It's past lunchtime, and I don't find myself hungry, although my stomach hurts and I'm starting to feel a little off and sick. Right. That explains it. Perhaps my period is coming to arrive.
Crap. Please, not now. For the love of life, I have never found the sight of thick, red blood oozing out of me appealing. Honestly, I find it horrendous, and the feeling isn't that great either.
The bell ring doesn't go off but my phone alarm does-indicating it's time for another class to start. As usual as it seems, it's a boring day. Nothing new. The lessons still don't interest me, nor do my teachers make an effort to convince me they're entertaining and they're actually teaching something that can save the world.
Just talking in front of everyone doesn't help reduce noise pollution, at all. It contributes to it and that causes children's death because of suffocation, lack of fresh oxygen, and too much carbon dioxide these 'teachers' are giving off. If only college interests me, I'd have kicked ass doing all the projects and passing them before someone could, and I'd be more studious. I'd be sure I'd graduate. But everything just seems to tire me out and I want something new. Some say, wanting something new makes the person dangerous. Does it? What if we only wanted change? Something that's unpredictable to happen but it's way interesting?
I'm currently looking outside the window, watching a bird make a nest when the deafening voices of my classmates pull me out of my thoughts. I turn to the doorway where I see half of Smith going out of the classroom. Since she's not around and everyone is making a mess, I go to the other corner where Aaliyah is-currently busy sketching a face, with her glasses on. Those glasses make her narrow Asian eyes even narrower. I wonder how she can still see herself sketching with those eyes. Lenore sits next to her, playing with her phone. She's talkative when she plays. I'm almost at the peak of intense annoyance of listening to her complaints and screams such as, 'Hey, move! Move!', 'What are you doing, sucker!', or 'Why are you so dumb? This is nuts, we're losing!'.
I guess my essay tells the truth.
I see Christine cutting paper on the floor, trying to get Aaliyah and Lenore's attention by talking to herself. Christine is one of the gossip girls who acts like she's a very diligent student who likes to show off that she's actually doing something.
She notices me. "Oh, hi, Riley."
I scrunch my nose a little. I nod at her as I lean my back against the wall.
"No one's helping me with this goddamn project. My group mates are just ignoring me and this."
I shrug. I pretend not to have an idea of what she said despite the fact I'm one of her group mates. But doesn't she know that already, and is that why she's complaining to me right now? And if not, then telling her only makes me help her.
"Yeah, people are lazy." I hear myself for the first time today. Keeping my mouth shut almost makes me forget how I sound.
She nods as she agrees. I can't believe how stupid she is to not realize it.
I turn to Aaliyah and look down at her drawing. She always nails every page. I tuck both my hands in my white hoodie pockets as I study her work.
"Who's that?" I ask her, doing my best to sound interested, but my voice still sounds monotonal.
"Uh, my boyfwend, Adam." She answers in her cute, high-pitched voice.
"That's nice."
She frowns at my thought. "Well, there's a mistake. It distracts me."
One quirk of Aaliyah is that no matter how small her eyes are, she can see the microscopic mistakes in her drawing or in you.
For me, the drawing looks perfect. It kinda looks like the actual picture of Adam that came out of a printer.
Lenore takes a quick glance on the sketch, leaving a comment. "Nah, it's perfect, Aaliyah."
She also wears glasses not because she's got eye problems but a part of her so-called fashion. It's almost unimaginable to find how she could see how the drawing looks in a very slightest second of looking at it, and still positively assures there's no flaw in it. What a sight.
Aaliyah hastily switches from a pencil to an eraser with her right hand. She continues scribbling. "Really? You sure it's not visible to the naked eye of a human, or am I just really an alien?"
It's almost her favorite phrase as she keeps saying that as if she thinks she's not one of us.
Lenore pinches her lips to form a thin line. "I never lie to you, Aaliyah."
"Great. Anyway, Have I told you Adam is coming tomorrow?" She looks up at me with excitement in her almost thin line eyes. She keeps her child-like voice with a child-like accent.
"No." My voice is almost cracking.
"And I'm so excited because we're finally going to see each other! Isn't that amazing?" She speaks in a chipmunk voice, high-pitched and rapid.
Every time we have a chit-chat together, she never fails to bring Adam up. I shrug. "Good for you."
"Aww... Thank you..." Says she, her focus is on her drawing again. "... Also, I drew this as my gift for him. So, it should be perfect, but there is a major mistake and I think he would hate it."
She frowns again. She's almost at the stage of throwing a tantrum now.
Lenore clicks her tongue, rolling her eyes at the same time. "How many times do I have to tell you? There is no mistake, and it looks great."
"You said perfect earlier!" Aaliyah squeals.
"Fine! It looks perfect."
Why are they arguing in a loud tone again?
"Aww... Thank you." Aaliyah's voice goes back to her normal childish one.
Nothing interests me in this corner anymore, and I've already seen so much detail in Aaliyah's drawing. So, I decide to go to the boys' corner, where they're right behind the girls. Mark, Ronnie, Josh and Claude playing with their phones are also very talkative. Except for Claude. I never heard him say a word ever since we knew each other. Kirby and George are only watching them.
They see me coming.
"Hey, Riley!" Kirby shrills, waving his hand.
Kirby doesn't have a phone 'cause his mom is too broke to buy him one. I let him borrow mine at times when he gets bored. Claude only eyes me, then goes back to his phone without saying a word. And he doesn't know how to talk so it's understandable for him to not even try to.
"Hey, Riles. Heard about Ysa and Katy coming over tomorrow?" George speaks while his focus is still on the game.
"No."
"No one told you?" Mark adds. His face is almost covered by his curly, thick hair by dropping his head down so much. He's almost breaking his back.
"No." I answer.
Mark scoffs. "Well, you never care."
I shrug at the thought.
He adds. "Patrick and Jay are gonna be with them."
"Big sis?" I turn to Josh as he calls me. "You got homework in Math? I forgot to do mine last night."
"It's in my backpack."
He pronounces a gasp. "So, is it a yes?"
"No." I kid.
"Aw, man."
I roll my eyes. "Why would I tell you my homework's in my backpack if I said no?"
His face forms a huge smile. "Yes! Thanks, Big sis! I'll pay you back, I promise."
Josh has narrow eyes like Aaliyah, since he's from Japan, too. He has tan skin and his hair is smooth. I secretly like his hair and I usually rub it with my fingers. He does anything I tell him to do whenever I feel like not doing anything myself or because he doesn't have a choice. He considers me as his elder sister. I tried to tell him to stop calling me Big sis because it sounds like I have a responsibility to take care of a younger sibling but he never listens.
The people inside the classroom are increasing the volume of their voices. This must have concerned the other rooms because Miss Smith comes back to scold us. Everyone shuts their mouths while quickly going back to and arranging their respective seats. I get back to mine as well.
Smith's voice echoes across the wide room, pointing her finger at us. "You know what, guys? Your voices just reached the ends of this building. There are other classrooms having their own classes, and I just left because I have other things to do and all of you just started causing chaos. This is the hundredth time, class. Don't you remember rule number 3? Don't be too loud. You can talk to each other, but not in a deafening volume. You're disturbing the other classes. To make things better, you should also do your tasks as I leave you once again. Do that, or I'll have you punished."
She walks out again, and everyone else starts browsing their notebooks as if they're going to do what they're told. As footsteps fade, their voices increase volume. The ones who were once on their phones pick their devices up and start scrolling and tapping. I sigh.
I also get to my phone.