A Little Bit Of Everything (EARLIER CALLED YOUNG, WILD AND FREE)

4. // New friend //

From "Variations on the Word Sleep" by Margaret Atwood:

"I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
and that necessary."

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I woke up to find Tiana's leg on my head, and her hand on my tummy,
I untangled myself and went to the bathroom to get ready for school.
Tiana had been staying with me for three days now, and would be joining school from Monday.

I threw on some skinny jeans and a crop top that said Dope on it, and slipped on some converse. Hearing a thud and a groan, I turned around to see Tiana sprawled on the floor .

''Good morning, sleepyhead! I'm leaving for school now. Bye love Ya! ''
The only reply I got was a grunt and an order to get more food. Sighing, I left the house and got into my car.

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As soon as Sarah and I walked into school, the everyone was staring at us. Everytime, there's some sort of gossip that we get pulled into, and that's why, we become the centre of attention.

It's like they all classify people based on the pricetag stuck on their heads.

I ignored them and walked to first period Photography.

Last month, our principal had this amazing idea that we all take a bonus class, which would include 20% of our grade. The options were : Photography, Painting and Drama.

Photography has always struck me as interesting, so I signed up for it.

I entered the classroom mere minutes before the teacher, Mrs Cooper walked in and said in to my place.

She said, ''Today, I will be pairing you up. You have the whole of first and second period to roam the school grounds and click pictures of whatever catches your eye, it can be anything : trees, birds, even each other. Widen your minds.''

And these partners will remain the same till the end of the school year.

'' I groaned, I didn't like partners! I preferred to do work alone, without help, so this was infuriating. All I could do was hope that I got a decent partner.''

The teacher started reading out names if the partners that she had decided previously. 'Natalie and Simon, James and Cynthia, Gabriel and Noah, Matt and Coby,' she read out.

Noah...wasn't he the guy from earlier that morning. I groaned and turned around. He was standing behind me, clearly not expecting me.

''You,'' he said, sounding shocked.
''We seem to be running into each other a lot, '' I told him, clearly not happy.

''So because there isn't anything we can do about it, let's just get on with this. What I was thinking was that we could go to the school terrace and click pictures of the view from there, it looks amazing when the sun glints of the surface, and.. ''

''God! Please be quiet, you're giving me a headache! '' he snapped.

Okay...

''Look here mister, you have no right to talk to me that way, and you might very well get your
a$$ up, and come with me, otherwise, you'll be sorry and you will also lose your grade, so I'm leaving, if you wanna come, then I'll be up, on the terrace. Also , I would very much appreciate it if you apologized for this morning,''I snapped ,pointing towards my stained shirt. I huffed and walked up to the shelf where that kept the cameras ,grabbed one and left the room in a huff.

I tried being nice to him, he just couldn't see beyond that inflated head of his.

I climbed up the stairs of the building that let to the terrace and pushed the door open.

A strong gust of wind whipped my face and I instantly calmed down. Let that jerk do what he wants, I'm gonna rock this class. I saw the sun's rays glinting off a building and hurried to get the perfect angle.

Snap.

Suddenly, I heard the door opening and Noah appeared. He walked up to me and stood there. I grinned.

''So, what are we gonna do? '' he asked me squinting slightly because of the sun.

''Let's start with something a simple sorry, then we can do something to get to know each other because we are going to be paired up for a long time now.

So here's the plan. You have to tell me five things about yourself and for each thing you tell me, you get to click a picture of something around us, and the same goes for me.

This way we'll know each other and also get our assignment done. '' He thought for a minute, and then nodded. ''Sounds like a plan, and I'm sorry for this morning,'' he said with a smile tugging at his lips.

''Nah, it's fine'', I said, and grinned back.

It was my turn first, so I told him about the time when I stole my friend's underwear and hung it out on the trees. He laughed so hard that a couple of pigeons on the roof flew away, and that was what I clicked, the pigeons flying into the horizon.

The game continued for a while, until it was his last turn. He told me about the time when he set his classmate's hair on fire accidentally, and his friend had to have all his hair cut.

It wasn't that funny, but because we were laughing so hard for such a long time, absolutely anything cracked me up, and I burst out laughing.

''You did not do that! '' I said and tried to catch my breath.
''You've got to believe me.'' he replied.

I suddenly heard a click, and looked up . He'd clicked a picture of me laughing.

''Show me, Show me!!'' I said.

He showed it to me and I was speechless. He caught me at the perfect moment. I was looking down and laughing, my hair partly covering my face, but not completely covering my eyes, which were sparkling with happiness.

I looked up at him, my eyes wide.
''You are amazing. You really know what you are doing. ''

'' Of course I do. It's me were talking about here,'' he said, puffing out his chest. I rolled my eyes at him, and he laughed.

I looked at him, he was smiling and looking at the scenery that lay in front of us, and quickly grabbed my camera, and snapped a picture of him.

I looked at the time and realized that we only had five minutes to be back in class, so we both walked back down the steps.

We entered the classroom and kept our cameras back in their places. Fortunately we used the same cameras all year, so our pictures wouldn't get mixed up.

We collected our books and smiled at each other. Then, he went to Chemistry and me to English.

I smiled as I walked down the halls. Noah was not as rude and cold as I thought him to be, he was actually a nice guy. He was actually fun.

Maybe he wasn't that bad after all...

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AN
This was my third chapter.
Did you like it?
Tell me how you feel about it so that it can be better next time.

Toodles,
D.