A friend to remember

36: Something in the Oven.

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"Hey... are you alright?" Cynthia asked as soon as Denise sat next to her. Denise nodded, giving her a simple smile to assure her she was fine. She might not be outrightly saying it but she was not fine, how could she be? Even though she did not know Daniel personally, she was still shaken from seeing a dead body. Life was difficult to predict was it not? One minute you are at a pretty shallow party, the next you are staring at your schoolmate's dead body.

"I am fine jare, I'm just shaken up from you know..." she shrugged her shoulder not wanting to spell it out.

"It is to be expected, seeing something like that must have been very difficult," Cynthia replied. Denise shrugged, in truth she did not care about Daniel's death, she did not know the boy, she only had one interaction with him.

"I am going to be fine," Denise replied and waved off. "How are you?" She quickly changed the topic. She chnaged the topic, searching Cynthia's eyes to see if she was truly fine. Cynthia nodded with a smile and looked away.

The door to the classroom suddenly opened, Colton walked in and strolled to his sit. He had his headphones on and looked like he did not want to be bothered. The room quietened and Denise could not help but frown, this teen only understood money. They respected the person who had it the most and Colton Wilfred seemed to be it.

"Good morning, Class," Miss Farah, the English teacher entered the class, the students leisurely watched her, as she opened her laptop, not waiting for their response.

Denise wondered if she should just opt out of all that was happening and transfer like Daniella had wanted her to do. Bellrich had amazing opportunities Cynthia had pointed out when. She initially arrived but just one week in, she already had like six different dramas. She could not keep up.

By the time she knew it, the automatic bell resonated throughout the school, signaling that Miss Farah's time had ended. She packed her bag, not bothering to ask if the class understood the lesson or not. She just wanted to get away from the monsters.

Soon another teacher entered the classroom, their Biology teacher, a tall light skinned man, in his early thirty, he looked more like he belonged to a gym, or as a bouncer than an actual secondary school teacher. Denise's eyes went around noticing how the other girls quickly unbuttoned some of their shirt's buttons. How ridiculous!

Cynthia continued writing like she was not seeing everything that was happening, Denise wondered how the Scholarship students and the teachers got used to the smelly attitude of their richer peers.

Colton was wearing his headphones and from where she was sitting, she could hear the song they were blasting through it. No regard for teachers, and no respect, there were different forms of vices, and nobody would stop them.

Denise's eyes went back to the man, Mr. Adetunji, he was handsome indeed, sculpted face, and a beard that was perfectly shaved, he was spotting a new wave and she could perceive his unique smell from her table. The teachers in Bellrich were clean and perfectly dressed, as opposed to Queens College.

"He is yummy, isn't he?" a voice said from behind her. Denise glanced at her back to see that a chubby girl with two pigtails, was the one that made the statement. She decided it was best to ignore the girl. At the end of the day, a student should not be having such thoughts about a teacher, nothing good could ever come out of it.

"I know you are Daniella's sister, I know you are better than her, my name is Lilly," Lilly pushed her hand forward to shake Denise. Denise stared at the hand. She did not wish to make any friends in the middle of the lesson. Besides, with the statement she used to start up a conversation, Denise felt like she had a right to judge her.