Soul Fire: Fight or Flight

Chapter 3

      One of the advantages of Ethan's standing with the student body was that no one would work with him. When it came to group projects of any kind, his peers refused to even consider it. After a while even the teachers stopped bothering to fight it and just let Ethan work alone. It was how he liked it.

      When Ethan walked into his British Literature class and saw the words "Group Project" on the board, he didn't even bat an eye. There was so much swimming in his head that he didn't even give it much notice. He couldn't even be bothered to care. His dream had still left him a bit shaken and he was trying to sort it all out.

      The project wasn't something he was concerned about, so he basically tuned the teacher out. That was, until somebody plopped right beside him, startling him out of his thoughts.
That somebody was a girl with black hair save for one red strand that was clipped in. She looked bored, or possibly irritated with something. Ethan give her a curious look with a raised eyebrow. She looked over at him and mirrored it.

      "Are you gonna say something or not?" She barked at him. Ethan grimaced and looked away toward his desk.

      "Why would I do that? I'm not the one who sat down," he bit back a more sarcastic reply.

      "Fair enough. So what are we doing for this project?" Ethan's head snapped back to her at those words.

      "We?"

      "What, you deaf? We're paired for this stupid project, and I don't know about you, but juvie kinda wrecked my grades so... yeah." The girl snapped. Ethan's eyed grew wide. What happened? Who was this girl that was bothering him? Why did he have a partner? Why was this a thing?

      "You think I'm gonna beat you up or something?" She growled. Ethan gave her a more confused look.

      "Do you want to?" He prodded.

      "I just wanna pass this class so I can be done with this place," her eyes cut off to the side. They were colored red, probably from contacts.

      "Well then I have nothing to fear," Ethan replied, deflating to a defeated tone. The girl gave him a sidelong glance, as if reconsidering her answer. In the end, she settled for unfolding her arms and grabbing her binder.

      "What's your name?" She huffed. Ethan saggged, somewhat hoping that conversation wasn't going to be a thing here.

      "Ethan," he mumbled. He tried really hard not to be rude to provoke her. She seemed non-hostile enough.

      "Ashe," She raised an eyebrow at him. He looked at her with a blank expression. Ashe scowled and looked into her textbook, "Look, we got stuck with the Cantabury Tales, so if you could just last that long that'd be great."

      Ethan tensed on instinct, body going rigid as if waiting for something to happen. Her tone sounded mad, and Ethan new what came next.

      "Dude, why are you acting like I'm gonna hit you? I swear, it just doesn't end with you people!" her voice was beginning to rise but her words confused Ethan.

      "What?" was his unintelligent reply. No wonder people hit him... but Ashe seemed to either not notice or not care.

       "I mean, just what the hell did I ever do to you people!?" She yelled, getting the attention of the teacher at last. He looked at them, first with feigned interest, then with a bit of fear and concern upon looking at Ashe. Ethan was totally lost. He looked to her with confusion, and that seemed to do it.

      "FUCK THIS!!" Ashe launched the desk with a hefty flip and scattered the papers and binders everywhere. Eyes went wide as she stood there, huffing and furious. With little pause she stormed out, slamming the door before the teacher could gather his wits about himself and respond.