white boys (river phoenix)

22

Chapter Twenty Two

(Monday). English class was set up differently, meaning that instead of the chairs being set up at tables, they were set up with desks in rows. Mr. A had placed printed photos of the students' IDs from seventh grade on each desk, indicating where they would sit. Robin's, which had had the location changed and the ID number updated, was from her primary school back in Georgia, with her white polo shirt and khaki pant uniform, her hair tied up in a big bun. She sighed at her unibrow and pimple-clad skin and flipped the photo over on its backside once she reached her desk. However, she was only met with despair- the backside was another copy of the photo. She made to crumple it up, but Feldman swiped it as he walked along her desk.

"Very cute, very innocent," he jeered, stretching out the picture like it was a dollar bill. Robin rolled her eyes at him and reached her arm out in her chair, trying to get it back from him, but to no avail. He stopped looking at the picture for a moment to look at Robin. She had her hair straightened and it went past her shoulders, and on her shoulders lay the sleeves of a blue denim dress which used to belong to her mother sometime when she was a teenager. She wore black flats and had a few vintage jewelry pieces decorating her body too. "Oh, Robin, you look nice. Didn't notice till now. Who are you all dressed up for, River?"

"You wish," Robin sneered, not bothering to correct Feldman and tell him she was actually dressed for an interview, the thought of which had been prowling her mind since she woke up that sunny morning.

Shortly after, River, wearing circular grey glasses and a blue sweatshirt, walked past Feldman and snatched the picture out of his hands.

"Stop being an ass, Feldy, man," River rolled his eyes, looking at the photo himself. "Hey, you look cute in this picture, though."

Robin scoffed,

"Shut up. I hate you both. Equally."

"She actually loves me. I know you two are like head over heels in love with each other, or at least you are with her, River," Feldman snickered.

"Can it," River scoffed. He lingered around for a while trying to find his assigned seat, until he realized he would be sitting behind Robin. He groaned from his stomach when he saw his school ID, stuffing it quickly into the back pocket of his jeans.

Unfortunately, Corey walked in right on time to see him stuff it into his jeans, and avoiding his assigned seat he made a detour to where River was standing. From behind him, his small hand slapped his ass and simultaneously snatched River's student ID from his back pocket. River scoffed indignantly as he felt Corey's hand against his butt and saw that he was holding the crumbled up print out of River's student ID. Corey held it up, revealing River's doe eyes and chubby cheeks to the entire class. Robin chortled to herself and cooed towards River,

"Aww, how cute."

"Shut up," he murmured, hiding his face.

The bell rang moments later and Mr. A sauntered into class, shades riding low on his nose and his dress shirt untucked in his navy blue work pants. She noticed his disheveled state and raised her eyebrows, avoiding eye contact with him and looking down, her pen grasped tightly in her hands. The whole class went eerily silent, watching him shift around quietly and place his coffee cup on the table, readjusting himself. He cleared his throat quite loudly and then looked up, assuming eye contact with his students. With a convincing smile, he announced his presence, which could not have been easily ignored, or could have been completely ignored due to the sluggish way in which he was moving.

"Good morning class."

"Afternoon. Last period," Stacey coughed under her breath, emitting chuckles from the others in the class.