Two Truths And A Lie

05| Faces

You know I'm always
Going to look for your face.

"Your assignment is quite simple. You have to write a collection of poems, at least 10 of them. But, there's a catch. You will each take turns writing the lines. For example, if Daniel and Cara were writing a poem called 'The Road Not Taken', it would go like this:

Daniel would start with: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.

And Cara would think for a few moments, and come up with something like: And sorry I could not travel both..."

It would've been extremely exciting, if it wasn't for the fact that I was paired up with the rudest guy for the rest of semester. Obviously, the poems had to be original. But I didn't have a problem; I love writing.

Once Miss Chester was done explaining the project, I braced myself and turned towards Cameron, as I now learnt his name was.

"Um, I-" I started, but was immediately cut off.

"Listen, Zebra, or whatever the hell your name is, I don't care. You want grades? Do the whole thing yourself. I don't do projects. And," he paused, looking up for the first time to see if I was listening, "If you fail both of us on this project, I will end you. Is that clear?"

Before I could stutter out a reply, a voice rung through the air.

"Cam, knock it off, man. She's a newbie, bro. Leave her alone, get off your lazy ass, and do something,"  I heard the voice say.

I looked to the source of the voice to see a boy with brown hair styled to the side, with the perfect teeth and hair, grinning at Cameron. He looked like he just walked out of a men's fashion show. One look at the boy, and you could tell that he was bad news. He had about him the aura of mischief and cheekiness.

"Stay the hell out of it, Ced," Cameron muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"Oh, I can never stay out of it," the boy replied, wiggling his eyebrows.

Oh. Oh.

Unable to help myself, I let out a snort of laughter. I couln't stop it, and before I knew it, both the boys looked at me like I'd just grown a unicorn horn.

I checked. I hadn't.

"Did you just snort?" Cameron asked incredulously, his question laced with dry humour.

Thankfully, I was saved from the embarassment by the teacher.

"Hey, you gang of louts back there. I said discuss with your partners, not dilly-dally," she called out.

"How dare you accuse us of dilly-dallying, when we were clearly lolly-gagging!" the same boy, 'Ced', Cameron had called him, cried out. And of course, I snorted again, but this time Cameron just let it pass with a unamused glance at me and went back to using his phone under the desk.

This was going to be a long day.

>>>>>>>

"Hey, Zoë! Over here!" Tristan yelled over the ruckus in the cafeteria.

After a long and boring day which seemed to drag on without an end, it was finally lunch time. After this, I still had two classes, but at least I was getting a break. I'd had some difficulty trying to talk to the lunch lady who seemed to know only German, but some freshman helped me out. I now held a tray with an apple, some spaghetti, and a carton of what seemed like mango juice. Huh.

Tristan waved me over to a table which wasn't in the center of the cafeteria, but had a lot of people sitting at it.

When I approached the table, I could clearly see every one of them. I only recognised Tristan, his girlfriend Alyssa around who's waist one of his hands were wrapped, and the boy from earlier who'd asked Cameron to stop being an arse.