Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse - Chapter 1

The drone of the rotating fan was enough to lull everyone to sleep. Hell, I was already fast asleep 5 min into the damn lesson. Greg had to nudge me awake every now and then to ensure that I wasn't caught by the teacher who, for some unfathomable reason, was keenly attuned to my activity in her class. I meant, almost everyone else was busy either smiling into their crotches or fixing their stupid make-up but I swore that woman could somehow know when I started to doze off. I wondered if she had a Evan-sensor-chip installed in her head.

When the bell finally rang, I flew out of the room faster than Mrs Henderson could say, "Class dismiss!" You can't seriously blame for my sudden burst of energy. Imagine all those energy wound up tightly for 1 hour. Anyway, I was rambling. Greg said that I had that tendency to space out and speak to myself.

"Hey, you coming with me?" Greg asked while we were at our lockers. I had wanted to just lay down under that tree and munch on my apple. But Greg was my buddy and well, I never said no to him before.

"Oh come on! It's not like there's anything interesting happening here anyway. Sean and Pete are meeting us at the bistro. Let's go!" Greg walked away, expecting me to follow him as usual. I quickly shoved my apple into my bag and packed the rest of my books. Yeah, I might be sleeping in my classes most of the time but I was not one of those stupid airhead jocks. Wait. I was not a jock. That was Greg. He was your typical high school jock to the 'T'. In fact, so were Sean and Pete.

They were already by the car, waiting for us.

"Hey, wassup?"

Greg only nodded in acknowledgement before slidding into the driver's seat.

"Hi, guys! So,shall we go off now?" I smiled at both of them. Sean sat at the front seat while Pete and I were at the back. I listened quietly while the three of them were busy talking about the game last night.

It didn't take us more than 10 min to reach the bistro. I sat down and looked around. There was already quite a crowd and I saw a few of our schoolmates there.

"The usual?" Greg asked me. I nodded. Greg, Sean and Pete went over to the counter to place our orders.

"Gawd, you got to be kidding me," Sean drawled out moments after he returned to our seats. My head snapped to him and I lifted my eyebrows. "She's here! My 5 o'clock."

I turned and saw Brittany, one of the most gorgeous girls from our school, walking in. Sean had always wanted to tap on that piece but unfortunately, we didn't always get what we wanted. Brittany sauntered over to Greg. I guessed Greg was her new target for the year because she had been relentless in her pursuit for my best bud. Believe me when I said that Brittany could really make you redefine the word 'relentless'. She was going after me the entire year last year, before Greg came along. I wasn't interested in her kind so yeah, I wasn't angry or pissed off when she, like most of the female population, turned their radar to Greg when he came along. I watched Greg's mouth lifted in amusement at whatever Barbie was saying.

"Shit man! He gets the woman again?" Sean cringed and I smiled. Pete burst out laughing. Poor Sean just had no chance the moment Greg transferred to our school at the beginning of this year. Greg used to be in a private institution but his parents divorced late last year and he followed his mom who unfortunately, wasn't that equally well-off but they were still able to continue their lavish lifestyle. Anyway, he transferred to our school and I was more than glad to have him around. Afterall, we had been best friends since our diaper days. Ok, that's a gross exaggeration. We met during one of those soccer camps when we were like 9 and well, obviously he was the more talented one. Bottom line, we clicked despite our differences.

Greg made his way back to us, a grin plastered on his face. I guess Barbie must have said something to engrave that stupid grin on his face permanently. I took my wallet and placed the money in front of Greg before taking my food from the tray. I never liked to owe anyone.