Running from You

7

"And if you multiply X by Y, you're supposed to get the same answer every time..."
My math teacher walks in front of us, talking about inversely proportional math, or something like that. It's pretty boring, and I already know how to do it, so I don't listen. Instead, I stare blankly into the distance. Lucas isn't sitting next to me anymore. He was talking too much, so the teacher split us up. Now I'm bored.

I'd talk to the person sitting next to me, but she's working on something. I wouldn't know what, because it doesn't look like maths, but she seems busy. Occasionally, she pushes her glasses further up her nose, or she brushes her dark brown hair out of her face. She looks a little familiar.

"Any questions?" our teacher asks. I blink slowly, feeling strangely tired. Her voice is really boring. She talks very slowly.
The girl next to me looks up, scans the whiteboard for a second, and nods shortly. She opens her maths book. I look at her notebook, and see she's written a lot of text. I try to read what it's about, but it seems to be just loose, incoherent sentences. She grabs a different notebook, her maths notebook, and starts doing her maths tasks, occasionally adding something in the first notebook.

"Isadora".
The girl looks up, at our teacher.
"Please try to focus on maths when you're in my lesson".
"Sorry" she says quietly, and she puts her notebook back in her backpack. With burning red cheeks, she continues writing in her maths notebook.
"What was that?" I ask quietly. She looks up, still blushing, and chuckles nervously.
"That's just a thing I use for the school news" she says.
"School news?" I ask, and I frown. "Oh, you got kicked out, right?"
"Yeah" she says, and she sighs. "Jonas, the guy who leads it, said I could re-join if I find an objective subject to do an article on".
"Without making a conspiracy theory" I say.
"Right" she says. "I can't think of anything interesting. I don't like football, or cheerleading, but I can't think of anything realistic other than sports".
"You could do it on volleyball" I suggest. "There's a game coming up soon, you could do a report on it".
She smiles, and squints her eyes a little.
"That sounds alright... I don't really know a lot about volleyball though. Who is your team captain?"
I hesitate for a moment.
"Her name is Kathryn" I say. "She's scary, but as long as you don't accidentally insult her she's a very objective source of information".
"Okay, I'll look into it" she says. "Thanks!"
"No problem" I say.

I smile at her, before looking back at my math homework. I've already finished it while the teacher was explaining everything. Now I have nothing to do. I look over at Lucas, who's leaning his head on his hand. He looks bored. Just like I am. I miss him a little bit. Not sitting next to him in health class is something I can live with, because at least I sit next to Landon there. Here, I'm not even sitting next to a friend, and I don't have any more work to do.

He looks over at me, and smiles tiredly. I smile back, and then roll my eyes, nodding my head towards Miss Pileman. He nods, and sighs. He's not even sitting next to anyone. If anything, that'll make him more hyper. At least I can tell him to calm down if he gets too annoying. But Miss Pileman just thinks he's too chatty.

"Kathryn, right?" Isadora asks. I look up at her.
"Oh, yeah. I don't know her last name. Then again, I don't know if robots have last names".
She chuckles, and grins at me.
"Is she that bad?" she asks.
"Yeah" I say. "She's really mean to me and Lucas".
She nods slowly, and gets a weird look in her eyes. A strange sparkle, like she's just realised something ground breaking. Then, she shakes her head, and it disappears.
"Okay, I'll go look for her during my break".

She does just that. I can see her walking across the field when me and Lucas are outside during break time.
"Poor her" Lucas says, shaking his head. "You sent her right on her death path".
"I think she'll survive" I say. "She wrote that article on that guy that used to be Landon's friend, and he was a jerk".
"That's true" Lucas says, nodding. "So, is she your friend now?"
I shrug. "We talked once, I think it takes more than that to become friends with someone".
I honestly don't know how a person makes a friend. I've been friends with Lucas since I was five, when making friends was just saying 'Hey let's be friends' and that was that. Landon became our friend through Lucas more than me. I'm just not good with people like Lucas is. I don't really mind though, just being friends with Lucas is good enough for me. Lucas just started talking to Landon when he joined the volleyball team, and they clicked. And if Lucas likes someone, I suppose I'll probably like them too. Except Jay. I still don't really like Jay.

"Hey guys!"
Speak of the devil.
Landon has walked towards us, Jay standing by his side. That guy just can't stop making friends.
"Hey" I say. Lucas makes a strange mumbling noise. His process of getting over Jay has been going pretty well, but it's not fully completed yet. He doesn't stare at her as much anymore though, now he just stares at his shoes.
"Hello" Jay says, sounding cheery. "How are you doing?"
"Good!" Landon says, bouncing on his toes.
"I'm alright" I say.
Lucas makes another mumbling noise, sounding a bit like: "Fine".

Jay looks at Lucas with a small smile. I can see why he liked her so much, she's very pretty, and has a constant aura of confidence radiating from her. Then, she shifts her gaze to me.
"Dean, I heard you talked to Isadora" she says.
"Oh, yeah" I say, a little confused. "How did you know?"
"She just told me. She asked where to find Kathryn".
She chuckles, and grins at me.
"I think Kathryn will like her".
"Like her?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, I think Kathryn will not dispise her" she corrects herself.

"Why?"
I look over at Lucas, who's now looking up at Jay. Jay looks up too, seemingly a little surprised. Then, she smiles at him too.
"Isadora is very goal oriented. Just like Kathryn. It's different goals, but still the same drive".
"Maybe she'll try to recruit her for the team" he says, smiling too. I can't help but feel a little proud for him. He actually said a complete sentence to her. This is a pretty serious development.
"I don't think Isa would want to join. She's not a sportsy type" Jay laughs.

Then, she looks up.
"I have to go" she says, looking at a specific point in the distance. I see the cheerleaders running up onto the field, the captain leading them. Her red hair is very recognizable, even from the distance.
"Ooh, are you going to your girlfriend?" Landon asks, smiling knowingly. That's weird, Landon doesn't usually know things. Jay rolls her eyes, but has a fond smile on her face.
"She's not my girlfriend, Landon. She kissed me once for truth or dare when she was drunk".
"And she flirts with you" he adds.
"No, that's wishful thinking" she sighs, and she turns around and walks away. I wait until she's far away, and then turn to Lucas.
"What was that?" I ask him.
He shrugs, and laughs awkwardly.
"I talked to her" he says, and a big smile breaks through on his face.
I smile back at him, and pat his back.
"I'm proud of you" I say.
"Me too!" Landon says, with a big smile.

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