Four Years

Chapter 8

I was shoveling strawberry yogurt into my mouth sneakily as everyone waited for the Biology teacher to arrive. This was my in-between class snack.

A few seats ahead of me, people were crowding over Meredith's desk. I got up from my seat, curious to see what was going on and went over to her desk. As I reached there, I saw a paper lying on the desk with chicken scratch scribbles.

"What on earth is this?" I mused out loud causing everyone to freeze.

Meredith slowly turned towards me. "What did you just say?"

"I mean," Pointing at the paper, I shrugged nonchalantly.

Her eye twitched violently. "Are you degrading my piece of art?"

"Whoa," I raised my hands up, "this is not art."

Meredith's face flared up with crimson, and it was at that moment I got a little scared. This girl right here was famous for her ill-temper that tended to burst randomly and instantly. To be completely honest, it was the fault of my mouth which did not know when to stop talking. If I get hit because of my words, I was suing my own mouth.

"Look, listen, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I was just... critiquing this." I fumbled to explain.

Unfortunately, my fumbling with words wasn't just with words, I had also managed to spill the leftover yogurt I was holding onto Meredith's desk... and now the pink semi liquid was dripping all over her "art". This was it. My death day was today.

I mustered up a hesitant smile in her direction which seemed to do more harm than good because now her large hand was coming straight towards my neck.

"What's going on here?" A sudden silence spread over the class as a voice sounded from the entrance.

Our English teacher had finally arrived at the right time. This woman had single-handedly saved me from a grotesque fate. God have mercy. All the students shuffled back to their seats quickly to avoid getting roped into detention. I sat back down at my seat, noticing Shelley now sitting beside me on her designated seat.

"When did you come?"

"Just before her," her pointed her thumb at the teacher.

I rummaged through my bag to take out my book. Shelley nudged my foot with hers to draw my attention towards her.

"Hey, is she really coming here?" she whispered to me.

I whispered back a "Who?"

"You know," she gestured with her eyes, "her."

"Who," I paused, realizing who she was talking about. "Oh, you mean Kate?"

She cringed slightly and nodded.

I nodded. "Yeah that's what Savannah told me."

Shelley quieted down after that, busying herself in writing down notes for the class which I was sure were anything but useful. I gave her a long look, pondering over her reactions. To be honest, I could never really understand her completely, but I guess that's how humans are; you can never really figure out humanity letter by letter.

The class got over in the blink of an eye (well, English classes always went by this, when you're enjoying a class it gets over soon). Shelley and I walked together towards our lockers; she walked as if in a deep trance whereas I was engrossed in watching adorable cat videos on my phone. Cats are so sassy I swear to God, but it is ridiculously cute.

"Hey, Alyssa!" I stopped when I heard someone shout my name.

Turning back, I saw Meredith and unease slithered inside me. "Uh, hi?"

She stomped forward angrily, stopping right in front of me.

"If you insult my art one more time, I will kick your non-existent ass."

I gasped. "How dare you body shame me?!"

"Well, what's true is true." She smirked at me.

I scowled. "Well, what's true is how cringe-worthy you scribbling in your sleep on a paper and calling it art the next morning is. Ha!"

Meredith's whole face screamed murder, her expression transforming into a dark one. I gulped and inched backwards from her. If this was a comic, her nose would probably had started spurting blood everywhere.

"You little shit!" She growled in a low voice.

I turned on my heel and prepared to run in the opposite direction when a sudden heavy weight landed on my backpack causing me to struggle. I looked over my shoulder to see Meredith holding a strap of my bag. I tried to wrench it away from, and hence, began a comical tug of war between the two of us.

If it wasn't I myself in this situation, I would've laughed at the sheer absurdity of it all.

"Let go!" I yelled at her causing her to tighten her grip in response.

Around us a small crowd had formed, anticipating an epic showdown or something. My own friend was standing there with her mouth hung open and proved to be absolutely of no help whatsoever. But rationally, she was doing a good thing to not get in trouble with Mere-Gaint. Ugh, how is it always me who gets stuck in situations like these?

"Ugh, let go!" I violently tried to free my bag.

Meredith sneered. "Try all you want."

"This is bullying!"

"Do I care?" She laughed in my face.

After five minutes of tugging the bag back and forth, there was an accident. Now, I called it an accident because it had a devastating impact on my mind, left me with an inability to form coherent sentences and took something away from me.

With a final tug, Meredith managed to rip the bag away from me causing me to spring forward face first. And just when I was sure I would hit a wall and suffer a concussion, my face hit something warm and my foot tangled with something leading me to fall down on the said warm thing. Ding, ding, ding! Turned out the warm thing was none other than Jace Crewe, on whom I was unceremoniously slung over with him on his back and me on top of him.

The worst part?

My lips had literally landed on his neck. ON. HIS. NECK. He was frozen, seemingly disgruntled and completely disoriented with what just went down. I was frozen because of the intense misfortune. And all of this — a boy and a girl lying on top of each other in the middle of the hallway in a very compromising position — happened in front of the crowd. You know the tragic things about incidents—accidents like these happening in front of even a single person in a high school is that it becomes a massive headline for the whole of student body.

Then as if the present scenario couldn't have already been worse, the sound of heels approaching in our direction and sudden pin-drop silence were the very omens of our incoming doom.

While I was at it, I might as well have said goodbye to my reputation (if there even was one).

"Why is the hallway not deserted when the classes have already started?"

I slowly raised my head from Jace' neck and met his wide eyes with my identical ones.

Our principal was here, I repeat, the old witch was here.

"If you don't get up right now, so help me, I will see to your behavior in my own method."

That caused Jace and I to scramble to our feet, both of our faces madly flushed. Thankfully, the students were already fleeing the scene before her wrath could reach them so no one paid any attention to us.

"Ah," the old witch's lips split in a mock smile. "Ms. Dion and Mr. Crewe, what a surprise."

Except she did not seem happy to receive this surprise.