Scales [ON HOLD]

Chapter Thirty-One: Next Lesson

   "Whatever. I am too, you know." I added defensively. After a couple of minutes, he hummed in reply, and that was it. The first time I met him, he was like Sam; fun and energetic, and yesterday he was like more like Jack; quiet and cool. Today, however, he was just completely ignoring me, and I was getting annoyed. Deciding it was best not to say anything, I began to pack away for the end of the lesson.

   I packed away my book, my pencil, rubber, ruler and planner but I seemed to had lost my pen. I lifted up my bag and searched for it. Not there. I re-opened my pencil case and filed through the objects inside, not there either.

   "Have you seen my pen?" I asked Robin. I don't know what I was expecting other than silence, and that was what I received. I huffed and zipped up my bag and swung it onto one of my shoulders. I prodded his arm. "Have you seen my pen?" I repeated. Silence.

   I leaned against the wall. I had nothing left to do, and everyone else was beginning to pack away as well. My eyes scanned over various things in the room; Miss Leighton ordering pizza- she forgot to turn the projector off, a brunette kid hitting his hand on his head repeatedly and other such sights. My eyes then fell down to see Robin still writing something in his book. I glared at him. In his hand, he was holding my pen and writing with it.

   I reached my hand out to grab it off him and took a step forward. Before I could take it back, he swiped his hand away.

   "That's mine!" I claimed. He raised an eyebrow a little and carried on writing. I scoffed and waited a while longer for him to finish, watching his handwriting. It was neat and swirly, my favourite type. He didn't look like he was going to finish anytime soon and so I tried again to take it. This time I managed to grab a hold of the end of it. I tugged at it slightly.

   "Let go." He said through gritted teeth. I was slightly taken aback by his words and the way he said it, and so my grip loosened. I turned to see him. His grey hair was swaying close to his eyebrows as his onyx eyes were squeezed shut. His teeth were tightly clenched together as though he had a bit in his mouth, and his left hand was formed into a fist.

   "R-Robin, are you alright?" I asked him. He hesitated for a moment before opening his eyes again. When he saw me looking at him worriedly, he loosened up a bit. He sighed and looked away.

   "Leave me alone."

   I obeyed him and let go, not wanting to anger him any more. He carried on writing and ignored me, sighing. Then the bell rang, and, when it did, I left both Robin and my pen in the classroom. I didn't really mind, I could just borrow another one of someone generous next lesson, which just happened to I.T. So really, I didn't need a pen for that.

   I made my way to the I.T corridor, which was not very far from the History block, and searched for my classroom. Once I found it, I saw Jack, Bacon and various other people whom I didn't care about lining up outside. Glaring at Bacon as I walked past, I hopped onto the back of the line outside the class and closed my eyes. I was so tired it was unbelievable, plus the mishap in History hurt me a bit, but I was sure that he was just shaken up about his 'family problems'.

   "Well hello there, Octavia." A happy voice sounded next to me. I tilted my head back and opened my eyes to see Jack standing there beaming at me. His arm was around a matt book, as his other hand was running through his hair, revealing his bright blue eyes. He jumped in next to me and leant against the wall, mirroring my position.

   "Good morning, Jack." I replied softly, giving him a weak smile. His smile faltered for a second as he held my shoulder.

   "You okay? You seem a bit dazed." Jack observed. I nodded, returning him a wider smile. I pointed to the music book and opened my palm, showing that I wanted to know what it was. "Oh this?" He asked, holding it up.

   "Yeah." I whispered, nodding. I placed my hand on my forehead and looked at him attentively.

   "This is my piano book. I bought it yesterday. I was going to go to the piano room at break to practise a bit. Would you like to come?" He questioned me. He sounded hopeful.

   I immediately forgot about History and pushed away from the wall, nearly knocking into a passerby. Muttering sorry, I grabbed Jack by the shoulders and shook him lightly.

   "Yes! I would really like to come and practise! Oh my God! I've wanted to be able to play for so long!" I exclaimed. Jack glared at me, looking slightly annoyed. I furrowed my eyebrows and thought about what I had said to annoy him. I blasphemed. "Whoops, let me try again." I cleared my throat.

   "Yes! I would really like to come and practise! Oh my muffin! I've wanted to be able to play for so long!" I rephrased what I had said. Jack smiled as I started laughing.

   "Anyway, I'm not that good so we can both start at the beginning together, yes?" He asked. I smiled and nodded vigorously. The started moving into the class and so I let go of his shoulders and grabbed his hand, pulling him into the I.T class. When we entered, I released his hand and sat in my seat. I looked up at him and saw him blushing madly.

   "Jack, you're blushing." I whispered so that only he could hear, tugging at his hand. His eyes widened a bit as he smiled.

   "It's just hot in here. I mean, they have no air conditioning in here." He chuckled nervously, loosening his collar slightly. As he sat down, I went a bit closer to him and inspected his face. I poked his cheek and smiled, pointing at my fringe which was flailing about due to the wind from the AC.

   "The air conditioning is on, you melon." I giggled and logged onto the computer, leaving Jack a blushing mess. He covered his face with his pale hands and deeply laughed. Logging onto his computer, he leant back and waited for the instructions from Sir. I did the same.

   Memories from the previous events of today played in my mind; Robin ignoring me in history, being late because of my mother... and my little crying fit yesterday night, and Sam 'borrowing' Jack's licence.

   "Jack, can you drive?" I wondered aloud, tapping my chin. He turned to me, his eyebrows knitted together.

   "Yes, I can." He answered warily.

   "Where's your licence?" I asked him, knowing he didn't have it. He pulled out a plain grey wallet from his back pocket and opened it, pulling back a flap to reveal many cards.

   "It's right he-"

   He stopped and flipped through all of the cards before face palming.

   "That little thief!"