Beyond The Crash

CHAPTER 14 | [FUTURE WISE ACADEMY <PT VI>]

He stared at her for a bit before clearing his throat. "Axel is waiting for us at the cafeteria, so we'll stop there first," he finished off with a tight smile as he averted his gaze from hers.

She blinked a few times, trying to digest what just happen–why he suddenly just quietly stared at her. Nothing came to mind. "Are you coming?"
His question snapped her back to reality. While she stood there thinking, he had already started walking and just turned back to see if she was following him. She quickly nodded and hastened her steps, feeling a light burn in her ears.

Their walk to the cafeteria was short. Mainly because Nicky engaged her in a conversation to which she was glad he did. He asked about how her classes were, if she had any questions, and where she schooled before coming to Future Wise Academy. Surprisingly or maybe not, he didn't quite know the school.

When they arrived, they quickly spotted Axel, seating alone in one of the tables, munching on a bag of potatoes chip. It was rather easy to spot him as he was the only pink headed male in the room. Lilley stared a bit around the room as Nicky went to call Axel. Just like her previous school, some students remained in school after the bell and were hanging around in the cafeteria.

She leaned against the frame of the opened cafeteria door as a small smile appeared on her lips. Staring at the students playing and fooling around reminded her of what she had. Of her friends and of her aunt. She snapped out of it when Nicky and Axel drew near.

"You ready?" Nicky said as they both stopped in front. She nodded.
"Why don't we start here," Axel commented.

"Right," Nicky turned to Lilley with a smile, though she could now tell it was his usual smile he showed everyone. "This is the one and only cafeteria in the school. The high school building, that is,"

She nodded. Now she understood why it was so large.
"All the years eat here." He finished off.

And then they left the cafeteria, and he, with Axel help at times, continued showing her around. As time passed, they decided to call it a day in the music room. As they entered, the sharp smell of dusted wood, mixed with another fragrance she couldn't quite pinpoint where it came from, filled her nostrils. She coughed a little from the dust.

"They haven't used this place in a while," Axel commented as he stopped by the door.

"It's completely abandoned," Nicky joked as he walked further inside.

"Which instrument do you play?" Axel question caught her off guard as she stood beside him, next to the door.

She turned to him. A brow arched high as his eyes showed a glint of interest. She noticed that it was very dark, even black. Or could it be the lightning or just the shade of brown. She had never seen anyone with eyes as dark or black as his but had never doubted they existed. Then her eyes curiously went up to his hair. They looked fluffy. Like a pink cloud, but the shade reminded her of the snack cotton candy. It didn't give bed hair, but it gave unruly, like he tried to control, but they refused, and it suited him just well, she noticed. The tip of his hair was a darker shade, too. She didn't pay too much attention to the other student around her to notice if they too had different colours of hair, so she just wondered if his was dyed.

It won't be farfetched if it isn't, she thought.

"Uhm, do you not play any instrument?" Axel asked as he averted his gaze and moved in his feet, which made the door close.

"Pardon?" She blinked a few times as she felt her ears turn red. She'd been staring at him while he waited for her to answer his question. She fiddled her thumbs as she tried looking somewhere else. "I play–I play the flute–and the piano," she stammered. "Though I'm not really good at the piano, but I was taking lessons though, I didn't take it seriously," she rambled on.

She looked up at him, his expression unreadable. She stopped talking.
"That's..." he nodded. "Interesting." He nodded again as he walked to where Nicky stood.

All she could do was just smile. Though he said it was interesting, she was sure he wasn't interested. She couldn't catch that glint. In fact, she couldn't read him at all. She clearly remembered telling herself not to judge a book by its cover, but this—she didn't even know where to put it. She clenched her fist as she walked to where they were.

Nicky was with a maroon coloured acoustic guitar. She saw him tuning the guitar with a smile on, but this time, it was a different smile. One that looked happy but at the same time sentimental. "Wow! It's been so long," his comment snapped her back to reality.

Axel stared around a bit before it landed back on his friend. "Doesn't Atticus play the piano?"

Nicky looked up, "Oh yeah, he does," he glanced at the piano, then brought his attention back to the guitar.

If Lilley remembered clearly, Atticus should be the intimidating guy she met in her first class. Her seatmate. He plays the piano? She wondered as she too took a quick glance at the grand piano. Then she took a quick glance at the guy beside her. The guy that can portray up to three different moods when talking to her. The cotton candy guy.

Then she turned to Nicky. "You play the guitar?"

"Yeah, I do," he answered. "Any form."

Her eyes gleamed as her lips curved upwards into a smile as she looked at the blonde guy in front of her, tuning the guitar while partially seating on a big speaker. A scene from a movie, she thought. She wouldn't be surprised if Nicky and Axel were popular. What would be surprising is if they were not.

Speaking of Axel, he wasn't beside her again. She wondered when he left her side and started walking around the classroom. As she watched Nicky, Axel came back to where he previously stood with two chairs in his hands. Where he got them was a mystery to Lilley as there was no single chair in the classroom, at least when she looked around. He dropped one beside her and the other, not too far from Nicky.

Although she was a bit confused about his sudden behaviour, she willfully took the seat as she had been walking all day. She thanked him and turned her attention back to Nicky. This time, he just held the guitar.
"It's been two months since I last played," Axel said as he threw the two drum sticks in the air and caught it.

Her attention, yet again, shifted to him, wondering where he got the drum sticks. "I've probably gotten a bit rusty." He said as he let out a soft chuckle at the end.

"Remember when we performed for the school," he chuckled, too. "It took us hell to get Atticus to play with us."

"He's so persistent, yet it looked like he enjoyed his time more than any of us." Axel sighed as he shook his head.

"True," Nicky laughed.

Speak of the devil, Lilley thought.
The door opened wide, and there stood a teacher and Atticus right beside him. A frown still on his face since the last time she saw him.

"What are you kids doing here? Shouldn't you guys be going home?" The teacher called out from the door. "Come to school, they complain, now go home, they refuse." Lilley heard the teacher say. He clapped his hands as he waited for them to drop whatever they were holding and out the door. "Come on, out all of you."

Axel and Lilley stood up as they waited for Nicky, who seemed a bit upset of being interrupted, sluggishly putting the guitar back to its original place, with a pout.
"Why do you guys have to show up now?" He complained.

"If you're so sad about it, join the music club. Then you'll be able to play with all the shiny instruments." Atticus answered scrowl, sarcastic laced in his tone. He looked like he was the one running out of patience instead of the teacher who just guiltfully smiled.

They all finally left the music room as the teacher locked it and gave the spear keys to Atticus before leaving. "You're still the teacher's P.A?" Axel asked.

Atticus only glanced at Axel without an answer as he pocket the key.
They know each other? Wait–of course, they know each other, Lilley subtly rolled her eyes.

"Till next time then," Nicky said as he sighed.

They all turned to go when Atticus called her. Because he didn't know her name, they all turned back to him.
"Stella's waiting for you downstairs," their eye contact didn't even last a complete second before he turned and walked in the opposite direction.
"Thanks," she said before he got far.