was nothing better for Alex to do than keep tabs on her classmates, despite how little she talked to them. She noticed all the nuances, from the sweating kid, to the cheater, to the girl who just needed some love. After weeks of being in the same room, however, she found herself growing incomprehensibly bored. There were only so many new things she could find out about them before it all became mundane.

Some people had interesting stories, like the Gab, who was abused by his mother until she finally walked out a few months prior. Or Maxxie, who had a prestigious family that she could never live up to, no matter how hard she tried. She couldn't build or design cars like her brothers, and she had no interest or skill to become a neurosurgeon like her sister.

But after hearing them complain about the same things over and over again, Alex got bored of it. She got bored of the girl who hardly talked to her crushes, and the anxiety-filled kid. She was sick of all of them. She really needed another way to pass the time.

Maxxie mentally mapped out the equation to the next problem and Alex copied down her method quickly. Alex didn't want to miss anything before she moved on. Upon finishing, she glanced up at the clock. There were still had thirty minutes left, and they only had five more problems to go. She began tapping her pencil along with Philip, bored out of her mind. Being able to listen to lil miss smartie was great and all - and she certainly used it to her advantage - but that meant she was going to sit there doing nothing, thinking nothing, for a long damn time.

But hey, that's how it's been every day of her life so far.

Nothing but gray.