"I find the lure of the unknown irresistible."
~Sylvia Earle
Grace achieved nothing during her ten minute stay at Shawn's house, the passive boy wasn't of much help to the hot-headed, impatient girl.
"He was so passive and distant! I don't get how teachers are okay with a person like him! He infuriates me!" Grace ranted on to her friend, exasperatedly.
Riley didn't care much about her friend's problems but the person she had been blabbering on about sure did sound annoying.
"Wait- who are we talking about?" Riley stopped next to her friend as she leaned on the locker closest to her, her body facing away from Grace.
"Shawn." Grace answered in a fruity manner, making his name sound so majestic.
"Who is Shawn?" Riley arched her thin black eyebrow, having never heard of such a creature.
"Are you kidding me? Does no one know who Shawn is?"
Grace, admittedly, was starting to get a bit aggitated by this boy's invisibility to the rest of the human race.
"Who's Shawn?" Ken joined in on their conversation, asking the same question Riley had previously asked.
"My partner for the English assignment." Grace shook her head in disappointment, closing her locker and walking off to her home room.
Her friends shrugged and decided to give her her space, they could tell she needed it.
Wait! He's in my home room?
Shock wasn't even enough to decribe how she felt at that moment, when she noticed a maroon bag entering her homeroom.
She rushed into the class room, finding Shawn seated at the far end of the room.
"Shawn!" She exclaimed, waving her hands up in the air.
Shawn groaned internally, annoyed by the presence of this black beauty.
Not her again.
He had succeeded in getting her out of his house the previous day, but clearly not in getting her out of his life.
"Did you switch homerooms?" She asked curiously.
In no way was she going to admit that she had been oblivious to his presence.
"No." He answered with a dead voice, his eyes migrating out of the window.
"Are you new? To the school I mean. I'm new too so-" He tossed his red hood over his head, trying to block out the rosey presence of this new mosquito in his life.
"No."
The girl hummed softly as she thought for a moment, a little disturbed by that fact.
He wasn't new, that meant that he had always been there and she had never even noticed him.
Strange, really strange.
"Why are you so invisible?" Her face cringed in disgust, as though repulsed by his non-existent like ways; for lack of better wording.
"You can see me now, can't you?" He rolled his deep chestnut brown eyes, turning his attention back to the inanimate objects on the other side of the window.
Oh how he wished he could be a cloud, or even just a tree, maybe even a bench.
Anything that was far from the annoying brat seated next to him was good enough.
She puffed out her cheeks at his snide remark, taking her leave to sit somewhere far from that rude, self-existent bastard.
The bell blared loudly as Grace got to her seat, and so began six hours of mental torture.
The class filled in with students and in walked their homeroom teacher.
She didn't look quite happy and her usually neat bun was a mess that day.
She was out of it, but that was her personal life and she had no intention of letting that stop her from doing her job.
"Morning class, it's nice to see you're all here." She said her usual statement as her eyes quickly hovered over the heads of her students.
No seat was left unoccupied.
"I hope you all enjoy the rest of your day." She said as the bell rang indicating the start of the first lesson for the day.
Grace actually concidered walking with Shawn, since they shared the same first lesson and she had no one else to walk with.
So she did, she waited for him to exit the class and walked right beside him.
He did a double-take at first, finding his little mosquito buzzing right beside him.
What does she want now? He complained inwardly and rolled his eyes.
Since when had he lost his powers of invisibility?
"Go away." He shooed the little mosquito, trying to salvage whatever blood he had left inside him.
She didn't respond, instead, she shifted closer to him, their upper arms now brushing against each other.
She deliberately wanted to bother him, and dear God it was working.
He wanted to run, never in his life had he felt so threatened and harassed.
He took a quick side glance at her, low-key adoring the little sinister smirk she had on her caramelized face.
He draped an arm over her shoulders in an attempt to make her uncomfortable, but the only thing it did was make her snuggle even closer to him.
With his plan blatantly failing, he lifted his arm off her shoulder and shifted away from her.
She was a weird one indeed.
They got to class, just in time for the lesson to start. Mr Sentinel set his brown office bag on the table, leaning against his table and facing his students.
"Why aren't you with your partners?" He arched his blonde eyebrow, groans and grunts echoing in his fairly large class room.
Grace skipped over to Shawn, an uncalled for giddy feeling welling up on her inside.
How she enjoyed annoying him, for some reason she found it satisfactory.
Shawn was really getting tired of his mosquito, her constant buzzing by his ear was starting to get on his last nerves.
She was playing a dangerous game with him.
"So, yesterday was useless." She began, sitting close enough to make the dark haired boy really uncomfortable.
Again.
He looked over at her for a brief moment before resting his head on his folded arms.
"The quicker we do this, the sooner I'll be out of your life."
And with that Shawn was sold.
He sat upright and gave the witty girl his full attention, he would do anything to get her out of his life.
"Love." The boy knew all the three core themes, by head, his memory was sharp so he found it easy to store data.
That was also what made him good at what he did- outside of school that is.
"Shakespeare's one hell of a dramatic individual." Grace pointed out as she wrote down the theme, in moments like these she really did amuse the boy.
Grace murmured several things to herself as she placed her note pad on Shawn's table, moving even closer to him which made the boy all the more uncomfortable.
Why is she getting into my personal space? He grumbled.
He shifted away from her, a gesture she took as him making more space for her.
Oh how delusional could she be? Get a clue!
She repositioned herself so that she was even closer to the male, who tried his best not to push his little irritating mosquito.
He had two options at that point, run and run fast or push her off her chair and run even faster.
"You're too close." He informed the oblivious girl, his state of discomfort still not becoming evident to her.
"Really?" She tilted her head a bit to get a better look into the eyes of the slightly older male.
For some reason, looking into her onyx dark orbs made all his discomfort vanish into thin air.
"I don't mind." He shrugged, surprising even himself.
He did mind, he minded a lot.
She smiled at him then turned back to her note pad, finally scribbling the theme on the blank page.
Or maybe I really don't.
He really did want her out of his life, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy the attention for the while it lasted.
It strangely felt nice to be under someone's gaze, he hadn't felt that since elementary school.
"And what's the next-" The bell interrupted Shawn's mosquito, indicating that the lesson had ended and a new one had begun.
"We'll finish at my house." He gathered his belongings- mainly his bag- and walked out of the class, the quaint girl hurrying herself so she could catch up to him.
She didn't understand why she wanted to be around him so much, he was annoying, wasn't he?
Even with his passive and aloof self, Grace couldn't deny the fact that he interested her.
Shawn tensed when she walked beside him, what else could she possibly want from him?
He had given her his attention and even talked to her, what more could she want?
He tried his best to ignore the persistant mosquito, maybe she would give up and leave.
The realisation that they were both going to the same class hit them like a ton of bricks.
Another class with her? You've got to be kidding me! The male panicked in his head, thinking of ways she could possibly harass him in yet another class.
We're in the same art class? Why didn't I notice him yesterday? She scolded herself for being so ignorant and oblivious.
She was looking for him while they both shared the same Art class, it was shameful on her part.
They took their seats and, for a reason unknown to he himself, Shawn decided to sit next to Grace.
He didn't understand why he wanted to be around her so much, she was annoying, wasn't she?
Even with her quaint and cheerful self, Shawn couldn't deny the fact that she interested him.
Class began and soon they were given a task, they had to paint something that they felt strongly towards.
Basically they had to paint their strongest inspiration.
Grace took out her note pad, trying to sketch down what she intended to paint.
Nothing.
She didn't feel strongly towards anything at that moment, not even food.
How dare she betray food in such a manner?
It seemed like Shawn had the same problem, lucky for them the paintings were due at the end of the following week.
That meant they had time to get some inspiration.
"Do you enjoy being invisible- to everyone else that is." She got his attention, the boy who had just been staring blankly at his canvas.
He looked over at her, his eyes scanning her over for a brief moment. "Yes."
He turned back to his canvas, allowing the female teen to stare at him for a while longer.
She tried to figure him out, but he baffled her.
For what reason would a person decide to become a nobody in the midst of everybody? What justified his decision to become solitary and isolated? Did he not have friends? Did he not... exist?
"You're staring again." He pointed out, not that it even bothered him too much.
"Oh..."
The day went by as it usually did, only this time Grace noticed just how many classes she shared with Shawn.
She felt like a complete fool, knowing that while she was searching high and low for him, he was right under her nose.
He slept in most classes so obviously he went by unnoticed, but on that paricular day she'd noticed him.
Shawn and Grace sat beside each other on the bus, neither of them unttering a word to each other.
What Shawn couldn't understand was why Grace had left her friends to spend lunch time with him.
He usually had lunch alone- on special occasions Kevin would join in- on the school's roof top, but today he was accompanied by an awfully cheerful, yet delightful girl.
His mosquito was weird, but he couldn't deny that he enjoyed her company, but he wouldn't admit to it either.
The bus came to a stop.
Grace stood up first and headed out of the bus, she was now completely familiar with Shawn's house just after one visit.
It kind of scared Shawn, but not enough to show on his face.
Shawn followed her, unlocking the door and welcoming her once again into his humble abode.
The two hadn't said a dime to each other since school ended, but they were comfortable with the silence that lingered between them.
They settled in Shawn's personal room, it wasn't his bed room, due to the fact that there was no bed.
This room contained a huge flat screen plasma TV, a book shelf full of books, three navy blue leisure couches, a study table and chair, more books, a fridge, a pantry full of snacks, more books and bathroom just on the other side of the room.
Grace removed her jacket and placed it neatly on the arm of the couch she sat on, her bag sitting on the floor and her air force one Nike kicks were off.
In short, she was comfortable.
Shawn had his hoodie off, leaving behind a loose fitting grey tee on his dark blue jeans. His hair was as wild as ever and his feet were completely bare.
In short, he too was confortable.
Just as they were about to start, Shawn recieved a call from his father, a call he could not ignore.
"Wassup?" He spoke to his dad casually, leaving Grace alone in his leisure room.
He headed down stairs to the living room so he could talk to his father in private, away from innocent ears.
"Hey kiddo. I don't have much time to talk, so I'll make this quick. There's been a leak in our operation. I'm not sure whether it's on your side or on mine, and the people behind these sudden murders are unknown, but I will find out soon." His father had a dead serious tone, a tone that unsettled Shawn.
"Are you saying I have to ghost?" Shawn loathed the ghosting process, it was a process he had to go through more times than he would like.
"Shawn, don't leave the house. No one enters, no one leaves. You know the protocol, follow it. This time it's serious. I won't be able to come home, but I will keep in touch. Stay safe kiddo."
With that the call was ended, and the sound of the front door closing got Shawn's attention.
He rolled his eyes, connecting his palm to his forehead.