Life's Fear

Chapter Three

Just my luck, the boys and girls were mingling together with today's activity in sports.

You can't get too lucky though, so Jason inevitably wasn't on my team. We did a series of activities including the beep test, balancing, skipping, sit-ups/push-ups and stretches around the sports hall. Jason's team wasn't far down from mine which meant if I turned my head slightly at regular intervals, I could see what he was doing. He was keeping up with the beep test without even breaking out into a sweat, for God's sake.

The teacher, holding the beeper, was nodding. "Impressive," he praised, "as always. You really should be on a sports team – or even do track."

Jason smirked but shook his head. "I'm too busy, Mr Williams." He almost let out a chuckle but composed himself just in time.

Mr Williams, the sports teacher, nodded as though he was bemused why someone like Jason was squandering away his physical talents away without a valid excuse when Jason turned around, and his eyes landed directly on me. Mr Williams glanced behind Jason to see what had attracted his attention, however fleetingly, and his expression straightened out. "Well," he continued in a lower voice which caused Jason to turn back to him again, "keep up the good work."

"We need to move on," Annabella said to me, almost tugging on my arm.

I almost blurted out with a, "Huh?" but stopped myself before I could further mortify myself. I wondered if she noticed me staring at Jason and taking absolutely no interest in what was happening with the group. Whether she did or not, she didn't say, because wordlessly we moved onto the next activity. I didn't even realise the whistle had blown. How long had I been in a reverie for?

Jason didn't smile nor do anything really when he stared at me. How did he even know I was gawking at him? Does he have eyes in the back of his head or something? Sighing, I shook my head slightly as if I was endeavouring to swish hairs out of my face, though it was all tied back. I just needed to play it cool... completely cool... like a chilly November day. Or was that too cool?

Too many rhetorical questions, my mind seemed to holler at me incredulously, so for the rest of sports, I made sure to keep my eyes away from Jason at all costs, though that didn't cease the accidental glimpse here and there. In the end, Max caught up to me and whispered, "You're making it really obvious."

"I'm only making it obvious because you know what's going on," I protested. "Max, you cannot tell your dad it was Jason who graffitied the bridge... please. You haven't told him, have you?"

"No, I haven't, but I ought to." She sounded almost indignant as we made our way back to the changing rooms through the identical corridors. I'm sure the only differences between the corridors were the locker/room numbers and the layout of posters and pieces of work being displayed. There were posters that still blanketed the walls which had originally been taped up when Max and I were in our freshman year.

"If they can completely clean it off, then it's fine," I replied, waving my hand. "No one needs to know who did it. They probably don't think it will happen again."

Max shook her head in disbelief but said nothing else on the matter. That was until Jason was loitering needlessly around the corner by the changing rooms. He had his foot pressed against the wall and was leaning back against it nonchalantly, his head even inclined backwards. That was until he saw us coming and turned to me specifically.

Again, he said nothing, didn't make any attempt to move for the first few moments and we were all stood there pointlessly staring at one another, though Jason was evidently ignoring Max's presence. After a moment or two, Jason kicked himself off the wall and ambled into the boys' changing room. His gait seemed easy with fluent movements as if it came naturally to him. I suppose it did when he was lurking in shadows.