Behind a shady mask

       It was only fifteen minutes to the end of the last class of the day. Carter looks back and could already see Smith packing his stuff into his back pack. Carter chuckles and nods his head without much surprise.
          Smith has never been the school loving type, always skipping classes and at times not even going to school at all. The only thing that drives him to school is the ladies; if he doesn’t have to meet a new girl or the other, then he is not in school.
       After packing his stuff in his bag, Smith raises his head noticing Carter looking at him, then he winks. He then kisses his palm and blows it towards Carter;  
                                 
     “Okay…?”, Carter says to himself feeling rather confused and uncomfortable. “Carter!!!” Mr. Anderson calls out loudly with a stern look in his face. Carter quickly jumped to face the board again as the whole class bursts into laughter.                                                     “uuuuhhh…I ummm…?” was all he could say totally out of excuses to defend himself.
                                                                                    He just kept staring at Mr. Anderson and everybody was suddenly quiet and just looking at him. Carter could tell the whole class’s attention was on him and his heart begins to pound faster and faster every second that passed.
     “uh…Mr. Anderson? I was going through yesterday’s lesson on organic chemistry, the part that described the structure of amines and how they react, but I couldn’t quite get it. Please could put more light to that?”, Smith quickly asks Mr Anderson, diverting his attention and saving Carter from trouble this time. “How could I ever repay You?”, Carter said to himself as he sighs out of full relief.
       Smith and Carter have been best friends ever since. They both lived in a very fancy estate when they were very young, but the cost of staying there was very high, so unlike Smith’s parents who are very wealthy, Carter’s parents decided we moved out to somewhere cheaper. Regardless, they both attend the same school and have always seen each other everyday since then and could still remain friends.
         Mr. Anderson on the other hand is a special teacher the school invited to put the final year students  through on organic chemistry because the previous sets that have all passed always had problem with that aspect of chemistry. He is a very strict and straight forward man that really loves his job so much. Because of his strictness, all the students really fear him and are usually very careful with how they deal with him.
        
      While Mr. Anderson was busy explaining, all Carter could think of was getting home quickly after the bell rings.

          Unlike Smith, Carter doesn’t hate attending school but still isn’t the brightest because he never pays full attention in class, always doing one thing or the other. He has special skills when it comes to computer programming and other things related to computer so he has never had any problem when it comes to that department, but always struggling with other subjects due to his lack of interest in them. He believes in focusing only on what he is interested in and just gaining little knowledge on other things.

        The bell rings and Carter pick his bag about to leave immediately, “Carter!!...wait behind”; Mr. Anderson calls out to Carter again. He sits back on his desk watching everybody leave. His heart is pounding again with so many thoughts in his head as to what Mr. Anderson would do to him.
         “Carter I understand you don’t have full interest in chemistry, and I have also heard the same from other teachers. I don’t really know what you are interested in and I really don’t care, but one thing you should know is that you are in your final year and can’t afford to fail any course during your final exams and I believe you know this". “Yes sir…I do” Carter replies smilling and scratching his head.
       
         Even though Mr. Anderson is very strict, he still cared about the students, so he spent about 15 minutes talking to Carter.
             Most students had left the school already, only a few who usually love hanging around school before leaving for their various homes.
       “Thanks a lot sir…I will be sure to heed”, Carter shows appreciation to Mr. Anderson for the advice as he walked out of the classroom.
        Carter was already exhausted and wanted nothing more than leaving school at that moment. As he walked down the school hall way he paused after noticing his locker was open. “I don’t remember leaving my locker open…”, he soliloquizes. He then looks left and right to see of anyone was around somewhere but he sees no one. He walks up to his locker to close it, but just before he closes the locker, he noticed a sheet of paper in there, “ugh…not a again”, he complains as he unfolds the paper to see what was written in it.
         “ Who’s the love bird?” Smith asks, coming out of nowhere. “I don’t know…I keep receiving random messages everyday, telling me to be careful. I really don’t know what that’s all about.” Carter replies, closing his locker slowly. “ The person must have been in a hurry this time and didn’t close my locker”. “Just forget it…It’s nothing. Probably just someone messing around with you. And besides nobody asked you not to lock your locker. I mean, it’s called a locker for a reason. Come on let's get outta here.”.

     The two friends then walked out of the school building on their way home as they stumbled into Angela. “ Uh-oh...here comes crazy", Smith says mockingly, laughing at Angela.
      “Hi…” she says smiling at Carter. “Bye…” Smith replies, leaving them alone and still laughing. “I searched for you all day”. “Oh!, yeah", Carter replies while smiling and scratching his head again, “I see you have been avoiding me then…Never mind.” Angela complains.
              “I saw you in your class room so decided to wait for you so we could go home together” she says, smiling at Carter. “umm…okay" Carter replies hesitantly. She then gave him her bag and held tight to his hand as they walked out of the school premises.
       “So…?”, Carter says, “So…?” she replied. “Well…how was your day?” Carter asks. Then she replied looking bored, “don’t you have anything else to say? I mean, I spent the whole day searching for you and you didn’t even bother to apologize. Look Carter, you know how I feel about you but yet you make no attempts to address that topic and you always ignore it whenever I  bring it up.” Angela complains, looking very angry as she leaves his hand and begins to walk faster than she was. Carter just keeps quiet and not saying anything again.
        He knows how she feels but he doesn’t feel the same way about her and he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings. So he just remained quiet as they went to Angela's home.

          Angela is one of the prettiest girls in Carter’s set, and to add to her beauty, she is also one of the smartest students in her class. She has been in love with Carter ever since but he was dating her late twin sister, Christine, who died three months ago. And even after her sister's death she has still been after Carter who hasn’t shown much interest in her yet.
     “Hello Carter” Angela's mother, Mrs. Patterson greets as she sees Carter and Angela come home. “Hi", Carter replies, feeling a little bit shy as he is not used to seeing her often.
       Angela just walks into the house with a lot of frustration in her eyes, not even greeting her mum or greeting Carter goodbye.
       Carter was already beginning feeling bad, so he walked up to her room and knocks the door. “Leave me alone mum!!! I will wash the laundry later". “It’s me, Carter, please…” She opened the door, cutting him short. “umm…I am truly sorry for the way I have been treating You, and I want to make it up to you” Carter says to Angela smiling. “How about we grab a coffee or something tomorrow?” he asks her. “Hmm…I will think about it”, she replies, smiling and putting on a naughty look. She then chuckles and said, “of course…just toying with you”. “Okay then…bye” Carter says, putting his hands in his pocket as he walks away, finally on his way home this time.