Austin's already long gone, and I'm still standing in the lobby area of the school. I should've been checking nametags on the hallway doors this morning. I didn't really take in anything.
The bell still hasn't rung, so there are quite a few students walking around and making background noise. What feels like hundreds of different voices talking to one another makes it hard to form coherent thoughts.
The younger students are all walking towards the opposite end of the high-school area, the school is divided between middle school and high school. So that marks off about half of the school I don't have to go to.
I'll just walk up and down the halls on the high-school side.
Oh, there's the bell. Droning its monotone ringing noise signaling everyone to start walking in clumps toward their designated classes.
I'm clumping too and trying to see between the shoulders of the kids beside me all walking with a sense of purpose. And here's me, stupidly lost. Again. For the umpteenth time today.
I'm tired bro, I should just go home and take a nap.
Nah, intrusive thoughts shouldn't be acted on. Or something. I skipped enough school; I haven't even done any work. Or written any notes in my classes or else half-assed ones that don't amount to much.
After walking through the halls, up and down I make my way back to the front. Maybe asking Ms. Martins will save me some time. Even though she doesn't like me.
Upon walking towards the reception area, I keep my head down and look to see the floors plastered in dirt and caked in faint shoe prints and some litter. Maybe if I look really hard, I'll find a 5-dollar bill or something, or my keys.
Doubtful.
There's a girl already in the reception area talking to Miss Martins.
I can't hear her, the sounds of classroom chatter obscure whatever she could be saying to her. But I do however see the receptionist smiling happily, and even joking with the girl.
She's tall and slim, she's wearing a white hoody. Her flowing locks of blonde hair reach just past her shoulders and from her side profile, I can see she's wearing some sort of lipstick. Her skin has a creamy complexion and the cuffs of her sweater reach up to the middle of her hands. Maybe that sweater is a bit too big for her?
I can't make much else out of what she looks like, but I do hear the final portion of her conversation.
"Oh yeah, I know right? I told her I'd be back a bit after 6 but you know how my mom worries right?" She says cheerily.
Miss Martins says:
"Oh, that Taylor, ever since... No, never mind, let's not bring that up at school. I'm glad she's letting the leash off her daughter for once though. This time last year she didn't even let you go visit. So, I guess that's progress." She said in a kind tone of voice, completely opposite to the way she spoke to me.
"Anyway, I gotta get to my biology class, thanks for taking those off my hands and I'll see you later Wendy!" She says before waving and running towards me.
Biology? That sounds familiar. That sounds exactly like where I need to be.
She walks past me and smiles before running up the staircase to the second floor. I turn to look at the receptionist, when she notices me her face returns to the resting bitch face she had on before, and starts to write something down on a piece of paper.
Well, no time to think about that. I start clicking my shoes on the floor, almost skipping gleefully to see my beloved Miss. Simmons.
As I'm making my way to the staircase, I see the girl from before in the middle of the staircase texting on her phone.
When I begin walking up the stairs and she notices someone behind her, she looks back and starts running up the stairs.
Maybe she didn't want me staring? Not that I would. There's only room in my heart for one, and it belongs to my teacher.
Not really, but you know.
Making it to the top of the stairs, I turn to see her nowhere in sight but hear a door close on the lefthand side of the hallway, that must be her. Damn, she fast.
Following the noise, I read the nametag on the door and see "Ms. Simmons." On a nameplate on her door. The old wooden frame of the door contradicts the youthful and serotonin-inducing Ms. Simmons.
Turning the handle, I'm finally in my afternoon class.
There are multiple inspirational quotes on printed-out paper that's been laminated taped and stuck to the walls and science-related posters that are meant to be funny.
There's one that sticks out to me that's of an avocado that says, "Avocado's constant". Probably chemistry-related, Ms. Simmons' is an interdisciplinary teacher. But I think she's just cute and just likes the avocado.
Speak of the devil, she was sitting at her desk and was talking about something to another student before turning my way.
"Oh, Danny! I'm so glad you're going to be here today. You've missed a few days but that's totally alright and we're going to get you up to speed some way or another okay? I can copy and print out one of your classmates' notes for you if you'd like." She says in an angelic tone. The only way to describe her is heavenly, kind, and compassionate.
It makes my teenage heart cycle through varying degrees of infatuation and joy.
Her smile could pierce even the strongest of men. Probably, that's what I think anyway.
"Thank you, I'll happily take any notes I can get," I say while lifting both thumbs simultaneously.
She giggles at my gesture while putting her hand in front of her mouth.
After looking through the class, I see Eli sitting in the back of the class. I haven't really noticed anyone but him. But it's loud in here, there are a few empty seats near Eli. He's probably not very liked.
"Ay bro, come here." He starts waving his hand which has a leather-strapped watch and a silver casing.
I don't see anyone else familiar so, what the hell, I think to myself.
I walk towards the open desk in front of his and place my bag down before sitting.
He's sitting in the back of the class beside the back wall of the classroom, while I'm more toward the center along the rows of desks. There's a noticeable decay on the desks, they're pretty old. The metal legs of the desk are tarnished from the elements, of what was probably once a shiny luster.
After getting comfortable he leans forward on his desk.
His eyes are bloody red, and he smells like weed. He's either got some sort of nervous tick or he's attempting to look stronger by flexing his arms while leaning on his desk and looking my way.
"Ay bro, you were fucking wild last weekend. You coming by again Friday? My uncle's got some big ideas in the works for us." He says while staring past me at a girl who's sitting down and smirking.
I don't know what I did last weekend, but it sounds shady.
I look down at the chain around his neck that glistens from the fluorescent lighting of the room, I say to him:
"I was pretty messed up last weekend, what did we do again?" I say in a confused tone hoping my prodding will give me an answer.
He starts to whisper.
"You don't remember? Man, we did that breaking and entering and stole all that cash and those phones. We can hit up a new target this weekend." He says while snickering and looking around the class again.
He has trouble focusing on me and the conversation. Maybe any outward stimuli stress him out, or he's like a monkey that sees movement and has to focus on it.
Again, he says while not looking at me and this time towards the door of the classroom, and begins to raise his voice again.
"Anyway, we'll talk more about it later. Let's get the fuck outta here first. We'll swing by my place and have a few drinks. You don't really wanna sit here and listen to fucking... what class is this again." He says staring up at the ceiling absent-mindedly. '
A girl who's sitting a few seats ahead of us says in an agitated tone while looking back at us:
"Biology, dumbass. And you never gave me that weed you said you'd drop off "later"." She says while looking angrily toward Eli.
Eli just makes a facetiously shocked face.
"Man, who the fuck are you anyway? You believe this girl? Man get the fuck outta here with all that." He says while gesturing both of his hands up as though to say, "I don't know what you're talking about."
If we're going by what I believe, yes. I do believe this girl.
This guy's such a shifty-eyed go-between. I don't even know why I'm associated with him.
All the while we're having this conversation, Ms. Simmons is trying to begin the class. I feel second-hand embarrassment being near him.
"Anyway, let's go." He nods his head towards the door and picks up his bag and begins to get ready to leave.
I ain't going nowhere, I think to myself.
"Naw dude, I had a rough morning. Mom's been pissed at me for skipping classes too." I say while opening my binder.
"Don't be a little bitch." He says loudly, the rest of the class is looking towards us at this point. Glances from the students sting, he sure likes to be dramatic.
"You a little mommy's boy now?" Assertively standing and walking towards me while I'm sitting.
After looking up at him, his face looks punchable.
"Pfft, Shut up man. Let's stay in class for once." I say to him while grabbing a pencil from my backpack on the floor towards his way.
"Or are you just trying to check out Ms. Simmons?" He looks towards her, hopefully, she's not listening in on our conversation. But the rest of the class is silently waiting for the class to start.
"She's ight, but I've seen better."
I feel like my reputation stocks are plummeting with every word he says out of his shitty mouth.
He takes another look at me and laughs.
"Pfft, be like that then. You've been acting like you're too good for the boys ever since you started dating Sarah anyway." He says and starts walking towards the door.
Oh right, my girlfriend... Sarah. I guess, I didn't actually remember her name.
I've really got some mad dissociative amnesia. I'm not able to recall important personal information. I must've hit my head or something. Or took some less-than-savory narcotics. Either way, it's got me fucked up.
Also, I don't know why I hang out with this guy.
He walks towards the door after finishing his sentence and yells to me from across the class.
"I'm gonna miss school this week, got some stuff in the work. You still down to hit up that party this weekend or are you out?" He says while walking backward and looking my way.
All I see is a pubescent boy in a muscle shirt, with a lack of muscles. Or even inhibitions.
"Yeah, I think Austin wanted to go anyway," I say in a quiet voice while looking away from him and trying to read the atmosphere of the classroom.
"You'd better." He says before looking at Miss Simmons with a glare and starts walking towards the door.
Miss Simmons tries to reason with him.
"Eli, you know staying in class is important and-"She's cut-off mid-sentence.
"Got better things to do than play schoolboy. Maybe it's fine for these losers. Not me though." He says while not looking toward her.
Maybe he doesn't look her way because he feels some sort of guilt. I'm a bit doubtful though. He doesn't seem to be able to express remorse and empathy. The dude's a dickhead.
After Eli leaves, a few students snicker and begin talking.
Miss Simmons' face says that she didn't really know how to navigate that sort of conversation.
I'm sorry Miss Simmons, some kids don't want to be taught. Or some of them just hate authority.
She looks my way and smiles meekly before beginning the lesson.
I begin scanning the room to see stares look my way, among them is the girl I followed into class. She looks as though I'm a criminal. There's a clear disdain in her gaze before she quickly looks away and back to the front of the class.
Like I'm a criminal by association with him or something.
She places her hand out in front of a girl she's sitting by, this one has curly hair. The girl hands her something without saying anything.
After a bit of silence, Miss Simmons steels herself to teach the lesson. Maybe her ability to deal with confrontation is limited, as this is her job. I doubt she'd let someone say that to her in her real life, at least I hope so anyway.
There's a feeling in my heart that wants to apologize for his behavior, but I don't want to interrupt the class more than I already did.
Opening my binder finally, there are a few folders that have the subject labeled on them, I flip to biology.
On the folder is the weird S that every teenager draws at some point in their teenage career.
And of course, there's nothing written about biology in my notes. But not this time, I'm gonna listen intently to Ms. Simmons' lesson.
She begins by telling us that the assignments she handed out last week will be due this Friday. Not very good news for me, but she did promise me notes. I'll remind her later.
As she begins her lesson on the diversity of animal life, I learn some neat words. Like Phylogeny and taxonomy. And how living things can be classified based on these principles. The blonde girl from earlier seems like she's Ms. Simmons' favorite. She's sitting close to the front of the class and answering all the questions Ms. Simmons is asking us.
She and the girl sitting beside each other, I can't really see them that well from the back of the class.
Her friend with curly hair and looks as though she's wearing glasses, not that it matters. I should be writing notes and not worrying about my classmates right now.
Class continues like this for the rest of the period, but I did my best to write actual notes this time.
Afterward, I meet up with Austin in the halls during recess, he says we've got math for last period.
During the recess period, I ask him about Eli's party, and he says he's definitely going and so am I, guess that's settled then.
When we made it to the math class, there were weird math symbol borders all along the interior of the classroom. There aren't any funny math things like in Ms. Simmons' class, there's a shelf in the corner with math textbooks. The sun looks like it's begun to hang lower than before.
During math, I and Austin sit together as usual. But it's not a very interesting class if I'm being honest. It's not that it's difficult, it's just that the teacher doesn't really care about what we do. He handed us some assignments and gave us half-assed instructions on how to complete them.
A girl sitting in the classroom asked what an abuse angle was, thinking the 't' in obtuse was silent. But other than that, all we did was work on parallel angles. Finding the interior and exterior angles of crap. Boring as hell. Austin looked antsy like he couldn't stand the boring classroom and quietness within it.
Midway through the class, the dude with curly hair from before entered the class and sat at the front in an empty seat.
I could almost swear he was glaring at me.
The teacher spent most of his time on his laptop, he didn't even look up from it when he answered the students' questions.
Afterward, Austin quickly dipped. He was gone and said he had something to do before slinking his way between the after-class rush in the hallways.
It's been a long day man. Maybe I should just go home too. I gotta use the washroom first though.
Wandering the halls, I walk up and down them. After finally finding the bathroom, I do my business. The bathroom is rundown, and I just want to get out of here, it smells like mold and urinal cakes. After taking a fat piss, I spit into the urinal. Bad idea, I should've opted for the garbage. There was some splash back that re-entered my mouth. I wanna barf.
After washing my hands and mouth with the gross sink water, I walk back into the halls. Most of the students have already left. As I'm making my way to leave the school. I overhear a group of friends laughing with each other from one of the classrooms.
The school does have some extra-curricular things like sports, but it looks like they're playing a game of chess.
I peek my head into the classroom, I don't go to this class specifically, but it looks like the teacher here is another science teacher. There are diagrams of rocks on the walls and prints of geological... principles? I don't know. I also don't know what a foot wall and hanging wall are, but they're in there.
There are five students in total in the classroom, three of them are gathered around one of the desks while the other 2 are sitting behind them and talking about something.
I immediately notice the girl from my biology class, or rather both I'd seen sitting together. The blonde girl's facial features are much more noticeable now. Her face is small with a cute button nose. Her skin is glossy and fair, and her blonde hair tumbled over her shoulders and snuck around to her back. She's clearly slim-waisted, the white sweater that looked a bit too big for her earlier is now folded on the chair she's sitting on, revealing a blue tank top that clings to her small frame. Her blue eyes are fixated on her friend who's talking with her back turned from me.
They notice me standing at the doorway. The students turn my way.
The brunette girl she's talking to is talking about something serious to her, or at least her facial expression reflects that. Her curly hair shines and sparkles in the lighting of the room, her face is framed perfectly between her locks of hair. She has an average build, not skinny and not chubby, completely healthy. She has a yellow rubber ducky hairpin in her hair that blocks her bangs from going over her eyes.
The other three students are boys. Two of them are in playing chess on a desk, both sitting opposite to each other on the desk, and another standing with his hands in his sweater pocket.
One of the boys at the desk is wearing a hood, he has long straight black hair coming out from a sweater hole, I couldn't get a good look at him, but he's very pale and just going by his stature, he looks like he sits a lot. He's wearing some fingerless gloves and looks as though he's in serious thought.
The other boy playing chess is the opposite, he's blonde and has a smile on his face that feels comforting. He shot a smile my way.
He has platinum blonde hair; he's wearing a blue crew neck sweater. I can see prominent collarbones sticking out between the gap of his bare neck and the sweater. He has large pearlescent green eyes and a jaw that looks like it's in the process of maturing through his pubescent stage. Very traditionally handsome. His broad shoulders and tall stature while sitting exhibits confidence but appear playful and innocent.
The boy that was standing called to me, "You want the next game?" in a cheery tone.
He's wearing a snapback hat forwards, I'm not sure about the logo on it. He's black-haired and tall and seems a little snarky when talking to me.
"Yeah man, I could fuck with chess," I say and walk into the classroom.
The brunette girl turns to me and says "No swearing, you big potty mouth." In a serious tone before smiling and saying just kidding.
After entering the classroom, I sit a few desks away from the girls who are towards the back of the room and close enough to see the boys' game of chess. I remove my backpack and put it on the ground.
Sitting feels good, maybe I'm an old man deep down inside. Dad always talks about sitting around doing nothing being something I'll learn to love when I grow up.
The boy who called me into the class goes to once against standing beside the boys playing chess. I hear him say snarky remarks like "You really wanna move that there?" Before laughing. Sounds like he wants to psyche them out.
The two girls are doing homework together, now that I'm sitting, I can get a better look at them. The brunette girl is wearing a t-shirt that has bold printed letters on it that say, "Funny girl shirt." And that's it. I guess she's a funny girl, she's got large-lensed glasses that sit on her slightly large nose, there's also tape on the frame of her glasses, must've broken them recently. She isn't wearing any makeup while the blonde is. The blonde girl was wearing lipstick earlier but there are tissues on the desk with red stains. The blonde girl has eyeliner on that makes little wings go outward from her eyes.
I don't know what that technique for makeup is called.
You'd imagine since I have a little sister, I'd know a bit more about the etymology of cosmetics. But nope, I'm just a dumb boy with dumb boy thoughts. Speaking of dumb boys.
The boys in their group are quietly engaged in a mental battle with one another, and the girls resume their conversation from before I so rudely interrupted and invaded their social circle.
The brunette girl talks.
"And yeah, as I was saying. There were so many animals that hunted with their faces in the Cambrian time period. You wanna know what my favorite one was?" she says excitingly to her friend, her voice feminine and excited.
"Not really, but I'm sure you're going to tell me anyway." The blonde speaks in a lower voice than her friend, maybe a bit tomboyish. But she laughs at her own joke and tells her to continue.
"Well, now I don't want to." The brunette looks like she's sulking.
"Awe Claire, you gotta pour some cheer-up on your pancakes." She says before patting and feeling her curls.
"Unhand me, you freak," Claire says.
After joking with each other, Claire says:
"Like I was saying, my favorite animal would've had to be Anomolacaris. It was basically a big shrimp that ate all the other weird creatures from that period. I even like the name, anomaly shrimp. It was an early diverging stem group of arthropods and was an apex predator-" As she's talking, it's like she can't keep her excitement inside and is moving and vibrating her leg up and down like she has restless leg syndrome, or she's a dog with a wagging tail. But she's cut-off mid-sentence by the blonde girl.
The blonde girl places her finger on Claire's lips.
"Shhh. I know you like the weird shrimp, but you can go on tangents later, I'm still trying to help you with our English homework, remember?" she takes her finger off Claire's lips and points towards the open notebook on her desk.
Claire moves her hands in front of her face and flaps them around her own face while closing her eyelids tightly to get the girls' hands away from her. After calming down she looks at her and says:
"You sure are touchy today. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to invade people's personal space?" She says after adjusting her glasses.
"What do you mean personal space, we've been neighbors and best friends for how many years now? You never say you want personal space when it's just you and me. Remember that time that you-"Now she's being interrupted.
"Shut up shut up shut up, I can't hear you la la la" Claire says while holding her ears shut.
"Stupid Anna," Claire says in a whisper.
Anna laughs brightly and says "Okay, okay. But just like how your shrimp hunted with their faces, when you start talking about ancient animals you never shut your own face. I know you want to be a paleontologist but until then you've got to graduate first." She says while again, pointing at her English homework.
"Fine, but I hate it. Who cares about what some old dead dude thinks about things like feelings." she's pouting again but diligently picks up her pen to copy Anna's notes.
While they're having their conversation, I can't help but feel intrigued by them. While feeling awkwardly out of place, I didn't notice that the game the boys were playing was just finishing up.
The boy in the hood looks over all the pieces remaining on the board and resigns. He places his hand out towards the blonde-haired boy and says "Subarashii." He seemed to take great effort to make his voice deeper than it is, before shaking his hand. The blonde looks like he cringed a little, I don't know what the hell suba-whatever means.
He stands up and walks towards a desk in the corner and begins drawing something, or resumes drawing something.
While seemingly noticing how out-of-place I'm feeling, the blonde-haired boy calls to me and says, "You don't have to look so sheepish, I won't bite." While smiling and waving me to sit down across from him. His voice is naturally deep, and his tone is kind. He reminds of the human version of a golden retriever.
The boy standing walks towards Claire and Anna and says something to them that I couldn't hear over the screeching of the chairs' metal legs scraping along the tile floor of the classroom.
As I sit down from across him, he says "Hey, I'm Charlie. It's nice to meet you, we usually play chess in here after class. Or something along those lines, we play a lot of board games. Chess seems to attract the most people though. Spectators and people walking by usually want to play a game with us so it's not out of the ordinary to play a stranger. Chess is a universal game." While he's talking, I remain awkwardly silent as he places the pieces on the board to their correct starting positions.
"Anyway, have you ever played?" Charlie has almost got all the pieces placed on the board.
"Oh, I think so. I used to play with my dad as a kid." I say while pointing my eyes up at the ceiling as though I'm trying to recall a memory. But I know that's a lie, you're a big liar pants Daniel Burks. You just wanted to kill some time and want to feign being knowledgeable about it.
"Oh, then I guess I won't have to go too easy on you then." He winks at me before excusing himself to quickly use the washroom.
I think I played chess before, but I don't remember with who. I think it was with my dad or grandparents, someone anyway.
While Charlie relieves himself, I have nothing to do but listen in on what my classmates are talking about.
Claire: "God, my back is aching. I hate being bipedal, you know all our back problems are caused by us walking upright. There aren't that many other animals that do it."
Anna: "Oh, for real? I don't have back problems yet. My mom is always complaining about her back though, but I think it's her own justification for drinking so much."
Claire: "Way to darken the mood, how is she doing by the way?
Anna: "Oh you know, we've been doing better. Ever since dad passed away, she's been crazy, but we're both going to therapy together."
Claire: "Oh yeah? How's that working out?"
Anna: "I don't know, but I cried in therapy the other day. My doctor Christiana said it was a huge breakthrough or something."
Claire, cautiously: "Oh... I'm glad you cried, I guess? Is that where we're at in our friendship? Congratulating crying in therapy?"
Anna: "Oh shut up, you cried the other day when you forgot your cup o' soup at home."
Claire: "That's an integral part of my day, don't disrespect my soup."
Claire begins to again talk about science-y things, like sharks existing before trees before being interrupted.
Black-haired boy: "Oh hey, sorry I forgot you asked me to make coffee Claire, that's my bad. But you never finish any of the cups of coffee anyway. They end up lying around half-finished, you little coffee graveyard."
Claire: "Josh, my dear boy. Sometimes my gut bacteria only want half of a cup of coffee. And they send little protein signals to my brain to stop drinking coffee, nothing you can do about that." While adjusting her glasses at the taped portion.
Josh: "I don't care about your gucteria."
Claire: "... Don't ever say that again." She winces and looks back down to her notebook, now more willing to copy Anna's homework than before her conversation with Josh.
Josh: "Guct. Gucteria, gut-teria...guuuut"
Claire: "Why are you so weird?"
Josh: "I could actually say the same to you."
They shoot grimacing stares toward one another.
Boy, in the corner: "Daijoubu."
Claire and Anna: "I have no idea what that means."
As they're talking, Charlie returns to the classroom.
"Hey, sorry, I talked with our Earth Science teacher, she said we're gonna have to wrap it up early today. We've got about 15 minutes before she leaves. Just the right amount of time for a game, right?" He says to the rest of the students before turning my way during his speech.
"Oh, yeah. I gotta head home too. I think I don't know." I say ineptly. Mom doesn't have a curfew for me or anything, I'm at least sure of that.
The board's black pieces are on my side of the desk, Charlie flips the board to allow me to be the white pieces.
"Since you're an amateur, I'll let you play as white. That means you can move first." He says while smiling with his eyelids half-opened and staring at me.
"I'll go easy on you." He ends his speech with.
I don't know why, but I take great offense to this. I just don't like to show these sorts of emotions, even I enjoy winning things and being good at whatever it is. You know, I spent the entire day not being good at anything, at least this. Right? Hopefully? Fuck.
"I could play as either piece," I say back to him.
"I don't doubt it." He says while looking past me and onto his friend group as though he's already won.
Alright, let's start the game, I guess. Maybe let's take a slower approach.
1. D4 is played, an attack on the center as white. The queen's pawn.
2. D5 follows, to stop the advance and meet the pawn in the center.
3. Knight to F3, creating development of minor pieces and protecting the D4 pawn.
4. Black's B knight moves to C6, attacking the D4 pawn if white's knight moves.
5. I move my black square bishop to F4, with plans to attack C7 with my knight in the future.
6. Knight to F6 by black, pushing further developments of his knights in the boards' center.
7. I play Knight to C3, with plans of moving to B3 if I have no interference.
Charlie: "You know, you're playing pretty well. You seem to understand the basic theory, at least." His appearance seems, happy. Like he'd rather play people that understand chess.
Bro, I feel like I'm having some muscle memory shit going on here, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. But I'll definitely pretend that I do for the sake of argument.
"I've had similar piece positions with my dad when I was younger." That definitely sounds like chess-person talk. Probably.
8. White-square bishop to D7, probably wanting to castle next move. There goes my plan for a fork.
9. Knight from C3 to B5.
Maybe he'll miss my fork? Cause fork him, dude.
As we're playing, the other students present are still talking.
Josh: Hey graveyard coffee girl, do you still want your coffee even though we've gotta leave soon?"
Claire: "Don't call me graveyard coffee girl. And yeah, Mrs. Hamon is pretty chill with me. She treats me as her star student." She says while capitalizing on her own ego.
Josh: "Okay, I'll find something equally distasteful as time goes on." He says while smiling.
Josh is still standing beside their desk; I don't know why he doesn't want to just sit down. Maybe it's something he enjoys doing.
Josh: "Oh right, when you come over this weekend... Please for the love of God, don't bring your stupid frog again. You scared the hijeebies, or whatever, the shit, out of my sister. Sorry, it's hard to follow your whole no-swearing narrative. You traumatized my little sister." He says before walking towards the coffee pot to fill with water.
Claire brushed a hand through her curly hair: "Yeeeaaahhh... Sorry about that. She told me she really liked Kermit two weekends ago, and I told her I'd show her a real Kermit the frog." She says glancing downwards after Josh looks back at her.
Josh: "Okay, you know that would be all well and good. But it's an American Bullfrog, and you put it on display to eat live insects. It's scary, you should know that it's scary." He says to her before grabbing a hold of the coffee pot.
Claire: "Don't you talk about my Glenjamin that way, he's very sweet. It's not his fault he's just a big old stomach with legs. When he sees something that can fit in his gluttonous mouth, he'll do what he can to down it. in one gulp even, you know they eat other frogs in the wild. I bet you didn't."
Josh: "Your weird frog's cannibalistic nature is none of my concern, but if you scare my sister again, I'll be the one eating him." He says after pouring the water for the coffee and pouring it into the coffee pot.
Claire: "You wouldn't. Do you believe this guy, Charlie? The random guy that showed up at our class? Back me up here. Please?" She says with a pouty face to Charlie and me.
Claire changes her facial expression the next instant.
Claire: "Oh right, are you going to come by tonight still, Charlie? We were going to play that game together."
Charlie: "Oh, right. Yes. I mean, yeah, I'll come by. I don't have anything else to do, probably. Can you move your spiders to the basement this time though? One of them stared at me while they molted last time. And is your mom, like, actually okay with me coming over? Remember how she said she didn't want boys coming over." He says awkwardly and shyly.
Claire: "Oh yeah, it's fine if it's just you. She probably only says that because she doesn't want me to be copulating at my age. But we're just friends so she'll understand."
Charlie: "Oh, right. Copu-?" He says as I nudge him to make his move, they make it difficult to play the damn game of chess. What the fuck is a Glenjamin? Weird ass kids.
They are entertaining though.
Charlie: "Oh right, sorry. I was minorly distracted." He says to me, I think Claire saying he was "just him" stung him a little. He looks in shock.
10. Pawn to E6, he didn't even look at the board. He just keeps looking past me at Claire.
Charlie, after looking away from Claire and to the board:
"Oh, whoopie Daisy." He says while realizing where he'd put his piece.
"No takebacks?" He says in a joking tone.
Well, now I feel bad for what I'm gonna do to his rook.
"No. there are no takebacks in war and love." I say while pushing my knight forward.
11. Knight takes on C7. Forcing a king move unless he'd like to lose his queen instead. Forking the rook and king.
12. King to E7.
13. Knight takes the rook on A8.
14. Queen takes knight on A8.
Josh wanders his way from the girls' desk to ours.
Josh, while taking his hands out of his pocket finally.
"Yo, you're losing. I didn't bother watching because you're usually done with your games in 5 moves. I just noticed you were taking longer than usual."
Charlie: "Yeah, that's a blunder on my part. I lost focus for a second, maybe there are undiscovered good players in school?" He says while chuckling a little but looking at me seriously.
Josh: Where'd you learn to play chess? Aren't you that guy that's usually hanging out in the back of the school smoking weed before class?" he says while looking at me with a sense of wonder, or maybe bewilderment. Amazement? Something anyway.
"I actually played with my dad when we were younger, kind of like a family tradition?" I say while nervously looking around the room, to see Anna and Claire staring at me with intrigue.
They both come to our desks to observe the game.
Claire: "You're actually losing? That's rare."
Anna: "You know, for a friend of that gremlin Eli, you're pretty okay at chess, probably. I don't know what the hell's going on in the board though."
Kelly sneaks up to us and fakes a deep voice again:
"Yabai!" is all he says, before looking at everyone in the group and sadly retreating to his corner.
They're making me nervous; I don't like being the center of attention. And I don't know how to progress the game from this position. I'm just gonna do whatever makes sense based on instinct.
15. Knight to E5.
Charlie takes a minute to examine the board, grabbing pieces and putting them back down. He's probably not sure if he wants to take the knight.
16. Knight takes on E5.
17. D pawn takes on E5, I'll save my bishop for later.
18. Black's remaining knight from F6 to E4.
19. Let's play it safe, Pawn to F3
20. Charlie retreats his knight to C5
21. Let's be a bit aggressive, we're up on material, with his pieces out of position. Pawn to E4
22. Pawn to H6, maybe he's hoping to corner my black-square bishop? We can ignore that for now.
23. E4 Pawn takes D5 pawn.
24. He instantly takes retakes my pawn, E6 pawn to D5.
Ahh, man. I don't know what to do. Both of our queens are doing a whole lot of nothing. It seems about time to bring them into the fray.
25. Queen takes on D5.
26. Knight from E5 to D6, to keep his pony alive.
There's that one move, right? Castling? Can I do it right now? Probably, I'll just do it and see what he says, maybe it's a legal move?
27. O-O-O, Castle on Queen's side. Oh wait, he can take my bishop. Maybe I fucked up, maybe I am stupid.
28. Knight takes dark-square bishop on F4.
Okay, so that's it. I'm a failure. Kidding, I can't be that hard on myself.
The crowd cheers, figuratively. The four people in the room are rooting for Charlie and they say things like "Oh, I'm surprised he didn't notice his bishop was hanging." He wasn't hanging. He was supporting the white king's endeavors. They'll see, they'll all see.
Now, if I'm correct, I may be wrong. I often am... this should be...
29. Queen takes white square bishop on D7, checkmate.
"Checkmate," I say, in a victorious and quiet tone of voice. As I say this, Josh looks at Charlie. His face says, "What the fuck is wrong with you for losing this match." The students raise their eyebrows to Charlie.
Claire and Anna say something along the lines of Charlie never losing to any rando's who challenge him.
The hooded boy scurried from his corner at the commotion, walking towards us quickly and saying in an excited tone:
"Kakkoii!" And then walking away before he's met with second-hand looks of embarrassment.
Charlie looks over the board, to ensure that it is really checkmate. He resigns to himself and sinks into his chair a bit when he realizes it is.
He, in the next moment, sits up straight and says, "Good game." And putting his hand out towards me for a handshake, I oblige.
Josh: "I didn't think Charlie would lose, even I rarely beat this guy." He says happily.
Claire: "It is weird, is something wrong today? Are you feeling sick?" She places her hand on Charlie's forehead.
Charlie removes her hand: "No, I'm fine. I was just taking it easy on him. plus, he knew how to play Chess." Before staring my way.
"Ha, ha ha...." I say while looking away from them. Bro, I don't know what the hell to say, I didn't think I'd win. I just felt like it would be fun to try something new.
Anna: "Who'd have thought that dimwit who followed me to class today could do some sort of logical thinking, yeah, I seen you. I walked up the stairs faster when I noticed you behind me, too." She says while laughing.
Well sorry, I was just lost. I don't know where classes are because I'm stupid okay? I think to myself, while still feeling the revelation that she thought I was a creep following behind her earlier.
Charlie coughs into his hand before saying: "I did go a bit easy on you, maybe just a little." While gesturing with his thumb and index finger to signify the small amounts of effort he'd put in.
Charlie: "I didn't expect you to find D7, why don't we have a rematch? You can't just win and run away you know. That's now how we do things in our club." He laughs lightheartedly, clearly resolved to play his best game next time.
"Our?" I say while looking at him and his friends in the classroom.
Charlie: "Yeah, our, us. You included. I don't mind having a strong player in our little soiree of players." He nods his head to the right and smiles. I wish I could be that mature after losing a game. He probably did go easy on me though, he was distracted, at least.
"Oh no... I'm not a strong player. I'm probably not a lot of things." I say, meekly. I'm afraid of a lot of other humans paying attention to me, it freaks me out. Their gazes are like little daggers digging into my skin. Maybe that's a bit of a weird way to approach making new friends. I should try being more confident.
"Actually, yeah. I wouldn't mind joining your club. It'd be fun, it's a good way to kill time, and it's not like I'm doing anything else anyway." I say after changing my immediate reaction due to the strangers looking at me.
Maybe being confident is just faking it in the face of adversity.
Charlie: "Oh, well that's great then. It's not like we're expecting you to enter tournaments or anything. We don't even play chess that often." He says while pointing to Claire.
As though he knows exactly what Claire is going to say, she chimes in.
Claire: "I love Dungeons and Dragons! And I'm always the DM! I'm the best DM, you'll see, I'll show you the ropes and everything. I'll bring you a character sheet tomorrow, or the next day. Or maybe even the day after that. I'm forgetful and have no sense of object permanence and may forget this conversation within the next 10 minutes, but Charlie will remind me. Right, Charlie?" She says while looking at him with puppy dog eyes.
Charlie: "Oh yeah, you know I'll always be there to make up for whatever shortcomings you think you have."
Claire smiles at Charlie.
Charlie: "Oh right, that's Claire, she has a... interesting way of living her life to her fullest. And Anna is the one helping her with her English homework, the guy who says stupid things to Claire is Josh."
Josh: "I think my personality is much more than just "The guy who says stupid things to Claire".
Claire: "Hah. Aren't you though? You big jerkface." Claire says after punching Josh in the arm.
Josh: Shut up coffee frog girl. Oh right, your coffee's done, it finished while they were playing.
Charlie, pointing to the corner desk at the furthest end of the room: "And that's Kelly, he likes to draw and play whatever game we're playing."
Kelly picks up the picture off his desk, it's an anime character. A female anime character, with large breasts.
He smiles lightheartedly and lifts a thumb to us.
Charlie leans in closer to me and whispers into my ear:
"Between you and me, I don't know how he became a part of this group. He just sort of showed up one day, and he only talks in Japanese. But he can sometimes be a good boardgame player, and I also feel bad that no one likes him." He says wholeheartedly.
What a nice guy, taking in the stray outcasts. I hope he doesn't view me like that.
I pull out my phone, as a way of showing a pressing urgency, maybe I missed a dinner, or a funeral, or something. At least to them, that's what they might think, I don't actually know what other people think of me. But I yell out:
"Oh shit, it's already 4:45?!" before picking up my bag and walking towards the door.
Claire looks at me and calls me a potty mouth.
"Sorry, but I've actually gotta go. I forgot I had to be home early today." I say while nudging myself quickly towards the classroom door.
I stop just short of the doorframe and look back at them and say:
"It's okay if I come by tomorrow, right? I totally can. I just have to be home early." In a pressing tone of voice.
Anna says to me:
"Oh yeah, don't worry about it. This coffee graveyard girl has to finish her coffee before Mrs. Hamon comes by in a few minutes anyway." While looking at Claire and placing her hand on Claire's shoulder.
"I'm not a graveyard!" She says while slapping away Anna's hand while Anna laughs at her.
I say my goodbyes before leaving the classroom.
Charlie tells me I can stop by on Friday, they don't play on Thursdays since Anna and Josh are busy on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I tell him I can vibe with that.
I don't actually have to be home, or rather Mom doesn't really care what I do as long as I show my face at home. But I want to spend some time at home and think about why I'm all fucked out today. Or, why I can't remember anything today?
Maybe check my text messages too when I get home.
I don't usually put myself out there to make new friends but look at me. Planting little seeds of friendship in the chess club? Boardgame club? Whatever they are, I like them.