Six Feet Under

Chapter 4: Classroom Antics (Rory's POV)

The bustling noise of all the students could be heard. I was sitting at the cafeteria eating breakfast with my buddy Henry and the rest of the guys in our dorm group. I looked across the cafeteria, where my older sister was sitting at a table with her own dorm-mates. They were chatting and laughing about something, but I wasn't sure what that was about. Hmm. Whatever. However, one of the girls in my sister's group did particularly catch my attention. It was that same girl from yesterday. The one who dared to retort Mackenzie. Everyone has already heard about her and I was no different. Now, she's basically the talk of the town, and she's already got tons of new friends. The only person who didn't benefit from the incident yesterday was none other than Mackenzie herself. According to Leonard, that's the first time since she arrived at Brighton Academy that someone dared to stand up to her.

I was still lost in my thoughts when a group of girls walked past our table and waved at me before giggling in unison. It was nothing new to me. I thought that it would not be as bad here at this new school, but boy was I wrong, and it even got worse. The worst part was that I heard on the grapevine that the brat Mackenzie was also head over heels in love with me. Ugh. What bad luck. "First day at school and the girls have already fallen for you, huh!" Hen, my best friend, teased. I rolled my eyes and he just laughed at me.

"They were waving at me, you fools!" Caden shouted which caused the whole cafeteria to turn their attention to him. "You wish! I'm pretty sure they were waving to Rory, no doubt about that. Snap out of your imagination!" Sebastian snapped back at Caden. "It's not like anyone would be interested in that huge ego of yours." Hen scoffed. "If only you had as good looks as you have an ego, all of these girls would have fallen for you already!" he continued, loud enough for everyone at the surrounding tables to hear him. They looked at each other and started whispering before letting out a booming laugh. "HOW...HOW DARE YOU!" Caden screamed. Oh, no. I can already sense that he is going to start one of his screaming fits again.

Just as he was going to continue, the school bell interrupted. Caden. Ah, yes. 'Saved by the bell'. How true. "Guys, it's time to head to class now. Let's go." Leonard reminded, cutting Caden off mid-speech. The guys and I were now heading to the classroom, on the way out, I noticed Caden staring at the girl, Natalia. I think that's her name, if I'm not wrong. She responded by glaring at him and proceeded to roll her eyes. I didn't know what she did that made me admire her. It's probably because she was different, not like any of the other girls I've met before, and...god, she was freaking beautiful. I think I was starting to develop a slight crush on her, but I brushed these thoughts off as we made our way up.

Since, we arrived at class slightly earlier, I decided to kill time by chatting with Sebastian and Henry, my roommates. We were all complaining about Caden. He sure was a problematic kid- if I have ever seen one. Or maybe he'll be the first to make it on my list. He would be the last person anyone would want to share a room with. He was extremely messy and unorganised,and besides, this was already coming from a guy. I swear, it's horrible. We've only spent one night in our room, and you can't even imagine the state of his section of the dorm. He would throw huge temper tantrums like a little bawling baby if things didn't go his way. It was annoying as hell. Seriously, kid. The world doesn't revolve around you- so go get a life.

Just then, it was her, who walked into the classroom with her roommates, I supposed. There were wide grins on their faces and I couldn't help but smile. I didn't notice that I was staring at her until she looked towards me. Instinctively, I ducked my head down. Oh crap. That must've been so awkward for her. Hen, with his sharp eyes, noticed it and teased, "Staring at a girl now, huh? And I always thought it was the other way around?" "Shut up Hen! She could've heard you! And who said I was looking at her??"I whisper-shouted in a hushed tone. Henry grinned and winked before turning away. Please, no. I don't need more problems from my best friend.

Everyone had already taken their seats and at that moment, an elegant woman walked through the door. In her hands were a stack of papers. She was followed by a student leader who was carrying another huge stack of textbooks. She cleared her throat before saying, "I am Mdm Kathleen, your lecturer for Literature. Please line up in an orderly fashion and take one textbook, and after that we will all introduce ourselves."

Immediately, the students started getting up to collect their textbooks.Caden, being over-enthusiastic, rushed to the front in hopes of showing off to the class of how fast he could run. However, just before he reached the table, a girl dashed in from the side and claimed first place. "HEY! YOU'RE CUTTING THE QUEUE!! GO TO THE BACK!!" Caden protested and shoved her. How pathetic. Everyone knows it's his own fault that he's extremely huge in size and can barely walk with all his fats weighing him down , let alone run.

Caden pointed his index finger into the girl's face but before he could say anything, Natalia stepped in front of her and warned, "Mess with her, and you'll be messing with me. Got that?" He threatened to poke his finger right into Natalia's eye. Seriously, dude. No one's that dumb to let you do such a thing. Anyways, she swatted away Caden's hand, elbowed him in the stomach, and picked up two textbooks from the top of the pile and passed one to her friend, all in one swift motion. Not to mention, in the next second, both of them were back at their seats, as if nothing had just happened. They're fast, man. Natalia stretched her arm around her friend's shoulders, glaring at Caden.

Caden, on the other hand, was crying and kicking his legs on the ground, throwing a huge fit. Mdm Kathleen, however, didn't seem to care one bit that a literal 15 year old was on the ground throwing a tantrum like he was a three year old who's ice cream had been taken away from him. "Ok class, I want everyone to introduce themselves and use one adjective to describe yourselves." Mdm Kathleen said while looking at the class register. "Rory Jenson, you're up first!" She said looking up from the class register. I didn't have time to think so I just said a random adjective. "Well, I guess you could say I'm uh.....nice. I'm Rory, by the way," I hastily mumbled, tripping over my words as I went. Mdm Kathleen nodded her head and called for the next student sitting beside me, which was my buddy Henry.

"I'm Henry, and I'm funny. Or, at least, I will be when we move on to a more interesting topic," Hen announced, and a few students chuckled.

I only remembered what some students said about themselves. Henry was funny, Sabastian was Athletic, Noah was also funny, Quentin was smart, Natalia was cold, Penelope was Bubbly and kind, Willow was friendly, and Yvonne was very hyperactive.

Well, that's all I remembered...wait. There's still Mr Tantrum, who was left to cool down at his seat. Mdm Kathleen asked, "Are you in a good enough mental state to introduce yourselves to your classmates?" "Ah, yes," Caden started as he stood up and put his hands on his hips arrogantly,"I am an awesome and amazing person, and all you lowly peasants don't deserve to be in my class!"

"Oh, really? More like you don't deserve to be in our class!" Henry scoffed. Caden stared him down with fury boiling in his eyes. He started to charge at Hen- Oh, I'm so sorry. It looks more like he's trying all too hard to even brisk walk- when Penelope shouted across the classroom. "Hey, you over there! Who says we're done? Anyways, since we're on the topic of words that start with the letter 'A', I wanted to tell you that you forgot about what you are- an accident!" she flung the words at him.

Caden stopped in his tracks, in a dilemma of whether to attack Henry or Penelope. However, that few seconds of a delay was enough. Mdm Kathleen cleared her throat. "Boy, you get back to your seat now!" she boomed. When Caden still didn't budge, his eyes fixated on his targets like a raving mad hound, huffing angrily like he was going to blow some houses down, she repeated herself. "When I say now, I mean business! Or off to Mr Brighton's office you go! And I must add, he won't be very pleased to meet students during their first week here! " she commanded, and Caden had to other choice but to sink back into his seat, his ego greatly hurt as tears threatened to spill out of his eyes.