Red

Homework

James was awestruck.

He didn't remember he was in class. Didn't remember he had tasks to complete. Didn't remember he had students—gazing at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak. For God's sake, he forgot how to breathe. When, after what felt an eternity, the school bell rang and the students started shuffling out of their seats and the classroom, did he come to his senses. His eyes quickly searched for the one person who had his attention for almost the entirety of the class, and when unable to locate Amy—he started to rush out of class.

"Mr. Walter! No homework today?" A high-pitched voice suddenly called after him, making him stop in his tracks. James turned around, a sickly-sweet smile gracing his lips.

"You don't like a break from homework now, Ms. Evans?"

James caught the little smirk Angelina—one of his students—seemed to send his way. He watched her lower her eyes in mock-shyness, for he knew well the kind of reputation dear Ms. Evans seemed to hold in the school.

"Well, homework from you isn't that much of a pain in the ass—oops! I didn't mean to say that Mr. Walter."

"Of course, you didn't," James replied with the same sweet voice, "now, as much as I would love to talk about your academic well-being, right now, I'm in a bit of a hurry. If you could excuse me, please, Angelina," he said, as he watched her cheeks color just a little.

"Bye, Mr. Walter."

As soon as she left, James made his way out in the pretext of leaving to the staff-room. He felt uneasy. He needed to see Amy. He felt like one of his veins of his brain might just burst if he didn't. And so, he took longer strides, now, walking straight towards the cafeteria.

Just as he was about to enter, he found her near her locker. He stood, with one shoulder resting upon the adjacent wall, watching her from behind. The hallway was deserted, so he didn't have much to worry about, either.

2275

He watched her set the password to her locker. He has watched her do it so many times, he had it by-heart. He moved a couple of steps to the left, from where he could see her well, and God he felt the air around him change. He watched her brown hair sway with every movement of her head, as she struggled to adjust the things in her locker. Hey hair that seemed so luscious and smooth, he longed to run his fingers through them. And her lips, her lips. He watched her lips, more hungrily than ever, as she hummed a tune, mindlessly. He could only imagine what they tasted like. Probably sweet? Since she seemed to apply that cherry-flavored, over-rated brand of lip gloss that every girl in the school seemed to own? He didn't know what her lips tasted like and for a moment, it annoyed him to no ends.

But if James was annoyed before, he was ragingly furious now, as he watched a boy that he didn't seem to recognize from his class, come over to her. He took a few steps back and attempted to hide.

"So you coming over today, or what?" The boy said, grinning like an idiot—that James thought, no doubt he was.

"Yeah, after I'm done with homework today. It's not much, anyway. How does 7 sound?"

James watched as she fixed a wild strand of her brown hair behind her ears, as she raised an eyebrow and smiled at the boy. And he cursed himself heavily for not giving the class a huge amount of homework today. Maybe—maybe then she'd stay at home, away from this boy whose head he wanted to chop off with an urgency he'd never felt before.

James saw Amy jerk her head suddenly to the left, and he took several steps backwards.

"What's wrong, Amy?" The boy asked gently, it seemed, with a hand on her shoulder.

"Just felt like... Like someone.." she shook her head vehemently, as if the thought made no sense.

"So, today. 7 pm. Sound good?" She asked again.

"Yep."

★★★

James was unbothered. He sat in the staff-room, his table next to the window overlooking the garden their school was so famous for. There were bougainvilleas, rhododendrons and, of course, roses. Red roses. Lately, red was on his mind a bit too much. He just couldn't get it out. Amy's reddish-brown hair, Amy's cherry-red lips, Amy's red earring, and—

James suddenly heard a loud, piercing scream. He got up from his seat at once and rushed out to where the sound seemed to be coming from. He was shocked to find it was Amy who screamed. He rushed to her and gently kept his hands on her shoulders.

"What's wrong, Amy?" He asked her softly, in a sharp contrast to her behavior. Even with all the calmness he seemed to show to her, she was shaking uncontrollably, pointing a shaky finger to the ground.

"Mr—Mr. Wal—", she tried saying coherently, but to no avail.

James followed her finger and looked at the ground, his eyes swaying over the body—and the head that seemed to have been disintegrated harshly. James pressed Amy close to him, in order to bring her some sort of relief. Amy sobbed and shook violently. She leapt and held him tightly, her fingers curling in tight fists around James' white buttoned-up shirt.

"I'll notify the officials. They'll look into it, Amy." James said, finding it incredibly difficult to speak normally while hiding the grin that threatened to spill over his face.

And of course, to add to the list—the red blood.

************************************