At the Back of The Class

Something New? Nothing New? Well its just Homeroom

Well, it sure seemed like this school year went off to a great start.

You scanned the classroom, the teacher sitting at the teacher's table and generally not looking like he gave a shit while everyone's eyes were averted away, keeping mostly to their old friends, laughing about the latest romcom and how much they hated the main pairing, optimistically dreaming about the sequel to their favorite video game while another tells them to get real, arguing over which breakfast meal is actually the best breakfast meal of all time, teasing them over humiliating childhood stories, talking about their summers and their new set of teachers, etc.

With all the buzz, you couldn't help but feel just a bit isolated in a somehow suffocating manner.

Just a moment ago, their eyes were all on you three.

And now, their gaze was gone, leaving you in the literal corner of the classroom.

But even if their stare dissipated, the tension was still there.

But shouldn't you have felt relieved? All that unwanted attention went poof.

Logically, yes. Keyword, logically.

The uneasiness that you didn't know the cause of seemed to twist around your ribcage and cut off your senses.

The only thing you could do was stare at the crowd of unfamiliar faces, unsure of what to say or do.

It was either there were all eyes or no eyes at all.

You didn't know what you wanted or which was worse.

You couldn't help but think of your old school. Your old classmates. People that you didn't think you had any overt attachment to yet here you were as you felt a longing to be within the classrooms that the older students used, and classrooms you passed by as a youth, and always thought you'd be in. You daydreamed of the more familiar scene of you surrounded by people you've known since kinder in that classroom.

But you were here.

In school, yes, but it wasn't the same.

Not the same memories, not the same teachers, not the same people.

Just strangers to you who weren't strangers to each other.

But what else could you have expected?

It was only natural after all.

It was just that sometimes, you forget how cramped you can feel in a crowd of what seemed to be tight-knitted friends while you butt into their harmonious dynamics that you have no place in. Like an awkwardly mismatched sock that stuck out like a sore thumb.

"How long are you going to be staring like that," Roxas's or Ventus's voice cuts through your thoughts.

"What?" You say almost annoyed as you turn your head towards them. Roxas looks you in the eye with that same crabby look he had this morning, "I'm the one asking questions here," he hissed, gaining Ventus's unimpressed expression for a second before he went back to trying to rub the ink off him.

"I'm not looking anymore, now that you interrupted me," You respond back, sounding way more irked than the way you intended it.

"Interrupted what? Your mindless staring into space or what, an inner monologue either about the value of life or cheeseburgers versus hamburgers?" He snorts, not so subtly hiding his irritation. Granted, he had the right to be. After all, you sprayed lemon-scented alcohol straight into his face.

But your mouth had other things to say.

"I'd say a monologue about cheeseburgers versus hamburgers is pretty important," You retort in a brain-numbingly innocent sort of voice, clasping your hands together and giving him a subtle squint of disdain that probably couldn't be picked up on by the naked eye.