Safety Pins

Monday 8th November

 Dear Noah,

    A slither of sunlight cracked my eyes open that morning. I got ready for school quickly and was left with forty-five minutes to spare, so I grabbed the calculus homework I'd been given the previous Friday and tried to concentrate. For reasons unknown (sarcasm, Noah: you were gorgeous and I was a teenaged girl), I couldn't seem to stop thinking about you and your empty eyes. You had seemed about my age, and I wanted to know if enrolling you at Thomson High was something Madame Reena had done prior to your unexpected arrival.

    Penny made her own arrival to my driveway known through two short beeps, followed by a teeth-grindingly long honk. Ever since she'd gotten that car in junior year, she'd taken it upon herself to draw the neighbourhood's awareness to the fact that yes, her car horn worked; and, much to her oblivion, the neighbourhood took it upon itself to tell her where exactly she could take her horn.

    I shut my calculus book with relish and grabbed my phone. I had a message from my mom, explaining her absence (business trip, yippee), but nothing else. I slipped my bag over my shoulder and opened the door. Billowing clouds cottoned the sky and bellowed down to me—gray clouds and gray shouts for a gray girl (all before you).

    Penny beeped again, so I shut the door and closed the distance between her beloved car and my pounding feet, and clambered inside.

    "Have you done the math homework?" she demanded, the second I sat down.

    "Yes."

    "Shit."

    I pulled the safety belt over my body and clicked it in place. "It's not in until Wednesday," I told her.

    "You could've started with that," she muttered, passing me a half-eaten bagel and reversing from my driveway.

    I laughed and took a bite and watched the houses blur into one.

*

After a laggard of a lesson, I found myself in the lunch line, queuing behind Jasper. He was pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes closed to the racquet of the cafeteria.

    "Why does it have to be so loud?" he sighed. "Do they not realise how detrimental this noise is to my general wellbeing?"

    "I'm sure they don't," I replied. "Why would they be so loud if they did?"

    "Shut up," he said, moving up in the line. He pulled a hand through his caramel hair, toffee eyes glinting. "Have you seen that new kid?"

    "Yes."

    "Quite the looker, isn't he?"

    I was in some purgatorial state of wishing, in vain, for my blush to die out before it blossomed across my cheeks whilst simultaneously wondering why I was trying to kill it, when an icy laugh echoed through my head. I turned to see who was letting loose such mirthless laughter and was more than surprised to find it sliding its way from your pale mouth.

    "What's he laughing at?" Jasper asked. I shook my head, unsure, taking in the rest of the school's reaction as the cafeteria hustle and bustle simmered to a low, stationary hum. Everyone was watching you. Everyone wanted to know what the hot new boy was mocking.

    I couldn't see who or what had provoked you, and before I could twist my view around the boy's head blocking it, you had turned and left; your shoelaces trailing after you an imitation of the jaws of those around you. 

    The room returned to its raucous state soon after. Jasper and I paid for our lunch and located Penny at a table in the middle of the floor. Words were spilling from her mouth in an uncontrollable projection—the kids surrounding her were having trouble taking hold of each, individual syllable as she squashed them all together just to spit them out in time. We sat opposite her, stifling her word-vomit for just a moment.

    "Diduseit?" she asked.

    "We heard him laughing," Jasper replied, "but we couldn't see who at."

    "It wasn't who. It was one of those display boards—he was just standing there laughing at it!" she squealed.

    I frowned. "What?"

    "He's still super hot," she continued, oblivious to my question. "I mean, that was super weird, but kind of... super mysterious. God, I hope he's in one of my classes."

    I opened my mouth to take issue with her, but she turned back to the rest of the group.

    "Do you think she'll be that superficial forever?" I joked. Jasper smiled briefly and turned back to his sandwich.