A Life On The Edge

Learn To Participate

The rest of the period was all the same. Our first assignment was to put the feeling Anger on paper using our theme.

I gave him a piece of paper with the words FUCK YOU in bubble letters with fire and guns and knives surrounding it. He smiled when I gave it to him. He nodded at me and put it in his folder.

“What did you pull out?” I asked Ryder looking at his paper. Ryder was an amazing artist. He had somehow managed to fill his paper with a breath taking scene in thirty minutes.

“Eyes, what was yours?”

“Death,” he chuckled. “Do you know Mr. Harte?” I asked looking at my schedule. He put his pencil down and stared at his finish project. At first glance it looks like just an eye, but when you sit and actually look at it you notice all the detail. The iris was actually a silhouette of two people screaming at each other. There were bags under the eye as if the person hadn’t slept. I’m not sure how he did it but he made it look like the person the eye belonged to had stayed up all night sobbing. It was incredible.  

“Yeah, hey Johnny can you bring this up too?” the boy next to him took his project and carried it up with his stick figures. “I’ve never really talked to him. My brother had him when he was a senior. He told me that he’s a really good teacher and a pretty cool guy when you get to know him after hours. But during class he’s a total hard ass, he’s pretty easy to hate.” I scoffed. “You two should get along great.” He smirked at me.

“Oh yeah, why don’t you eat a dick Ryder?” I teased. He laughed. I was really starting to like this kid. I could talk to him; I could hang out with him. I felt…easy around him. I didn’t feel like I was being forced to talk. Forced to act normal…I could just be…normal. When the bell rang I walked out of class with Ryder.  

“Hey I have to stop by my locker really quick, come with me? We can walk to class together so you don’t have to go looking for it.” Ryder said. When we got to his locker Emma was leaning up against it waiting for him. He smiled and sped up. “Emma!” he cheered. She smiled and stood up straight when she saw him. “How did you know I was going to be at my locker? How did you find my locker?”

“The number was on the picture of your schedule you sent me.” She explained. “And you always come to your locker in between third and fourth period it’s like clockwork.” She shrugged. She shot me a shy smile. “Hello again.”

“Hi.” I looked around and noticed that Ryder’s locker was right across from Lyle’s classroom. He stood outside his door and smiled at the students that walked by. He nodded to me and gave me a discrete wink. I bit my lip and tried not to blush.

“Did you like the book?” she asked.

“What?” I asked confused. Lyle was distracting me and I couldn’t seem to pay attention to what she was saying, Lyle chuckled. I shot him a glare.

“The Cleaning Service, the book I gave you.”

“Oh!” I shrugged. “I didn’t read it.” Ryder scoffed.

“Did you just not do the project?” he asked.