finifugal ➵ michael clifford (on hold)

Chapter 2

As if God has literally looked down to me and pointed and said: "I'm going to make her day horrible", my day was exactly that.
It's only been a week after school started and although my school is crappy and doesn't sound very strict, it is. Three lates in a row and you get blessed with the opportunity of picking up other dirty kids rubbish that they've kindly littered all around the school. Unfortunately, I've got four lates so far.
As I ran into the school halls, I almost slipped on the shiny, shoe cuffed surface. Though there was nobody lurking the halls halfway through second period, it would still make me turn six shades of red if my books went flying. I hurried to my locker and fumbled with the combination whilst struggling my books, which was not a good idea as every single one of my books decided to escape my grasp and fall to the floor. I put my hand on my forehead, trying not to let my clumsiness affect my mood and to try and figure out what to do. I opened my locker before lowering to my knees. Just at the very second I got to my knees to gather up my things, I glanced up through my eyelashes to see a pair of boots walking towards me. I panicked. I may look calm but I do freak out on the inside about the littlest things. I'm not good with social interaction. I glanced up and saw a boy. A tall one at that, with green hair and a smile adorning his face. I rolled my eyes at him; he's one of the populars and will never want to be seen with an outcast like me in a million years. Nevertheless, he helped me pick up my books and handed them to me.
"Never jump to conclusions," he said while making full eye contact before walking away and not giving me a chance to reply.
Never jump to conclusions? I'm guessing he saw my eye roll. God, I'm so stupid. Maybe he thinks I'm really rude and won't want to talk to me again. With his nice gesture and all, maybe he's actually nice... No, not him. I've known too many guys like him that have all turned out exactly the same way despite their nice gestures.
I decided to wave him over to my friends and I if I see him during our lunch break so that I can apologise. Maybe then he won't think I'm rude.

****

"You're late," Mr Karson said as I walked into my media studies class.
"I'm sorry but I had to run a few errands, sir."
"What kind of errands?" Shit.
"I needed to go hand an essay to my teacher. I couldn't find her for a while but as I was wal- uh, jogging to your class I bumped into her. I didn't want to miss any of your class so I quickly handed it to her and came straight here. I'm sorry, I should've asked for a note but I'll remember to ask for one next time if this happens again." That was utter bullshit.
Mr Karson narrowed his eyes and deemed my excuse acceptable. I mentally punched the air and gave him a slight nod before shuffling into one of the empty desks at the front.
After an overview of what we're going to look at for the year, the teacher gave us some free time to talk. I had nobody to talk to so I pulled my phone out of my left pocket and began to scroll through Facebook using my mobile data. There, in the top right corner of my Facebook app, was a little red notification above a person icon. I tapped it to see who had friended me and saw a boy with tanned skin, black hair, and broad shoulders, holding his phone far away from his face so that his friend could sneak into the background of his selfie. The boy in the background had green hair. He was the one who helped me with my books earlier. My finger hovered over the blue accept friend request button, wondering whether I should accept it or not. They were both new and I didn't know them and I had never seen the boy who's added me before. I hit the accept friend button anyway, why the hell not? I began to stalk his page but the bell rang out, so I packed up my school supplies and made my way to the spot where Sienna, Idril and I hang out. Our spot is in the midst of everyone, we sit in the heart of the school grounds. I made a mental note to call the green haired boy over if I saw him at all during this next half hour and apologise for the eye roll.

****

After about a quarter of an hour, I saw him walking towards our spot with all of his mates. He fit in so well, and I wished I was able to blend in like that, look invisible whilst looking like an Eiffel Tower with his green hair and all at the same time. I waved him over and he took notice of me immediately. Unfortunately, his friends did as well. One punched him in the shoulder and another wolf whistled, making their whole group break out into hysterical laughter. He completely ignored me.

"What- who was that?"
"That, Idril, was someone that thinks I'm not worthy enough to fucking talk to him. Or as some people call boys like that: a fuckboy." My vulgar language shocked my friends, as I hardly ever use it aloud due to my parents being very religious. I balled up my fists and began to walk towards him in pure anger. How could he help me and then completely ignore me a few hours later? As I walked up behind him, I yanked his arm back which brought him to a complete stop and made him stumble backwards a bit.
"What," He said. He said it in an offensive tone and it didn't sound at all like a question, more like a demand for me to tell him what was wrong.
"I'm sorry about before. There was no need for me to jump to conclusions about who you are."
He leant down to my ear which was a bit intimidating, as he was tall and actually kind of scared me with his punk style. He looked like he could knock me out with one slight punch.
"You're a year younger than me and if my friends see me with you again I will probably get teased for the rest of the year, so never talk to me again." He straightened his back and stood back in his original posture. I don't know what came over me or what made me think I could do such a thing, but I balled the collar of his shirt up in my fist and yanked him so far that his ear was in line with my mouth. The height difference between us is significant.
"Then they're not your real friends, are they?" I said harshly whispering in his ear before making a beeline to my friends. They were still sitting there, eating Sienna's popcorn and watching the event unfold.

"Wow, I saw the sparks flying from here," Sienna smirked jokingly.
"Sienna?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up," I said with a serious face, before breaking out in laughter.
Idril tapped me on the shoulder and I turned my head to face her. "Don't look, but he and his mates sat down at the table over there and he's intently staring at you. Like, really staring. His brows are furrowed and he looks very confused. I think you guys need to sort this out."
I disobeyed Idril's command and looked at him. We shared eye contact for a long while before he broke it to look at something his friend was trying to show him on his phone. There's something different about him. The way he looks like he's years older than the oldest students at his school, the way he dresses, the way he looks. Everything. The strange thing is; I think I like it.