Before My Eyes

Spanish

I wake up to Alex shouting through the open slit of the window. She's frantically stuffing my books and folders into my backpack, already washed and dressed.

I open the window wider and slide through. Books fly off the desk as I do so and I see Alex look like she's about to cry. We've got 5 minutes till classes start and although she's completely ready, I know she'd like to be there by now.

'I've been shouting for you to wake up for 10 minutes. You've missed breakfast. I'm going to Chemistry.'

I'm barely awake before the door slams shut, but I could hear how pissed off she was. I'll find her at break.

I quickly pull on my uniform and run out the door, making a note to thank Alex for packing my bag. The wooden corridors, littered with bread roll crumbs and cereal box packets, seem to get dirtier every morning. The school must've forgotten to pay the cleaner.

Scraping my hair into a high pony tail, I saunter through the door to the Spanish classroom and smile at Mr Fitzpatrick. He smiles back, probably pretending to be oblivious to how late I am.

'Good morning, Miss Blake.'

'Morning, Sir.'

'Any homework for me today?'

'Awwwh Mr Fitz, you know I don't have time for that kind of thing.'

'Next lesson, Miss Blake. Next lesson.'

I'm laughing and backing toward my usual seat, but as I spin around, I feel a pang deep in my stomach. Mazie's in my seat. My seat next to Raff.

I look away immediately. Who the fuck cares anyway. But the only empty seat now is directly behind them at the back. Perfect. As I walk closer, I see it's next to that new boy.

I fling my bag down next to me and slump into my chair. He does the same until our heads are at almost the same level, but he stays in silence.

'Please get out your textbooks,' Mr Fitzpatrick says hopelessly to a half-asleep class. He looks straight in my direction and I can't tell if he's about to try and interest me or Ollie until I hear my name. Lucky me!

'Amalia, did you hear me? Please get your textbook out.'

'Nawhhhhh, Sir, you're alright.'

I hear Ollie chuckle slightly.

'What will we do with you, Amalia, what will we do,' he rolls his eyes and turns his back to us to write some more bullshit on the board.

'When did you join then?'

The sound of his voice surprises me, and obviously Raffi too, as his head jerks to the side slightly. All I can see is his sharp jaw jutting out of his ruffled waves.

'Beginning of last year, but it's already been too long in this shithole.'

He returns to whispering to Mazie, their shoulders pressed against eachothers.

Ollie replies laughing, 'Yeah, I've had enough of it and it's been, what, 3 weeks?' I can tell almost immediately he's from South London. I smile at him and notice how attractive he actually is.

His crinkled white collar is flowing out of the neck of his pullover and his shaved dark hair made his bone structure even more defined. I can't seem to pull my gaze away from his intensely green eyes.

He drops his head and lightly laughs, looking back at me, smirking.

Mazie turns around, still in the tangles of Raff's arms - one playing with the hem of her short skirt and one draped round her shoulders.

'Did you enjoy Saturday night then?' Her blonde waves fall perfectly down her back.

I look straight at Raff and say, 'Yeahhhh it was so fun'.

Now Raff speaks too. He's talking to Mazi, but stays looking at me with a slight smile on his face.

'Yeah we had a lot of fun too, didn't we.'

Mazie giggles and swivels back round to her notes. Ollie does too and for a moment it's just me and Raff. He smirks and in his eyes I see what I think is a glimpse of sadness and then it's gone. He turns around and then the moment is over.

I spend the rest of the lesson talking to Ollie and it actually goes pretty quickly.

The bell goes and everyone starts packing up. I start out the door until I hear Ollie call me back.

'What lesson you got now?'

'Maths, I think.'

'Ah same, do you wanna just skip?'

'Yeah alright. Let's go out back.'