DARKNESS WAS UPON mankind when I awoke from my nap.
One glance at the clock confirmed that I was, for the second time in the week, late. I stumbled for my undergarments on the floor, before hopping into my discarded sweatpants from several days ago. I threw on the first shirt I could find, which happened to be one with a Leviticus quote on it. The 20:13 one.
I rolled my eyes, deciding to pull on a sweatshirt over my embarrassing shirt as I did not have the time to change out of Leviticus shirt. Luckily, the night was a cold one. So my winter wear did not elicit too many stares.
My cellphone, thankfully charged this time, guided me to Room 201 of the Bernadette block with no issues. I was five minutes late. I took in a deep breath before I pushed the door open.
I counted the heads within - there were 23 - before hastily apologising for being late.
"Ah, the newcomer," Jaxon, who was at the front of the classroom gave me a tight lipped smile. "Come here."
For some reason, my heart thrummed as I made my way to the front of the classroom. Jaxon was seated at what would have been the teacher's desk. There was a girl beside him, a bespectacled one who had a laptop before her.
"Introduce yourself."
"What?"
Jaxon nodded.
I became very self conscious all of a sudden. I searched the crowd for three specific faces. I was almost relieved to realize that the ghost, the Indian and the ginger weren't present. I took in a deep breath.
"Hello, I'm Andrea. I moved here from Philadelphia..." I turned to look at Jaxon, like, what the hell was I supposed to say?
"Talk about your interests, favourite book, anything," Jaxon replied. I could sense something in his voice - impatience? Annoyance?
I decided that this was my only chance to make friends. I couldn't fuck this opportunity up. I had to appeal to the crowd, one way or another. My hands became clammy out of a sudden, as expectations began to weigh heavily on my shoulders.
"I like to... read," I said slowly. "I don't have a favourite book."
I squeezed my eyelids shut. I would pat myself on the back if I could. I would pat myself so hard my entire spine dislodged itself. Because what the fuck was that? I would be surprised if these people didn't start laughing at how bad I was at introductions.
But Jaxon just shrugged. "Okay. Go take a seat."
I was almost relieved to have the spotlight taken from me. I took a seat at the back, alone for the umpteenth time. I affectionately recalled one of the questions on the questionnaire; it was the only one I answered honestly.
At the front, Jaxon began reading announcements.
"There will be an upcoming science fair... held in New York City," Jaxon lifted his head to glance at us. I could hear hushed murmurs of interested participants. "Moving on, this goes out to the programmers here. The council is looking for someone to write an application for Richmond Park. Next up... for the Mathletes here, you are reminded that Continental Mathematics League is coming up. Closing date for signing up is this Friday. I think that's about it. Any questions?"
I raised my hands. It was too late when I realised what I was about to do.
"Yes, Andrea?" Jaxon tilted his head in question.
"This is unrelated to the announcements," I gulped as the entirety of the room fixed their eyes on me. "I was... wondering if... uh, I could start a business selling lab reports in this school."
Jaxon wasn't even fazed. "Bit too late, newbie. Kiran Raj sells them fifteen dollars per lab report, if I remember correctly."
"He's raised it to twenty due to high demand," someone said.
"Scholarship kids, they're savage," someone else stated.
Jaxon pressed his lips into a smile, one that I couldn't help but find patronising. "Anything else I can help you with, Andrea?"
"Nothing," I said, trying my utter best to bite down a smile.
Kiran Raj. Kiran Raj. I could afford twenty dollars. Twenty dollars was a small price to pay to make Elias proud of me.
"Then I will dismiss everyone early. Thank you for coming," Jaxon announced to the room, though the latter part of his sentence was drowned out by the scraping of chairs against the hardwood floor.
✖️✖️✖️
It took quite a bit of asking around before I located Kiran Raj. He was in the library. The corner of it, at the very last computer to be specific. As I drew near, my gut filled with something bitter. This was the very same Kiran I had spoken to several days prior.
"Hello," I said warily as I approached the dark skinned male.
His hands, previously firing across the keyboard, halted. He calmly switched from the black screen with green words to a white screen with the school's logo.
"How may I help you?" Kiran asked, his voice dangerously calm.
"I got commissioned to purchase a lab report from you," I gulped.
Kiran dug into his backpack, emerging with a form and a pen. "Fill it up."
From the way he went about it, I could only conclude that he must get quite a lot of customers. I filled the form in, as requested, and I ticked the 'titration' box under Mr. Nguyen. But I had a curious question.
"Why do you need to know the teacher's name?"
Kiran took the paper from my hands and scrutinized it. "Different teachers favor different lab report writing approaches. Write down your titration results at the back of the form."
I filled in the details, as per the figures on my wrist. When I was done, I took out my wallet, prepared to pay. But Kiran held a hand up.
"Pay me when I am done. If it is not up to your standards, I will pay you instead."
"Oh, wow, Kiran," was the extent I could manage, because truly what else could one say to such a robotic, seemingly efficient person?
"Meet me at the entrance of the boys' dorms sharp at 6 tomorrow morning. If you are late, you pay extra."
"No problem, Kiran."
He went back to typing on a black screen with green words afterwards. I took it as my cue to leave.
I returned to my room, with a huge weight lifted off my chest. But my moment of lightness was short lived. My heart sank when I chanced upon the fifteen missed calls from Marc on my laptop. I rushed to call him back, to no avail. There was no answer.
At which point, I plucked out my phone.
There was only one text message.
Marc [8:43pm]
I fucked up. He escaped. He knows I want him dead
I heaved a huge sigh and attempted to phone him for the second time. Marc picked up on the eighth ring. There was music in the background, loud loud dynamics.
"Are you at a party?"
"Yep," he popped the P. "Gonna try to kill that Patrick cunt again. I'll wait for him to get wasted then I'll try to pass it off as some kind of drug overdose."
"Marc," I almost groaned. "I think you should... I don't know, skip town for a while," I suggested.
"Skip town?" Marc echoed. "Not until that Patrick cunt is dead. At first I was annoyed that he cheated on you after using your money for his sick grandma. But I checked that night, he doesn't even have a sick grandma." He said bitterly.
"It's one thing lying about a sick grandma with cancer to get the sympathy of people. It's a whole other thing using their girlfriend's money to supposedly pay for Chemotherapy and then cheating on that girlfriend after you get the money," Marc went on. "Andie, we were close as fuck but did I ever make you pay for a single one of my meals? Did I ever borrow money from you? Did I ever have a sick grandma?"
"Marc..." I started. "Has it occurred to you that Patrick's grandma may have died recently?"
Marc was silent for a few moments. "Oh."
"Yeah. His grandma was very real, I visited her," I smiled a bitter sweet smile, one that Marc couldn't see.
"Still gonna kill him. I'm sure I'll find some reason. Bye."
I was torn between believing that Marc was serious and thinking that he was joking around trying to prove his masculinity. Marc was level headed most times, but he's got a bad temper. It makes him do stupid things.
"Marc, wait."
"Yeah? What do you want?" he asked brusquely.
I chewed on my bottom lip. "If you come visit me, I'll pay for your flight and lodgings and everything. I miss you, Marc."
He didn't reply immediately. For a few raging heartbeats, all I could hear was the music from his party. And then the music faded away, as if Marc was walking away from the place. The fading of the music made way for Marc's footsteps, large and purposeful like they always were. I longed to see him again.
"I'll pay for it myself," Marc finally said.
I did internal cartwheels. "When?" I breathed.
"Hmm, when is convenient?"
"The weekend are good. Any weekend."
I could hear a foreign sound on the other end. A sound that took my ears several moments to identify: it was the sound of Marc's laughter. Marc laughed so scarcely that the sound was just... alien to my ears.
"Are you laughing?"
"The things you would do to ensure Patrick doesn't get harmed," Marc stated.
"Exposed," I bit back a smile. "But I do miss you, Marc. It would be nice to see you again. If you come, can you also buy a couple of plain T-shirts? And jeans too. You know my size."
"What?"
"I'll pay you back for the clothes."
"Why do you need me to buy clothes for you?"
I sighed. "I'll explain when I see you."
With that, he hung up. And the night was once more silent.
I stripped and got into the shower, revelling in the feel of warm water against my cold skin. Reflecting on the day's events, I must admit that things were starting to look up. I might survive Richmond Park Academy after all.