The Remaining (On Hold)

III

    “Hey, weird grunge goth girl, are you going to help me work on the project or stare off into space?”

Francine snapped out of her daydream and turned her head to Sarah.

“I forgot we were working together,” she replied nonchalantly, brushing her recently-dyed hair over her shoulder. Sarah rolled her eyes and passed Francine the rubric for the project. Francine briefly looked over it and tucked it away into her binder as she opened the Chromebook on her desk and began to log in.

    Sarah muttered something about an ignorant new girl and Francine turned around. “Who are you talking about now?” she asked, her eyes exasperated and tired of Sarah’s attitude.

    “Is it any of your business? Besides, you’ll probably befriend her and pull her into your freaky loser cult.” Sarah sneered and typed furiously on her computer.

    “Come on, stop being so catty. I’m going to end up meeting her sooner or later and, yeah, she might even end up in my friend circle.” Francine deadpanned, looking back to her computer screen. As Francine began to sign into her computer, Sarah was silent for a while.

    “Melana Carter,” she finally hissed after a few seconds.

    “Isn’t that Lalani’s new friend?” Francine asked, not looking back. Sarah almost flinched in surprise. How did she know Lalani? Francine wasn’t cool enough to know her friends. Francine shouldn’t be cool enough to know her friends. She was a loser, a dark-dressing emo who spoke to people like Tyler to actually speak to them, not to call him names or trip him in the hallway or tell him he has to be roasted.

    “Um, yeah, she is actually.” Sarah growled at Francine, crossing her arms. She didn’t know what else to say.

    “What’s your beef with her?” Francine inquired, not caring too much. Sarah was getting angry at the new girl and how it seemed like she was trying to scoot in and turn the whole school upside down and it was only her first day.

In fact, Sarah said:

“I’m so royally ticked off at Melana and how it seems like she’s literally trying to scoot in and turn the whole school upside down. It’s only her first day! What does she think this is, a Disney movie?” she snarled and crossed her arms. “You’d get along with her just swimmingly, Francine, you both act like the world is a movie and you’re the director.”

Francine didn’t respond but she had a feeling Sarah would be rambling for the entire class period.

Francine recalled how the two had been friends in the past, but a year’s gap was between them. Francine met Sarah in chorus and they were friends up until Sarah went on to high school. A year later, this one in fact, Sarah acted like a complete stranger, like she was too good for everyone. Francine wasn’t going to lie, that bothered her. A lot.

And whatever happened the year before Francine arrived at Ridgewood must’ve been pretty bad to turn Sarah into the total jerk she is now.

*

    David and Tyler sat in the center of the room. This was David’s choice to sit, since he had pretty bad eyesight. The duo were in the middle of math class, working on a poster. The assignment was to make equations fun, which was difficult for the both of them. Tyler’s head was set on his hands, deep in thought. His companion was leaning far back in his seat, balancing on the back legs of the chair. David let out a groan, placing his hands onto his face.

“How are we supposed to make math fun?” he sighed, looking to his friend. “That’s like... trying to get a paper cut that doesn’t hurt!” Tyler glances at their blank sheet in front of them.

“Well, I guess the process of making the poster can be fun. You like to draw, right?” The brunette suggests, looking unsure of himself.

“But that doesn’t make it less boring for you, and I want it to be fun for the both of us.” David replies as he rapped his fingers on the desk.

“I can just do all the explaining. After all, you did say you weren’t much good with this.” Tyler said, gazing at the whiteboard with the assignment written in big, red letters.

“You’re right, I did say that. But it’s still not fun! I think the teachers are trying to make us work on something impossible. Just to keep us busy,” David huffed, following Tyler’s gaze.

The brunette slouches, putting his elbows on the desk.

“Well, my parents will slaughter me if I end up with a bad grade on this project. So even if it’s fun or not, we gotta finish.” David nods in agreement.

“You’re right. If I have bad grades, I won’t be able to finish my season in football. Maybe we can make a game or something,” The blonde suggests.

“Or a song. Maybe a puzzle? No, puzzles are cliche.” David proceeds to mumble to himself for a while. Something he did often when he was really thinking.

Suddenly, David slams his hands on the desk. “I got it!” He exclaims, attracting attention to the center of the room. David slides back into his seat, shrinking away from the glare the math teacher shot at them.

“Sorry.” He murmurs, twiddling his thumbs nervously. A couple of other students giggled, whispering to each other.

Tyler slides his hand over his face in embarrassment. David could be so obnoxious sometimes.