petrichor

After School

Lena

The dim lighting of the class and the boring documentary about the structure of leaves wasn't enough to distract Lena's attention from the material. When the other students were busy yawning, talking to their friends, or obviously daydreaming, Lena kept her eyes on the projector screen where the video was played. Occasionally, she wrote down some pointers in her notebook.

Biology was the last lesson of that day, and was also the most boring one. Mr Bernard, the teacher, was dubbed sir sleeping beauty by the whole class because of his habit to sleep when he was showing a video in class which was literally every time. Lena, and probably the other people in her class didn't even remember when was the last time Mr Bernard actually got up from his seat and explained something to the class.

The only thing that snapped Lena out from her focus was when Reece, the person sitting next to her was constantly adjusting his seat, making a few grunts with his chair, annoying her. "Reece, stop it." she ordered, Reece plainly ignored her and decided to rest his head on the table instead. Who was paying attention to the class anyway? Certainly not Mr. Bernard. Lena sighed. Does he even wanna teach? she thought.

Truth was, Lena didn't want to pay attention to the lesson as much as the others, but if she didn't pay attention, she'd have to catch up on all the things she'd miss and it would be even more stressing. Not to mention that the majority of the people in her class were smart people that made the competition tighter. "The deepest part of the leaf is called the cortex..." the video explained, Lena straightened her back against her chair and tried her best to focus.

"Oh damn, can't believe that smarty-pants Lena is listening!" one of her classmates audibly whispered. Lena who had the strange ability to hear what other people were saying even when they were speaking in whispers chose to keep her mouth shut, she knew it was Vaya who said that, one of Rebecca's right hand man---or woman.

Lena clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and shrugged. "I know right? Like, she's such a nerd." her friend replied. Whatever, I guess. Lena thought. Though she felt kind of bothered, couldn't they find another person to focus their attention on? Like, what was so wrong about being a smarty-pants? Or a nerd?

After ten more minutes of boredom, Mr. Bernard woke up from his sleep and found out that the video itself had ended a short while ago. "Okay, class." he yawned, stretching his arms to the ceiling, "Do you all understand?" the whole class nodded in unison. "Yes, Mr. Bernard." they replied. Mr. Bernard had only finished putting away his laptop when the bell signaling it was time to go home rang. Instantly, the students tossed all the items on their desk into their bag and scrambled out of the class.

Lena who wasn't finished tidying her things was left alone in class. "What to do after this?" she muttered, she didn't want to go home just yet. Her parents set loose curfew for her and her brother Aris, as long as they came home before eleven pm, then they'd be fine. She was thinking she could go to the cafe near her school, the one next to the place where Pandora held her first support group meeting.

"But okay, let's see, do I even have money?" she asked herself. Lately, she'd been spending most of her money on art supplies and stationary she impulse bought online, but at least at it helped created a happy feeling in her chest, but only temporary, because her pocket money kept decreasing in her wallet. Man, I should really have a savings tracker. she suggested herself.

A few moments later her hands grabbed a crumpled a paper that felt different from a regular paper in the bottom of her backpack, she tugged it to reveal a two dollar bill. Oh man, Lena sighed dejectedly, that money wasn't even enough to buy her a pastry. She buried it back in her bag, she had to wait for about three more days until her parents have gave her more allowance. For now, all she had to do is save up her money and somehow survive on a two dollar bill.

"Great, guess I have to go home." she muttered. Lena slung her backpack on one of her shoulders and waited patiently in the school lobby for the school bus. While she was waiting, she spotted Rebecca and her friends walking a few yards across her, even though their eyes didn't even see her, she instinctively tried to hide herself by zipping up her jacket and pulled the hood over head. It was a tense moment waiting for Rebecca to walk further from her.

Thank God. Lena breathed a sigh of relief when they were out of sight. Her mind relaxed immediately, she couldn't face it if Rebecca came up to her, but maybe they had other plans than just ruining people's lives. BOOP! it was Lena's message notification, she pulled out her phone from her pocket.

😳 aris 🐸: where r you?

Lena made a face, Aris asking where she was? Why? Was there something happening at home? Did mom or dad had an accident and had to be sent to the hospital? There were endless possibilities, and Lena couldn't decide which one to choose.

Lena: in the lobby. why?

She had only placed her phone back in her pocket when a car pulled up in front of her, well to be exact, her brother's car. When the car stopped, the driver's seat window rolled down revealing Aris inside. What the? Lena thought, Aris is picking her up today? Without her asking? That was like a whole new level of weird.

"Get in loser, we're going to... Eh, I don't even know." he said, referencing to Mean Girls, one of Lena's favorite flicks. She blatantly rolled her eyes. "Ew." Lena scrunched her face, thank God not many people were listening, or else they would've cringed as much as Lena did, or maybe more. "Come on, hurry up. You're like a slow ass princess." Aris replied back. "Okay, jeez." Lena rolled her eyes and climbed inside.

They didnt know where to go yet, so Aris drove into a little space and stopped there so Lena could determine where they want to go. He couldn't talk while driving because then he wouldn't understand clearly what other people were saying.

Once Lena got over the fact that Aris was here, and finished strapping her seatbelt on, she asked him a question. "What? Why are you here? Don't you know I take the bus?!" but maybe Lena didn't speak clearly enough because Aris fidgeted with his hearing aids a little. "Huh, what?" he asked back.

There were sometimes moments like this, and in those times, Lena wondered what it would be like if Aris had never gotten meningitis in the first place, maybe the effect could be tiny, but it would've felt different. "Dumbass, I take the bus. Why are you even here?" she said a little louder. Aris nodded, then shrugged, "I don't know either, I'm feeling kinda fuzzy today."

"Fuzzy?" "Yeah, fuzzy, like you wanna do something nice." Aris explained. Lena nodded slowly, she had those kind of feelings before. "And therefore?" "Where do we go next?" Aris said, totally dismissing Lena's last question. Lena thought for a moment. Where to go? Hmm. as far as she knew, Aris just earned money from their dad this morning for whatever reason, probably to fill up on gas, maybe the money would be enough to buy them both food in the cafe. Lena pressed her lips together and stretched it into a tiny smile. Hmm, she thought, this one could work.

"Hmm, well, since you're feeling fuzzy and all." Lena started, "I wanna go to Claire's." Lena mentioned the name of the place. In her head, Lena crossed her fingers. Say yes, say yes. she chanted. Aris only sighed, "Ugh, why?! That place is expensive." he groaned, gone was the thought of him saving up to buy something for himself, like a new vinyl record or such. "Aww, please! I know you have money." Lena pleaded.

Aris covered his face with both hands, sighing and groaning at the same time. "Ughhhh." he said annoyedly. "Aw, come on. You said you wanna do something nice." Lena tried to reason. "Yeah and by tryna do something nice doesn't mean I have to splurge the bills in one go! That's why you're so poor, 'cause you treat it like it's nothing!" he exclaimed, though he didn't mean it to sound angry, the higher octave in the last sentence made it sound like it.

Lena's lip pouted signifying she was sad. In a matter of seconds, that pout could turn into a quivering of the bottom lip and would sooner turn into crying. Aris who realized what he had done and slammed his hands on the steering wheel, but with less force. "Oh, come on. Don't be such a crybaby." he tried to calm her, though he knew that her sister was
only overreacting in hopes to persuade him.

Lena just sat there in the shotgun seat not saying a word. Say yes, say yes. her mind kept thinking. Finally, Aris gave in, well, kind of reluctantly too. "Oh my God, you're so spoiled!" he exclaimed. Lena's pout instantly turned into a smile, her trick worked. Yes! her mind shouted triumphantly. "Yay." Lena said full of victory. "Fine, but you're not sharing my food." Aris warned as he started the car and drove off.