Numerical Apocalypse

eighteen

It took several months for the state to get it's school system up and running again.

My mom complained about the outrageous amounts of planning she was having to do.

I was just happy that we'd get a longer spring break.

Eventually, we had to go back to school.

It had been almost four months since we'd left for the shelters, but the school buildings hadn't changed much.

The only difference was the flowering dogwoods outside the main entrance.

I nearly got swept away by a whirlwind of petals as we walked inside.

"Hey, nerd. Where'd you hide during the lockdowns?"

I didn't bother turning to face Jake. "Bold of you to assume I was hiding."

He didn't seem to know what to say. "Well-"

The bell rang, saving me from having to talk to him.

"I'm having trouble resisting the urge to punch Brianna in the face."

I raised my eyebrows at Lena, sliding into my seat. "First of all, who's Brianna?"

"My lab partner for chemistry."

"Second of all, why would you of all people want to punch someone?"

"She's so slow!" My friend complained. "We were measuring things for an experiment, which was already boring enough, but she had the audacity to double check the amounts and chemicals every time!"

"Isn't that what you're supposed to do?" I asked, but got cut off by our teacher entering the classroom.

At lunch, Lena repeated her struggle to Theo.

He smirked. "That's what you're supposed to do. You wouldn't want someone accidentally creating something explosive."

Lena's ears turned a bit pink.

"Like you haven't created something explosive accidentally," I retorted.

Theo shrugged, turning his attention to his food. "I'm a professional."

I snorted.

"The rest of the kids here...." He trailed off, taking a bite of his sandwich. "Aw I'm shayingh ish dat itsh better to be shayf."

Lena blinked. "Say that again?"

I shook my head disapprovingly at him. "Talking with food in your mouth. What would your aunt say?"

Theo swallowed and grinned. "She'd probably lecture me."

I rolled my eyes. "If you keep that up, you'll choke. I really don't want to have to call 9-1-1 for you making a stupid descision. And-"

"Okay, I get the point. I didn't mean to ask for a lecture." Theo swatted his hand at me and put his earbuds in.

Lena was smirking, her number rising to a 7.

"What?" I glanced around.

"Ah, nothing," she said. Her tiny smile told me otherwise.

We sat in awkward silence for the next few minutes.

Theo kept pressing the volume button on his phone. Eventually, I could hear tinny music coming from his direction.

Lena waved her hand in front of his face. "Hey, I can hear your music."

He frowned and pulled out one of his earbuds.

Lena repeated herself.

Theo rolled his eyes. "I can, too. Thanks for noticing."