Work of Art // Cake

One - Looking for Michael

Chapter One

- Looking for Michael

As I sat at the back of the small dull classroom, I watched as it started to fill with students. The bell for the start of the day had only just rung, but I had been in my seat ever since the doors were opened. I did it every day, every week, ever since early the year before. It was basically my morning routine.

My ears started to fill with chatter as groups of friends began to talk about what they had done in the last eighteen hours or so. Who they were dating now, what movie they had watched, what they had ate, they had to mention every single detail of their day to their friends. Of course, different groups of friends talked about different topics. The 'popular' boys spoke about what sports game they had won and the 'popular' girls spoke about what boy they had been dating for the last five minutes who they were 'so inlove with'. The 'nerds' were discussing what their favourite books were and why the others should read it and the 'gamers' argued about who was the best at Call of Duty.

I didn't belong to any group at school. Some people called me a 'loner', but it wasn't like I didn't speak to anyone. I believed that school was for learning and not for socialising. It wasn't for becoming the most popular person, it was for becoming more educated so I could get a better job later in life. I found it quite ridiculous that people in my grade were still trying to become popular when I learnt that popularity won't get me through life when I was thirteen, and we were sixteen.

I had also been referred to as an 'emo' a couple of times, which full on confused me. The only thing that made me look like an 'emo' was my lip piercing. I didn't have pitch black hair, I didn't have fifty piercings in my ear, I didn't even listen to hardcore music. Unless All Time Low, Fall Out Boy and Mayday Parade counted as 'emo' music, if it did, I was a complete 'emo'.

Finally, a teacher entered the classroom so I could finally get another day over and done with. Miss Nelson was my least favourite teacher; she would restart the whole attendance if one person didn't say 'yes Miss' and every time someone accidentally didn't say those exact words she would say a speech on how she doesn't want to waste our time, so we shouldn't waste hers.

"Welcome class! Hope we can have a great day." She said with her high pitched voice, it seemed as though puberty hadn't hit her at all. She started to read out the names in the attendance, staring at each student when she said their name, hoping that they would say it wrong so she could yell at the whole class.

"-Luke Hemmings?" The teacher called, and I rolled my eyes, having to speak for the third time that day. The first time was when I said 'good morning' to my mother and the second time was when I said 'goodbye Mum'.

"Yes uh Miss." I mumbled, just loud enough so she could hear me say it. Luckily, she didn't get mad at me for saying 'uh', but I could tell she was about to. She continued reading through the list until she had reached the bottom.

"Okay class, you can go to your first period." She said, and I was one of the last to stand up. I walked out of the class after the rest of the students so I wouldn't have to deal with being in a crowd of people.

Once I had reached my locker, I unlocked it before opening. Most people had given up on using a lock back in eighth grade, but I didn't exactly want people to look through my stuff, even though it was unlikely they would. Grabbing my English book, I also grabbed my pencil case and locked it back up. On my way to the English room, I was interrupted by a girl in my class named Erin. I was ninety percent sure that she had a crush on me, but I had no clue why. Maybe it was because I was supposedly 'mysterious', but that was only because no one at the school had even tried to get to know me.

"Hey Luke." She smiled, and continued to walk beside me as I walked to the classroom.

"Hi Erin." I mumbled. She bit her lip in an attempt to be sexy, but it looked quite awkward. Finally, we reached the classroom, but as soon as I sat down, she sat next to me and continued to have a conversation when I would rather be anti-social.