Two Birds On A Wire

ch 06

Ivan sighed for the umpteenth time as he impatiently drummed his fingers on the desk. The english teacher stood behind her desk, reading out the lesson from the textbook.

She almost sounded like a broken radio giving out inaudible noises. No one could understand a thing she said. And almost everyone in the class were already asleep. Only a few bookworms had their eyes and ears wide open.

Ivan looked at Julian and saw the boy being busy with filling his notebook with doodles of pandas.

Ivan raised an eyebrow. "Pandas?"

"Hm?" Julian looked up at Ivan, his face looked as if he had just been woken up from a deep slumber.

"Why pandas?"

"I just love them" Julian shrugged, looking at his book and then back at Ivan. "Ain't they cute?" A grin made its way onto his face, immediately making Ivan smile too.

"Yes, they are"

"Wanna know something funny?" Julian asked, propping his elbows on the desk enthusiastically as he moved closer to Ivan.

"What?"

"Pandas would have no idea what to do with their partner until humans teach them all about it" Julian smirked at the expression his statement brought to Ivan's face. "Also, if they were left without supervision for even a little while, they would go around doing stuff that would probably get them killed. That's how dumb they are"

Ivan opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again. The information was so new and strange to him.

"You are not exaggerating, are you?" Ivan made a questioning face, only to earn an eye roll from Julian.

"Why would I?"

Ivan gasped out of disbelief. "How could they even be real?"

Julian chuckled. "I know, right?" he moved away and went back at doodling. The both of them sat there, Ivan watching Julian doodle, as their english teacher, the broken radio, went on with her boring poetry class.

She was what made Ivan realise that even poetry could be a nightmare if it wasn't taught by the right person.

"Did Johann find himself a girlfriend or something?" Julian asked out of nowhere, his eyes still fixed on his book. "I mean, he's being constantly spotted with a girl lately"

Ivan made an amused face. "I never realised you were one of those paparazzi guys"

Julian rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't know, but the girls tell me everything. I even know of who slept with who and who has a crush on who. Chicks love me, bubba"

"As a friend" Ivan stated, just to get on Julian's nerves and Julian mock blabbered.

Ivan chuckled. "Yes, Barry already has a girlfriend"

"Who's Barry?"

"I found the name 'Johann' way too tiring to spell. So I call him by his middle name. I mean, of course I shortened it" Ivan shrugged.

Julian hummed. "Too bad. All the girls would be jealous now"

"I dunno. It's not like they are officially a couple" Ivan shrugged and Julian made a scowl.

What was this guy going on about...

Ivan heaved a heavy sigh. "Like, one day, she says she likes him. The next day, she says she doesn't. But Barry is head over heels fallen for her that he would even --" Ivan stopped himself abruptly in the middle of the sentence and Julian raised an eyebrow.

Ivan bit his lower lip. "Never mind. It doesn't matter anyway"

Julian watched Ivan's face make a frown as he fiddled with his fingers. He could tell something wasn't right. And he wanted to make sure everything was okay.

But who was he to ask him about something he didn't wanna talk about? They just met a few days ago, and it just doesn't give him the right to pry into his life.

"Well..." Julian started to speak, but was interrupted when the school bell rang in an annoyingly loud voice.

"It's P. E. Let's go downstairs, come on" Ivan got up from his spot and made his way out of the classroom, along with the other boys in the class.

Julian just sat there with his eyebrows knotted together.

Since when was he so interested in sports?