The repeated scratch of pencil on paper filled the room, the sounds melting together as a faint buzz that hardly registered in Annie's ears. She kept her head glued to her own worksheet in front of her, her eyes refusing to dare drift upward even as the monotonous tension was broken by the amused voice of her calculus teacher.
"Would you look at that. I'm officially out of work for you guys today." He said with a theatrical level of surprise coating his voice. "You've got from whenever you finish that worksheet until the end of class to do whatever you want—within reason." He paused before adding, drawing a few laughs from the audience of students who were quick to turn their attention away from him.
The squeak of shifting chairs and idle chatter replaced the previous ambience upon the news of their freedom. Annie's grip tightened on her pencil. Free time was the worst. Nothing to do—nothing upon which to anchor her attention, no excuse to stay quiet. She raised her gaze briefly, eyeing the three girls at her table, all of whom immediately leaned in for a conversation at Mr. Bellis' words as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Annie kept her eyes glued to the worksheet ahead of her, scanning over the questions she had long since answered. She pretended to review the pages even as they blurred before her.
As the chatter continued around her, she decided to pack away the paper like the others, fearing it had been too long to remain natural. Stowing away her folder into her bag, she kept her gaze down, pretending to inspect her hands. Her wrist itched where the loose fabric of her sweater rubbed against it. She scratched at it, feeling it drag against her skin as her sweater was pulled out of shape. She quickly tugged her sleeve back down, the motion feeling awkward as she did so. What if someone saw and thought she looked weird? Her fingers froze, returning down to her sides as she eyed her surroundings once more.
The noises around her grew sharper, chairs scraping rough against the tiled flooring, conversations overlapping as shrill laughter erupted in short bursts. The air felt heavy on her chest, her silence feeling more and more noticeable in the midst of the noise. Her gaze drifted back down once more, fixing on the frayed edge of her red sweater. They could be staring at her right now, thinking she was weird for being so silent.
Her pulse quickened, but she still didn't dare lift her head to check. It was as if an invisible force kept it down, resisting the urge to take any kind of action.
A voice cut through the fog of her thoughts, a tone and inflection that registered in her mind as a question, jolting her upright as if the weight was never there. Her head snapped upward. Across from her sat a girl—short in posture, boasting long, black curls of hair which sprung from a showy purple bow. She was staring straight at her, the shadow of a smirk curling the corners of her lips. Annie's stomach dropped.
"Sorry, what?" The words drifted gently from her mouth. Her voice coming out far softer than she intended, quiet enough to surprise even her, barely audible over the chatter that filled the room.
The girl leaned back in her chair, her smirk coming to fruition as she spoke. "I said, just wondering when you're gonna stop silently judging us and say something, new girl."
The other girls giggled loudly, the eruption of laughter crashing over Annie as her chest tightened. Each beat of her heart seemed louder than the last as their laughter seemed to be directed straight towards her.
The bow-haired girl's gaze lingered, her eyes narrowing in on Annie before she spoke again. "Love the shitty Christmas sweater, by the way," her voice dripped with playful sarcasm. "My grandma got me the totally same thing. But I'm nowhere near brave enough to actually wear it."
The laughter came again, somehow even louder this time. As the laughter slowly faded, it gave way to silence, heavy and awkward. Annie's hands automatically gripped chunks of her thigh as heat rushed into her cheeks. She wanted to respond, to say something. She tried to swallow, but her throat felt thick. She vividly felt the thick saliva coating her throat, holding down the words she couldn't find to respond.
She felt her hair slip forward, a lock of hair falling over her right eye. And though she desperately wished to push it back into place, she simply couldn't move. Her arms felt frozen at her sides. 'What the hell is wrong with you?' The thought failed to dispel Annie's immobility.
The bell rang.
The sudden alarm was abrupt, surprising, and sounded like heaven to Annie, breaking through the heavy air to provide her with a lifeline. Chairs screeched back to life as students stood to gather their things. The girls at the table quickly moved to follow the rest. Annie moved on autopilot, fumbling for the strap of her bag as her body loosened up once again. She quickly zipped her bag shut before turning to stand from her seat.
"Hey."
She flinched at the voice, her gaze floating upward to catch the bow-haired girl who stood beside her desk, looking down at her with an expression Annie was too jarred to place.
"Don't take it so seriously," the girl said, her tone light yet laced in what Annie perceived as a heavy sarcasm. "It was just a joke."
She didn't smile, speaking in a flat tone. For a moment, the girl's face blurred in Annie's vision, giving way to another one imposed over it—blue eyes flashing with cold amusement and lips curled in a chilling sneer. Annie's chest tightened, memories of anxiety cutting up her stomach and her moistening eyes coming to her in brief flashes. But when she blinked, the image was gone. Leaving only the bow-haired girl looking down at her.
"Yeah." Annie answered flatly with a smile, choking out the word before the girl turned to leave, her gaze lingering a moment too long before doing so.
Annie sat still for a moment, staring blankly at the door as students from the next period slowly made their way inside. Her hands had yet to relinquish their grip of her jeans; her knuckles ached from the strain. She let out a shaky breath as she muttered.
"What the hell is wrong with you…?"
The school hallways were a moving swarm of bodies and overlapping voices. Annie kept her hands strung tight around the straps of her bag; her gaze pointed downward. Each step choreographed, deliberate—avoiding the off-chance she'd bump into someone like it'd kill her if it did. She made as little noise as possible, though it'd hardly make a difference in the abhorrently loud cacophony of sounds around her. She walked while hugging the walls, her shoulders hunched forward in a subconscious attempt to make herself smaller.
Snippets of conversation rushed past her ears as she moved, fragments of jokes and gossip she was unable to stop her brain from processing.
"…she actually said yes…"
"…That's why I frickin' hate group projects man…"
"…Jesus, that sweater—"
Her head snapped up as her chest tightened, her gaze fixing on the source of the voice. Two girls held their hands up to their lips, as if to stifle a laugh. Their gazes, however, were fixed tightly on the screen of a phone one of them held while the pair giggled.
She quickly returned her gaze to the hall ahead of her, quickening her pace as her eyes darted nervously ahead. A brief glance to her left caught the gaze of someone headed in the opposite direction for a moment too long. Her heart leapt into her throat, tearing her eyes away before silently reprimanding herself.
It was a long few minutes before she finally reached the door to Caroline's office. Her hand shot out ahead of her to twist the knob before she quickly ducked to the other side. Shutting the door firmly behind her, she took a long shaky breath of relief with her eyes locked shut as she slumped against the door.
The relief didn't last long—the memory of her frozen silence in class just a few minutes earlier surging to the forefront of her mind. Her stomach twisted as she cringed internally. She nearly punched the air around her in an attempt to fight off the memory.
"UGHH" She was unable to stop herself from letting out a low, guttural grown as the memory replayed in her mind. She reeled from the mental anguish it brought her.
"I'm impressed with your passion for that door, but please, keep a cork in it while you have an audience."
Annie's eyes shot open, and she straightened up almost immediately. Across the room, her gaze found Cairo sitting lazily on an office chair. Out of place for where it was located just behind the large, black grand piano.
"What… what are you-"
"And what the hell are you doing here, by the way?" He cut her wavering voice off too easily, his voice flat and absent. He didn't bother to lift his gaze from the sheet music he studied. His dark hoodie and sweatpants caused him to nearly blend into the polished black of the grand piano in front of him. His foot tapped idly against the pedal of the piano as he spoke.
"I…" Annie started in anger before hesitating. Her chest suddenly filled with a mix of apprehension and fear as she remembered what Caroline and her had done last week. Though she was sure he hadn't recognized her, she couldn't shake the fear that somehow, he knew.
There was a long period of silence before Cairo finally lifted his gaze to look at Annie. If it wasn't for the warm glow of the tungsten lights overhead, Annie might have believed his eyes were totally pitch-black. It was only the soft reflection of the orange hue that revealed the obscure brown accent of his iris'.
"Oh, I get it." He said suddenly in the same flat tone. "You're worried that I know."
Annie's pulse spiked as Cairo's words seemed to pierce right to the heart of her worries.
"Don't worry," he continued. "Though I definitely don't understand it—love comes in many forms, I won't tell anyone. It'll no doubt be tough for you two, especially given that he's right out in the hallway like that, but if you sneak in after hours, it's not impossible."
Annie blinked, confused. "What…?" She squinted her eyes.
Cairo simply gestured towards the door behind her. Annie moved forwards, turning to look for a moment at the door before returning her gaze back to Cairo who no longer bothered to look back. She was torn between relief and irritation.
Suddenly, the groom-to-be swung open with a sharp squeak of its hinges. Annie stumbled forward as Caroline swept into the room in a swift gait. The cheerful white of her Christmas sweater shot past Annie in a blur, its red and green accents standing out against the muted tones of the hardwood floor and beige walls. Stopping only once she'd reached her desk, Caroline dropped a large folder bundling what must have been hundreds of papers onto her desk along with a dramatic sigh. The mug at its side wobbled precariously, oozing a drop of the dark brown liquid over the rim and onto the wood below.
Caroline voiced her complaints over something related to her workload as she continued to unpack the contents of her purse onto her desk. Annie couldn't help but glance at the mug that was splattered with bright, messy colors. It resembled a kindergartner's art project, though Annie was acutely aware that Caroline had made it herself.
"Alright!" Caroline suddenly said with all the volume of a joyous elf. She seemed to finally be done arranging her desk.
"Annie, dear. Please make your way over here." She called out suddenly, beckoning Annie towards her.
As Annie maneuvered her way awkwardly towards Caroline, Cairo watched the interaction with confusion, his eyebrows knitting together in a frown.
"Dear…?" Cairo muttered to himself before seeming to have come to an epiphany as his expression stretched in shock. "Oh my god, Caroline…" He started, the shock only growing comically on his expression as he spoke. "Is she… your kid? Did you… finally get married?" He asked, and Caroline seemed to wince at his words.
"Caroline Aspern, the most notorious single I know…. Got married?" Cairo muttered to himself loud enough for the two girls to hear, clearly doing so on purpose. Annie felt Caroline's grip over her shoulders tense as he did so.
"No no no, that's not possible." Cairo muttered again, bringing his hand to his chin as if he was pondering deeply on the revelation. It seemed he had no intention to retire his shocked expression anytime soon. "And right on the cusp of thirty years old…" Cairo glanced at Annie "No, she's too old for that. It must've happened a while ago. A love child or something… The father must have taken her and left all that time ago—I mean, not that I blame him…"
"Cay…" Caroline interrupted his incessant mumbling, wearing a plastered smile that seemed to be holding back the end of the world. "Yeah?" He replied, gazing up at her with an expression that looked like one wrong word from stretching into the smile he was holding back. "It's Ms. Aspern… Not. Caroline." She spoke coldly.
"And it seems I never got around to introducing you two properly. Silly me!" Caroline said, her voice changing rapidly enough to make her previous words seem like a dream. "Annie, this is Cay. My student and star pianist." Caroline began as Cairo's eyes homed in on Annie in anticipation. "And Cay, this is Annie. My… Niece…" She spoke the words slowly, her eyes imperceptibly narrowing in on Cairo to gauge his reaction.
It didn't disappoint, his face contorting in fear as he realized the two were actually related.
"And Cay," She continued, her tone sweet but barely concealing the malice underneath. "I believe you were supposed to have shown her around the school?" Her eyes curved into crescents, but they were too sharp.
*Ahem* Cairo coughed dryly after a moment of silence. "Yeah, about that…" His eyes darted away, avoiding Caroline's piercing gaze as he laughed nervously. He didn't dare to try and explain as his eyes drifted toward Annie who heartlessly averted her own.
Cairo seemed to curse under his breath, the words directed at himself more than anyone else as he straightened his relaxed posture under Caroline's glare.
Annie couldn't hold back a thin smile that pulled at her face. She almost couldn't believe it as she found herself in the first ever moment she had been truly glad to have Caroline as her aunt. Of course, that was only until Caroline opened her mouth to speak again.
"Don't worry," Caroline cut Annie's celebration short as she spoke to Cairo. "There's a simple solution to this problem. You'll just have to give her the full tour of the entire school!" Caroline announced with gusto.
Both Annie and Cairo's faces contorted in what was visible panic and annoyance respectively. "What!?" The pair shouted in unison, turning to share a brief awkward glance before Annie quickly turned away from Cairo's gaze.
"But that'd take forever Caro- I mean, Ms. Aspern." Cairo groaned, correcting himself immediately in an attempt to be as polite as possible. "You can't be serious."
"Oh, I'm very serious," Caroline's retort came quickly, her tone remaining infuriatingly cheery. "Though if you don't feel comfortable doing it right now, it's nothing a week of practice on freshman guidance duty won't fix!"
Cairo winced, muttering something else under his breath as he seemed to contemplate his options. It wasn't long before he relented, slumping back into his chair with a blank look in his eyes. "Fine."
"Aunt Caroline!" Annie whisper-shouted to get her attention before continuing. "It's really fine! In fact, I don't even want him to-" She was silenced promptly by a stern gaze from Caroline. As she opened her mouth to voice her objection once more, Caroline's gaze only sharpened.
"My choice, my ass," Annie muttered under her breath, crossing her arms as she made out an irritated glance coming at her from Cairo's direction.
"Excellent!" Caroline clapped her hands together, the bright smile returning to her face. "Now, run along, you two. I have so much work to do today."
Annie sighed mournfully, seeing Cairo had hardly dragged himself halfway out of his seat. It was going to be a long day.