Face Your Demons

Part 9 - Chapter 5

The class was under absolute anarchy. Three girls were shouting and grinding their teeth at one another while at the other end of the class two girls versus two guys were having a loud heated argument. The rest of the students were more calm but were rather too chatty, making themselves equally noisy. Everyone was so preoccupied that no one noticed us entering the room – or, noticed Aiden do so. Mr. Wilson had depressingly curled himself on his desk, his hair was wild as he was frantically clutching his skull – the man was baby-steps from a mental breakdown. His pained face turned to look at me, his eyes were bloodshot and sunken from despair. But suddenly a flame of hope sparkled in them.

"All of you! Shut up!" he bellowed. His arm brutally swayed and pointed at my direction. "Steel is going to partner with Hunter and that's final! Anyone who has a problem with it can drag there ass to the administration!" he barked with wide-opened eyes, like a crazy man. The whole class had gone silent and dumbstruck. Mr. Wilson let out a heavy sigh and tiredly collapsed on his chair.

"What? No!" I retorted. I quickly understood why the entire class – and especially its female population – went berserk. Lab-partnership was a big deal; you got to spent together four hours every week, not including all the study-sessions at each other's house. It was no secret that the majority of the couple's at Clawstone were formed due to lab-partnership. The school had to change its policy last year, to focus on allocating only same-sex lab-partners so that the students could concentrate on their assignments instead of flirting. But in this case, Aiden and I were the odd ones out. Of course girls were fighting for him, of course. It was extremely convenient for Mr. Wilson to assign me out of all the girls; I mean, no one picks on the poor orphan, right? It's like I had complete immunity against immature high-school bullying. But nothing could protect me if I were to agree to Mr. Wilson's arrangement. In simple words, it was an absolute social suicide. "Mia is my lab-partner, we've been together since freshmen, we have established that close, very close, bond and communication and, er, cooperation...ehm, through communication," I was bullshiting my way through a very fragile situation. Mia was glaring at me; I guess I was a wee bit short of allies.

"No, Steel. No more freeloading on Mia. You go with Hunter," he ordered while avoiding eye-contact. I felt a rush of anxiety and fear bubbling in me, my head began feeling light and then dizzy. I closed my eyes and took a deep inhale.

"I don't want to be with him!" I shouted desperately and sounded like a little whining child.

"Well, that's a first to hear," he remarked amazed. "But sadly Steel, we have an odd number of boys and an odd number of girls. You two are the odd ones out, you have to partner together."

"Sir, if I may speak," a timid voice interrupted our argument, "It doesn't have to be like that."

"No one is talking to you Danny," Mr. Wilson shushed him. Dan stood up all awkwardly and turned his lanky body towards the teacher.

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*cue anecdote-time* 

I never did any science-classes in high-school, even though my school was a STEM-focused one. I was that history/literature/politics-geek. All my friends were hardcore STEM students though (couldn't understand what they were talking about half of the time).

 When I graduated, they added a new class subject, Robotics - dedicated half a floor to the Robotics Labs. I visited them this year and oh snap! the labs look so fancy! The science department always had the largest budget whereas Humanities had the smallest one and the worst, most ancient classrooms.  

A lot of couples in my school started out as lab-partners. The 'Humanities' students on the other hand were very individualistic and pessimistic - probably because we didn't get to blow-up shit and have robot fight clubs in our lesson periods. Most exciting thing was getting to watch EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY every once in a while in class.