Distopia

Vending Machine

[ Minhae's POV ]

Almost all high schools have fairly large cafeterias; filled with tables and things to eat. Our cafeteria has multiple restaurants, a coffee shop, and a smoothie shop. It wasn't always like this. My graduating class used to be 234, but now it's 768. Over the summer the district redrew and concluded that Jeoyoung East and Jeoyoung West would become one school in one building.

I go to Jeoyoung East. I remember in 8th grade when they began evaluating us for placement. I didn't understand the difference between the two, so when they asked for my preference, I shrugged and said East. Some of my friends went to West, and I went to East. I thought it was just simply because I said East. Turns out, I was placed for "high understandings in literature". Supposedly, we're the "highly selected" group of kids. Then how come I'm surrounded by idiots? Last week, someone super glued all the doors shut. The same week, someone moved all the chairs into central lobby. We ended up just not having class half the week. Highly selected my ass.

But why have two schools in the first place? Don't they teach the same things? Well, no. East selects for liberal arts, healthcare, written arts, and technological engineering. Yes, you still have to take G.Ed classes. West selects for the biological engineering, performing arts, psychology, and financial management. G.Ed classes are required too. Now, we don't hate each other. We're just... very different.

So, on August 15th, the hallways became significantly more crowded. We went from five units to ten. It was insane the that day. Thank god it was a Friday.

Oh, sorry, I got off track. Our cafeteria, right. Here I sit, with my other friends. Some I haven't seen since 8th grade, some I just saw last period. My sleepy staring trance was broken when the girl next to me hit my arm.
"Minhae, are you there? See that kid?"

I looked to the short haired brunette. I blinked slowly then cocked my head to see what they were demanding me to see. Not taking much care, my head turned back, resting into my palm.
"And?"

My friends must of gotten the joke, because everyone but me was laughing. I don't understand. I don't even know if I looked at the right person.

"Give this to him" The redhead across the table from me slid across a glass bottle. The bottle was unopened, cold, and filled with a dark liquid. Why though? Maybe he had a crush on the kid? Just wanting to get to my free period quicker, I stood, taking the bottle into my hands.

"Do you wish for a message with the delivery, God Saeyoung?" I halfheartedly bowed to him, my voice full of sarcasm. He just shook his head, and covered his mouth with his hand. What in the hell was so funny? I didn't question him to a verbal extent.

I turned on my heels and walked towards the table where they beckoned me to be. The room was crowded, so I had to pardon my way through some people. When I reached the table, I turned enough so I could see where I once was. Sure enough, the group of five had their eyes locked on me. Sheepishly, I inconspicuously pointed to a boy sitting at the table. Immediately the group nodded quickly. Sighing with annoyance, I gently tapped on his shoulder to receive his attention.

You see, the last time I developed a crush on someone was in the fifth grade. Somehow he appealed to me. I mean, he was a dream boy to eleven year old me. He had black hair, blue eyes, and sometimes shared his Goldfish with me at lunch. That's as good as it got back then. This kid was sorta like that, except with more sex appeal, and without Goldfish. He had the silkiest silver hairy, falling perfectly around the edges of his face, and the rest in a pony tail behind him. His eyes could pierce through steel, their crimson and orange accents blended into something hypnotizing. I took probably half a second to realize I was standing there, in a complete state of shock. Is that why they sent me here? To make an ass of myself?