Square One?

Chapter 3

ELEANOR

I follow miss Thompson inside my homeroom. The class was chaotic but as soon as miss Thompson entered it, the students shuffled themselves onto their seats. I noticed from the corner of my eyes some students were sitting over their table and kept on chatting as if the teacher wasn't present in the classroom.

"Mr.King and Mr.Cohen get down your table and others stop talking, will you? Ruby? Yes, you miss Agnes, stop chatting" miss Thompson orders.

Everyone settles down. I glance at Ruby who's eyes zeros on me. My eyes flick to the seats next to her feeling more gazes burning into me. I see couple of guys with striking faces look at me with what looks like amusement. I look away to other students keeping my eyes sharp. I see a lot emotions going around here. Some are sending death glares, like they can hurt me, some ignoring me, best thing to do while I'm here, some smirking at me, like they know my dark secrets or something. Wait do they really know? Nah how would they know? Chill Eleanor, you're not in France anymore. Breathe, hold, release, hold. Once more.

"Class, we have a new student. Please welcome Miss Eleanor Devereaux" Miss Thompson announces while gesturing towards me. The class remains silent.

I glance at Miss Thompson and blink twice not knowing what to do. Well the last time I joined a new school was when I was 3. It's not a surprise that I forgot what I did on the first day of school, and at a time like this. I'm sure dad was with me that day.

"Miss Devereaux, please introduce yourself" miss Thompson asks from me. But she introduced me already. Do I need to do it again?

"Uh... Hi?..." I glance at Miss Thompson, who seems expectant. "I'm Eleanor" I glance at Miss Thompson again. What else?

As if hearing my thoughts she whispers "Tell them where you're from"

"I'm from France... and yeah thank you" I smile brightly at Miss Thompson who chuckles in return.

"Okay Eleanor, you may take a seat now..." I start walking to an empty seat I spotted near the window while she was talking earlier. "... besides Mr. King" Miss Thompson ends her sentence. I turn around in confusion. Who's Mr.King? The class fills with echoes of 'whoa's and 'no's.

Ruby exclaims "What are you taking about? Why would she sit there?"

Miss Thompson warns "Silence! Miss Agnes, you know I arrange who sits where. And I arranged Miss Devereaux's sit with Mister King. I believe you know what happens when you go against me"

Ruby humps in her seat. The students sigh loudly. Ok what's with all the drama in this class? It's just a seat. Maybe it's made of diamonds? I shall check the chair with a magnifying glass later.

I speak up " Um... Who's Mr.King again?"

"Oh the one sitting beside the empty seat on the 4th row in the middle" Miss Thompson indicates. The tables other than the corner ones are joined together making a pair each.

I walk towards the empty seat and seat down with my bag on my lap and I turn to look at my seatmate and nearly drop on my knees. The hell?

Is he an AI or something? When I was in France I used to read a lot of comics and novels. Dude never have I ever believed those unrealistic explanations of faces those books used to make up for their male leads. Well that is until now. How many days did it take for God to make a face like that?

My seatmate's eyes are mesh of grey and blue. His smooth raven black hair elongates down to his nape. I can see only a part of his forehead in between the hair falling over his eyelids. His lips are thin but plumpy. His fair light neutral skin glowed. Does he use Korean skincare?

He looks at me and scoffs. Then I realize that I'm frowning like I'm disgusted at him when inside I'm the complete opposite. My facial expressions go wrong when my heart malfunctions. Something I figured out today. I'll work on that later.

I look away and bring out my pencil case and notebooks while shaking my head in sorrow. I'm not jealous or maybe I am. My seatmate's a total hottie. Dang. I'm sure I look like a putterfish beside him. Life isn't fair. Another lesson learned.

Miss Thompson exits as the math teacher, Mr. Smith enters the class. The whole class I try not to serve my head to the table and just drift off to sleep. Not like I don't like maths. It's just I learned everything he's teaching back in 9th grade. I fiddle with my glasses which I hate to wear but need to when I'm studying. My eyes lands on the reflection of myself on my glasses. I look closer and flinch when I see my eyes red due to deprivation of sleep. I yawn and single tear escapes my eyes. That's how much sleepy I am.

I look around and see a couple of students gossiping and doodling on their notes. They're not paying any attention to the teacher at all. Sleeping is kind of the same thing, you don't pay attention when sleeping. Since a lot of people aren't paying attention I'll just take a nap. I'm not alone committing this. My arms rest on the table and I lay my head on it and drift off to sleep like a baby.

"Miss Devereaux. Miss Devereaux? Miss .... Eleanor!" I hear someone shout my name with a loud bang on my table.

I jolt awake and stand up pushing my chair back, my knee hits the table corner "Oww, my knee" I shut my eyes and scrunch my face in pain, massaging my knee with one hand. The class giggles. As if me suffering us the most comical thing ever. I turn to my left to face the teacher "Yes, sir?"

"How dare you sleep in my class! Tell me, what's the value of x and y in this equation?" He says pointing me to the board.

I blink at him while I process his words and look at the board. "The value of x and y is..." I calculate on the table with my fingers. The students behind me giggles and gossips. I turn to them "Shh.. let me concentrate" I say and look back at the board.

Ruby speaks up "Stop making a scene and being an attention seeker. You can't solve this. Mr. Smith didn't teach us how to solve it yet"

Mr.Smith starts "Miss Devereaux, You'll be excused since it's your first-" but I don't let him finish.

"1 and 16" I answer.

"What?" He inquires not quite catching what I said.

"The value of x is 1 and y is 16" I elaborate.

Mr.Smith's confused face turns into what looks like surprise. He walk to the board and starts solving the equation. Aggressively sliding his marker on the board. It takes him about 5 minutes to solve the equation. When his conclusive answer matches with mine, he asks "How'd you do it?" facing me.

"I solved it in my mind" I reply proudly beaming. Others look at me like I've grown two heads. I see Ruby roll her eyes from the corner of my eyes.

"Stop smiling like an idiot!" I immediately stop smiling. "The fact that you slept in my class is still unacceptable. An hour detention for you. I expect to see you in the library after school Miss Devereaux" he says this time more professionally.

"Great! First day no first class of school and you've already earned yourself detention. Good job Eleanor" I mumble and pat myself as I sit back down.

My seatmate scoffs. I glance at him and frown when I see him giving his full attention to the teacher. Okay maybe I'm mistaken. I don't think dude knows how to express happiness or to simply put it, to smile. I roll my eyes when I see him pretending to be a good teacher's boy. I knew he isn't from the start when I saw him sliding his tongue into Ruby's throat this morning. I just couldn't see his face clearly back then but I know it was him. I might forget my own birthday but I don't forget people's face. Facts.

I try my best to give my attention to the teachers for the rest of the classes. Keyword, try. Well at least I didn't fall asleep, I kept myself busy by doodling on my notes and learning a few pen tricks with fingers. Nat said she can't join me in break cuz she has some teacher's errands to run. Totally understandable because Nat is a member of student. I was too back in my ex- school in France and trust me when I say student council members are the ones that keep the school alive and teachers's job intact.

____END____