Voices

c h a p t e r 3 : s h a d o w

I plaster a smile on my face. "Hi."

"Why were you so late?" she whispers, curious, completely ignoring Miss Karen's lesson.

"Umm..." I say, trailing off, not intending to continue.

Instead, I advert my attention to the board only to see that the board is full of chemical equations. I reach down to retrieve my notebook — with patterns that resemble creeping ivy on the four corners of the cover — from my bag and begin jotting down everything that is written on the board, deciding to make sense of it another time.

"Don't change the subject, Lou," Ria hisses.

I let out an exhausted sigh. "Fine. Well, it was them. I don't think I need to elaborate further, do I?"

Ria curses under her breath. "Dammit Lou."

I watch as she clenches her fists tightly, almost as if she was ready to punch them whenever she saw them.

"They're really going to get it this time," she mutters.

"Ria. Stop. No, don't do anything. See, this is why I didn't want to tell you. I don't want to cause more trouble that necessary," I say exasperatedly, wanting to stop any and all conflict before it even begins. After all, prevention is better than cure, right?

"But Lou. It's about time to show them who's boss. It's about time they find out that they can't just go around bullying people however they like."

I take a deep breath of air, calming myself before I got too worked up. "Please don't. Please, do it for me."

She doesn't answer.

"Don't do it, Ria. You and I both know that something like this will not turn out well."

"Okay, okay, whatever, Lou. You win," she says, annoyance thick in her voice, raising her hands up in surrender.

"Thank you," I reply in relief.

I look back down at the open notebook on my table, taking a note of where I stopped copying before seeing the board, only to find myself staring at Miss Karen, who is standing right in front of me.

"Louisa. If you and Miss Sanchez have something to say, please share it with the rest of the class. We're dying to know," she says, slightly pissed, clearly sarcastically.

"Uh... I—I'm so—"

"I'm sorry Miss Karen. We won't do it again," Ria answers, saving me from embarrassment.

"I sure hope so. Because the next time I catch the two of you talking about non-chemistry related things... Well, I don't think I need to say what comes after, now, do I, Miss Simmons and Miss Sanchez?"

"No, Miss Karen," both Ria and I murmur at the same time.

"Good. Now back to the lesson."

My shoulders sag in relief and it's almost as if a burden has been lifted off my shoulders, though, I think it's more of being glad that I'm not in trouble nor punished.

I glance at the whiteboard, ready to jot down whatever was written on the board for future reference, only to be interrupted by the ringing of the bell. I groan, slightly annoyed at myself for talking throughout this whole lesson instead of listening to what Miss Karen had to say. How am I going to catch up now? I have absolutely no time at home to revise anything.

I sweep my belongings up with one hand and open the flap of my bag, the velcro causing a loud sound to echo throughout the room, before deciding to just carry everything to my next class as opposed to keeping them, for convenience sake. On the bright side, I don't have to worry about running into any of the mean girls because Ria and I have the same class next.