Ever After

Under Pressure

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This chapter is in Jack's perspective.

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Waiting for Mark to finally enter the classroom in the morning was like waiting for it to stop fuckin' raining - in other words, it was like waiting for the impossible, something that would never come.

It was odd, though - Mark, up until now, had always shown up to class at least five minutes early, and yet here I was, drumming my pencil against my desk impatiently, awaiting his arrival. I had even gotten so bored once that I actually listened to one of Bob's annoying stories about how he took his goldfish for a walk, but that was only once, on a day that Mark was actually late, something that I thought he never would be. I expected Mark to murder somebody sooner than I expected him to grab a pink slip at the front of the class.

My eyes hoisted up from my dancing pencil immediately as someone stepped into the classroom, presumably a girl (rather than Mark, who I was looking forward to seeing). She had slightly slitted, beautiful eyes and hair the shade of the night, her pupils just the same, standing out against her silky-white skin. Trying not to stare, I redirected my attention to the window, my only friend when Mark was gone - I tried to hide the fact that I'd turned my headphone volume all the way down to hear the teacher speak to her.

"Naomi?" Mrs. Jefferson asked, perking up and out of her seat just as much as I was. "From Korea?"

The girl didn't speak, but nodded. Her hair shifted with her every movement, as if she were wearing a blanket on top of her head.

"Wow, so many foreign students this year!" Mrs. Jefferson cheered, her voice high enough to make all of us cringe. "Please, take a seat."

The girl searched the room with her beautiful eyes and began strutting her way to the back, sitting down next to Felix, a good foot away from me. I, propped up against the window, only had Mark and the aisle to separate the two of us, with her being in the next desk over - perhaps Mark would do me a solid and let me shift over a seat or two, but was it really worth abandoning my best friend (again, the window)?

I slumped back in my seat, not realizing that I'd been leaning forward this entire time, just as Mark entered the room, his new backpack slung over one shoulder. He walked in hastily, his hair an absolute disoriented mess - it was a very sexy mess, not that it mattered to me. He gave Mrs. Jefferson his second late slip of the week, giving out his usual "Sorry for being late," to which she gave out the everyday grunt. He collapsed into the chair beside me, taking a deep intake of air as he scrambled out a massive pile of papers, the paper on top belonging to our script. I was about to question why he was so late, but Mrs. Jefferson had already started yelling out the daily orders.

"Today is your second-last day to work on these scripts - did I forget to mention that these will be presented to the entire school as of Friday? So, what that means, is that I want you all to not make fools of yourselves. Whichever group gets the most votes from the student body will win tickets to Baysports - got it?" She didn't bother waiting for an answer. "Good. Now, get into your groups - Naomi, you're with Killian's group!"

(Baysports is the first result I got for water parks in Athlone, so I just threw that in there!)

Wade and Bob scurried over to our desk, bringing their binders with them, followed by Felix after chatting up Killian for a good five minutes. Mark pulled out our script and began constructing what we were to do, but I was too distracted by the fact that this would be presented in front of the entire school. All my life, I'd hidden in the shadows, not bothering to go out of my way and make friends (in fact, I went out of my way to keep "friends" out of my life), and I definitely didn't want to make enemies, and yet here we were, planning my doomsday, the day that I would embarrass myself onstage for the entire school to see. I could see it now - everyone laughing at the idiot who managed to trip just trying to scream, "The British are coming! The British are coming!"