Next Up

Chapter 6

Ivy walked down the aisle of desks to the back of her homeroom classroom. Some gave her confused looks, while most didn't even glance at her. She sat down in the last row—an empty desk next to Zoe's; happy as Zoe was, she still felt nervous; her posture was in a fetal position as she tucked one of her legs under her torso, absently stacking cards in front of her, making a pyramid. 'It feels like people are staring,' her eyes flitted around the room before refocusing on the flimsy tower on her desk.

The boy sitting at the desk in front of Ivy was lying back in his chair, pretending his mechanical pencil lead was a needle and poking himself with it. He wore a long-sleeved shirt with a black torso, striped sleeves, and baggy black torn jeans. White, with messy brown hair, parts of it reflected the light as if someone dumped glitter on his head. He looked up as Ivy passed him, eyes slightly widening before going back to their lazy half-open look. Leaning over to his right, he whispered to his friend, "Yo, what's her name?"

"Huh? Who's name?"

The boy nodded in the direction of Ivy. The other kid glanced back and shrugged.

Ivy looked to the front of the class and back to Zoe; her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped, "Wait...It's summertime! Why are we in school? This has to be against some kind of law."

"What law?"

"I dunno. Maybe something about child labor? Is that a thing?"

"We have school year-round, but instead of one big summer break, we get smaller and more frequent breaks throughout the year."

"Ugh." Ivy groaned, "I hate school."

The boy in front of her turned around and smiled, "Hey, I'm Herald." Ivy introduced herself. "Ivy? Alright, I like that."

After shaking his hand, Ivy glanced down, noticing a small tattoo of an animal on it.

"What is that?" She pointed at the ink.

"Oh, this?" He held it up for her to see, "One of my friends, she gave it to me. It was supposed to be a hippocampus...She ain't the best artist, though."

Zoe looked over at the boy's hand, "I know the hippocampus is a part of the brain, but I can't remember what it does," she said blankly.

"What?" Herald scrunched up his face in confusion. "Anyways, after this, when's your next class?"

"Uhh," Ivy took out her class sheet, studying it. They were currently attending the 'core' class for their age group. Her other courses included: math, history, science, and culinary—being mandatory for all girls to take. "I don't think I have any after this."

"Ah, you're lucky. Hey, so, my next class is in the evening sometime. You tryna hang after class?" Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Zoe's face form into a blank frown.

"Yea! That sounds awesome!"

Herald grinned, "alright, cool." He said and turned back towards the front of the room. He leaned in towards his friend, "See, now that's how you do it."

His friend had a concerned look on his face, "What are you doing?"

"What?"

"She's the new one, right? She's literally dangerous. A serial killer."

"Why would she be dangerous? I mean, I'm pretty sure I could take her, if—"

"I'm just saying," Herald's friend interrupted, "that's what I heard. She's like a terrorist or something. Gonna kill us, maybe," he muttered, glancing back towards Ivy, who was drawing something on her desk.