Learn To: Exist

after zero

If there was one thing James hated more than noise, it would probably be disruption. And that was followed by insolence. And after that would probably be Edith. But of course, he could never let her know.

“Everyone needs to fail once in a while, Diths.” He told her, trying to be careful with his words.

Shrugging carelessly, she turned to look out the window. They’ve been best friends long enough to know that there’s nothing awkward about picking a booger in front of the other person and there certainly wasn’t anything awkward about not talking. Neither of them felt obligated to fill the still air around them with unnecessary words and chatter. James really liked the peace. It wasn’t often that Edith decided it was time to stop talking and he treasured every second she did. Sure, he liked her friendship and her company, but sometimes she just didn’t know when to stop talking.

There was a soft buzz coming from the hallways. Bustling with activity and student population, the hallways were a stark contrast from the quiet and somewhat eerie detention room Edith and James were in. At the back of the room, you would find a large, horizontal bulletin board covered with various notices of detention timings and different class schedules pinned up on it. The colour scheme for the room was simple - brown desks, grey chairs, and walls lightly littered with patchy white paint. The only natural colour to ever make its way into that dreary room probably came from the light of the sun, but on a cloudy day like that day, not even the sun’s rays could penetrate the thick glass of the detention room’s windows, to rid the room of its gloomy ambience.

It wasn’t long before James heard the click of the detention room’s door. Within a split second, Edith was up and pushing the tables back to their original places while attempting to tie her hair up at the same time. The metal legs of the tables screeched in protest when Edith tried pushing them back all at once, causing James to let a small yelp of pain out, a result of getting his skin caught between two desks as they were hurriedly pushed around, before composing himself once again. She scrambled about for a bit, slightly flustered by the sudden change of events but soon found a seat near James and sat down just milliseconds before the door was swung open. It was actually quite a miracle that the one coming through the door didn’t hear all the noise.

The two were greeted by the familiar sight of their discipline mistress. Mrs Raj entered the room in one swift motion, her heels clacking against the floor tiles and her perfume diffusing throughout the entire room, mixing with the air particles that surrounded all three of them.

It was a mixture of musk and vomit, very delectably appetizing (not). Edith wasn’t quite sure whether or not it was time to speak but the stench made it practically impossible to think.

Walking to the centre of the room, Mrs Raj folded her arms and stared directly at Edith, before briefly glancing over at James.

“You’re in sixth form and yet you’re acting like Year Sevens,” she shouted at the top of her lungs, her unusually  deep voice bellowing and shooting right through them as she spoke, as if her voice was an arrow shot at them by the world’s best archer. “I don’t care who started it, and I do not care why. I will not allow or tolerate this kind of behaviour in my school.”

Mrs Raj paused and Edith took it as her cue to look up. She wished she hadn’t when she saw the look on her face and James saw it too. He knew better than to keep staring.

Mrs Raj was a mixture of three things:

Frustration, rage, and irritation.

It was mostly rage, though. It wasn’t the first time Edith was sent to detention because she was ‘voicing out her opinions’ to the other students in school. Just last week, even after two compulsory sessions with the school’s counsellor, Edith was at it again.