Started With a Tube - Chapter 9
I quickly come to love going to school.
It's weird, actually, how fast I begin to enjoy waking up in the morning to the prospect of having company on my journey to and from school. And having Alec in some of my classes throughout the day only adds to this newfound yearning. It's an odd feeling, I'll tell you that much, but it's really quite great too.
We also begin the habit of leaving a little earlier and grabbing some breakfast on the way in. On most days, Alec insists on paying which of course is incredibly sweet, but I do manage to cut him off occasionally and pay for us. He says he likes paying, but I feel bad when he does. I'm getting used to it though.
"What class d'you have first?" Alec asks as we step down the stairs to the tube station.
"French," I shudder.
"I don't know why you hate it so much."
"Um, maybe because I don't speak the language," I suggest.
"That's reasonable," he allows and I laugh.
"No but seriously, the only reason I take it is because I want to go to Paris when I'm older and I figured it would be a bit of a help. But I didn't know we'd be learning verb endings and that."
"It's crucial for the language," he tells me.
"Yeah, yeah," I grin.
"So tell me, what do you want to do in Paris?" he asks, taking a bite of his breakfast bagel. "You know that they call it the City of Love?"
"I've heard that," I laugh. "No, I dunno I think I just want to go over and work in some small cafe, get a small apartment down one of those cute side streets, ride a bike basically everywhere and just live. Write a bit, paint a bit, learn French by immersing myself in it rather than be taught it by a crappy teacher in a stuffy classroom with thirty other kids who don't care."
"That's one of my favourite things you've said as of yet," Alec grins and I whack him with my schoolbag. "No, seriously! Tell you what, if you want I'll teach you some easy phrases that'll help you when you go travelling. In return for some guitar lessons."
"You want to learn guitar?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"Sure, it'll be fun."
"I don't know if fun is exactly the right word but okay, Alec Jameson, you have yourself a deal."
*
One thing I truly love about our school, as goddamn awful as it is, they always seem to have a list of people waiting to give us presentations or plays or inspirational speeches about why becoming a triathlon runner is the best idea since the beginning of time. Most people hate them, but I just view them as a perfect excuse to get out of class.
Like right now I'm supposed to be in maths, but instead my entire year group are in the theatre until lunch, watching a group of actors teach us about consensual sex through a terribly awkward play featuring twenty-something adults playing sixteen year old kids.
It's all pretty messed up.
Admittedly it's quite a laugh though. Already Jamie and I have laughed our way to six-pack abs because one of the girls in the play unintentionally didn't have her shirt buttoned up right, so you could see her bra for the duration of the first half. I don't know why it was so funny, but with the awkward subject being discussed and the terrible acting, it gave us something to laugh at.
Although, I've never really been one to find sex something embarrassing to talk about. I don't know why. I guess I just understand that it's part of human nature, and that everyone will probably, if not definitely, do it at some point in their lives so there's nothing really to be squeamish about. And I'm not saying that people my age should be having sex, but I know a lot do. I myself don't plan on it any time soon, but yeah, it happens.
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Started With a Tube
Teen Fiction"According to Greek Mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate being, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves."...
