SHOWTIME

E I G H T

The time passed by. Apollo started visiting me at least twice a week to continue his lessons properly. He seemed to really enjoy the conversations we had, and I honestly did too. But when I was lying in my bed one night and thinking about the lessons, I realized I hadn't made any progress.
I still had no idea how to develop feelings like these for others. And I also noticed Apollo kind of didn't care. He just enjoyed talking to me and even stopped writing stuff down which honestly made me feel like I was just wasting my time.

But I somehow started having a weird obsession with his eyes and the way I was able to read his emotions through them. Whenever he blushed and looked aside, his eyes started shining in a different way. But when talking to other people, they didn't change at all.

Even though this seemed weird, I wasn't getting suspicious. Because for some reason, I trusted him that he knew what he doing. And I liked him... as a friend.
But the biggest advantage of the friendship still was the fact that he made me less corrupted. This may sound like I used him to get rid of the pain and headaches, but after feeling like a whale was sitting on my head for days, I needed the change badly.

Today, we had astronomy class again, so we were waiting for the teacher to come in. I was chatting with Apollo while Tanner was surrounded by some girls.
I tried giving him the cold shoulder for talking about Apollo in such a weird way, but I couldn't resist to forgive and forget it.

When the teacher finally arrived, she had a girl with her. The girl had short, brown hair and was wearing baggy clothes. Her eyes seemed pale and dark for some reason, almost as if she didn't get enough sleep.

The teacher cleared her throat and everyone stopped talking.
"Good morning everyone. As you can probably see, we have a new student here." She looked at the girl. "Do you want to introduce yourself?"

The girl sighed. "I'm Jules."
The teacher seemed to be waiting for more, but Jules didn't seem to be into taking.
"Jules is an exchange student from the northern Germany. She was suspended from her old school in Texas and now transferred to us, so be nice to her."

I felt bad for Jules. Being introduced like a bad guy who 'was suspended' from her old school must've been so embarrassing. Especially as an exchange student.

Some guy in the back shouted: "Why were you suspended?"
The teacher looked at him angrily. "Why would you ask this question? I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to answer it."

"For drinking alcohol." Jules said annoyedly. "Y'all must've a pretty boring life, do you? I mean, not being allowed to drink any alcoholic beverages..."
The guy smirked. "So you're a bad girl, huh?"
"Depends on what you'd consider to be a bad girl." Jules answered.

The teacher cleared her throat. "Stop talking. Jules, please sit down."
Jules started walking towards a seat and the teacher clapped her hands. "Okay. Now that everyone's here: there's a nation wide astronomy cup and it'll be announced in our school. Students from all over the country will be participating in groups of two people. They'll have to answer questions about the universe and astronomy in general. The winners will receive a scholarship to study astronomy at the big university in New York."
The smiled at us. "And I signed us up for it!"

She seemed to expect joy and happiness, but nobody made a noise.
I didn't want to do this at all because I knew there was no chance we'd win. Especially if I had to work with a partner.

"I made a list of who I think would be the best pairs to participate. I'll read it out loud and if you have any questions or problems, just ask me."
She started reading and I waited for my name to be said, but she first read others.
My heart sank when I heard her say:
"Apollo and Tanner."

Tanner raised his hand immediately, but the teacher just kept reading until my name fell. "Furina and Jules."

I sighed. I didn't even know her and she was from another country. How was I supposed to to work with her?
Jules didn't even look at me. Instead, she was drawing something and wasn't even paying attention to the class.

"Yes, Tanner?" Our teacher said.
Tanner looked at me, then at her. "I don't think Apollo and I would be a good team. I don't even know him, so there'd be no chance of winning for us. My idea would be that Jules and I switched places in the teams so we could work with-..."

The teacher sighed. "Tanner, have you asked Apollo, Jules and Furina if they're fine with it before making any decisions?"
"I-I didn't." Tanner said quietly.
"Are Furina, Apollo and Jules fine with the changes?" She asked us.

I just looked at her. "I don't care."
"Me neither." Apollo said. He seemed to be sad for not working with me, but I smiled at him to cheer him up and he smiled back.
Jules looked at the teacher. "I don't want to work with boys."

"There you have it, Tanner. The teams won't change." The teacher replied. "Now, please work on your projects."

Tanner tried to say something else, but the way she was looking at him told him to stay quiet. And I was just confused. Why didn't Jules want to work with boys?

———

When lunch break came, Apollo and I were about to sit down at a table, but Tanner stopped me. He held my hand and looked me in the eyes.
"What the heck, Furina?" He asked. "Why didn't you care about who you had to participate with?"

"Because I don't want the price. Why should I care?" I said calmly.
"Because I don't want to work with your little companion here." Tanner looked at Apollo.
I raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to be so rude. Apollo is a nice and smart guy. I'd appreciate to participate with him."
"Well, that's your opinion. Not mine. I came to this class to work with you, and instead, you're obviously trying to block me out and working with this nonsensical person."
I was angry. "Hey, this is not-"
But Tanner just stopped squeezing my hand and looked at me with anger in the face. "I thought you belonged to me. Only me! And not him! Why would you even want to be with him, he's nothing special!"
I had to stop this. "Shut up! Aren't you just jealous because you were dumped?"

Tanner's face changed. Instead of the anger, he seemed... sad. He just sighed and went away while I didn't do anything.
"Are you alright?"
I just looked at the ground.  "Yes, yes. Everything's fine..."
That was more of a question than a response, but I didn't care. I just wanted to kill Tanner for saying such things to Apollo.

"You didn't deserve what he told you, Furina. You shouldn't take him too seriously. Okay?" Apollo said.
I smiled. "He said mean things about you, but you're the happier one here."
He sat down and looked away. "He was mean to you. And he didn't understand what you want. And you don't deserve that."

"It's alright. Let's not talk about him right now. I'll talk to him later." I said and sat down next to him. I wanted to change the topic to not make Apollo get nervous. "By the way, how much progress have you made in our astronomy project?"

Apollo smiled. "I started constructing the planets with some styrofoam and wrote the explanations on paper."

He started explaining the way he made the project and I just listened to him. Instead of eating or asking any questions, my mind was somewhere else, thinking about how smart he looked and what kind of a person he was to think about me instead of himself. I even found myself getting some weird feeling in my stomach — a feeling I didn't know.

But I pushed the weird thoughts and assumptions about what it could be away.
I probably was still upset about what Tanner did to Apollo, nothing else.

Hopefully.

[1404 words]