"Just pair up," Mr. Darwin, a short man with glasses perched at the tip of his nose and a bald patch in the middle of his head, said with a frustrated sigh.
He was wearing a brown checkered shirt that looked like it had been recently plucked out of a bird's nest, and a pair of oversized trousers that seemed right out of the 1920s.
He shook his head at the rowdy bunch of students in front of him and sat at his desk, bringing out a stained handkerchief from his pocket and wiping down the sweat on his forehead and neck.
I sat in the back of my biology class, not interested in whatever the teacher had asked us to do.
Everyone else didn't seem to share my lack of enthusiasm though.
They all shuffled around; dragging chairs towards the people they had decided to pair up with.
Bored with the scenario in front of me, I glanced out the window, just in time to see a flock of majestic white birds sail past the building, over the sparsely populated parking lot. Even though the rain was still falling lightly around them, they flapped their wings and pushed themselves forward.
They were beautiful.
If only being a human being was as easy as being a bird.
If you weren't feeling something, or weren't interested in your current surroundings, all you had was spread your wings and fly away; simple as that.
They also seemed to have this constant drive, which would do me good right about now.
"Miss Hunter?" I heard my name and dragged my attention from the birds back into the classroom.
Everyone else had settled with partners and they were all patiently waiting for Mr. Darwin to give out instructions.
"You and Mr. Carter are the only ones left so would you mind partnering up?" he said, more as a statement than a question.
I lifted my gaze from Mr. Darwin, slowly giving the classroom we sat in a once over.
My eyes stopped on a dark-haired boy, who reclined in a chair two feet away from me, with his feet up on the table and his head rolled back lifelessly.
He was snoring slightly, his mouth hanging wide open and the contents of his unzipped backpack were on the verge of spilling out. I smiled.
"Mr. Carter!" Mr. Darwin said sharply, causing said Carter to react in shock.
His head snapped up and his chair fell back taking him with it and completely emptying the contents of his bag.
The whole class burst into laughter as he hastily gathered his belongings and stood, completely oblivious to what was going on.
Mr. Darwin shook his head in dismay and ran a hand across his face.
"Would you please move your chair over to Miss Hunter so I can teach my class?"
He stared in confusion at Mr. Darwin, who sighed and pointed at me, then walked around his desk and wrote the topic of the day on the board.
He looked at me then, as though trying to figure out who I was. Giving up, he shrugged nonchalantly, picked up his chair and backpack then sauntered over to me.
"The rest of the class will be valuable to you for midterms, so I suggest that you pay attention" Mr. Darwin smirked at the round of groans he received then, before turning and writing some notes on the board.
I sighed and ran my tongue over the back of my teeth, completely annoyed with the fact that it was required of me to pay attention to the twenty minutes left in the period and extremely uncomfortable with this boy that weirdly, had me feeling nervous.
I removed my things when he brought his chair over to my table, so he could place his chair next to mine, then I dragged my attention back to Mr. Darwin.
"Name's Avian," he said to me after a while.
Completely shocked, as I had not been expecting him to speak to me so suddenly, I jumped slightly, dropping my pen in the process.
"Shit" I muttered to myself, pushing my chair back to grab my pen off the floor. I heard soft chuckling then, and I rolled my eyes before retrieving the pen and taking my seat quietly.
I removed my gaze angrily from Mr. Darwin to glare at the profoundly annoying human being sitting next to me.
He was wearing a red polo t-shirt and a pair of black jeans, with white expensive-looking trainers. The strong scent of perfume wafted off of him and caused me to hold my breath briefly.
"I'm Avian" he said with a toothy grin. I stared at the boy, reminding myself that I was mad at the rest of the world, not some innocent kid who was simply trying to be friendly.
Slowly, I nodded at him and turned my attention back to the teacher.
It was quiet for a couple of minutes, until Avian started tapping his pen on the table in sync to the quiet beat-boxing coming out of his mouth; loud enough for only me to hear.
I gritted my teeth, and turned my head to look at him with a raised brow. He stopped, opening his mouth to say something but seemed to change his mind almost immediately when he took in my irritated expression.
I sighed, and turned back to Mr. Darwin who was now writing some notes on the board. I reached for my notepad and turned to a fresh page.
"I didn't know you were into that kind of music."
I followed Avian's gaze to my t-shirt, struggling slightly to read the words upside down, and wondering who this band was.
"Walk On The Moon" I muttered to myself, a scoff threatening to burst from me.
Who names a band "Walk On The Moon?"
I tried to think of how this shirt had come to my possession.
"They're a cool band" Avian muttered with a smile, before resuming the tapping and beatboxing that was slowly driving me crazy.
I remembered then where I had gotten this shirt: Alexander Morris had given it to me at his party last year when I had been too drunk and intoxicated to drive home.
Alexander.
I hadn't spoken to him since the first week of June, after the accident.
Flinching, his broken and thoroughly confused expression flashed through my mind when I had told him to fuck off and leave me alone.
In my defense, I had been in a completely broken state; I was to broken to even deal with the problems of paying anyone any attention that required me to actually have the person around, so I might have been a tad bit too harsh on him.
And I still hadn't spoken to him; along with every other guy on his best friend's football team, Justin Hall. Justin wasn't a friend of mine; in fact, he had no real friends. Everyone just kind of tolerated him.
When I had dragged my attention back to the present, Avian was looking at me, as if expecting me to say something in regard to his 'cool band' comment.
"Sure," I muttered, pursing my lips and staring at the boy sitting before me.
Why didn't I know who he was?
I mean, I knew everyone at this school, because after all, it was really small, so why hadn't I at least run into him or something?
Was he a new student? A transfer maybe?
I stared at him and realized that I had never seen him before. I also realized that he also happened to be the only one I had seen all morning, that was not looking at me with pity and remorse.
Did he not know what had happened this summer?
Frankly, as I stared at Avian, I began to grow extremely interested in who he was, especially since he was treating me like an actual person, not a sick dog or something.
I mean, he had to know what had happened right?
It was the only thing that the students of the school had been whispering about all morning, but then, he didn't seem like someone who gave a crap about what people said.
It still didn't answer who he was though.
Giving up, I sighed and glanced back at Mr. Darwin, trying to ignore the distracting noises that Avian had started up again.
By the time class was over, I was completely exhausted and ready to sleep through to next week. Just as the bell rang, Mr. Darwin handed each group their assignment, landing Avian and I with the growth of bacteria.
Brilliant.
I seethed as I gathered my stuff and tucked my chair in. Sighing, I walked around my table and out of the classroom.
How the hell were we supposed to present the growth of bacteria?
Why was it even important to learn that kind of stuff?
Stepping into the hallway, I put my bag on my shoulder and pulled my t-shirt down as I thought about how soft my bed would feel at that moment.
"So the growth of bacteria, huh?" someone said suddenly, the voice booming from behind me.
In reply I jumped, completely startled at the sudden statement, and turned around to face…Avian.
He stood in front of me with a half-smile, half-smirk on his face, and his bag hung loosely over his right shoulder.
I stared at him and he stared right back.
We stood like this for a couple of seconds, neither of us blinking as though we were engaged in an unspoken staring contest.
Slowly, I pursed my lips, not sure exactly what to say that would make this situation less awkward than it was for me.
"Why are you following me?" was the first thing that came out of my mouth. He blinked, as though that was not what he had been expecting me to say, before tucking his hands into his pockets.
Before I could process what I had just said, he walked ahead and stopped in front of me. I turned and watched him, trying to determine what the deal was; and why my palms had started sweating as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"First of all, I'm not following you, the way out of this wretched cave happens to follow this same hallway," he pointed in the direction I had been walking in.
I tilted my head to the side, wondering why the only thing I had actually made out of his rushed sentence was the word cave.
Could Joseph Campbell have been on to something after all?
Avian didn't give me time to answer before he shrugged and continued.
"Secondly, you're my partner and I had to get your number."
I stared at him.
He had, ever so casually, asked me to give him my number.
Did he want my number because we were partners on that stupid project and needed to plan out times to work on "the growth of bacteria"?
Why couldn't I shake the feeling that he wanted it for something more?
Then again, I had always been one for overanalyzing situations, and it usually turned out to be more disastrous than effective.
Not having the courage to confirm his actual intentions, I changed the subject from that of my number.
"Are you actually bothered about the project?" is what I settled on saying as I began walking again towards my locker; he fell into step next to me and I smiled unintentionally because his actions had seemed almost natural.
As though it was meant to be.
There I go again, overanalyzing shit.
"You seem like the type that wouldn't give a shit."
"Well, yes and no" Avian said, scratching the back of his neck "It's a long story."
One I frankly didn't care that much for.
Avian didn't seem like the type that could take a hint, because he ignored my unspoken reaction to his 'it's a long story' comment and continued the 'long story'.
"See, I don't actually care about school anymore. I just feel like we were all born into a world where we would die eventually, so what we do in between doesn't matter in the end," he said, slipping his hands into his pockets as we walked side by side.
Okay, how had this conversation turned that deep?
We are all born to die.
I bit my lip, completely clueless as to what I was even supposed to say to such a comment because he was right.
Eventually, we would all die and what we had done and who we left behind would mean nothing.
Was that it? Was that all there was to life? That one day we're alive, the next we're just gone. Just like that?
My mind flashed to Lolita.
I shook my head and dragged my attention back to Avian, not wanting the dark moments of my past to resurface.
I would deal with that eventually but at the moment, all I wanted to do was ignore it, praying that it would go away as though it had never happened.
But it had. It had happened and there was nothing I could do about it.
I just wasn't ready to accept it
I glanced back at Avian, who was still talking and did not seem to have noticed my 'moment' there. I sighed and he dragged his eyes to meet mine.
"But my mother is very insistent on me making good grades" his voice faded off as he ran his hands through his hair.
What was with him running his hands through his hair?
I stared at his biceps peeking through his polo shirt; in my defense, they were very distracting.
"I wonder what her deal is."
I dragged my eyes from his muscles to meet his, silently thanking my stars that he hadn't noticed me checking him out.
What was wrong with me?
I swallowed and rolled my eyes, the last thing he had said replaying itself in my head.
"Yeah, I wonder what her deal is," I said sarcastically, shaking my head as I slowed down, nearing my locker "it's naturally every parent's dream to see their kid make good grades, doofus," I said and dragged my gaze from him to punch in my combination.
"Yeah, whatever," he said, a small smile tugging at his lips as I yanked open the metal door. He was quiet the whole time, as I exchanged materials in the locker that I needed with things I would not need at home from my bag, and only speaking up when I was sure I had gotten everything I needed and slammed my locker shut.
"So…about your number" he said slowly, and I turned to look at him.
So we were back to that topic.
Slowly, it dawned on me that that was the reason he had stood there, silently watching me.
I had begun to wonder what his problem was.
"Right," I said, rummaging in my bag for a pen. I felt one at the bottom of my bag and pulled it out, reaching my other hand out for his palm. Instead of handing me his palm though, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone.
"Not the palm," he muttered as he stretched out his phone.
I looked at him, confused for a moment before dropping the pen back into my bag with a shrug, and reaching out to take the smartphone from his grasp.
"It's always the start for sappy, screwed up love stories," he blabbered on as I typed in my number "you know how the girl writes on his palm, the next week, they're making out on his bed. It's ridiculous…" his voice faded as I glanced up at him. He looked like he was about to say something, but he swallowed and retrieved the phone from my palm.
I looked at him with raised brows.
"I'm sorry but I have no idea what you just said," I said with a smile. Slowly, I stepped around him and continued down the hallway, eager to get out of this school as fast as possible.
Then there was the fact that I was avoiding Angel and Rain
Obviously, this boy lacked any sense of the art of subtlety and hint-taking, because he fell into step beside me once again, causing me to groan inwardly.
What would the student body think if they saw me walking side by side with this rich kid that I had just met?
What would Rain or Angel think?
Oh God, what would Alex think?
Why did I even care?
I shook my head at my ridiculous behavior and glanced slightly at Avian, who also seemed to be deep in thought next to me.
Then I remembered that we were both going the same way.
I wasn't sure if this realization was disappointing or a relief to me.
When we got to the parking lot, it was the opposite of how it had been that morning. Apart from the puddles of water in spots of the cement-filled lot, it was crawling with people. Frankly, it looked like every student that attended the high school had come out at the same time and were just standing in groups on the lot, talking to their friends, and whiling their time away.
I took one look at the crowd of students before turning back to look at Avian, who was still standing next to me.
"Well, I guess I'll see you around," I said, giving him a small awkward wave as I backed away. He nodded, putting his hands in his pocket once more and turning his attention to me.
"Sure, later" he said, before returning the wave even more awkwardly, and stalking off towards the opposite side in which I was headed.
Finally!
I turned around and put my head down, hastily made my way towards the gates of the school, dodging oblivious bodies and hoping that neither Rain nor Angel would not catch a glimpse of me leaving; the last thing I needed was another confrontation.
Honestly, the faster I put this school behind me, the better.
Cave or not, a big block of grey cement didn't hold any treasures for me.
All it did was remind me of how badly things had ended last year, and whose fault it had been.