Lunch breaks for seniors at Wolfrock Secondary are long. Like an hour and fifteen minutes long. Students are expected to use this time not just for eating and causing a ruckus in the cafeteria, but also for staying back in classrooms and getting doubts clarified or visiting the school's college counsellor.
But the best policies on paper can turn out to be the most terribly implemented ones practically. So it wasn't surprising to note that the students of Wolfrock Secondary habitually procrastinated going to the college counsellor until absolutely necessary and spent their lunch breaks playing tonsil hockey behind the bleachers or driving home for lunch and back.
Luckily, that meant that I got a lot of time to build a poster image of myself with the teachers by staying back to talk to them every once in a while.
I wanted to leave a mark here. It was important to me, especially after the disagreeable manner in which my last school kicked me out.
"Thanks Prof. See you day after tomorrow." I half smile at Mr Hummel, my Biology teacher.
"Bye, Ariya. I'm looking forward to your thoughts on the next topic. Maybe you can read up on cloning if it interests you since it's related." He offers kindly.
Mr Hummel is passionate and used to be a pretty renowned figure in the local research horizon before he suddenly gave up everything to come and live a quiet life with his wife in this small coastal town after he hit his early sixties. Research hounds still managed to find his address and some of his fan mail and recommendation requests also reached his high school office desk. And well, I wasn't going to waste the opportunity of being in his good books. Extra cred for future recommendation letters was too hard to pass.
"I think he can tell that you're trying to kiss the ground he walks on." Nathaniel remarks nonchalantly, not looking up from his phone screen.
"I know he does, but I don't see him complaining either. Besides it can be fun, and I'm pretty sure no one else bothers talking to him anyway." I shrug.
He'd been waiting outside the classroom for me since it was awkward for him to sit quietly in class without contributing to my discussion with Hummel and we were supposed to be with each other at all times.
"Your idea of fun is far from sensible." Nathaniel says, brushing off the back of his pants as he stands up.
"I bet it's better than yours." I turn to give him a pointed look, "You do homework on Sundays and scour through your arms deals archives whenever you have free time."
"Let's just brush past this topic, shall we?" Nathaniel grunts, shaking his head.
I chuckle, pushing his arm lightly.
"Sure, why don't you what were looking at so intently on your phone while I was inside with Hummel?" I ask, curious.
"Oh, nothing of consequence." He waves it off instantly.
I pause for a second and raise my brow at him.
"Obviously, so inconsequential that you don't even want to mention what it is." I cross my arms in front of my chest.
Suddenly, realization strikes and my jaw drops, "Oh my fucking goodness! Were you watching porn off the school wifi?"
"What?! Of course not, Ariya!" Nathaniel gasps, dismayed, as he glances around the middling crowd in the hallway to see if anyone heard.
"Wow, so you know what it is. Funny how just this morning you were acting absolutely clueless about a BJ." I cock my head to one side.
"Please hold your tongue, Ariya. This is very unbecoming of you." Nathaniel whispers tightly.
I narrow my eyes and give him a weird look.
"Okay." I nod, holding his gaze as I assure in a careful tone, "But if you do watch explicit visual art in your me time I'm not going to judge. Half the boys your age usually use it jerk off."
"For heavens sake Ariya!" Nathaniel raises his voice a couple of octaves and glares condescendingly, "Voyeurism isn't of my taste at all and if you must really know, I was scrolling through Urban Dictionary on the internet so that I do not find myself at sea if anyone happens to use slang during my future social exchanges."
"Oh wow. You're taking this social thing quite seriously." I pull my lips into my mouth, holding back a snort, "Honestly, I don't know half the words on Urban Dictionary. But I guess that's good."
We round the corner and enter the wide, mostly full cafeteria.
"Right. And do not dare to shout out such baseless allegations in a crowded corridor next time. I don't appreciate it at all." He grits out coldly.
I roll my eyes. He's being unnecessarily jumpy.
"Fuck I'm sorry. I was just kidding, all right." I hold up a hand defensively, "Anyway, moving on. Madison invited us to sit with her friends and her for lunch."
"The beautiful girl in chemistry with long straight hair?" Nathaniel questions.
"Yes," I nod, "Wait, did you just call her beautiful? That's new. But like— if you don't want to go, I totally understand."
Nathaniel exhales slowly, "That's the first sensible thing you've said in the last fifteen minutes, let's go. I still have to talk to one more person."
I raise my brow, surprised, but decide not to question his choice. I half expected him to decline after the Kimberly fiasco this morning but apparently he takes his designated tasks very seriously.
He shrugs indifferently, grabbing a lunch tray and making his way to the food counter where we need to pick sealed lunch packages ourselves. He waits for me to pick up my lunch pack before I look around for Madison.
"Hey!" Madison squeals happily when we approach her table, "I almost thought that you guys bailed. But I'm so glad you're here now!"
She shifts to the side on the bench and I sit down next to her while Nathaniel pulls a chair from the adjacent table and sits on it at the head.
"Cyana, Dev and Jordan this is Nathaniel and Ariya." Madison I introduces us, "Ariya and Nathaniel, meet my boyfriend, Devin and the other two idiots."
"Don't listen to anything Maddie says," Jordan scoffs in a friendly manner, "She's always trying to overcompensate for her lack of likability."
"I think her personality is quite amiable though." Nathaniel offers, casting a smile at Madison.
I shoot him a sideways glance, one filled with genuine surprise and a hint of trepidation.
"Why, thank you Nathaniel." I watch as Madison blushes slightly, "You're quite charming as well."
I turn look at Devin who sits on Madison's other side to gauge his response to this low-key flirtation between his girlfriend and Nathaniel, but he seems blissfully unaware. He has one arm slung around Madison's waist and a bored expression as he eats his food. He's wearing a slightly rumpled red hoodie that kinda clashes with his blonde hair, and strikes me as the kind of person who replies to a paragraph long message with a measly 'K' and pretends to hate cats.
"Do you want my croutons, Dev?" Madison offers and he shakes his head.
Jordan reaches out over the table and picks them from he plate with a grin, "I don't mind having more."
Rolling her eyes partially, Madison turns face Nathaniel and asks, "So Nathaniel what do you think of this town. It must be quite different from the city you lived in."
I tune out as Nathaniel gives a shirt polite answer, before swerving onto a safer topic- surfing, I think. He is certainly turning out to be quite a ladies' man. He's polite, attractive and gives proper compliments effortlessly. He's basically a keeper and I can imagine how much of a chic magnet that can make him although he appears to be completely oblivious of the fact.
Shaking my head, I unwrap my lunch package and mix the warm tomato soup before topping it with dry croutons.
"So, are you guys coming to the beach side party this Saturday?" Cyana asks, leaning forward on the table with her elbows supporting her, "Kind of a school year tradition here. It's held late into the summer and some really crazy things happen there!"
I nod enthusiastically, urging her to go on when she looks at me. I gulp down a few spoons and use my left hand to retrieve my greens and slice of chocolate cake from the slightly crumpled brown lunch package, observing Cyana as she speaks- my gaze flitting to the others from time to time.
"Fuck yes! Last year's party was sick." Jordan smirks, glancing at Devin as he lounges back in his seat and balances his arm on the backrest of the chair he's sitting on, "My boy, Devin, got so shitfaced last year that he wanted to serenade Madison and dance with her in the waves during high tide."
Madison eyes me coyly from the corner of her eye, biting back a giggle.
"Shut the fuck up dude." Devin groans, flips him off before pushing back his hair with his hand.
"There's nothing to be embarrassed of, Devin. I'm sure Madison here must have found it mildly romantic at the very least." Nathaniel states, in a matter-of-fact tone as he dabs at the corners of his mouth with a tissue paper.
Jeez! Is he doing his deliberately?
"And what makes you think that you obviously know what my girlfriend likes and does not?" Devin retorts in an aggravated tone, cocking his head to one side, "I totally noticed your subtle attempts of hitting on her ever since you've come to this table, which clearly indicates that you don't respect me."
Wait what? Where did respect fit into this conversation?
I see Nathaniel sitting up impossibly straighter, ready to produce a counter argument in his defence. I clamp my fingers on his thigh, under the table, giving him a very subtle warning look when he gives me a quizzical glance.
"Looks like you've misinterpreted him Devin," I throw a very sweet, convincing smile at him, "Nathaniel tends to be very generous with his compliments. What he meant was that teenage boys normally have the emotional range to teaspoon and don't even know what their girlfriends like. But you do, and that is remarkable."
"Sure, whatever." Devin shrugs, indifferently.
Nathaniel purses his lips and quickly finishes his slice of cake before putting back all the waste into the brown paper bag and folding it.
An awkward silence looms over the table for a few excruciatingly long seconds before it is broken by Cyana when she brings up how the students had to go back the day after the beach summer part to clear the waste as a part of their community service requirement, and everyone joins in with stories of the all the weird objects they discovered.
"Oh my God! We found a used condom filled with shells and—"
We all laugh.
The remainder of the day flies past quickly and we're back home before we know it.
"So, Kimberly's going to be upset that you stood her up." I state teasingly.
"It cannot be helped." Nathaniel frowns, "I should have known better than to simply agree to her offer."
I snort loudly at the memory as we climb the stairs together.
"Hey, are you going to—uh, do any of your research today?" I ask hesitantly as we reach Nathaniel's floor on the way up to our rooms.
Nathaniel unlocks his bedroom door and pushes it open.
"Yes." He nods, "I will be going through a few documents. I think I have a weak ljnk. You can come by after your evening workout session, if you want."
I smile. It's the first time he's agreed to let me help.
"Cool, I'll see you then." I affirm, "Thanks for trusting me."
Nathaniel doesn't return my smile. The weirdly social and outgoing mask he was carrying around in school has disappeared. Instead he nods once before stepping into the room. He doesn't close his door though.
With a quiet sigh, I trudge up the stairs to my room in the attic and throw myself onto my bed. I let out a satisfied sound as I inhale the familiar clean smell of my bedsheets and smile, closing my eyes for a couple of moments.
I need to start working on the specialized frequency receptor which can catch any signals he might get in future and help to pin point the location of the source and if possible the insurgent group.
And I still had to complete homework.
Groaning, I bury my face into my pillow. There's so much to do and so little time.
•><•
I'm currently watching Lucifer on Netflix and I absolutely love it! Can't believe that I'd been putting it off for so long!
Please vote, comment, share and don't forget to spread the love!
I promise that the next chapter will be better. This was kind of a filler.