From The Other Side

17. on fire

SEVENTEEN
on fire

Friday, March 28th

Isaiah was convinced his English teacher was out to get her students.

                   The beginning of the year was okay, but once the second semester rolled around, she started handing out the hardest assignments. It was like she wanted them to fail. They were always solo projects, which usually, Isaiah was fine with. But not in her class. It was practically impossible to keep your sanity when working on her projects alone.

                    So when lunch came around, Isaiah wasted no time voicing his complaints to his friends. "I'm gonna die," he groaned, burying his face in his hands. "I haven't even started it and I'm already stressed."

Ashton clicked his tongue. "That's what you get when you take AP classes," he joked. "Should've been stupid like the rest of us."

"You mean stupid like you," Steve retorted. "I don't want to be associated with you. Besides, I'm in some AP classes. Excluding English, because I don't have a death wish."

"Hey!"

"Hi," Steve replied, and Ashton narrowed his eyes. Isaiah looked away and sighed.

                    "You have Adamson, too?" August asked, chin resting in the palm of his hand. He smiled lightly when Isaiah met his gaze, and the latter returned it weakly. He nodded, laying his head across his arms.

                     August chuckled at the dejected look on his face. "If it'll make you feel any better, we can work on it together." Isaiah's heartbeat sped up. "I don't mind. I'm doing pretty okay in her class."

                    Isaiah perked up. "Really? You wouldn't mind?"

                     "Nah. I'm free tomorrow, if you want to come over?" he suggested, and Isaiah nodded rapidly. "Cool."

Isaiah felt a bit more relaxed, but he couldn't help the nervous butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. He spared a glance at August, who was biting at the end of his pen, a crease between his eyebrows as he worked on a last minute assignment. Morgan was trying to help, but August still looked confused. He's so cute, stop.

He averted his gaze and found himself looking at the spot Marcus would've been sitting in. He was home sick, but his absence didn't make a huge difference at the table. Isaiah felt bad about it, he did, but at the same time he couldn't blame anyone for feeling that way. So he pushed it to the back of his mind. Besides it would take a while for things to go back to normal.

If they ever did.

___

Saturday, March 29th

It didn't hit him until he was on August's doorstep, but Isaiah had never met the rest of August's family before. He only ever heard about them through August himself, and from what the blond had said, they seemed pretty cool. He sincerely hoped that was the case.

              He rang the doorbell, and a few moments after he did, he heard a voice (that did not sound like August) yell, "Dibs!" The door was jerked open, and Isaiah flinched back a step at the energetic child that stood in the doorway.