Seeing Vinci

Chapter 3

What was so special about him?

What about him allowed me to talk to him?

Much as I would like to waste my time pondering on my almost infinite set of questions, I decide to just focus on what I know, and not on what I have yet to find out.

Perhaps this is a dream?

I try to silence the stream of questions. I urge myself to control my mind—to moderate.

I think I finally know what to do next. If I cannot unravel the mystery that surrounds my fate and being, perhaps understanding Vinci's can inch me closer to what I have yet to find out.

Now I shall try to investigate on Vinci. This time I will discover truths. It might not be my set of truths but I am hopeful this will help me arrive to some sort of lead.

I survey the halls to try and locate Vinci. I see clusters of teenagers scurrying the halls even after the bell rang. The school bell here is literally ear-splitting. I remember instances where I think my non-living self might go deaf. The sound was piercing. It would be enough to shake anyone's soul awake. I see Vinci in one of the classrooms, Analytic Geometry, I think. In fact, this might just be the Honors class.

Vinci was sat at the corner back of the room while a good three-fourths of the class were gathered in front. His classmates certainly appeared eager to learn. Not only did they have their notebooks neatly placed on their desks, they had a complete set of supplies—graphing paper, rulers, protractors, highlighters, and even pencils. Vinci, on the other hand, seemed like he was not very much interested. Looks can be deceiving, sure. I really think though that he was not at par with the rest of his classmates in terms of attentiveness. I even see him yawning at one point. The professor kept scribbling graphs on the whiteboard as she lectured the class. She was vigorous, I would give her that. In a span of minutes, she would be drawing graphs, explaining their implications, erasing them, and drawing some more. She was not even asking students to recite anymore, she just consumed all her time scribbling and speaking. That class must be draining.

At the end of the period, Vinci was one of the people who left the classroom first, ahead of everyone else. Some of the students stayed back, probably to ask Ms. Moore more of their questions. I am almost certain that a good number of students in that group already got the lesson, they just pleaded for an activity that would grant them extra credit.

I trailed Vinci. I was curious as to what he does or who he talks to. He does not seem like the keen conversationalist but I would like to believe he can have a knack for chatting, at least. Vinci enters the lavatory.

Okay, I was not going to follow him in there while he does his business.

I wait for a while until he leaves. While he was striding towards the nearest exit in the east wing, he pauses. I was caught off guard when he decided to turn around. I did not expect him to do so since he looked like he knew where he was going to go and he looked like he was in a hurry to go there or do just whatever he planned on doing.

"Why are you following me?" he asked me. His eyes were stern. They looked like they were going to consume me. He was a person who is noticeably more indifferent to things but right now, his eyes were filled with a fierce passion. They were inquisitive. They betrayed the way he spoke so nonchalantly.

I was almost about to stumble on my words again. "Cat got your tongue?" he added right as I was saying "I wasn't following you."

"Uhuh. Let me guess, you just happened to be here?" he said with a strong sense of sarcasm.

"You just are so full of yourself aren't you?" I counter.

"Call it what you may. You're evading the question." he raises an eyebrow, probably to indicate that he was still waiting for a better, more believable response from me.