Spectating

idfc

Trudging up the stairs towards my classroom, I pondered on the chances of being excused from my classes if I threw myself down the stairs and sustained at least two major injuries.

Fat chance, the little voice inside my head grumbles bitterly, Ms. Xu, the vice principle, would probably blow a fuse and cart me from the hospital all the back to school.

I could almost hear the infuriating woman lecturing me about my irresponsibility.

"A broken leg does not excuse you from missing your classes!"

The thought was both morbidly amusing and moderately horrifying.

I was the first person to arrive in class, as per always. I slid into my usual seat in the back of the room, placing my bag on the unoccupied desk beside me. Then I fished Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire out and began re-reading my favorite book of the series for what must have been the hundredth time.

Mornings on school days were routinely spent like this.

I was normally the first person in class, partly because of my unhealthy need to always be the first person, and also partly because I always needed my daily dose of silence.

Being early to school was like killing two birds with one stone.

A good fifteen minutes ticked by uneventfully before my other early bird classmates began filing in.

I lazily greeted some, preferring not to make conversation as I squeezed out the last bits of The Yule Ball chapter. Then Casey saunters in, on his phone again, and I was forced to cut Harry's ogling of Cho Chang short.

"Ello," He says as he takes the seat in front of me.

Now would be a great time to say that Casey wasn't even in my homeroom. He was in Ms. Maco's class right beside mines, with Ken and Eva. He just normally killed time in my classroom because he much preferred moi's company rather than the stuck-up preps he was forced to call classmates.

I don't bother to answer as I glance at his phone, then back at him. I narrow my eyes slightly and raise my eyebrows in an expression that I hoped said, "really?".

He shoots back a defensive look and I sigh dramatically.

If you hadn't noticed yet, Casey and I had a habit of having conversations using solely our facial expressions.

We don't know when or how exactly that came to be, but it's just how we rolled. It was a useful skill whenever we had a class together and were stuck on opposite sides of the room.

"So who is it this time?" I drawl, raising my eyebrow when my friend goes slightly pink.

He opens his mouth to answer, but he never gets the words out because at that moment Jackie and Elise burst into the room, the latter of the duo practically bouncing and looking just about a short fuse away from exploding.

Jackie caught my eye as they came towards us and the giddy glint in her eyes was enough to fill me in on information.

Casey lets out a small gasp and a grin forms on his face.

"You saw him, didn't you?"

A year ago, during junior year, Elise had been involved with one of the seniors who lived in the apartment complex right beside school. It was far from a real relationship, and wasn't unlike a typical middle school crush sort of ordeal. It was mostly awkward, but endearing nonetheless.

The senior, Jason Lawrence, was rumored to have a crush on Elise since sophomore year but apparently lacked the guts to act on it. Elise found it completely embarrassing for the first few months, but eventually grew to like him back. Thus, their weird ass walking-on-eggshells, too-shy-to-say-hi fling began. I don't even know if it counted as a fling, but I don't suppose there was a word in the English dictionary to explain the relationship.