collarbones

11 ~ buddies

Anna trudged into school that Monday dreading the day ahead. She had double maths in the morning and what’s worse was the fact that she had an exam in the very first lesson, which she’d been stressing over during the weekend.

With stress, came consequences.

She’d eaten too much to deal with the pressure – the food became her comfort and in a state of weakness Anna had devoured most of the contents of her food cupboard at home.

The biscuit packets got emptied slowly over the course of the day as Anna had eaten straight from the packet, continuously going to the cupboard and snatching another biscuit in a state of weakness. Her mother, sensing her state of leniency, began to whip up the meals that were full of carbohydrates and that Anna tried her hardest to avoid. She couldn’t blame her mother, though. She was just trying to help improve Anna’s health.

However, when she measured herself on the scale this morning and saw that she’d gained a pound, her senses buzzed alive and Anna felt as if she’d had a bucket of water thrown over her.

Anna had no time for luxuries.

She couldn’t slip again.

Thus, that morning instead of studying she’d been researching how to lose weight efficiently and had drawn up a mental plan of everything she wanted to do. Anna felt a headache coming over her as she thought of the mental list which seemed to grow as she’d researched further into it.

Anna had the urge to write it all down and it was so strong that it grew into a need that burned through her relentlessly. She needed to feel in control of the situation; she needed a list she could follow.

She didn’t have the time.

She didn’t have the time to continuously research into dieting because of her exams.

She didn’t have time to follow those strict diet plans and exercise regimes because her mornings were spent catching up on the sleep she’d lost the night before.

She didn’t have the time to worry.

Yet she did it anyway. She clung to the stress like a child would to their mother, as it was the only thing she had an ounce of control over. It was the one thing she could predict, the only thing that remained constant throughout the continuous disorganisation that made up her life.

It was sad, but it was Anna.

“Morning, buddy!”

Anna froze in the entrance of the classroom, scanning the room for the source of that increasingly familiar voice. Her eyes finally found Trent, who was sitting at the back of the classroom as he leaned his chair back against the wall. She walked towards him, sitting in the empty desk beside him.

“What do you mean by ‘buddy’?” she snapped bluntly, not in the mood for pleasantries.

His eyes glinted with mischief as he smiled at her cheekily. “I mean-”

“Good morning everyone!” Mrs Piper called as she strolled into the classroom. Anna grunted in disapproval. She was in form time at her school, not a lesson, where general announcements were made and the register was taken. Anna sat in her chair patiently as everybody’s names were read out and notices were delivered, before turning to Trent swiftly once the class began to dissolve into conversation once more.

“Spill,” she commanded.

He cleared his throat. “It seems, Belle-”

“Don’t call me that,” she interjected.

“-that you miraculously got assigned as my buddy to help me adjust into Harverdson High School,” he informed, continuing as if she hadn’t spoken.

Anna narrowed her eyes at him. “Cut the crap, Trent. New students are allowed to pick their buddies,” she chided, “so this was certainly not a coincidence.”

Trent smiled and for the first time Anna noticed that his teeth seemed to be immaculately straight and white. “Why are your teeth so nice?” she blurted involuntarily.

He chuckled. “I was just born a beautiful angel,” he claimed.

Annabelle stared at him dubiously.

“I had braces before I came here,” he confessed.

Anna clicked her tongue in agreement. “Long live the NHS,” she proclaimed and Trent nodded in agreement, before his grey eyes lit up as he seemed to recall something.

He reached into his bag and brought out a white piece of paper as he leaned forward and placed it on Anna’s desk.

It was a timetable. Anna felt dread – and a little excitement – fill her as she read what was there.

“Now I don’t know about you Belle, but I’m pretty sure that we have nearly every class together,” he revealed, chuckling slightly as he did so.

Anna smirked. “I didn’t know you were that clever, Mr Davidson.”

Instead of protesting like she expected him to, Trent leaned forward even further as he slowly slid the timetable off her desk, so that his face was directly in front of her own.

“I guess there’s a lot to me that you don’t know then Miss Summers,” he retorted as he kept eye contact.

Anna sighed shakily, hyper-aware of the truth behind his words.

It was going to be an eventful year.