"Oi!" a teacher points to a skinny white boy with vans. "Label the heart for me," she holds her marker to the whiteboard with a big drawing of a heart with one side red and the other blue.
It looks like I'm back inside my head again, back where I left off – Health class with Ms Halliday as our teacher.
"Actually, never mind," Ms Halliday changes her mind. "You go sit back down. Dean, honey, you come up instead."
I stare at the ground, fully lost in thought. Hopefully, my plan works and we get to the tallest building safely in the real world.
"Dean!"
I snap out of it.
"Are you off with the fairies?" Ms Halliday sticks an eyebrow up. "Having a little picnic up there, in dreamland?"
I clear my throat, "no?"
"Because it seems to me like you are, darl'."
"Say what?" I ask, a little irritated.
"Label the heart for me, hun," she ignores my slight attitude.
"Why me?" I counter, she obviously thought I wasn't paying attention – I wasn't. "Didn't you ask him to do it?" I head nod to the skater boy.
"Yes," she smiles forcefully like she wanna beat my ass now, "but now, I've asked you. Unless you didn't do your homework and don't know what any of the parts are called. Surely, you know at least one? Just one, honeybun?"
I scoff, murmuring, "please," under my breath.
"Excuse me?"
"Okay," I sit up. "You wanna do this? Let's do this then. That's the superior vena cava, inferior at the bottom. Left atrium and ventricle, right atrium and ventricle. Pulmonary artery and the pulmonary veins, of course. Aorta..is that..." I pretend I don't know, "that big one, Ms," I insinuate to something else and some boys snicker in the back. "Oh, and let's not forget about the valves. We have the tricuspid valve down there and the bicuspid valve up there. And the pulmonary valve is in the middle next to the aortic v-"
"QUIET!"
Thought you'd never ask.
"There's nice ways to do things, Dean," she mutters bitterly.
Lol, she can't kick me out 'cause I didn't do anything wrong. So she moves on.
❖
I'm in the foyer, Health class is over.
"Alright," I smack my face. "You're the captain, you can do this, Dean."
I wriggle my shoulders, loosening up them tensed muscles. I turn around and start walking. No, I can't do it. I stop and turn back around. Yes, I can do it. I take a deep breath, fuck it and turn around again.
"Dean," Ella stands right in front of me, hugging a bunch of textbooks.
I jump.
She giggles, "sorry."
My crush.
"I.." I begin to speak but seem to choke on my words like an idiot. "I.. You.. We.."
Wait a minute. No one, and I mean, no one will know about this if I fuck up. It's all in my head, right? Say less because I can just use this as practice so that I can ask her out in the real world. Fuck yeah.
"What do you say you give me your number and we go out on a date sometime, pretty?" I lean my arm on the lockers next to me, then I doubt myself and remove it awkwardly.
And 'pretty'? Where the fuck did that come from?
"Okay, um," Ella raises her eyebrows, "real smooth, I guess?"
I cringe with her.
"That's only if you want to," I add in my normal tone again. "We have one class together by the way," I needa stop talking, like, now.
"Bio class," she nods, pursing her lips. "I know."
"Uhh," I scratch the back of my head, "so..."
"And do you have your phone?" she holds her hand out.
Huh?
"So I can put my number in it, silly," she rolls her eyes.
Oh yeah, true that.
❖
Basketball in the gym. Teachers vs Students.
"Dean, here!" Jace motions in the air. "Here!"
I get closer and do a swift behind-the-back pass to him.
Jace shoots and gets it in on a 3-pointer.
The crowd cheers.
"And that is a goaaal!" Coach blows his whistle.
"Good shot," I give Jace a fist pump.
Now Ms Halliday's got the basketball. She's lean and quick. She does an overhead pass to Mr Burrows who loses it to Sam. The audience laughs because Sam plays tricks around Mr Burrows's chubby body before shooting.
Ms Mills didn't wanna play but was lured in via chants, "go, Ms! Go, Ms! Go, Ms!"
Coach coaches her and whisper-shouts, "bounce pass, bounce pass!"
Ms Mills passes to Coach instead.
"Not to me, woman," he laughs. "To them!" he points to the other teachers.
Coach walks over to her with the ball and allows her to redo it.
The audience all go, "awwww."
It was pre' cute, ngl.
Bray's got the ball, and with the help of Jensen, he does a quick pick-and-roll pass to me.
"Go!" they all point to the ring. "Shoot!"
I dribble closer and as I'm about to shoot, I trip over someone's leg very badly. I tumble over a few times, scraping my elbow in the process. I wince as the skin tears off, leaving it raw to the touch.
"Ooohhhh," the crowd shares my pain.
Really? Really? I pull myself up, heading straight for the bloke who tripped me.
"What the fuck, man!" I push him as he stumbles back. "What was that for?! We're on the same fucking team!"
"Fuck you," he smirks, spitting a ball of saliva onto the ground.
What a fucking-
"Woah, woah, chill!" Jace runs up to me, holding my arms back. "Ain't worth it, mate!"
Coach blows the hell out of his whistle, positioning himself in the middle of both parties. "Okay! That's enough! Game's over! Pack it up! You," he points at me, "cool it now."
"Bro," the student who tripped me laughs at me. "You can't touch me," he lifts his shirt from his chest like some wannabe leb.
"Shut it!" Coach growls at him.
I inhale deeply, "naaaah, that's it, you fucking cunt!" I pull free from Jace.
"Hey!" Coach grabs my torso, he's pretty fit but it is with effort that he shoves me right back to the boys. "Dean!" he shouts before looking at Jace and Bray. "Get him the hell outta here! And make sure he gets that elbow patched up! You," I hear him say to the wanker that I was about to rip to shreds, "you're taking a trip with me to the principal's office!"
As if on cue, the bell marks the end of the lunchtime break. My whole body is tensed with sweat dripping down my back. One of the Year 7's from the bleachers tosses my hoody back to me on the way out. I rest it around my neck, my perspiration absorbing into it like a sponge. Well, at least we won.
❖
"Rise and fucking shine!" Bray slurps from a purple Kirk's can, crushes it, and tries to get a hoop, aiming at a bin; funny considering we just played basketball in my sleep. "Today's the day!"
"Would you fucking shut up!" Jace wakes up, agitated. "Wanna get us killed or what?"
Guess we all had fallen asleep. It's a new day again. Today, we go city.