Heart Strings Version 2

Heart Strings Version Two - Chapter Four Part One

‘I am… Just, you know, talking to you.’ Again she frowned.

‘Why?’ The corners of my lips turned down.

‘Because I want to.’

‘Do you get everything you want?’ she questioned. There was a pause. I scowled.

‘I can tell why you’re in this lesson.’ She was playing with my head. Funnily enough, she laughed at this. ‘Oh, so that was funny,’ I muttered.

‘Yeah, it was actually,’ she grinned, facing the front of the class as Mr. Joel entered the classroom.

‘Hey kids!’ he shouted out, and received calls of ‘Hello Sir!’ in return. ‘After registering, we’ll get straight into things, okay? So when the last name is called, silence… Is that alright?’ Everyone murmured though it didn’t really have much to do with the lesson.

As Sir began, I took to observing Persephone. How she tossed her biro from one hand to the other, sent someone a text when Mr. Joel wasn’t looking, fiddled with her candy floss-like hair, bit her lip unintentionally, rubbed her arm up and down every now and then as though she was cold, looked out of the window often, watched others in the class as I was doing to her… She was so interesting to just, gaze at. I felt a little perverted doing it, but-

‘What are you doing?!’ she hissed, annoyed.

‘What?’ I asked defensively, zoning back to reality after apparently floating off into a daydream.

‘You are staring at me!’ Persephone whispered.

‘Persephone King?’

‘Yes Sir,’ she called before turning to me again and glaring just as Mr Joel called my name out.

'Yes, Sir,’ I answered, kind of replying to both of them.

‘Why?’

‘I’m not allowed to look at you now?’ I asked wearily, masking a yawn. I’d been up late yesterday, practising a song called Not All that Ian and I had written a few weeks ago. I hadn’t gotten to playing it yet, and I’d sort of fallen in love with it. Or my guitar wouldn’t allow me to let go of it anyway.

‘I never said that, but, just stop,’ she muttered with finality. This time the yawn escaped me. Clearly this girl was not going to be spending Friday night at my house. Or anywhere else. No matter how enthralling it was to watch her.

‘Right, my dear Psychology students,’ Mr. Joel carried on. The guy was strange. ‘For the last few lessons we discussed what Psychology is. Correct?’

‘Correct.’

I looked over at Persephone and couldn’t help grinning at how concentrated she’d looked for a moment in answering that single question. She glanced at me and rolled her eyes, attempting to hide a smile. And failing.

‘So… Can anyone clarify?’ Sir asked. He nodded at someone who’d raised their hand.

‘The study of human behaviour and experience?’

‘Are you asking the question, or telling me?’ Mr. Joel smirked.

The student scowled as Sir carried on, ‘Good, we’ve spent enough time messing around people, now let’s get into it, is that okay?’ There were nods around the classroom. ‘Right, so last lesson we just touched on Memory. Can anyone else summarise that?’

No one seemed to be willing after Sir’s previous put-down.

‘Fine,’ Sir rolled his eyes. ‘Obviously none of yours are working…’ The weak attempt at humour earned a couple of titters. Mr. Joel carried on regardless, ‘I talked about Short Term Memory, –STM- Long Term Memory, -LTM- and duration… Ring any bells? No? You guys are pathetic!’ To this there were more laughs, and so the lesson trundled on.