A Rose Among Ashes

Chapter Five

          Ari and Ian walked into their last class, English. Ian was eager to see who else might be joining them, but Ari was more looking forward to the class itself. English was his favorite subject. He loved the flowing words of classical literature, the emotion and beauty of the dark romantics like Poe, Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley. He hoped that this year the teacher would spend more time on poetry. He loved “The Raven,” but that seemed to be the only poem his teachers felt was important to study. He practically knew it by heart by now. As they walked inside they say a seating chart projected on a screen in the front of the room.

            “Assigned seats?” Ian moaned in discontent, “Damn, we’re on other sides of the room…”

            “Yeah…Well hopefully the teacher will change the seating arrangements every quarter or semester.”

            “Yeah, oh well. Class is about to start so I'm going to go sit down.” Ian walked over to the right side of the room and sat down. Ari moved to the left, taking his seat in the second to last row at a desk in about the middle of the row from the front of the room. Everyone began filing into the room and taking their seats. The teacher, Ms. Price, started handing out the syllabus and other important papers. Ari quickly began studying the schedule. He was happy to see that they would be doing a unit on one of his absolute favorite poems, “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree, where Alph the sacred river ran, through caverns measureless to man,” he whispered to himself, “down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground with—” He stopped mid-line, startled by a soft voice that joined him in reciting the poem.

            “…Walls and towers were girdled round, and there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree, and there were forests ancient as the hills, enfolding sunny spots of greenery.” Ari looked to his left, and met the gaze of a young girl. He was at a loss for words, unable to speak. It’s her…she’s in my class? And she knows my favorite poem… This seems too good to be true but… “You’re a fan of Coleridge too, I see,” she said, breaking the impending awkward silence, “That’s one of my favorite poems. It’s so beautiful and so dramatic… I’m surprised, I didn’t think anyone read this stuff besides when they’re forced to in school.”

            “I totally agree, I feel the same way. There just aren’t authors like that today, and poetry seems to have become a lost art.”

            “It really is a shame, isn’t it.”

            “Yeah…” I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe I'm talking to her in real life, about my favorite poem, which is her favorite poem. This is so great! We have something in common now, and who knows what else…maybe this will be easier than it thought. The class was almost quiet now, and the teacher was writing information on the dry-erase board at the front of the room. The projector screen was rolled up now, so he couldn’t see the name of the girl sitting at the desk next to him. He was sure it was her though. She had medium length black hair pulled into two low ponytails, and those same clear blue-grey eyes. Everything else about her was totally different than he remembered in the dreams; she was wearing dark eye makeup with thick black eyeliner, dark clothes with chains here and there, lots of black bracelets on both arms, and combat boots. It was typical gothic/emo attire, which of course wasn’t typical of students at this school, except for a few. But when he looked in her eyes any doubt faded away. “Eyes are windows to the soul,” someone once said, and he believed it his whole life. Her eyes and the eyes of the girl in his dreams shared the same soul. The quietness was suddenly interrupted by the classroom door opening with an apology, “Sorry I’m late.” Ari looked up and saw him walking across the room. Well, everyone saw him walk across the room. He was pretty hard to miss.

            “What’s your name please? I’ll look up your assigned seat.”

            “Korbin Arnett.”

            “Korbin Arnett, let’s see…okay, I see you. Would you please take as seat at that empty desk next to…Ari. Ari, will you please raise your hand? Yes, there he is. Go ahead and take a seat and we’ll get started. Please don’t make a habit of being late.”

            “Yes ma’am,” he replied, taking a seat next to Ari. He waited until Ms. Price went back to writing on the board before sending a nasty look at Ari, who glared back in return. Ari was confused when, only a moment later, Korbin was smiling at him..? Ari followed his gaze and saw that he was not smiling at him, but that he was smiling at the girl sitting next to him, who shyly smiled back. This is so awkward…why is he smiling at her? Don’t tell me they know each other…great… just fucking great. Now I have to deal with this all year. I knew this was too good to be true… Ari glanced back at Korbin, perhaps not as subtly as he thought, and he saw Korbin mouth the words “she’s mine.” Ari sat there the rest of class in a deep and brooding anger. He was trapped between the girl of his dreams and the only person that he had ever truly, sincerely hated with every fiber of his being. 

            Ian approached Ari after class. He practically had to run to catch up to him, as Ari got out of the classroom as fast as possible.

            “Tough break there, huh?” To which Ari did not reply. “Listen, I'm sure if you ask the teacher and tell her your situation she can have you moved somewhere else.”

            “It’s not me who I want moved. It’s him.”

            “Oh, it’s because you’re sitting next to her, isn’t it? Is that really worth being miserable all semester? And what if the teacher doesn’t change the seating chart? You’ll be stuck next to him all year!”

            “I know… I don’t know what to do. He’s going to drive me crazy. Did you see how he was looking at her?! It’s disgusting. I hate him. I always told myself that I would not hate anyone. They’re all just people, like me, that’s all. But damn…I just can’t not hate him. I know it’s bad karma or whatever, but I just don’t see what I can do but what I’m already doing. I mean it’s been like this between us since freshman year and it keeps on getting worse.”

            “Do you think that maybe you should try and make peace with him or something? I'm not telling you to be friends with him, just be I dunno, neutral or something?”

            “You’re telling me I should call a truce?”

            “If that’s what it takes, yeah.”

            “If I do that then I'm the weak one. If I do that then he wins. I can’t let him win. And I have to protect her from him!”

            “Uh, I hate to break it to you, but it looks like you’re a little late,” Ian said, motioning to the parking lot ahead of them as they walked to their car. Korbin was leaning up against a light post, one hand in his pocket and the other making gestures as he spoke to the girl. She was smiling, maybe even blushing. Korbin made a sort of wave, but more subtle than that, and began walking towards his car. The girl waved and walked away smiling. In a moment she was lost among the crowds of students leaving the school.