The Song Of His

8. She wasn't as courteous as me to use witch

'I was sleepwalking, I'm a sleepwalker,' that was what my mind had kept repeating since morning.

"And then he walked into the show room," Lavinia was busy with the narration of her own fantasy.

'it wasn't harmful to health, right?' I picked the first book from my locker letting it click shut behind me, 'no, I don't think so. Children do it all the time.'

"And the hostess was like 'Oh My Frigging Fudges'!?!" Lavinia's voice reached my ears but nothing was making sense.

'even chickenpox is harmless for children but fatal for adults,' my brain pointed out giving me shudders.

"Then Louis sang the song he has yet to complete."

'but sleepwalking is not as same as chickenpox, right?' I frowned at the thought.

"Carlene! Are you even listening to me?" Lavinia whined grabbing my attention, away from my disturbing thoughts.

"Yes, of course," I lied with a nod, not wanting to break her heart.

Smiling cheekily, she continued, "his new song is going to a sensational hit!""

I had started to bloody sleepwalking here, oops, pardon my french but my best friend over here was adamant to make me listen to her gossip about her favourite Rockstar's new song that was yet to be released.

Friends, I tell you...

I was glad that we came to stop at the corridor where I and her had to part ways. Don't get me wrong, I loved my best friend but at times like these she didn't know what to talk or when to stop.

"Then, I will continue during the lunch break!" She waved at me before skipping her way away towards her class.

I turned around to almost bump into someone.

"What the-" I looked up to find Duncan slightly waving his hand sheepishly saying 'hi'.

"Duncan," I greeted as he looked over my shoulder at the retreating figure of Lavinia's as he said, "she looks pretty happy this morning."

I rolled my eyes at his words as I stepped aside from him to restart walking towards my class, "tell me about it."

But then I stopped when I found the one I was hoping not to bump into today, on the other side of the corridor. He was alone, standing away from the crowd. His eyes, though I couldn't see their unusually vivid green color from here, were trained on me. Observing every little movement of mine like a predator. The air felt weird, like it was charged with electricity. Even though the entire corridor was bustling with students, it felt like it was only the both of us who were here, in an empty school, or even the world. We were in a staring competition with each other from across the hallway. While trying to figure out the answers to all the unasked questions.

I couldn't help but recall his words from the previous day. 'what do you think I am? Or a better question would be, would you want to find out?'

Did I want to find out?

The answer was simple: yes.

But was I able to ask him about it.

The answer was simple again: no.

But why?

Now the answer turned complicated: I really freaking didn't know!

'I can be your most beautiful dream or your worst f*****g nightmare.' What did he mean by that? But one thing was for sure, it all depended on my decision. And he had confirmed it too by saying, ' One word from you and all will be over.'

"Carlene?" Duncan's voice broke my staring competition where none of us were winning by any means.

"Huh?" I looked up to him who had a confused expression on his face.

"Is everything alright? Did I miss something?" He looked around at the fast moving crowd and the chatting groups of students trying to find an answer only to end up being more confused than he already was.

"Nothing, let's get to the next class," I bent my head down, for not wanting to look up just to get lost in another staring competition with West. To my luck, I couldn't even let my hair act like the curtain because I had tied my hair up in a high pony. Unlike my regular letting-my-hair-down style.

I groaned on realising that it was Mr. Stanley's class. The only subject that sucked all my enthusiasm at once.

"What? Don't you like some math?" Duncan asked as he headed towards the chair that he had been regularly sitting for some time now.

"You wish," my reply was as dull as my mood while I dragged myself to sit behind Duncan.

Only one request from God: please don't let Mr. Stanley to conduct a surprise test!

Not trusting my fate, I took out my algebra book and started to revise his recent lessons. From the corner of my eyes, I watched West walk into the class to sit on the empty chair on my right. It had sort of become his place for this year. I shook my head and tried focusing back on my lesson.

It took me about four minutes to read and understand five words in the first question. And all the fault was of the pair of eyes that I felt burning on the side of my face. Involuntarily my eyeballs rolled towards my right, letting my irises get a side glimpse of green Adonis. And as I had anticipated it, he was boldly staring at me making me gasp at his openness and immediately avert my gaze back to the book.

Finally, Mr. Stanley entered allowing me to release the breath I didn't even know I was holding.

"Okay class, sorry I was late. We were called for an urgent meeting informing us to let you know that the chemistry lab that was under renovation is ready to be used. So, all your lab periods that you used to get substituted with chemistry theory, will now be your chem laboratory. In fact, some of your Chem theory will be substituted with the lab," Mr. Stanley started to explain making everyone groan out loud.

One more class on our schedule wasn't definitely something that anyone of us were keen for.

"Any other questions before we start the today's class?" Mr. Stanley asked placing his hands over the table for support.

One hand in the front of the class went up. I recognised that guy, well, everyone sort of did. He was nicknamed as N square, abbreviation for Nerdy Nelly. Who was actually named Nelly Kincaid.

"Yes Mr. Kincaid ?" Mr. Stanley cleared his throat.

Nelly pushed his starwars framed specs up and asked, "Mr. Stanley, when are the labs going to start?"

"Right from today," Mr. Stanley's toothy grin left a scar on my brain. I was positively sure that none of the positive thoughts were going on his brain at that moment.

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

"I hated algebra," Duncan grumbled under his breath as everyone got up to walk out for the next hour of torture.

Usually, I would have agreed with him but after the last hour, I couldn't say much. And the reason? I felt West's stare more torturous than Mr. Stanley's boring class. Most of the time, I felt his eyes burn at the side of my face. And I knew it really well that it wasn't my imagination. Of course, I didn't dare to lock my eyes with his. My heart double timing me by pounding like a professional drummer was enough for me, that I wouldn't risk of staring back into his eyes and go all blank and puddle before the entire class.

"What do you have next?" Duncan's voice got me out of my trance for the second time for the day.

I took a second to process his words before replying, "C-chemistry, chemistry lab."

"Oh my, you unlucky soul!" Duncan shook his head as he announced proudly, "I have arts. Enjoy yourself in another tiresome class."

I rolled my eyes yet smiled a bit and waved him bye as I walked towards my locker before heading over to the new chem lab. The old one had been destroyed when some seniors of ours tried to have some fun and mixed some wrong chemicals. Thankfully, they had enough sense of making it out of there before the entire lab caught fire. The responsible students behind that incident were found and expelled from the school.

As they said: as you sow, so shall you reap.

That was what they had coming for them.

Sighing in resignation, I entered the new chemistry lab. It still smelled of fresh paint and cement. New stock of chemicals were stocked on every tables' racks. Some of the other students had already taken up the seats by the tables. To my dismay, I didn't know anyone of them personally.

Mr. Knowles stood at the front of the class making sure nobody did anything stupid. I took the nearest seat available on an empty table. As the second bell went off and a lot more students poured in, Mr. Knowles came to stand before us and started with the introduction like the first class of every subject, every year.

"Is everyone here?" Mr. Knowles confirmed making everyone look around the class once, including me. My eyes widened when they found West sitting at the last table. This was the second class that I shared with him. He was staring at the chemicals before him but as if been called, he looked up to meet my eyes. And immediately I averted mine.

"And before we begin with this class. Let me tell you, you all will have to submit a project at the end of the year. The project will be done in pairs. I give you liberty to choose your partner but in case if it gets down to quarrel, I will be assigning your partners-" Mr. Knowles was yet to finish when one of the girls in the back squealed and asked almost jumping in her seat, "Mr. Knowles! I would want to be partnered with West Zervos."

Gasping in reply, another girl from the table on my left shouted, "what the hell witch!?! West is my partner!" Well, she wasn't as courteous as me to use witch. Her word had started with a 'b' instead.

"Stop it both of you!" Mr. Knowles looked horrified at the two girls who had their claws out for a catfight.

"Yes, Mr. Knowles is right! Stop it both of you!" The cheerleading queen, Christine Bourne stood up and spoke in her high pitched voice.

"You should have known it by now that none of you stand a chance if you behave like this. Don't act like elementary schoolers!" Christine added before turning towards Mr. Knowles and continued, "you don't worry, Mr. Knowles. I will explain them both about it. West would need a more studious and reliable partner, since he joined the school late. Nearly half of the term has gone by. I will take care of him-" Mr. Knowles cut her words off as he turned towards us, "oh yes. Ms. Bourne is right, in that sense. Mr. Zervos will need help to cope up with the syllabus, mostly the theory part that we will be applying practically."

He looked around at all of our faces before stopping at me and asked, "who are you choosing as your partner, Ms. McLeish?"

I was taken aback by his question as I looked around the room. There was no one here I could call as my friend. No one who would want to willingly become my partner.

"Still thinking about it, Mr. Knowles," I shrugged giving another glance at the room to halt at West for a second longer but just for a second longer.

"Alright then, Mr. Zervos shall be your partner for the chem lab. You are good at chemistry, at least better than all the others over here." Mr. Knowles cast a pointed look at all the three girls who had wanted to become West's partner.

"But Mr. Knowles! That's not fair!" First girl cried out.

"Ms. Winston, I hope you remember me telling that if there are any clashes, I will be the one who will be deciding the partners. Or were you so irresponsible to miss hearing that? But I kept my words whether you heard it or not," Mr. Knowles crossed his arms across his chest in finality making all the three girls to glared daggers at me. Like it was all my fault that West ended up becoming my partner!

"Now now, will you be deciding your partners or shall I decide those too for all of you?" Hearing Mr. Knowles words, the other students quickly finalized their partners.

As the last two pair were formed, Mr. Knowles announced, "you can sit with your partners so that we can start with our activities for the day."

I didn't know if I should get up and go back or sit where I was sitting and wait for West to come here. Anyway, my heart had sped up, beating furiously inside my ribcage. Risking a glance in West's direction, I found his eyes already trained on me. He nodded his head as if asking me to join him.

It was clear, he wasn't coming front but rather calling me back to sit beside him. Not finding any other option, I exhaled through my mouth before collecting my things and walking all the way back to his table. He pulled his chair aside, making space for me to place my chair and sit.

I looked up to find many pairs of eyes looking envious in my direction. I averted my gaze to find West looking at me. He didn't utter a word, just kept staring at me. His green eyes shone for a second like the jungle behind them came to life. It was mesmerizing and beautiful to witness the activities that took place in them. The stories that they told. I was so lost in those sss green jungles that I literally jumped in my seat when I heard Mr. Knowles' voice, "So, now that everything is settled. Let's start with our lesson."