Cliché Novelty

Chapter 1

Slumped in his seat, there he was. His side profile had never looked more fascinating. I studied his broad, yet pointy nose as his head cocked to the side; he tapped his pencil rhythmically on the table whilst using his other hand to tap away at his phone, my eyes slid over to his sharp cheekbones which were accentuated by the clench of his jaw and streak of sunlight coming from the window. His beautiful chocolate skin literally glowing in that low-cut tee of his, my eyes then trailed to the tensed veins in his arms before they scanned over to his full pink lips where my eyes rested, lost in the track of my thoughts I wanted nothing more but to edge nearer to him –

I quickly diverted my gaze from the fullness of his lips to the projector in the front when I heard his pencil drop. I sat still, furrowing my eyebrows trying to look somewhat engaged in what Mr Taku was teaching like I was really taking it in. I didn’t know f*ck all, and to be honest I couldn’t care less, it was stupid, this was stupid. I didn’t even notice that my pencil was tangled in my hair until I yanked it out and it flung halfway through the classroom, I let out a small snort finding this ‘awkwardness’ somewhat amusing, before digging in my pencil case to retrieve another blunt pencil. I glanced over at the clock, three minutes and he would be gone. Three minutes and he would have had shoved his small notebook into his Hershey’s rucksack put on his North Face bomber jacket, given a little nod to Mr Taku and would have walked out not looking back, and I wouldn’t be able to indulge in his beauty until period four on Monday.

“You were staring again” Asia whispered, her eyes following him as he nodded to Mr Taku before walking out the classroom

“No I wasn’t. Was I?” I pulled a distraught face

I often did that alot. Asia would joke and say I could stare into people’s souls, what seemed to me like three nanoseconds of a stare was usually a good seven minutes give or take. Asia hated that, that I would stare and then look away and act like I wasn’t staring when I got caught.

“Yeah, twirling your pencil in your hair like a damsel in distress, oh please f*ck me Calvin” she let out a little moan before throwing her arm around me.

“Don’t even” I bit my lip cringing

“Ja! Calvin, Ja like that!” She cried out

“Don’t he will hear” I shrieked trying hard not to burst out into laughter from Mr Taku’s mortified looks.

“The sooner the better eh?” She grabbed a strand of my hair and pulled it towards her head. “Once you go black you never go back”

I rolled my eyes at her crudeness. Asia made sixth-form worthwhile. I wouldn’t be able to deal with all of these girls and boys if it wasn’t without her; I was convinced that she knew me better than anyone had ever known me, it didn’t take alot for her to plant a smile on her face she always knew the right things to say even if it wasn’t at the right time.

We walked over to the canteen where the first year and second year were already subjected in their little ‘squads’, there was a huge division between the two and I didn’t realise why until the third month in, but it made sense now, the majority of the first year squads were too pretentious and loud, especially the girls shrieking every two seconds trying to grab the attention of the boys from other groups from the second year, and the second year just thought because they were an extra year ahead of us they were more advanced intellectually and maturely than the first years – but these times a quarter of the second year were the same age as the first years.

I cringed at the large group of girls perched on the large table beside the group of boys on the table next to them, they were all a subject of clones as if their brains were cut into the same shape and size when they arrived, don’t get me wrong though, there was a small minority of the year who wasn’t wrapped up in all this drama and didn’t care for who fucked who at Marlon’s party last week, but there was a larger population who unfortunately couldn’t think for themselves and decided to put up a ‘front’. That’s all it was. A front. Me? I was just lucky to continue my invisible life until the end of the term.