Recycling Bin :)

Chapter Two Part One

The small hand on the clock ticked by as the teacher droned on about some topic of some sorts. I wasn't even quite sure what class this was. The last time I had gone to it was a little over a month ago, at the start of school when it really mattered and teachers called home. The best was seeing the shocked faces of the class when I walked in with a late slip in hand. The other thing was that one of the faces in the class I actually recognized. Catherine. 

She was sitting near the back of the classroom by the only empty seat when I entered. When her eyes met with my own, I could still see the petrified look in them. A look that said, "Please don't sit beside me" and it hurt. It really did. I didn't know why, or how, but it really did hurt my heart to see her look at me like that. I hadn't even known my heart even existed still if it wasn't for the small pulse in my wrist. 

So, I really had nowhere else to sit other than the seat beside her. It was that or leave and go find Evan somewhere at the back of the school. Seeing her was really making me want to light up to calm down. To stop feeling. But I was already here and I knew it would cause some rumours if I left during class. There was already enough circling about me. 

Here I was, though, sitting quietly beside Catherine who kept eyeing me fearfully. Like I was going to jump out and stab her. 

She shuffled her chair another inch away from me; the chair was practically in the other aisle of desks. She seemed determined to get away from me though. The teacher, whose name I couldn't for the life of me care to remember, noticed now and scolded her for a moment before telling her to push her chair back into the desk. Catherine literally gulped- I heard it- before moving the chair back into the desk. She kept her eyes down on her paper before glancing back up at me through her eyelashes. My heart jumped a little bit when I found myself staring into her eyes. They widened in fear as I stared right back.

“Mr. West, Ms. Peters, is there a reason you two are still in my classroom?”

We both jumped and looked at the classroom. I noted that it was completely empty. The bell had rung for lunch about a minute earlier, and we hadn’t even heard it.

Catherine jumped out of her seat and ran to the door, only to have Ms. What’s-her-face stop her.

“Ms. Peters, a moment please,” Ms. What’s-her-face called from her desk where she was perched on the edge like a hawk ready to swoop down on its prey. She did have quite a bird-like nose.

“Yes?” Catherine spun around to face the desk with a bright fake smile on her face. I snorted quietly and gathered my bag up off the floor before wandering towards the door.

“Not so fast, you too Mr. West,” Ms. Bird-looking-lady called. I spun around lazily and raised an eyebrow beneath my hair. I could’ve sworn she looked the slightest bit afraid of me before she cleared her throat and focused back onto Catherine.

“As both of you were too entranced with each other to hear the last few minutes of the lesson, I’ll tell you what you missed,” She sighed. I almost rolled my eyes- like I was going to come to this class again on Thursday.

“We are going to be doing a short unit on the soul of poetry and I expect a poem about your life from each of you on Thursday. Quinn, if you do not show up, you will most likely be failed in this course and I’m sure you don’t care- but your mother will. Catherine, I expect you to do your work as usual, but maybe give Quinn some advice as you are the third best student in the class,” Bird lady advised. The class must’ve been English, I concluded.

“Are you threatening me?” I asked her with a small disbelieving smile. Her eyes widened ever so slightly before she nodded curtly.

“You better show up,” She snapped. “I don’t want the taxpayers’ money to go to waste on you. You better pass this course.”