Us Against the World

1. The School Assignment

EDITED

Professor Hadley doesn't have a clock in his classroom. Unlike the other auditoriums and classes that I've been in, his walls are missing the ticking circle that is my enemy. He had one last year - a big black clock that used different movie names instead of numbers so that we'd have to guess how many songs the movie had in its soundtrack to be able to know the time. Then once the freshman who figured it out became seniors, they'd tell the newer classes the answers (or some would take bribes) so that they'd know the time without having to think about it for long. After Professor Hadley found out, he removed the clock and never put a new one up.

It's the only thing that I dislike about his class or classroom in general. I don't get a lot of time to glance at my phone or one of my seatmates, which is why I think that a clock would be nice to have. The walls are basically bare and I don't want to spend my time looking at paint chips; the seats are plain and don't have anything eye-catching, but apart from that, Professor Hadley's class looks like a high school broadcasting class. He has a plethora of posters that rank movies or breaks down the camera work. He doesn't teach in an auditorium, but rather in a classroom that has tables and chairs instead of desks. Behind the last desk is another room that we students use for the daily morning broadcast, interviews, or other projects that require a quiet area or green screen. If the class had been larger, then I suppose we would have had an auditorium, but Waycastle is a small college as it is. It would never have reached the desired amount required for an auditorium.

The day my life changed is no spectacular day. It happens in the late afternoon when I'm sitting in my chair with no particular thought in mind. I'm right in front of the double doors that lead to the broadcasting room but I can't hear a thing since the doors are closed. Eli and Sam are shooting the next day's broadcast in there with nearly our entire class. I like to think that I'm alone, but unfortunately, I'm not. Next to me, Riya sits listening to a playlist that Jaylen made for her.

"Ugh, how much longer is this class?" I groan. If I could flop on the table I would, but since my wretched back prevents me from doing so, I settle by burying my face in my hands. My action garners Riya's attention.

"Another forty-five minutes," she says. She takes her earbuds out and puts them in her backpack. "Why don't you ask Professor Hadley for a project? Or you can help me with mine."

"No, I'm fine. Your project requires more effort than I have to spare," I say.

Riya raises an eyebrow. "Meera," she says. "It's a listening project. All I have to do is find background music and jot it down for the next podcast episodes. How is that hard?"

"It's not. It just asks for more effort than I'm willing to give," I say and close my laptop. I don't have another class after this, but I'd like to store some of my battery until I can grab a new charger from the computer room tomorrow.

"You're the one who suggested taking this minor, not me," Riya says. She pulls out her notebook and grabs my pencil case from the desk. "Do you have any sharpened pencils in here?"

"I should," I mutter and lean back in my chair. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Riya rummage through my pencils until she pulls her hand out with a slight pink pencil in between her fingers. A victorious smile brightens her face.

"Victory est pour moi!" She exclaims and tosses my pencil case into my lap. "Here. You have so many papers in there, it looks like a trash bin."

"It suffered from my neglect," I say with a small smile and put it on the table. "I should clean it out, and I will...eventually."

Riya scrunches her nose. "When you say eventually, Meera, that either means in two years or never and personally, I've got my money on the latter."

I scowl. "So, what? I have other important things to do than clean out my pencil case. It's gotten me through high school. It can get me through this last year. I most likely won't be using it again once we graduate."