"With that we conclude our unit on special integrals." The advanced mathematics teacher ends her lecture just minutes before the lunch bell.
I tune out the rest of the teacher's words- she's droning on about the upcoming national entrance tests for university admissions to keep the class occupied until the period ends, but I have more important things to worry about.
I'm worn out after staying up most of the night writing up the joke of an archival audit that Dad wanted me to have ready by morning. After that, I spent a couple of hours tinkering around on Devin's mobile phone- I deleted all the questionable chats after carefully taking a copy of them as well as the deleted history, changed the MAC and IP addresses, inserted an undetectable bug to tap in to the phone's data in the days that followed and shamelessly scrolled through his personal chats with Madison looking for tea which I could use later if the need be. After that I think I passed out for around forty minutes before my blaring alarm rang and Dad came up to check if I was ready to go for my five mile morning run on the beach.
Gamal did keep his word and sent a draft copy of the official version in the early hours of the morning but even seeing the faint surprise and amusement in Dad's expression wasn't enough to brighten my day.
My eyelids flutter, and I lay my chin on my palm, not realising that I've dozed off until my chin slips and I feel my face free falling in the front.
Nathaniel, who's sitting in the seat next to mine, breaks my fall with one hand and steadies me.
"Careful, Ariya," he whispers gently, "You'll hurt yourself. Just try to stay awake for a minute more until the bell rings and we can get you to the restroom so you can wash your face and freshen up."
"Yeah, ok." I mumble, "More than a splash of water on my face, I need adderall to help me focus at this point."
I blink my eyes rapidly, inhaling deeply. But the moment I stop, my eyes begin to close of their own accord. Sighing, I lean to the side until my head hits the soft edge of Nathaniel's shoulder and burrow my face into the soft and warm woollen fabric of his signature dark grey turtleneck.
He stiffens in response but I'm enjoying the warmth too much to tell him to calm his tits. He begins to protest in quiet whispers but is cut off by the shrill bell that signifies the end of the period.
I feel cool, slender fingers brush a strand of hair out of my face carefully. I smile leaning in a little.
"Ariya?" Nathaniel calls out gently, as the rest of the students hurry out of the classroom to enjoy the seventy five minute long break, "It's time to wake up. You will find yourself feeling more exhausted if you do not eat something now."
"Just a couple of minutes longer. Please Nathaniel, people don't mind it if their friends sleep on their shoulders." I mumble.
Figuring out that I wasn't planning to stop clinging to his warmth, he relaxes just a bit.
"This is odd." Nathaniel surmises aloud, "No one has ever used me as a human sized pillow. But I suppose it's rather common within tight knit friend groups. Are you comfortable?"
"Hmm." I smile at how sweet he can be, "Maybe you can run your fingers through my hair? That would be amazing."
Immediately, his shoulder becomes stiff under my head and he shifts slightly so as not to throw my head off because of his movement.
"I umm–"
Giggling, I lift my head and shake my head and rub the sleep out of my tired eyes.
"Chill sweetheart, I was kidding." I laugh, as a deep flush settles on his tan face.
Pinching his cheeks lightly, I get to my feet quickly and sling my book bag onto my left shoulder with ease and say, "Besides, I definitely don't have the luxury of time to take a nap just because I pulled off one all-nighter."
Fluffing my hair a bit, I inspect my reflection for a moment in the glass window a few feet away before pulling Nathaniel behind me as I make my way to the exit.
He gently shrugs off my hand, "I can walk quite all right by myself Ariya, thank you."
Scoffing playfully, I stride towards the cafeteria in long steps.The quicker I can get some caffeine and food in my system, the better it is for both of us. My body protests- my stomach and head hurt because of those blasted cherry vodka shots I had at Jordan's birthday party and my limbs feel heavy because of the lack of rest afterwards. But I have no choice but to drag myself on until he end of the day.
A pair of girls walking past us, wink at me and mouth get that D girl!
Jeez! Is that all that comes to peoples' minds if they come across a tired looking girl walking a little funny if she has a broody, handsome boy with her?
But I decide to play along, pretending to act shy and smiling coyly as we cross them for the sake of our cover. Maybe I'd stop getting at least half a dozen phone numbers a week and borderline creepy pickup lines on my mostly inactive Instagram account, if people believed I was hooking up with someone else already. And maybe also garner Nathaniel some street cred along the way.
As we turn left to enter the large hallway leading up to the cafeteria at Wolfrock Secondary, a large man in matching nylon tracks with a matching headband and a writing pad in hand stands talking to the school counsellor animatedly.
I stop abruptly, squinting at him suspiciously. Firstly, bright tracksuits were so outdated. Secondly, our P.E. teacher was a wiry young woman with a penchant for neon sports shoes and matching whistles. Thirdly, no high school student would be caught dead with their parent arriving at school to flirt with the fifty year old counsellor lady during the lunch break because that was just plain scandalous.
The mop of dark blond curls falling outside the constraints of the head band looks familiar.
"Is that Mr. Merde?" Nathaniel asks simply, "He looks peculiar out of his usual monochrome attire, doesn't he?"
My thoughts exactly.
"Oh god, I really hope this isn't the surprise Gamal was talking about yesterday." I mutter under my breath, frowning.
Huffing, I grab the sleeve of Nathaniel's turtleneck and turn backwards to move out of sight before Merde notices us.
"Why are you acting odd, Ariya?" Nathaniel quizzes me in whispers, heavily setting his foot down which makes it hard to pull him behind me, "Is there anything I must know? Does having Mr. Merde here make you feel uncomfortable?"
"Yes," I roll my eyes at his stubbornness, "Now follow me."
Unfortunately, Phineas Merde is a multiple star agent despite the fact that he loves to pretend otherwise. We probably stood no chance of passing undetected the moment we entered into a fifty feet radius of him.
"Hello students," he smiles pompously at us, extending his hand forward to shake it with either of us, "I'm Coach Carrera. I'll be head of training for all the organised sports teams for the boys."
I contemplate, stalking past Merde and into the cafeteria, pretending to not have realised that he was addressing us since we were the only students when he introduced himself. But Nathaniel seems to be on a completely different page than me.
Wiping his palms on his fitted black jeans, Nathaniel takes a step forward and shakes Merde's hand firmly and gives him an uncertain smile, "Good afternoon sir, I suppose you're here to take up the much needed coaching of the high school soccer team before the final inter school games when the varsity scouts start pouring in."
"Yes, that's exactly why the principal was so eager to take me on." Merde nods grimly in response, like high school sports is the most divine of all Godly interventions in human lives, "Do you play, boy?"
I stand rooted to the ground, unimpressed with their obvious joke of a conversation. I mean if this was Nathaniel's idea of being funny, no wonder most of his friends and acquaintances were close to retirement.
Narrowing my eyes, I whisper, "What are you doing here Mer—"
"Coach Carrera." Merde completes with a smile.
"Right, Coach Carrera." I bite out, flashing a fake smile.
Great! Another pretence to play along with.
"It's great that the school finally found someone to completely revamp the soccer team in their last year of high school. Anyway I'm running late to meet a couple of friends so I'll have to run, but it was lovely meeting you. Nathaniel, will you be coming or should I meet you before the next class?" I say quickly, eager to get away.
As if it wasn't enough having Dad babysit us at home all day long, now we had one to watch over us in school too.
Frowning slightly, Nathaniel nods goodbye at Merde and falls into stride with me as I march into the cafeteria in a hurry. He slows down when he realises that I don't mean to wait in line. I walk up to the front of the food counter line and swipe my mess card on the payment console.
"Excuse me you can't fucking cut the line like—" the boy whose place I usurped begins to push forward in protest just as I pick out a green salad with sprouts and a tetra-pak of flavoured vanilla bean milk.
I turn around to glare at him, boldly placing my palm on his chest to restrict from throwing his weight around.
"Fucking peace out, Bruce Banner," I cock my head to one side, "That kind of attitude just oozes loser vibes. And honestly, you might as well enjoy my presence and admire my ass because you can totally trust me when I say you just ruined my day."
He stares at me with a disbelief, actually taking a moment to run his eyes up and down my body.
Yuck!
Before he can say anything further, I shake my head and say, "Right buddy, that's enough now. See you never!"
I blow a mock kiss at him, ignoring the annoyed whispers of the people in the line behind the boy as I saunter towards the large glass door that leads out onto the edge of the sports' grounds of the school premises.
"That was extremely rude of you, Ariya!" Nathaniel follows me out into the spacious compound outside the soccer ground and onto the bleachers lining the left length of it.
Shrugging, I set my lunch packages down on one of the plastic seats and rummage through my tiny fanny pack for my sunscreen and splatter a generous amount on my hands, neck and face. I may be moody, but I definitely wasn't negligent about my self care.
"Sorry daddy." I reply sarcastically, sitting down and opening the packed salad and milk, "Anything else I can do to please you?"
He sighs, shaking his head.
"Why are you acting like this?"
"Like what?" I ask, feigning innocence.
"You have been behaving unusually jumpy for some reason since we met Mr Merde." he sits on the edge of the chair with practised grace, "And you're acting rather entitled and unusually rash."
Ignoring him, I pick up a forkful of greens and beans and stuff them into my mouth. I'm too exhausted to deal with this conversation right now. What I really need is a nice nap, maybe some ice cream and a long bath.
"Didn't you say you were hungry?" I ask after a short bout of silence, holding out my salad and milk box towards him, "The least you could have done was pick up your food before following me out. I'm not stupid enough to step out of a thirty feet radius of you."
Nathaniel politely declines, clasping his fingers together and placing his hands in his lap. Probably because I'd already taken a couple of bites and he was too prissy to eat with the same fork.
"Like I said, I am worried about you and I would quite appreciate it if you told me what is bothering you so."
"Nothing much," I wave my hand, "It's stupid and I'll get over it don't worry. Want some milk? It's unopened."
"No thank you, contrary to the snack company's claims, it's got a lot of artificial sugar and is loaded with preservatives."
"Right, ok." I roll my eyes, taking a long sip, "Your call."
Honestly, I know that was being a complete brat but it made me feel in control temporarily. This side of my personality was more of a coping mechanism and only resurfaced when I didn't get an outlet to channel my frustration and fears.
Seeing Merde outside the cafeteria switched something inside me. The six hours of school was the only time of the day when I was free to do whatever I wanted without someone constantly monitoring my actions, expecting me to abide by a certain set of rules. It was the only time when I felt Nathaniel and I were somewhat equal, that I wasn't merely a part of the ruse designed to protect him and that I was completely replaceable.
Merde's presence in school was also a symbol of Dad's decreasing level of trust in my capabilities and it really hurt to think about it. And this wasn't something Nathaniel was going to understand so I didn't even want to bring it up.
Swallowing hard, I gaze silently at the lush green expanse of the trimmed grass of the soccer ground. Wherever it was slightly wet because of the water sprinklers, the sun's rays bounced off in the prettiest way making it look like a sparkly patch.
Suddenly, something zooms past my peripheral vision at an alarming speed. I sit up straight, instantly alert as I scan the area carefully.
There's nothing unusual.
I blink a few times, frowning slightly as I stuff the remaining part of my lunch into the serving package just in case when a miniscule object flickers beside the top of one of the sprinklers. It hasn't focused on us yet and is still scouring the area.
"Shit!" I hiss under my breath, realising what it is.
I push Nathaniel down to the floor and pin him there with the back of my hand. Our position sends a million thoughts barreling through my mind when I find that he's staring at me with something I've come to recognise from his expressions. Trust.
"Ariya—"
"Not the time to be flustered," I whisper, "I just spotted a mini drone down there- a surveillance drone mostly but we cannot allow it to find us alone out here. Now, when I give you the signal, I want you to roll under the seat there and jump into the space behind the bleachers so we can hide until the drone flies away."
Nathaniel nods grimly, waiting for my signal as I remove my hand.
Once we're safely behind the bleachers, I unpack my lunch again. The flavoured milk is no longer chilled, it's become warm now but I chug it down anyway.
"This is bad." I sigh, my eyes fixed on the small flickering red light of the drone to make sure I don't lose sight of it, "They're getting closer to us. I don't care how we do it or what means we resort to, but we have to figure out the master key to the nuclear reserves before they do and decide they don't need you anymore."
"I agree." Nathaniel responds in a clipped tone.
Silence settles between us, the air around us weighing down on us because of the increased tension.
Slowly, I pick up my fork to finish the rest of my salad while we waited. I'm about to put a forkful inside my mouth when Nathaniel asks quietly without looking my way, "Could I—uh, maybe get a bite or two?"
A soft giggle escapes my lips before I can banish it and I nod.
"Hungry, are we now?"
He nods his head once, stiffly, turning red as I hand him my box.
"Gosh, you don't need to be so embarrassed!" I stifle my laughter, "It's perfectly all right for friends to share their food and eating my food isn't going to somehow turn you into a plebeian like me."
"If you're done," Nathaniel groans, "I'd like to eat now."
•><•
It's so cute to see Nathaniel slowly adapting to the plebeian life ahhh!
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