.The Eraser.

sept

                                                                      -7-         

It had been four days since Atara had retrieved the files from Principal Walton's office and she had been following him all week. The man was in his office most of the time except early in the mornings, lunch time and after 4. It was tiresome for her, but so far nothing suspicious came up as she carefully observed his whereabouts. 

Apparently college was not easy. She also had to keep up her profile of a student by making sure that she attended her classes and did her home works and self-studies to catch up with the other students. She did not enjoy that entirely, but she was glad that she was learning something new. 

During the same week, she was coming out from her Advanced Calculus class. It was lunch time and the halls where crowded with hungry teenagers wanting to go out to eat. She was too occupied with her thoughts and she was not looking at where she was going; as she tried to fix her blue bag's strap to properly rest on her left shoulder. Atara was rushing to catch up with Principle Walton as he was going to his usual restaurant in the city. She bumped into someone and unfortunately the calculus printed notes she was holding had fallen down to the floor as the other person's books fell down as well. 

Atara sighed in annoyance. 

She said 'sorry' and knelt down; trying to pick up her papers and she did not look at who she had run into. She was quickly picking them up, because she thought she was running out of time. When she noticed that the person was also helping her out with her notes, she looked up to kindly tell them that she could handle it. Atara inhaled sharply as she saw deep green eyes staring at her with a smile on his face. It was the guy addressed as Mr. Larken by D.R Barron and he started making small talk with her. They had exchanged names and his name was Onyx. She noticed that he was a friendly person and she relaxed a bit as they spoke with each other. She remembered why she was rushing and she (sadly) told him that she had to go and they went their separate ways. 

Atara was in her car, laying low. She planted a bug in the principal's office last time she was in there and she heard him saying to his secretary that he would be going to the bank that afternoon. She had parked her car on the other side of the road by an electronic shop that was opposite Chez Benoît, the infamous French restaurant that Principal Walton liked so much. 

She had made for herself before she left for school, a packed lunch consisting of a ham sandwich and an apple juice box. She had finished eating her lunch forty five minutes ago and she was now bored. It had been an hour and twenty minutes and the man still did not come out of the restaurant. The car radio had nothing interesting on, just some jazz music and more news about an increase in bank robbery. She switched it off after checking every available station.

Huff. Atara breathed out as she mindlessly looked at the wet road and the umbrella carrying people walking in the streets.  

She occupied herself with thoughts about certain sharp green eyes and black curly hair. Atara recalled their conversation and smiled slightly. Immediately, she frowned. She came out of her thoughts about Onyx and shook her head a little, in disappointment in herself. She was acting like a twelve year old with a silly middle school crush.  

'It's no time to be thinking about boys'; she scolded herself in her mind. 

The heavy rain had decreased to little drops of water from the sky. A smiling Principal Walton came out of the restaurant doors holding a pretty blonde woman's hand. She was his wife of fifteen years and they walked to a white 2010 Land Rover-Range Rover car parked behind two other cars in the parking space for the restaurant. They spoke to each other animatedly and his wife turned around at the mention of her name and greeted her colleague, a short brunette lady. Principle Walton stood and observed politely as his wife and her work mate were deep in conversation.