PCS: Back to School
Chris could barely keep his eyes open. The soft tapping of rain against the window, the drone of the teacher’s voice, not to mention the mental exhaustion of frustrated confusion. It was enough to make anyone need a nap. And yet he fought it, forcing himself to stay awake. Chris didn’t know why exactly, but no matter how dull the lesson, he still wanted to show respect to education. Something in the back of his mind nagged him. He rubbed his eyes and looked out the window. He sat up with a start at the sight of a giant black dog staring up at him from the lawn below, the same dog who’d been stalking behind him since he arrived in this strange town. Although it was slightly reassuring to have at least one constant in his chaoitc new life, the dog still made him uneasy. “What do you want with me?” Chris mumbled at the dog. “I want you to sit up and face forward Mr….Haddock!” The teacher, along with the rest of the class were all staring at him. Chris blushed and grabbed his pencil. “Heh heh, sorry ma’am. Guess I umm…was uh, thinking about how the character in our book must be feeling about the umm.. uh villain and stuff.” He grinned as muffled laughter filled the room. “Your concern for the character may be sincere, Mr. Haddock, but this is biology. I never knew anyone to feel so much concern for microorganisms.” The teacher chuckled at his own joke (although nobody else did) and turned back to the white board. The awkward smile left Chris’ face and he went back to staring miserably out at the rain. He heard from behind him another snicker. Chris turned around to see a girl smiling at him from behind a mass of red curls and freckles. Unsure of what to make of her laughter, Chris smiled back.
Miranda sat in class doing the usual of not giving a rats ass what the teacher was saying. However they would continue to talk and she would keep up her pretense of caring its the way things were. This was how life went from day to day her pretending everything on the outside was fine. Internally she was screaming and going off the walls the drugs subsiding while she was at school for obvious reasons. The woman teaching them biology was a bitch as far as Miranda could tell. She huffs a little ignoring her looking down and drawing in her copy.
She had been trying her best these past few weeks to keep up with Mr Gold’s work load. It was becoming harder for her not to hate and admire the power he had over everyone. wishing she had that kind of power was distracting her from the lessons of which she had little or no interest in. doodling would make time fly faster or rather it would if she hadn’t taken a shine to the nerd staring out the window. What the fuck was she staring at him for? Why was she so transfixed with him? She sighs a little agitated at these questions as she noticed he was looking out the window. She took a glance to see what he was so fascinated with and her eyes widened. There was a huge black dog outside. Just sitting there. Why? Was that his pet? it was huge! Hearing the teacher talk to him she turned her attention back towards the head of the class. She had noticed the teacher was talking to the nerd. Mr Haddock? She couldn’t help but try to control the emotion this brought up from inside her. She couldn’t control it anymore she laughed just as the rest of the class did. She stared at him and giggled his name was hilarious then she tilted her head. He was looking at her for some odd reason as she frowned at him.
Her sudden frown cancelled Chris’ smile. It occurred to him he'd been staring at her like an idiot, probably making her uncomfortable like he did everyone else. He gave her an apologetic look and quickly turned back around. How could this day could get any worse? He didn't even know why he was here, he just kind of knew to show up at this place called “school” and listen to a bunch of weird people talk about pointless stuff. Once again forcing himself to listen, Chris couldn't help but feel there was something missing from the lecture, like some element of the world everyone was ignoring. He rubbed his eyes again, trying to ignore the feeling. Instead, he went back to looking out the window. He groaned, silently this time, as the big black dog outside began rolling around in the grass. Of course the dorkiest dog would follow me. Who else?. His eyes wandered back behind him yet again and Chris saw the red haired girl looking out the window as well, wide eyed and looking confused. Oh great! As if he hadn't been weird enough before! Now she'd think he was some kind of beast tamer hunter or something! Or some kind of wannabe tough guy. No no, he had to set things straight after class. He looked for any hint of a name on her backpack. As soon as that bell thing was rung, he could find talk to her and explain himself...if only he could explain anything! A red notebook poked out of her book bag, its cover a collage of doodled arrows, swirls, skulls and…teddy bears? Finally in the corner Chris found a name. Too bad it the sharpie ink was so smeared, not to mention a bear was eating half of it. “Mar….Mer…??” Tilting his head and mumbling didn't make the name any clearer. “Merida?” The bell interrupted the guessing game and in a split second the bag was whipped up and the girl was out the door. Despite his usual persistence on organization, Chris shoved the pile of pens and doodles on his desk hastily into his backpack. The zipper didn’t shut all the way, but he didn't care. Nor did he care about tripping on his way out, nearly taking out a whole group of girls and accidentally getting his glasses caught in some girl’s insanely long blond hair. All he cared about was catching up to Mare…Miri..whatever name the bear had been eating!
