Black

XXXV

I stood with the rest of the class in front of our PE teacher as she gave us a batch of balls that we would use to play dodgeball.

She looked at me out of the whole group, "Do you have a ball?"

I blinked and readjusted my grip around the ball, "No, I'm holding a cabbage."

She rolled her eyes and blew her whistle, signaling the start of the game as we scattered around the place. I spotted my first target and threw the ball at her with all my might. On being hit in the back, she turned around to look at me, her face screwing in pain and anger as she caught my eye.

"Jones, out," the teacher said from across the court. Maia glared at me, placing her hand on her back, as I didn't try to hide my smirk.

"Dodgeball got to be dodgeball," I mouthed and looked at the other team, recognizing a couple of them from their stares and laughs at me in the hallway.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but it seems like I was going to have a lot of fun on these grounds.

~

I washed my red colored face, breathing heavily. I was already exhausted from running around and it was yet the beginning of the day. It wasn't even Friday, it was Monday, which meant no PE classes, but thanks to the absence of our math teacher and the persistence of her substitute, the PE teacher, that we use that time instead of being losers, here we were.

Whilst running, my ponytail went loose, freeing practically all my hair. So, now I looked like that red angry bird that I guess built his nest upon his head. I caught my hair and was about to throw it in a bun when I noticed a strand of my hair attached to mum's necklace.

"Oh for god sake." I tugged on the strand of hair to free it, but it ended being knotted further into the necklace. Unclasping the necklace, I practically tore my hair from the chain and placed it on the bathroom sink as I finally took all the hair off my face and neck. I really want to cut my hair soon.

"Uh..Black?" I moved my eyes to the reflection of the girl who entered the bathroom, Lilly was her name, one of the girls on my team, "You might want to get out of this place and head to class before Mrs. Johnson comes and beheads you."

I nodded, "Okay." I retrieved my bag from the floor as I watched her not move from her spot. I cleared my throat, "Thank you."

"Sure! So, what do you have next?" I shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another.

"Biology."

"Oh, I've got English. Want to walk together?"

Not at all.

"Sure," I said for the sake of getting out of this bathroom, trying to not question the sudden act of kindness.

She moved from the door and we started walking, "So, what do you think of our school so far?"

"It's cool," I said, keeping the conversation as surfaced as possible.

"You seemed to have a rocky start though...with Maia and all."

I shrugged, wondering why the biology class didn't come into view yet. "I just want you to know that just like there are the horrible people here, there are great ones as well. I would be glad to further know you."

How awkward will I seem if I just raised up my thumbs to that?

"Okay," I simply said, stopping finally in front of the class.

"Maybe we can hang out sometime." She stopped in front of me. I opened my mouth to reply just in time to see two heads peak at us from the corner, disappearing the second I caught them. I knew who they were.