When Time Runs Out

O~N~E

I had never disliked a teacher more in my life.

Henry Fraser could not have made it through teacher's college without aggravating at least half of his professor's at one point or another; two minutes into his lecture on Auschwitz and I already wanted to stuff my face into a locker. 

I pressed my hands against my ears and turned my head to look back at my best friend Riley for some sort of help or reaction or look of understanding, but she had her headphones on. Her eyes were fixed out the window, and I could see her combat boot-clad foot tapping to the beat of whatever techno music she was listening to. 

I sighed and turned back around for the rest of the lecture. For the next sixty minutes, I managed to draw a very nice eye, write a haiku about the tree in my front yard, and study for my math test. 

When the bell rang, everyone was up and out of their seats within one second. Everyone craved freedom from the boring history class as much as I did.

"I think my brain cells are actually starting to deteriorate in Fraser's class," Riley said as she came up behind me. She had her headphones around her neck; I could still hear the music through them. She never bothered to turn it off. Riley spent most of her time listening to music to drown out the rest of the world. Sometimes I envied her.

Most times I just remembered that becoming a Journalist meant that I actually had to care about school and grades and my reputation. 

"Like you would know," I said. She cocked an eyebrow at me. "That music had you so zoned out, I actually thought you were entranced by it.

Riley rolled her eyes at me. "Oh, ha ha," she said, bumping my shoulder with hers. "Why do you think I had the music on in the first place? He is just so boring!" 

"I agree." 

We walked over to the library together, Riley with her headphones on. I could hear she had switched to something of the rock and roll genre now, and she was bopping her head to the beat, flinging her hair around as she went. 

Riley was what some might call a very eclectic looking person; her bright rainbow coloured hair caused everyone to look in her direction when she walked into a room. She was also fairly short, so she looked like a little elf with bright coloured hair, who was always off in her own thoughts. Up close, she had very small and childlike features; bright almond-shaped eyes, thin nose, and freckles all over her face. Naturally, she was a redheaded, green-eyed beauty. Her family was from Scotland a couple generations back, so she had adopted their gorgeous colouring. But Riley was never one to just accept what was normal. She was always searching for some way to stand out and be different, which was why we were best friends. 

I always liked to just stick to myself, keep my head down and do my own thing without disturbing the peace. It served me well most of the time. Occasionally I would get a comment from some narcissistic airhead about how I was a 'loner' or a 'geek', but stuff like that never really phased me. I wasn't the type of person who was bothered by comments made by people who were irrelevant to me. 

"Amara!"

The sound of my name caught me off guard, and I whipped around to see a skinny kid in glasses running towards me. His blonde hair was flopping in his eyes and he was tangled in his backpack straps. I smiled. "Austin, don't hurt yourself," I said as he walked up to me. 

He blushed and untangled himself from his bag. "I was afraid I wouldn't catch you. You always seem to disappear whenever I look away," he said.

"Partially my fault," Riley said from her locker where she had produced a bag of chocolate hershey kisses, and was now chewing a mouthful of them. "I don't like when the hallways are super crowded, so I just drag her with me."