Wingspan(Paranormal, Young Adult) MAJOR EDITING**

Forty four

Mr. Baryos' classroom was fair in size, quite larger than any of my other classes, which had its many conveniences, one of them being plenty space to move around without the inconvenience of shoe stepping.

The black stationary drawer cabinet was long and stretched all the way from location post A, the entry admission, we had no exit door in case of emergencies, to the back of the wall, marker B. This entire section was the focal point where we conducted our general written assignments from textbook to study packets.

Going towards the back of the lecture room is where Mr. Baryo kept the well preserved greenhouse lit under green LED lighting and PTI tarps.

(FIVERR)

Smirking, I tried to make some sense out of something that seemed so not normal.

this was like a vacation step away from what was supposed to be ordinarily routine and perpetually boring when it came to schoolwork. Besides that one project we had, we hadn't been over there as much as I'd like to.

I was kind of bummed out about it, too, and if i were being honest with my feelings. i couldn't wait for our next up and close excursion of the many diversified plants that filled the expansive grounds.

when i finally came across the room there was a preexist-ant line intact where a large number of students were presently grabbing a mix of seldomly random goods.

i suppress my natural reflex to groan. 

naturally i was the last person in line and so with fingers crossed i looked over at Toby, who remained bent over, his broad back curled in a haunch as Toby wrote ink to paper, his long fingers moving with incredible speed.

i snorted. no doubt he got each answer correct and knowing my bad luck at the rate things were going we would be the last group to begin.

sighing, i look down at my flat blue nail polish and contemplate whether i had enough left in the bottle that i brought on the trip with me from my parents' for a new coat.

if i didn't then i could always layer it on top like i sometimes did when funds were low and i needed a manicure to help me feel less worse.

coming to the decision about my nails i narrow my eyebrows and pierce my furious gaze at the cluster of students that had decided to have a convo right in the middle of a lab project.

while my parents were catholic i needed proof there was a god, something by all means definitive, some evidence that, if god were true and if he really did love all his children then he would use his holy powers to accelerate the rate at which the line in front of me was going.

the kids in front of me were treating this entire scene, that which should have taken 30 seconds flat to grab and go, as if they'd just met in a mega mall or something and got lost in conversation without caring if other people in line were waiting on them to get lost.

honestly, i was this close to telling them what was what, when from the corner of my eye i see josh standing off to the side like he were the headmaster observing the intelligence of his state-of-the-art lab subjects.

there was a magnitude about josh that seemed to navigate all your attention to him even if he wasn't doing anything.

that was just apart of him- who he was and there was no changing that.

it didn't matter that all the girls he was laughing at were exceptionally pretty. josh had an alluring charm that came natural to him.

i supposed that was why i had my eyes on him. not because he too was a looker rather his smooth city persona that didn't spread to anyone else no matter how close you stood next to him.

i didn't say a word when josh noticed me staring. normally i'd be glaring red but with him i felt comfortable. -i guess that's why it didn't bother me when josh walked over my way towards the back of the line.

i watched him, all compact muscle and pigeon chested, while he averted his concentration from the sellout circle of heartbreaking vixens in micro-mini too hot skirts, stopping short to lean back on the opposite counter of me.

though i wasn't sure what tipped him off, josh obviously knew of my need for space.

"They're a swarm of starving gnats, many and then some. except these non-biting shrewd hellcats feed on instability and idolization." josh whispers, his deep voice low and reverberating. "I'll hold them down and you could swat them away with your natural swat away."

i knew that he meant that in a joking hardy-har-har capacity but still. someone could have overheard and focused there anger and resentment on me instead of the person who'd actually said it.

for a girl trying to preserve a modest and reserved existence that was not what i wanted.

josh was the same as ever. obnoxious, brutally honest, and hilarious without having to be. only when he wasn't being funny.