Unheard {ONHOLD}

Shar

From memory, my next class should be English with Mr Petro in room 11TO. I know where that is. I have passed it a couple of times, but never really had any lessons in it. I am rather disappointed that I had to miss my first lesson of Food-tech, but there is nothing I could do about it.

At my locker, Alice is standing and glaring at me. It doesn’t look like she is angry, maybe annoyed? As I walk closer she shifts a little as if she has been standing there a while.

“Jenny, where have you been?” She asks. Her voice sounds concerned. “I was looking everywhere for you at recess and at lunch too”

‘Mr Clarke got me’

“He did?” She doesn’t sound concerned anymore. Her eyebrows are raised as she talks. She can be simple minded sometimes. “Oh, no. Did he make you run around the track again?”

I nod my head and unlock my locker.

“Seriously, that man needs to get someone else. He cherishes you too much” She says, allowing me to reach my books. “Ever since he found out about your running, he hasn’t gotten off you one bit”

I stand next to her and watch as her brows scrunch over in thought.

“It’s like he has a thing for high school girls. Or more specifically, a thing for quiet, beautiful, black haired and athletic high school girls” Alice says after a long thought.

I raise my eyebrows and smile at her disapprovingly.

She laughs. “I know it’s silly” She suddenly turns serious. “But you know, they are actually people out there in this world who are actually like that”

I nod my head and walk towards our English class. As I am walking, I realise that Alice is grinning. I turn my head to her and she realises that I am looking at her.

“You are wondering why I am smiling like an idiot?” She asks her grin still wide and unmoving.

I nod my head and she takes a deep breath.

“Well, this guy just asked me out during lunch. He asked me out on the first day of school too!” She says. Somehow her grin spreads wider and she laughs as if the very idea of being asked out on the first day is too ridiculous for her.

‘That’s great’ I think

“I know, isn’t it great, it’s just that James is still- I haven’t really broken up with him and I don’t want to make things complicated” She says.

‘So what did you tell the guy?’

“I told him to wait. I mean he was cute and he seemed interesting so I’ll give it a shot” She smiles again. After a few seconds, she stops walking and stares at me. I give her a puzzled look. “How are you doing that?” She asks pointing at the piffle. “I didn’t see your hand move over the screen even once!”

I laugh at her and walk into the English class. My laugh is never really actually heard, but you can see me laugh. Instead of the soft melodic sound everyone else lets out when they laugh, or the rough one some people have, my laugh is more like a squeak, a whistle, a small sound that cannot really be described by words.

 A couple of students are in front of us and some of them are also behind us. I look inside and I see the new teacher Mr Petro sitting at the desk organising his papers. He has black hair and a light tan. I think his background would be somewhere like Italy or Brazil or maybe even Greek. He has a pair of blue round glasses resting on his head.

I take my seat to the far corner of the classroom and Alice sits next to me. She is eyeing the teacher and I can guess what she is thinking. Alice seems to have a thing for guys with dark skin and dark hair. Mr Petro seems to fit the description.