Shortly after plunking his books down next to his assigned seat, Marcus' eyes wandered through the room. It took all his energy not to squeak with excitement when he saw "Ms. Hewitt" scribbled in uneven handwriting across his history teacher, Mr. Orenid's board.
A sub wasn't exactly a surprise, Mr. Orenid had been out of school a lot recently because his wife has been hospitalized. With what exactly? Marcus wasn't sure, he remembered the day Mr. Orenid broke down in front of the class, describing it all to them, but Marcus wasn't exactly the listen-to-a-lecture type. Still, even an expected sub is a sub. Marcus fixed his hair, sat in his seat, and started to tap his pen to his desk as his eyes darted back and forth from the classroom door and the clock bolted to the wall above it. The pen tapping ceased when he spotted a familiar head of dull-brown hair. Marcus watched her carefully as she sat down and got her usual materials ready, waiting for what must have been decades for her to finally notice the lack of a teacher.
He saw the exact moment she looked around the room and her expression lit up, her eyes darted immediately to his. They smirked at each other as she gathered her things and moved to the empty desk behind him.
"God March I thought you would never take in your surroundings," Marcus teased while he fixed his hair again.
"The bell hasn't even rung yet, calm down." Almost on cue, the obnoxious ringing of a school bell filled the classroom.
He took the opportunity to make fun of his friend, "you're psychic? I always knew you were useful, deep down inside."
March took a mainly playful swing at the back of Marcus' head before the substitute clapped to gather everyone's attention. "Hello everyone! My name is Ms. Hewitt, soon to be Mrs." she winked at the kids but garnered little reaction. "Okay then, Mr. Orenid left me a note saying we will be watching a discovery channel documentary today, how exciting!"
"Just turn the movie on!" A girl shouted from the back of the classroom, prompting the embarrassed sub to do exactly that.
