Splinters: Part One

Part One | 4

When the class ended, everyone got up and left the room in a hurry. Slowly, I stayed behind and packed my things with patience.

Mr. Richmond was erasing his writings on the board. I approached him behind his desk.

"Um, Mr. Richmond?"

He turned, holding the eraser in the air. "Yes."

I adjusted the strap of my backpack firmly on my shoulder and took out my schedule, showing it to him.

"I don't know how to get to, um, US G-V-N-T."

He took the schedule from my hands and smiled. "That would be United States Government."

I swallowed. He handed the paper back to me and took me out to the hall.

"You're going to walk all the way down the hall, make a right, go down that hall, make a left, and then you'll see two rows of lockers. Go all the way down that hall, make a right, and you'll reach, uh, I think it's Mr. Sanchez's class."

I nodded. "Thanks."

"Anytime."

To be honest, I didn't hear a thing he said. I mean, I heard it, but I didn't pay attention to it. Hurriedly, I made my way through the halls amongst the other students. It was a difficult process as I bumped into a few of them without even a single "sorry," but somehow, I managed to reach the door Mr. Richmond had told me, extremely late however. 

The bell had already rang, so awkwardly I knocked on the door.

There was a moment of literally nothing, just me standing there, and then the door slowly opened. Another older man slowly peered through, staring directly at me.

"Can I help you?" he asked quietly.

I stepped forward slightly. "Um, yeah, is this the sophomore US Government class?"

"Yes, and you are?"

"Um, Brayden."

He waited.

"Pierson, I guess." I muttered, trying to look inside the room. I switched my weight onto my other foot.

Realization flooded through the man. He took a step back and opened the door so that I could enter.

I glanced around the room just as I had in the previous class. I scanned the students, but was too nervous to really look at any of them. The only person who made eye contact with me was a blonde girl who was sitting in the front row. A boy with jet black hair seemed to be laughing at me as he nudged another boy with his elbow and pointed.

"Look at this guy," he smirked.

I pressed my lips together and turned to the teacher who was looking through some papers.

"Ah! Now I see, Brayden Pierson."

I stared at him, waiting for him to tell me what to do.

"We're just taking a quiz right now, so just take any seat that's available. We'll get you situated next class." He gestured towards the desks.

I spotted a free seat just in the corner and made my way toward the desk. Just as I was passing the desk of the boy who'd pointed at my earlier, my foot must've caught the desk and I fell to the ground and hitting the side of another desk with my forehead.

To say it hurt was an understatement. I felt like I had lost all consciousness for a moment and was a bit dizzy when I pushed myself back up. Laughter from the boy and some others joined him. 

"Sorry," he said to me, and I realized I hadn't tripped over a desk peg. He purposefully stuck out his foot and tripped me.

"Ow," I muttered, rubbing my forehead and resuming my footing.