charming chaos

[school is torture ✨]

in math class, the teacher spoke in a monotone voice, lecturing the class. "and that's why x is actually-" he paused, sighing, as he noticed a student raising their hand. "yes, aatmik?"

aatmik put his hand down, clearly tired, his bright eyes had slightly dulled, and his hair was messier than usual. "could i go to the bathroom...?"

"sign out and go." the teacher spoke with irritation, then continued explaining.

aatmik slowly walked down the hallway, feeling the urge to just flop down and take a nap.

he entered the bathroom, there were a couple other boys messing around, having small fights and laughing at each other. aatmik walked past them, he couldn't bring himself to care.

he stared in the mirror, noticing a small bump on his head. he poked it, causing slight pain. not thinking much of it, he rubbed his eyes and walked back to class.

-- • --

at the lunch table, aatmik poked at his food, listening to ura humorously speak to anesh, who occasionally laughed at her whimsical behavior.

after a little bit, ura turned to aatmik, noticing that he hadn't eaten a bite. she placed a hand on his shoulder, a worried tone in her voice.

"everything alright, mik...?"

"mhm."

he didn't have the motivation to speak, he just wanted to sleep for 36 more years.

"is the school food really that bad-?" she turned away from him, rummaging through her lunchbox and pulling out a pack of fruit snacks. "you can have some of these, i know the school's pizza tastes like cardboard, that's why i pack lunch, want an-"

"ura." a voice called from behind her, making her turn around, distracted from helping aatmik. the voice was anesh. "something probably happened that he doesn't want to talk about. you know how his father is. just leave him be for a bit, okay?"

"oh, yea, sorry-" ura returned to talking with anesh, completely forgetting about aatmik.

-- • --

during study hall, anesh came up to aatmik, standing in front of where mik was sitting with his legs wrapped in his hands, his knees to his chest as he slumped against the wall.

"hey, dude, wanna hang out with ura and i after school again today? she said something about getting a new keyboard on her pc that she wanted to show us, and she was too irresistible to turn down." anesh spoke, sliding down the wall to sit next to his friend.

"sure..." he buried his face in his knees, hitting his head against them. after his bit of mental problems had passed, he picked his head up to look at anesh. "the glasses are new..."

"yea!! i thought they looked cool, but they're not prescriptions, so i just wear them for fun." his index finger extended as he tapped the frames, the star-shaped glasses resting on his head instead of the bridge of his nose. clearly just for fashion purposes.