Teenage Troubles (Prequel for Teenage Baby)

Chapter 10 | Aaron

The teacher left, though she kept an eye on them as she moved. The bell rang just in time. Erika hopped off the bench and stood before him, facing him square. The hint of a smile on her lips relieved him a bit.

"Gotta go to class now, we'll play later."

"Wait, sorry," Aaron said. She tilted her head. "That I don't like to play like everyone else and-"

"No, it's cool. I don't mind."

Aaron watched her leave and disappear into the hallway. Her backpack was floral-patterned and rosy, just like the color of the rubber bands at the ends of her bouncing pigtails. He stood with a sigh like a hopeless grown up then trudged to the hallway as well. The walk to his class was as mundane as the gloom in his heart had become. Something he'd had to confront everyday until it became a part of him he'd unwillingly but inevitably accepted.

  He sat close to the window because he liked to watch the sky. The sun appealed to him in a way he couldn't describe. So close yet so far. He could cover it with the tip of his finger yet it could kill him faster than he could blink. What made far things seem so tiny? Nature and its laws were contradictory. When he'd asked about it, he'd been told that he'd learn about them when he'd grow and things would finally make sense.

  And of course they would, wouldn't they? The sun never dropped down like his pen right now as it rolled off the edge of the desk. A paradox that Newton explained. Uranus seemed to defy the gravity radiating off the planets around. Turned out scientists'd missed Neptune, the cause of Uranus's out-of-order orbit.

  Aaron wondered what kind of scientist would ever manage to explain to him the paradoxes in his   head. The love and hate, the life and death, the passion and hopelessness. How could these all be in simultaneous presence? Was it normal for an eight-year-old to be torn between wanting either or wanting none? Wanting everything or wanting nothing?

The blinds suddenly collapsed, obscuring the sky and breaking Aaron's musings. He made a noise and snapped his head towards Miss Tiffany with a frown that said: why did you do that?

"Aaron, focus here. Stop looking outside the window," she chided, cocking a brow at him.

  He nodded and sighed then faced the chalkboard. His elbow dug into the cool surface of the desk, spine slowly slouching forwards. Miss Tiffany faced the board. Aaron fiddled with the edge of the copybook before him. Then he opened it on a blank page and pulled out a pencil. He dragged the tip in overlapping circles. One, then two, then three, then he had all the planets drawn down. Each in order: he could name them all one by one.

  Long fingers suddenly slid in, grasped the paper hard then snatched it off the desk. Aaron's jaw slackened but the shocked gasp never slipped. He just tipped his chin up at Miss Tiffany and watched her observe his drawing then hold it down by her jean-clad hip. The grip was too tight. Be gentle, he thought. You're gonna ruin it.

"Aaron." Her voice was sharp. "I closed the blinds so you'd stop staring out and focus, and now I find you drawing. Is it that hard to pay attention to what I'm explaining?" She shook her head, sighing. Then she looked at the paper in her hand and shook it. "What even is this? Just random circles?"

  Aaron'd been planning to remain quiet but this was a big offense. He frowned and corrected, "No, not just circles. It's the solar system. These are the planets." The edge to his voice and narrow to his eyes were a bit too conspicuous to be respectful.

"Planets?" She laughed even though she didn't mean to. Not in front of the class at least. "Doesn't seem like you focus in art class either, huh? You need to learn how to focus."