MATTHEW'S POV
History was good, I did stutter a little bit while introducing myself though.
The bell rang, signaling that it was time for the next subject. Grabbing my bag, I followed all the other students outside. "Glad you survived mathematics, Elijah." I joked when I saw Elijah slouched down upon exiting his classroom. "Hahaha, very funny." He rolled his eyes.
We chatted while we were walking to our next class. We both had Biology next in classroom 11-M. We had to climb the stairs to get there. Elijah kept ranting on how math was not his turf.
"When I was still in elementary, I never would've thought that math has letters in them. If you told me that time that there were indeed letters to be learned in math, I would have told you that you were crazy." He laughed and stopped in front of our classroom.
"We're here! Now, I can handle Biology better than math. I can assure you that." I shook my head and smiled. "I believe you."
I opened the sliding door to our classroom and saw that there were already a lot of students inside. The teacher wasn't here yet so it was pretty noisy.
I sat on the fifth chair in the furthest row. Elijah sat on the chair at my right, so we were deskmates.
"I now have at least someone to talk to in this class. The people in math class were all so boring, and they actually listen to the teacher."
Why did he say that like it was the most horrifying thing he ever saw?
'I'll tell you what's horrifying; Encountering an elite.' I didn't say that out loud though.
I straightened my posture when the teacher came in - Mister Asher. He looked like he didn't get enough sleep and was living on coffee. Needless to say, he was also grumpy. He didn't care about the 'introductions first', he immediately started to teach a lesson. I fetched my notebook in my bag to take down notes. Elijah was already snoring softly beside me.
30 minutes into the lesson, mister Asher dusted his hands off that were full of chalk.
"Did you get all of that? You better hope you did, because I'll be assigning a project." My jaw dropped as soon as he said this.
'What? Isn't it still the first day of school?'
The entire classroom erupted in groans and cries. The teacher scowled. "Shut your traps! Kids like you need to experience hardships early in life so you can prepare for the REAL world. But I wouldn't call you 'kids' anymore."
"He's always like this." I heard the girl in front of me mumble. "It's no surprise." She then sighed. I sighed along with her. 'This university's tougher than I thought.' I peeked at the sleeping Elijah next to me. 'Should I wake him up? Poor guy doesn't know there's a project.'
I lifted my hand to shake him awake, but the grumpy teacher beat me to it. He speed-walked towards Elijah's chair, rolled the papers he was carrying, and slammed it on Elijah's desk loudly. This made the blonde-haired boy jolt up. "Did you have a nice dream, Donterlo?" The teacher sneered. I could see Elijah visibly gulp.
"I-I did sir. Wanna know about it?" I face-palmed, embarrassed on behalf of this boy.
"I don't think I should. But I'll tell you what YOU should know." Mister Asher got something from his pocket - a sticky note and a pen. He wrote something on it and gave it to Elijah. When the teacher wordlessly turned around, Elijah gathered up the courage to turn around.
"Oh, man! Detention after school on the first day?" Elijah whined. I frowned at him.
'There goes someone who would go back to the dorm with me.' I shook my head and smiled a bit when I remembered Sasha. 'Nevermind.'
"You like smiling at my suffering, Matthew?" Elijah puffed his cheeks when he saw me smiling. I shrugged and said bluntly, "You were the one who was sleeping." Elijah nodded sadly. "You're right."
"Martinez!" I whipped my head up as my name was called. I feared it was because I was caught talking with Elijah, but that wasn't the reason. "You'll be reporting on testing gravity and plants. Surprise me on how it ended up." I only nodded in reply as relief overcame me. The time for Biology had ended. The students cheered and rushed out of the classroom, ignoring the yelling of mister Asher. I left the room with a pouting Elijah.
"This sucks. Detention and a project? Kill me now and I'll be happier." I patted Elijah's back and spoke, "Don't say that, next thing you know, all of our tasks are done. We'll overcome this." Elijah smiled at my comfort. "Thanks for that, buddy."
We collided with Sasha on the way. "Hi, guys! How did it go?"
"It was fine for me, but as for this guy over here..." Elijah sighed when I pointed at him. "I got detention after school."
"What? Why?"
"I fell asleep in class... But I have a good reason for it!"
Both Sasha and I raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? What is it?"
"The lesson was boring." I squinted my eyes at him when he said that. Is he serious?
"Enough about me and my interesting life. What's your next class?"
"I have Math." I said.
"Good thing I'm done with that. I have P.E. next, so I need to go to the gymnasium."
"I can take you there, we have the same one." Sasha told him and turned to me. "See you at lunch, Matthew." Both of them waved goodbye. I nodded and stared at their retreating form before going down the stairs to find the 11-F class.
I entered the classroom and it was so... Quiet, unlike earlier at Biology time. Students remained in their seats. No one was talking to the other, they were all minding their own business. I sat near the window since it was the only unoccupied chair. I wish it wasn't though.
The Elite building stood at its full glory, meaning it gave me a clear and full view of the building.
There was it again - the feeling of dread. Every time I took a peek of the building, that feeling engulfs me. I placed my elbow on my desk and leaned unto my hand. Not only is it discreet of trying to ignore the building, but it also blocked it.
The teacher came in - miss Shane. She immediately started teaching like mister Asher, with no introductions.
'Did mom have to go through this too?' I winced at the thought of mom being pregnant with me at the age of nineteen. I owed her a lot.
A class without Elijah was boring. I wonder how the two of them were holding up at P.E. class? I almost fell asleep while miss Shane was talking, but I fought long and hard since I planned to stop by at the library after school for my report on Biology. I couldn't deal with an after school detention right now.
I was thankful Math time had ended and it was now lunch. I went up the stairs to see Elijah and Sasha standing there. Elijah had a faint blush spread across his cheeks as he scratched the back of his head. Sasha giggled at the state he was in.
"So..." I cleared my throat to make my presence known. "... What did I miss?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it." Elijah said and turned around. He started walking towards what I suppose was the canteen. I looked at Sasha for an explanation, but she just sighed dreamily. "Isn't he just so cute?"
A new kind of feeling sprang within me, and for sure it wasn't the same feeling I got when I look at the Elite building. Whatever this feeling was, it made me uncomfortable as I - for a split second - was irritated at Elijah.
"Yeah, sure." I said to dismiss the topic. I quickly ran after Elijah who was deciding what to eat on the menu. The canteen looked like a restaurant, with a counter and menu to order from and tables with chairs everywhere. Though the food on the menu was limited, there wasn't much to choose from.
"Man, I'm starving! P.E. is no joke." Elijah sighed exasperatedly. I groaned because I was about to experience P.E. next. "Thanks for the heads-up."
"What's on today's menu?" Sasha came up from behind us. "My bet is on the sweet and sour pork." Elijah declared. I gasped and looked at him. "I was about to get that!"
Elijah stuck his tongue out and taunted. "First come, first serve." I grunted but didn't argue. Sasha shook her head and spoke, "Guess I'll have the dumplings."
"You guys took all the good stuff." My eye twitched. "Then the pasta with bacon is mine."
Elijah shrugged while Sasha nodded. "Fair enough." As we took our orders, we found an unoccupied table nearby. We took our seats and began to eat.
Silence fell upon the three of us, the only sounds accompanied us were the enthusiastic chat of the table beside us.
I took a bite of my pasta. The bacon did the pasta justice. If it weren't for it, the pasta would have tasted bland.
"The price was worth it." Elijah commented as he chewed his food, some sweet and sour sauce was smeared on the corner of his mouth.
"Wait, you have a little something over here." Sasha said as she grabbed a tissue.
"Wha-?"
My eyes widened at the next thing Sasha did. She wiped the sauce that was on Elijah's face. This action made Elijah blushed a deeper shade of red than earlier. I looked away from the scene. That feeling of being irritated at Elijah was bubbling inside me again.
Elijah mumbled thanks before meekly eating again. Sasha smiled and threw away the tissue. I abruptly stood up, making their attention shift towards me.
"I have P.E. next so I want to prepare for the gym. You guys don't mind if I go first, right?" The gym was also a long walk from this building, and I didn't want to be late.
"Sure, Matthew. I'll see you at the dorms?" Sasha said. I only nodded as I didn't want to answer her. I turned around and walked off.
It may look like I was doing both of them a favor by leaving them alone to talk, but it was because I couldn't stand to watch them anymore.
I didn't have a lot of crushes while growing up, maybe only one or two.
I ran a hand through my hair when I went to the gym locker where the exercising uniforms were kept. It was just normal black jersey shorts with a plain white t-shirt. I went to the bathroom, not just to change but also to think.
'You have no right to be jealous, Matthew. You and Sasha are nothing. Elijah is your first friend here - other than Stacey, maybe. You'd be stupid if you picked a fight with him over a girl who doesn't care for you. Besides, you just met her today!'
I exited the bathroom with a glum look on my face. I tried to shake the thought out of my head and focused on something else.
'I need to visit the library after school. I have a hunch that mister Asher has high standards, even if it was just a mere report.'
I arrived once again at the gym to see multiple people here already. The P.E. teacher - mister Jacob - was a muscular man who was in his mid 20's with blonde hair and blue eyes. Some say he graduated here and also applied for a job in the school. I caught sight of a few girls swooning and drooling over him.
'I wish I could do the same for one girl.'
"All right, folks! Is everyone here? I'll be calling your names and once you hear yours, I want you to scream 'HERE!' as loud as you can, okay?" He started taking attendance. Whenever he called a girl's name, they would screech as high as a rat's squeak. No offense to them, but they did sound like that.
"Matthew Martinez?"
"Here." I said in a normal volume, too busy thinking to shout. He paused at what he was doing and looked at me with a confused and concerned expression. "Something wrong, kid?"
I blinked, taken aback by this. "Uh, no?" I said but it came out more like a question.
"Why so tepid?" Oh, so he was referring to me not yelling.
"Oh, I have a sore throat." I lied and made a raspy voice to make it more believable. I wasn't going to tell him I was troubled by something.
"I see." He returned to calling names. I sighed and massaged my head discreetly. 'Stop thinking Matthew! Getting mad over a crush is just childish.'
We started to ran laps for a warm-up. I ran in a daze, not paying attention to where I was going. 20 minutes later, I heard mister - it felt weird to call him that as there wasn't much of a gap between our age - Jacob say my name.
"Hey, Martinez! You can stop now, that's your seventh lap!" Coming to a halt, I didn't realize that I finished the warm-up already.
Mister Jacob jogged over to me and smiled brightly, his pearl-white teeth blinding the girls. "I like how you didn't even know that was your seventh lap. Didn't you feel tired?" I shook my head as no.
"Wow, cool! If you don't mind, I'd like to know how much you exercise."
I spent the rest of the P.E. session awkwardly answering mister Jacob's questions.