Stress Relief

2: Getting Out

Thank god he was home. He nearly forgot how draining being in a classroom could be, and worst of all: he had history first thing in the morning. Declaration of Independence? More like Declaration of snooooooore.

Lunch was at a better time this year though. Like actual lunch rather than late in the afternoon when he'd be practically starving to death. Plus, he's actually seen some of the guys he met that morning in the halls. Although he never spoke up first, he would say hi when they did.

But oh, don't even get him started on Calculus. Right after lunch he had to walk all the way across the school from where he hid in the art hall to then be graced by the presence of probably the worst math teacher in history. Nothing the dude said made sense, he expected them to complete a 20-question worksheet in under 45 minutes and he never helped any students even when they asked for it, blaming them for their mistakes.

He went to the afternoon practice and talked a little more with the players his dad introduced him to, but he really wanted to leave.

It had been the first day of the second month of school for everyone else, but for him it was the first day of being in a classroom and in a school again in two years (plus one month). He wasn't gonna lie, he did not miss it. He didn't miss the crowded hallways, he didn't miss the anxious walk to class in fear of being late, he didn't miss having to slave over a desk and force his brain to pump out answers to questions he never cared about.

So anyone could guess that the moment Elijah got home he wanted desperately to fall onto his bed and take a nap. Which he would have. If his phone hadn't been ringing for the past five minutes. With an annoyed groan, he picked the wretched thing up and answered the call, not bothering to check the name.

"Who's this." it came off as more of a demand, but he really couldn't care.

"It's Matt from the football team!" Clicking his tongue he tried to put the name to a face.

Black hair? No, that wasn't right. Freckles? No, he was pretty sure Jase had that. "Uh...the guy with the chipped tooth, right?"

"Is it that noticeable?" He heard him distantly through the call. Someone answered him, but he couldn't tell what they said.

Elijah sat up abruptly. "Sorry, I have trouble with names. I didn't mean to make it sound like that."

"It's no problem. These guys took a week to remember my name when I first met them." Matt assured.

"We did not!" A few shouted.

He smiled, but it faltered as he wondered how Matt was able to call him. "How did you get my number...?" He remembered sharing to with Alex and Carson, did they share his number with the rest of the people he had met...?

There was some background noise and a different voice answered. "Carson gave it to us!" He couldn't tell who it was through the static.

"Yeah," Matt confirmed, "Me and the other guys were wondering if you still wanted to meet up? Coach has talked about you a lot during the first month of school, so we wanted to get to know this famous "straight-A shy kid" he kept mentioning." He sighed into his hand, a little embarrassed that his dad talked about him to the football team, but he did feel a sense of pride in himself that he was actually talked about positively for once.

"Did you reject Alex by the way?" a different different voice asked and the others in the car snickered when the said boy told them to shut up.

"Did I reject him wanting to probably have sex with me? Yes. I said I didn't want anything intimate right now." He smiled at the banter that had started between someone else and Alex, that someone else definitely starting it.