The Cure To All Disease

Chapter 11: Intonation

The escort had guided me through the unfamiliar hallways that I couldn't possibly navigate on my own without assistance. I believe it's also worth mentioning the amicable smile that he wore on his face wasn't just for show. It held up along with his personality. He seems to be a pleasant individual to socialize with, despite our previous encounter being one I'd much rather forget.

When we stop in front of one of the classroom doors he ends our conversation with. "The teacher will call you in, in just a moment to introduce you to the rest of the class." In just a moment now? I've stood in crowds before but there's something different in knowing that I can't just melt away into it, they'll probably want to get to know me. Like Troy did.

I look into the classroom through a small window on the door leading into the classroom. People, I don't know exactly what I expected to see. Of course there's people, people my age in this classroom. The older woman standing had to have been my teacher, a new one, all my life the only teacher I ever had was Troy even though I'm not even sure that I could say that's true.

I never really spent much time counting down seconds but for some reason I spontaneously managed to pick it up. I reach my tenth second when the teacher finally refocuses her attention to the door. She manages to give me one of the broadest smiles I've ever seen as she opens the door. Even though my first instinct is to partially hide myself behind the wall I don't. Even worse, I am completely frozen, I don't know what I'm supposed to say. "H-hello" I murmur quietly.

"You must be the new student. Come in and have a seat." The teacher subtly guides me into the classroom with an outstretched arm. Now the entirety of the classroom is clear in my view. My eyes scan the vicinity as though it's attempting to encase a panoramic shot. The sound is reverberating throughout my brain and reaching the back of my eyes, a multicolored wavelength remains. A solid fixation over the only individual I recognize.

"Phenix!" Maybe I should have phrased it as more of a question than a statement. Unfortunately there's no turning back now. Even though my memory of him is quite hazy without a doubt I'm certain that it was him. The congregation of boys also my age that sit around him begin to whisper amongst themselves, I patiently await their conclusion.

"Phenix, how do you know this kid?" One of them whispers I think that they think that I can't hear them but I can.

"I don't know, as far as I remember I've never met this guy in my life." Phenix hisses back at him. Such an answer almost feels sharp, even though the ringing in my ears has been gone for a while now. More memories of Phenix that had been gone for years returned as a flood to my mind.

"Then how does he know your name dude?" Another one whispers back confirming that this is at least a Phenix, and one that claims he's not the Phenix I knew.

"I don't know, I don't even know who he is." I begin to feel kind of bad watching all of this unfold knowing I'm the one who caused it. Phenix seems to be completely overwhelmed by the interrogation and the fact that 'a stranger' knows his name.

"Maybe a stalker?" By the end of their conversation they all glare back at me refocusing their attention from Phenix to me. As the new center of attention I try to wave at them, but they all also appear to have their guard up. Oh well.

"Who are you? I'm better with names than faces." Phenix delivers their final conclusion.

"Ambrose Hernan Lyle, I moved to the city seven years ago." I'm not very good at answering others' questions. Somehow the way they phrase their question to get the answer they want is not the same in my mind, so I never give the answer correctly or in the way they expected.

"How do you know me?" I was so certain before but now my mind is drawing a complete blank. Somehow such a question makes everything around me disappear like water across a blob of water color the returning as it soaks into the paper

"Alright Phenix, that will be enough, we're not trying to conduct an interrogation. Please have a seat Ambrose." Thank you so much for interrupting, teacher. I don't say this out loud but my gratitude is immeasurable. Most of the seats appear to be taken particularly the ones anywhere near Phenix, which is probably fine since he doesn't want to be near me right now.

"Sorry Miss" Phenix shifts his demeanor in a matter of seconds transforming into a different person. He stopped slouching and sat up perfectly straight, his face rigid and attentive. My vision scans around the classroom once more to find a seat. There are a couple of empty ones on the opposite side of the classroom, placed next to a girl who sat there glaring at me from her place of solitude. It looks like she's purposefully avoiding human interaction as much as she possibly could.

Huddling by her own personal corner light from the early morning sun reflects on her eyes from the window. I overlooked her at first but now I've caught her attention unintentionally. She attempts to give me a smile, if you could even call it that, it was more like a lip twitch. I sit down next to her despite my heart racing, I am surrounded by so many strangers who want to know about me. Things that I probably don't even know about me

I also attempt to exchange a smile with her however my lip has become far too stiff with anticipation to formulate any face that might look natural. In the end I also just gave her lip twitch.

She looks up at me, her face scrunches into either that of disapproval or someone immersed in profound thought. Either way her intense glare seems to pierce through me.

"Thank you for letting me sit next to you, I know you don't want people to sit next to you." I whisper to her barely even letting the breath pass my lips. "I feel like I should give something in return. I really have no idea what I'm doing. I'm sorry."

She continues to stare at me for a little while then her stolid grimace is alleviated her whole face inflates like words are trapped within, shifting to the shade of vibrant red. Then it deflates as her face falls back to her desk but instead of speaking she begins rapidly jotting something with fantasy patterned stationery. In a fist she stiffly jerks the crumpled sheet paper over my desk and drops it much like a piece of machinery. After that she adverts her attention from me.

Authors Note: I just realized that despite working on this for a year I've barely gotten anywhere, sure maybe that's really because I went on Hiatus for like four months solely because I was beginning to lose motivation and then got a random burst of inspiration out of nowhere. Which I think is okay because with leisure projects like these it doesn't matter how long it takes you to get there as long as you can say that you got there in the end. So if this takes ten years at the pace that I am going I am perfectly fine with that too because I have a life and other projects that I'm working on for Scholarships and volunteer stuff. Anyways I hope that you stay safe wherever you are. I wrote this on the night of a terrible storm, spooky, so that is my mindset behind it.