The Hooded Figure

TWO

How do I reply to that? What does he expect me to say? Maybe he expects me to say nothing and that's the point?

So instead, I said, "What do you expect me to say to that?" He didn't reply, he just twiddled a pencil between his long, chubby fingers.

Then, I did the most inconvenient thing, I laughed. I'd suddenly thought: look at those thicc fingers, and for some reason, this was the funniest thing to me. I noticed the boy jerk back, probably in confusion and fear. Thankfully, it wasn't my hyena laugh that I'd let loose, it was actually kind of a nice laugh.

Once I finished, I simply smiled as he sat there, no longer fidgeting with the pencil. I didn't know if he could see me through the hood, but it looked like pretty solid fabric.

"Sorry, I just—" I paused for a moment, thinking of what to say, "—I just thought of something random." He didn't ask for an explanation, he just sat there. He started moving the pencil between his fingers again.

"Well..." I started unsurely, "we're studying globalization, I don't know if you were doing that at the school you came from, but we basically just need to explain the effects on a Google Doc and add some nice pictures. Do you have a computer at home?" To my general surprise, he nodded.

I smiled and said, "Great! I'll make the document and share it with you, what's your username?" The pencil ceased movement as he froze.

"I can make it by myself," he told me, his voice sounding unnaturally low, like he was forcing himself to talk weirdly.

"Are you okay?" I inquired, leaning forward a little bit. He didn't reply and I frowned. "Well, I can't let you do this on your own because firstly, that's not fair to you, secondly, I kind of suck at Social Studies and if I want to get accepted to the universities I want, I need to have good grades in all my classes, including this one. Lastly, I don't know if I can trust you to do good work..."

"Seriously?" His voice sounded gravelly and I was taken aback.

"I'm sorry that your behaviour this morning didn't imply much other than a lack of manners," I muttered under my breath lowly.

"Excuse me?" He demanded, his voice sounding less contorted, more like a normal guys' voice.

"Nothing," I replied, glaring at the black void on his head, assuming he couldn't see me.

"Is everyone in this damned high school as rude and disrespectful you?" He sounded too angry to bother disguising his voice for whatever reason.

"Well, although obviously you are the nicest person ever, you're not going to meet anyone much nicer than I am. I know for a fact that I'm the only one who has given you a second chance or will give you a second chance so I suggest you start making better first impressions or you're not going to be very popular around here." I was getting riled up. He had the nerve to get mad at me? For what? He was the one barking orders.

"Fine, then you do the project by yourself!" He exclaimed, raising his voice. I hadn't noticed the smooth tone of his voice until he'd been using it normally, I'd probably find it hot if the owner of said voice wasn't so rude.

"That's not fair either!" I continued, balling my fists, something the boy in front of me had already done.

"Life isn't fair," he spat, slamming his fists on the desk and getting up angrily.

"Where are you going?" I questioned, standing up. He didn't reply, he just opened the door, stormed out, and slammed it behind him.

"Amy Carters! Detention after school today!" The teacher yelled, obviously awoken by the loud slam of the door.

"What? Why?" I questioned incredulously. Now the class was looking at me and I felt incredibly nervous and anxious, but I covered it up with fake confidence.

"For- uh, chasing your partner away," he declared, crossing his arms over his chest with a satisfied smirk on his face. I scoffed and sat back down. "Tomorrow too, for attitude!"

I nearly let out another incredulous scoff as I sat there, expressionless so that he couldn't call me on anything. I stayed there, zoning in and out until class was over. I wasn't going to get much work done this class without my partner anyway so there wasn't much point, we needed to plan together.

Once the bell finally rang, I was the first one to exit the class and I headed to Math 31. I didn't have any friends in that class because Jade and Layla weren't very good at Math. The class was close by so when I sat down, the room was practically empty. I waited a few minutes with my binders sitting peacefully on my desk while I sat there quietly. I liked the teacher of this class, Ms. Yaworski was a quiet teacher, but she taught well.

Just as the bell rang, a familiar cloaked man slithered through the doorway. As I laid eyes on him, I dropped my head to the table, slamming it harder than I'd intended. It made a rather large noise and everyone looked over at me. I ignored their glances as well as the pain by acting as if it'd never happened. I sat up and noticed the boy sitting in the back row again. I too was in the back row, but he sat in the far left, while I sat in the far right.

I opened my notebook and started to take notes. It was April and finals were in two months. This was when the universities I'd applied to were really cracking down on the applicants, checking for any bad grades or faults in my record. I made sure to watch the board, not giving the boy across the row any of my attention. I already had detention because of him, I wasn't going to mess up my calculus test because he was in my class.