Price Family Book Store (ON HOLD)

Chapter 3- Slow Silence

"Right, I've just sent an email to your registration tutor. He should be sending somebody to come and get you soon."

Jonah nodded and wheeled around to face the seat he'd been sat on, lazily shuffling towards it to lower himself onto it again, remembering immediately how dislikeable the discomfort they caused truly was. He sighed, slouching in his seat, his finger returning to the armrest to continue tapping on it impatiently as he wondered how long it had been. The sound of a distant clock echoed through the halls, out of sight but barely out of mind, pounding and bouncing against the walls, to his ears. Jonah counted the seconds, eventually becoming bored of that and losing count once he realized that he'd counted way more than had actually passed, his impatience pushing him to count too fast for the clock; and yet he was still waiting. He wondered how long he'd spent there and how much he'd misjudged the timing. After all, registration was still in session. Nobody had left.

Fortunately, the clock showed that a mere two minutes had passed when he spotted another teacher making his way over to the reception area. Jonah continued to stare on past him, his impatience considering him to be a teacher who just needed to pass by or a man whose business wouldn't include Jonah that day. He stopped at the reception, his feet coming to a very sudden stop as he turned to face the woman who sat there, smiling up at him. He began to speak to her, producing a gruff voice from the back of his throat.

"Morning, Mrs Barker," he began, no tone evident in his speech, even as he continued speaking, much quieter. Jonah simply watched him discreetly glancing over, hoping that his time spent just sitting there was over. This man was relatively tall with a large build to match, dressed neatly in a navy blue suit, a black shirt tucked into his trousers underneath his blazer. It brought out the skin Jonah could see on his neck and hands, his tone flushed which further accentuated his fair, blonde hair. Suddenly, the teen's eyes snapped away as he saw the man's hand moving to point in his direction. He continued looking down the hallway, trying to listen to their conversation, but they'd finished talking, and now all that could be heard from the small office was the sound of a printer. The next voice he heard was Mrs Barker's, which was noticeably much louder than the males.

"Right, here's his timetable and, um," she paused, "ah, looks like it's almost time for his first lesson anyway! Have a good day." She smiled, her final statement directed to both the male's across the desk from her.
The older man turned to face Jonah just as the teen in question turned to face him. His face was void of expression and his green eyes of interest. He suddenly flashed Jonah a smile that seemed to only tug at one corner of his lips, the man behind the grin putting minimal effort into making such an expression.

"Good morning," he began in a low voice, "I guess you're Jonah Lane?" He raised an eyebrow.

Jonah nodded, standing up and meeting eye level with this man. "Yeah, I am."

"Nice of you to join us here. I'm Mr Price, I'm an English teacher," he took a brief pause to double check the thin slip of paper that he clasped tightly between his thumb and forefinger, his eyes flicking over the sheet from behind his glasses.
"It looks like I'm your English teacher too," he then turned back to the teen, "so, I'll escort you to your first class, as it's English, coincidentally." Mr Price handed Jonah the paper, revealing the printed timetable of subjects that he'd have for the rest of the year. He briefly read over it. English, Physics, Art, Maths...

"Have a good day, Mrs Barker," Mr Price addressed the receptionist, taking a few steps back down the hallway. The large woman hastily waved back with a wide smile, Jonah following his teacher down the corridor to his classroom. His steps echoing as the sound bounced off the walls, rattling through the lockers on both walls as they continued to walk.
As they did so, Jonah noticed students leaving their registration rooms, heading to their first full classes of the day. Every so often, the teaches leading him would stop a teen, asking them 'is that the way an adult should behave?' or 'slow down! No running around.'
Jonah sighed.
They came to a set of stairs, taking slow steps up as Jonah watched other students going the other way, accidentally making eye contact with a girl who looked too old to be a student, wearing quite inappropriate and revealing clothing and too much makeup. He listened to some conversations between the other boys in school, understanding their slang and conversational topics, trying not to sigh as he heard their exaggerated laughter as they showed off to each other, gloating about girls or sports. He sometimes saw a shorter boy or girl, walking alone as they clutched their belongings close to their chests, as though their smaller frames were a result of successful attempts at becoming small and unnoticeable by the more intimidating students.
Finally, the two reached a classroom, outside which a crowd of other students gathered, Mr Price stopping just outside the door. He addressed them all in a loud voice as he lay a hand on the classroom door handle.
"First lesson has started, everyone!" He called out, Jonah looking around at everyone around them, "get to your classes now. My lot, in after me." He gestured towards the door, the crowd dispersing, leaving a few other teenagers standing outside.
Mr Price entered the room first, gesturing for Jonah to come in directly after he did. As other students filed in, the dark haired teen stood by the desk at the front of the room, the blonde teacher looking around as his eyes narrowed, watching his classroom almost fill.
"Jonah, you go and sit over there, the second row back," he pointed to the far end of the room.
The desks were split up into neat rows, large enough for two people to sit at together, side by side. The walls were white, boards around the class covered with different coloured paper, covered in students work and different literary techniques to use in writing, many of them filled up with their main subject matter. Jonah disappeared into the wave of students still walking in. As he sat right beside the wall, he heard Mr Price talking to students as they came in, the most obvious things he said was a much louder and (as a result) resounding sound of him calling, "Connor, let me speak to you quickly."
The dark haired boy stared down at his desk, tapping his finger against the wooden surface, the sound fading into the loud chatter emanating from the other people sitting down around the teenage boy, taking their places at their desks. He looked up at the board at his side, seeing the large header at the top reading; 'Poetry', followed by a lot of works done by students, techniques to use while writing and the names of famous poets. He sighed, looking back down. Suddenly, he heard Mr Price's voice again but didn't get the chance to listen before he saw somebody sitting directly beside him at their two-person desk. His hair fell curly and messily down to his slightly broadened shoulders, falling over his defined cheeks that brought out the pale complexion of his skin. His skin tone accentuated his eyes; bright green and wide with interest, his neat eyebrows curving nicely above them, leading smoothly into his nose that was small but slightly turned up at the end, all followed by his lips, that he noted were very light pink. As he sat down, he gave Jonah a smile, which was returned as the new boy somehow recognised the boy who sat down beside him.
"Hey," the stranger said to him, his voice hushed to a whisper, "you don't mind that we're sitting together right?"
Jonah shook his head, still smiling back at him.