Angels

Back to School

I never got a reply from Georgia that day. She stuttered, and hung up the phone. A little rude but I was prepared to forgive her. But I had to forget all of that now, summer was over and it was time to go back to school. I wasn't good at school, in the academic subjects. Justin was good at everything, and sometimes showed me up. But he never meant to, he would never do that. Not to me. I wasn't good at English or sciences, but I was alright at maths. It was never my best subject, but never my worst. Generally I was placed in third or second set. What hurt most about going back to school is having an empty seat next to me in most lessons. Most of the time I sat next to Julia, she didn't distract me like Justin did, Justin and I were often split up. 

I walked into our form room, Justin was waiting there with his headphones on, he came up to me with a big grin "Beau!" I nodded and smiled. "How's you then?" I took off my bag and put it on my desk, then went to sit with Justin. "Good, miss Julia though. But don't we all." I raised my eyebrows and Justin sighed. "Isn't that the truth. Nobody to help me with my homework anymore..." He said it with half a smirk, I slapped him gently on the arm. "Shudup. I'm being serious. There was something I was supposed to ask her before she left. And it was important, but she won't care about us as soon as she reaches Cali. I've heard of these sort of things before." Justin looked shocked and removed his headphones from his ears. "You really think so? I don't think she would, she was too good of a friend." I looked out of the window, it was sunny outside, but it didn't feel like summer. "I guess." Justin looked at me. "What did you have to ask her? You don't have a thing for Jules do you?" I frowned and shook my head slowly. "No way. It's just- na, you don't need to know. You wouldn't understand." Justin jumped down from the desk he was sitting on as the teacher walked in, he put his phone away  and stood behind his chair. "KK." He said. I wandered over to the back of the classroom where my desk was. 'Good morning Miss Farrow' the class chorused. Miss Farrow was tall, and blonde waves framed her face. I'd seen her around school, always wearing a black pencil skirt and shirt. I didn't know what her personality was like though. She was our new tutor and I'd never had her for anything before. She took the register very quickly then spun round her chair to face us. "So, what have we all been doing this summer?" It was the obvious question for a teacher to ask, but I didn't expect it at such speed. I was doodling in my new rough book at the time, the only book we got which was hardback. Nobody put their hand up. "You!" She pointed to me and I slammed my book shut. "What!?" I said, it was my natural reaction, and I admit, it wasn't all that polite. "What did you do this summer. And what is your name? Forgive me if I get it wrong, I'm useless with names." Teachers always said this, expecting us to forgive them, but it's a standard thing and as a whole, they should know our names within a week. Especially as for tutor. "I went surfing... A lot." That was my summer-y get it? Ah never mind. But behind all the surfing there was a lot more, but (I wasn't prepared to tell her that. "Oh." She said with a frown. "How very. Catholic." She said this sarcastically, using the word catholic as in a wide range of activities and things to do. Rather than the religious aspect. That would be odd. "I see you have an empty desk next to you." I nodded and looked at the seat. "I chose this seat. I want to be alone. I don't mind it. Okay?" She shook her head. "No actually. I need everyone to have a desk buddy. Which is why Chace, our new student will sit next to you and you will be his buddy. Give him a tour and show him the ropes." I sighed, I'd been a buddy before, and didn't enjoy it. 'Fine. Where is he?" Miss Farrow walked over and thrusted a bit of paper into my hand, as it came closer I realised it was a page of sticky labels. "Write your name on one and make your way t reception. He'll be waiting there with his father. Do not mention his mum, she passed. I just thought I might let you know. So you'd be sensitive." I nodded and peeled off one of the labels, I looked over at Justin and he tossed me a sharpie, I wrote my name neatly on the paper. Then got up with my bag and walked out of the door.

I approached the front desk and looked to my right where there were two armchairs for people waiting. There was a boy and a man, I guessed this was Chace and his father. "Chace?" I said, he nodded eagerly, his Dad stood up and I shook his hand. "I'm Beau, nice to meet you." I said, the man smiled. "Michael." He said and nodded, then sat back down. I slid one hand into my pocket and looked at the clock. "Come on then Chace I'm your buddy. You'll be sticking with me today, we don't want to be late to assembly, so we'd better get going." Chace's Dad hugged him and wished him good luck. Then Chace got up and stood by my side. "Bye!" He said and waved to his Dad who was walking towards the exit. "So um, when and where's assembly then?" Chace asked, I laughed and he looked confused. "Pah, we're not going to assembly. It's the only time when the other rooms in the school are totally empty. And I've only done this once before, and this time you're coming with me." I looked at him, he was very short, even shorter than me with dark brown sweepy hair which went right down onto his face, he had very thick dark eyebrows and brown eyes and his uniform was neat and tidy. "You mean we're going to skive off, where are we going to go?" I thought about it, I had skipped assembly on my first day aswell, I thought I may aswell give Chace the same ritual. "Please, it's just assembly, it's barely skiving when you're only going to learn what being a proper student is all about. We're going to the lunch hall. Just to check out the menus for lunch today, and then we'll go back to the form room. Say that we missed assembly because I was touring you around the school before locker rush. We'll be in the clear, I swear." Chace looked very nervous at the concept, I suddenly heard a noise and classes and classes of kids burst through the doors walking 'silently' to assembly, I whispered to Chace, 'follow me' we followed the crowd for a while then broke off when we came to the lunch hall. "Run!" I said and we sprinted to the hall before any teachers could spot us. Once in the hall I looked up at the big grey shutters in front of the serving stations, I went to the one on the end and lifted it up, then looked up at the big blackboards, then shut the shutter again. "Chace, don't have the chicken chou mein at lunch. Just a word of advice." Chace jumped up onto the counter with me. "Why not? It sounds nice." I raised my eyebrows. "Why not? Because the chicken isn't chicken, that's why not." He looked shocked. "I'm guessing you've come from somewhere posh then. I mean this school isn't bad and you seem slightly... Disgusted." He shrugged and got down off of the counter, so did I, we started walking back towards our form room. There was a high pitched squeaky sound and Chace clutched his ear, then covered it over with his hair. "What was that?" I asked, he was fiddling about with something inside his ear. It whistled again. "It's nothing, nothing. Don't worry." I looked at him, I was pretty sure it was a hearing aid. But I'd never seen someone as young as him with one before. "Is that a hearing aid?" I asked, tentatively. I heard the bell, everyone would be coming out of assembly soon. "Um. Yeah." He said. I saw a few kids leaking out of the hall, there'd be a rush sooner or later. "Cool." I responded, trying not to make a big deal. Suddenly the doors burst open and there was a sea of heads floating towards us. We turned to run but I felt a hand on my shoulder.