Three

3

The late bell rang and my peers rushed into the classroom hoping the teacher would not notice their tardiness. I viewed the stampede comfortably from my seat in the far back corner. I had been sitting there for 5 minutes waiting for the class to start. My geography book sat open on my desk while my eyes watched the rushing feet and my ears flinched at the squeaking of chairs and sneakers. It was 3rd period and my least favorite hour of the day. Movement in the front corner of the room captured my attention.

Mr. Bradford looked up from his desk, his glasses at the end of his nose and his eyes filled with annoyance. He pushed back his chair and slowly stood up from his seat, gaining support from his desk. I chuckled at the grumpy old man. I never understood why his face was in a permanent scowl but I could always count on it turning upside down the minute someone brought up his sons. They were the pride of his life and he wanted to make sure everyone knew of their accomplishments.

He ruffled his hair quickly while walking slowly to the front of the room. He naturally hunched over slightly and crossed his arms. He coughed loudly, but the room was still filled with pointless banter. Once again he coughed but this time he coughed louder, so loud you wouldn't be able to ignore it. The room silenced and Mr. Bradford began with his lesson. Fighting my drooping eyes, I fought through his lesson, though his monotonous low voice persuaded me to close my eyes and drift off into my dreamland.

"Okay class, go into groups for an activity." Mr Bradford announced. I shivered at the thought and cursed under my breath; I hated group work. I finally found myself in a group, thankfully with people that I didn't dislike too much. Our assignment was to paint all of the countries in Africa 3 different colors, label them, and present 3 facts about 3 of the countries to the class. Quickly we began to paint. Purple, green, and red paint covered our paper. I painted and painted but the screw up in me broke loose and I dropped the red paint all over me. It showered onto my shirt and my hands. Without thinking twice I exited the room and headed toward the restroom.

The class door creaked open to a crowded hallway. I couldn't help but wonder why, in the middle of class, the hallway was bustling with students. I shook the confusion out of my mind and weaved through the traffic of people.

I made it to the bathroom out of breath from fighting through the crowd, but at the last second tripped and hit someone hard. I looked up to apologize and was met by the most mesmerizing grey eyes. The contrast if his dark skin and the grey in his eyes made them even more hypnotic. He stared onto my eyes. I felt powerless, like he was draining me of all my strength and reading every thought in my head. "Sorry." I whispered finally gaining my power back and turned away to the bathroom door. Still intrigued by this mysterious man, I looked back to see if he still stood beside me, but no one was there. Every person rushing through the halls had disappeared and so had the man who had locked me and took all my strength.

I opened the door to the restroom and quickly scanned the room. It was large and strangely designed. Right at the opening of the door there was a line of 3 stalls. At the end of the line there was the opening to a hallway which lead to 3 sinks and eventually 3 more stalls. I casually walked by the front stalls and turn the corner to the small hallway only to be met by two blue eyes. The eyes belonged to a man standing by the paper towel dispenser, collecting the absorbent papers in his hands. He continuously stared at me as I walked down the slim pathway towards the sinks. The strange man was reasonably tall, had long limbs, matted, long, curly blonde hair, extremely pale skin, and from a distance looked rather scrawny. He wouldn't be menacing if it wasn't for his light blue eyes. They were vacant, like there was no soul behind them. Despite the vacancy, his eyes looked into me, almost as if he was stealing my soul to fill his emptiness.

His stare sent noticeable shivers down my spine as I walked past him towards a sink. He continued to collect the paper towels three at a time. 1, 2, 3 stop. 1, 2, 3 stop. Each time pausing after the third towel, letting them drop to the ground. I washed off the red paint and dried myself off. I felt his stare the whole time and casually looked over my shoulder more than once only to find his light blue eyes locked onto me. I walked as quickly as I could with out bringing notice to my rushing feet. I couldn't help but wonder if I walked into the wrong bathroom.

I turned the corner in anticipation. I just wanted to leave this situation immediately, it was uncomfortable, definitely worse than the group assignment I had been forced into. I lunged for the door only to be distracted by a disturbance in the corner of my eye. It was a stall, the last one on the left. The door of the stall was slightly opened, just enough for me to see the pile of wet paper towels in the floor. Curiosity took over and I walked slowly towards the opening. I pushed the door open lightly only to find more and more paper towels covering the ground, each pile evolving more and more to a deeper red. My eyes finally landed on a girl sitting in front of the toilet, surrounded by towels soaked with a red liquid. She looked up at me with her innocent blue eyes. Her multi-colored hair was tangled and her black eye makeup smeared all over her face. I didn't notice at first but she wore only a shirt and green tinted tights, no pants. She stretched her shirt between her legs with her hand and the other supported her from the back. She continued to stare. This time, unlike the others, the stare wasn't filled with power or vacancy, it was filled with sadness. I didn't know why but I connected with this girl and I wanted to help her. I needed to help her. "Don't leave me. Please, don't leave me." She whispered to me urgently. I needed to help her. I backed up quickly out of the stall only to be met by vacant blue eyes. I could feel his thick yet calm breathing on my skin. I wanted to leave, but I found myself locked in place by his vacant stare. His hands were in his pockets and his towels were scattered on the ground. He was inches from my face; I was imprisoned. A small smirk grew on his face. "Three guesses who in here has a gun" he threatened. "1...2...3... sorry, times up."

I flinched and closed my eyes, expecting to be dead in mere seconds. A low monotonous voice flooded into my ears. I opened my eyes to find myself very much alive and my head on my open geography book. "It must have just been a dream" I chuckled to myself. I brought myself back to attention hoping I wouldn't drift off into my dreamland again.

My eyes opened wide and I sat with my mouth agape as Mr. Bradford announced "Ok class, go into groups for an activity."