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“I hardly know you!” I whispered to the boy standing in front of me.
“So?” Kyle replied. “The point of it has nothing to do with that.” I glared at him.
“You’re a jerk, you know that, Kyle??? I will never do anything like that with you!”
“Fine, Lacy...” The guy said and walked off.
“Ok, so do you wanna be my project partner, Lacy??” The girl next to me asked.
“Sure!” I said happily. You see, this girl, Sashi, is my best friend. It’s been like that ever since 2nd grade. I mean, we knew each other long before that, but we had been enemies, and it wasn’t until 2nd grade that we found out that we were both right all along. We had been arguing whether a crayon was Teal or Turquoise.
(Also, something asked a lot, no ... her name doesn’t have anything to do with her origin or religion. Her mother just likes names from different countries. Hey, I mean, her brother’s name is Haruni. His nickname is Haru, and that makes it weird because that’s two different origins just there. Sashi was often made fun of for her name.)
Ironically, we have the same art class. We were supposed to be working on a project, but, as usual, we talked.
“What do we have today?” Sashi asked me.
“A huge helping of Pre Cal, Creative Thinking, and then...ooh, study hall.” I replied, looking at my schedule. We had just received our new schedules that morning, and we had nearly the same schedule. Our school has always had blocked scheduling, so each class was about 80 minutes long. On the first block, we have the same schedule, but on the second every other one is the same.
“Oh great,” sighed Sashi, “that means two 80 minute classes in a row with... ugh. Him.”
“I don’t get why you don’t like him! He’s an awesome teacher!” I exclaimed in annoyance.
“I don’t get why you LIKE him. I mean, he’s nice ENOUGH, but every time I see him, he makes some weird joke about my name.”
“...Well... deal with it. He’s awesome otherwise. Plus, we just met him yesterday.”
“Well, it gets annoying.”
“Oh well. You know, we really should get started on this.” I stated, looking down at the paper that I had been doodling all over. The paper was now surrounded in clouds, and covered in tiny snowflakes.
“You’re ridiculous-!” She sang at me, poking my arm. We were in the last period of the day, study hall.
“Whatever. Hmm… he looks... 23.” I whispered.
“He’s not 23! He’s around 25-30 years old!” Sashi whispered frantically back. My eyes widened. “Stop arguing, I know I’m right! This game is stupid, anyway.” She muttered.
“No! That doesn’t work! You’re not supposed to look 20 when your 30! What the heck?” I hid my face as it reddened in embarrassment. We were talking about the new teacher. No one knew how old he was, but everyone thought he was a different age. So, we all took part in a giant guessing game that he knew nothing about.
“Well, we should just go ask him his age some time.” I muttered.
“Go right ahead. Have fun, Lacy.” Sashi said, grinning.
“I’m not going to ask him!”
“Ask who what?” A voice from behind me asked. My eyes widened. Sashi looked up, and her face reddened slightly. I turned around. Mr. Eric DeCartes, the new teacher, was standing right there. His naturally red streaked and dark (almost black) brown hair was just above his eyes, covering his ears, and skimming the back of his neck by about an inch, and his deep brown eyes looking right at me. I reddened, also, (and wondered how his hair was naturally like that.)
“N-no one anything, s-sir.” I stuttered. He lifted his head slightly.
“Quiet down a little, ok? I can hear your voices from my desk.” He told us, tilting and nodding his head towards his desk.
“Yes, Mr. DeCartes.” I replied. He looked at us for a second, then, smiled sweetly and walked back to his desk. I turned back to Sashi.
“He didn’t make fun of you then, Sashi.” I muttered as quiet as I could get. She grinned sheepishly. Someone entered the room with a note. He handed it to Mr. DeCartes. He read it and grinned; his grin slipped away almost unnoticed. (As Sashi told me later)
“Would a Miss... Sushi, oh, sorry, SAshi Nafa please report to the main office.” I turned around to look at him. He was hiding a grin, and his face was innocent. I turned back and snickered. Sashi stood up and hit me over the head with her notebook as she left the room.
----------------
“Why’d they need you at the office?” I asked as she sat back down about 20 minutes later.
“Oh, some stupid mix up with my schedule. I’m supposed to have Calculus, apparently, but I told them just to leave me in Pre-Cal because I haven’t had that class yet.”
“Why would they put you in Cal, if you haven’t had Pre-Cal?” I whispered.
“I don’t know... they’re just stupid.” Sashi replied quietly. “Did you ask yet?”
“I... no, I’m not gunna ask. Just forget about it.” I replied.
-----------------
I'm going to skip a day and the weekend because nothing at all happened. Just chores, and then a really boring Monday. So, Tuesday we had Creative Thinking class again. I had decided, with Sashi during Art, that I would ask him during class. We entered the room and sat down.
“Are you going to ask him now?” Sashi asked.
“No! I'll ask him later!” I replied.
“But-”
“Sir? H- um, how old are you? No one really knows, and everyone thinks it's a different age... Could you... please tell us?” Someone asked. Sashi glared at me.
“That was supposed to be you...” She whispered.
Mr. DeCartes' eyes lit up in amusement. He looked around the classroom, his eyes stopping on every single person.
"Oh, really? Is that true? Ha, then each of you tell me what age you think I am. You get one guess. Whoever gets it right gets a... Um...a prize, I guess." He shrugged.
So, it began, starting with the first person in the first row, and so on.
"29!" One kid guessed.
"18!" Another guessed.
"Uh...32??" Someone asked.
"67!!!" Someone yelled obnoxiously, but he was only joking.
"Oh, god no!" DeCartes exclaimed in surprise.
Eventually, it was Sashi's turn. She sat right in front of me, and I was the last person.
"27..." She said slowly. Then, it was my turn.
"2... 23..." I stuttered slowly. He faced the class again.
"I'll tell the one who got it right later... next class. I want to see how many win." He grinned at us all. Creative Thinking class ended. (Yeah, we have weird extra curricular classes here. Don’t ask.)
"Death to a--ll!!" I whispered in the middle of study hall, bored nearly to tears. Sashi burst into nearly silent laughter, but only because she had covered her mouth with her hands.
"Lacy Iffle, would you please come here?" DeCartes called. I sighed slightly and stood up.
"Would you be able to take this to the office for me?" He asked me when I reached his desk. I nodded. He smiled sweetly at me. I smiled back and left to the office with the small box and note he gave me.
"He---y... Iffle... come 'ere..." I heard a voice say. Well, Kyle's voice. I ignored him.
"Mr. DeCartes told me to bring this here." I said when I reached the office. The woman at the office sighed at being interrupted from her... "Work" (Spider Solitaire. -.-) and grabbed the parcel. I left, walking quickly.
I returned to study hall with about five minutes were left.
"What happened?" Sashi asked.
"Um... Nothing really. Just dropped it off at the office. Oh, and Kyle tried to talk to me." I replied. Sashi stared at me for a second, and then shook her head. Yeah, she does weird things for no reason.
“Anyway, what are we doing today after school?” Sashi asked. It was only Tuesday, so no homework so far.
“We could go to the football game.” I suggested. “Oh, but we have to ask if Seth can come, too. I haven’t seen him all day, except for lunch, because of these stupid schedules.”
“Deal. He’ll want to come, anyway. He hates football.” Sashi said, grinning again.
“Because our school is full of idiots.” Sashi replied, sighing.
"Do you ever notice the fact that we're part of this school?" I pointed out.
"...Excluding us. Gosh, let me finish my sentence!" Sashi added slowly.
"Bleeh. Hey, lets sit over there!" I pointed to the emptiest part of the bleachers.
"Wow. No one seems to like our team, huh?" Seth asked. There were about 30 people total there.
"...Oh well." I shrugged. We went to sit down. As we waited for the game to start, we talked about random subjects.
"Do you think there will be a drama group this year after what happened last year?" Sashi asked us thoughtfully.
"I dono... I mean the teacher did go insane... And I heard that they couldn’t find anyone to replace her." Seth replied.
"Oooh, what about me?" We heard a voice ask. We all spun around towards the voice to see Mr. DeCartes, plopping himself down right behind the three of us. My eye twitched slightly in surprise. (Weird habit, sorry! Ha.)
"You, sir?" Sashi asked, surprised. "Do you know anything about drama?"
"Sure I do! I love drama!" He replied with a huge smile.
"Y-you'd have to ask the principal, wouldn't you?" Seth asked.
"Hmm. I'm sure he'll be fine with it." He said, brushing his fingers through his hair. "On a different subject, at least it isn't raining today, right? Aren't there usually more people here? Where's the school spirit?!" Seth snickered as quiet as he could.
"Our school has none, Mr. DeCartes." I replied quietly.
"None at all? Then, why are you three here?"
"Because we hate football." Sashi replied. For about a minute, he just stared at us, his eyes wide, his mouth twitching a bit.
"What reason is that to come?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. We shrugged. He smiled. "Well, have fun. You don’t mind if I sit here, do you?"
"Not in the least." I replied before the other two immediately said, "Yes! Go away," which they didn't say. My bad. (haha) They glared at me when we turned back around. I smiled innocently and mockingly at them.
"Ha-ha." Seth muttered. "Fuuuuny."
"Hey, Seth...? When are you guys moving?" I asked.
"I think my parents said... November."
"November? That's so far away!" I nearly yelled. "It's only the beginning of September! That's about 3 months!!!"
"Yeah, well I can't move now!!! We're not even close to being repacked. I mean, sure most of the stuff was in the boxes, but there’s so much we still need to do!"
"Like what?" I asked.
"...I have no idea. That's just what my mom said when I asked her." He smirked at me, and I shook my head.
"That apartment is too crowded for all six of you." Sashi said.
"Yeah. We noticed." Seth replied, slouching down and glaring at the football field. "But lets not talk about that now. Actually, lets watch the game."
Sashi and I exchanged glances. Seth hated watching football. We came to the games just to get away from home and talk the whole time. So the fact that he wanted to watch the game made us suspicious.
"Se-th?" I said, about half way through the first quarter. "What's wrong?"
"Hmm?" He started slightly. "What?" His voice was slurring with the sound of sleep.
"Were you just sleeping???" Sashi asked, outraged.
"Oh, sorry. I must have fallen asleep." He slurred. "So... sorry." He yawned. Sashi sighed. I laughed quietly.
"I'm not going to be here just to watch a football game. I left, so I wouldn't have to watch one!" Sashi nearly yelled at Seth. She usually left her house whenever they started watching football on TV. She either came to my house, or we went somewhere, like here.
"I- Well, we can't talk." Seth whispered very quietly.
"Why not?" I whispered back. He suddenly straightened up and shivered.
"E-ehm... Let's go to Lacy's house!" He said, suddenly. He stood up and nearly ran all the way out of the field. We were still sitting there confused as ever and wondering what to do.
"W-ell, come on, we have to go too, then." Sashi said and stood up. I slowly rose to my feet and looked back, remembering that Mr. DeCartes was still there. He wasn't even looking at us. Didn't seem surprised, didn't even seem to notice that we were gone.
"B-bye!" I said, suddenly and loudly. "Sorry, Mr. DeCartes. We have to go." I whispered, surprised at my own voice. He looked at me and smiled with a hint of a smirk that I thought I imagined.
"No problem, Lacy." He said smoothly, looking at me right in the eyes and not even blinking. "See you tomorrow. Make sure your friend gets some rest, ok? You too, though. Get plenty of sleep. It looks like you need it." He lifted his head slightly and looked back to the field. I stared at him, and he smiled, not looking back at me.
"Lacy!" I jumped. "Let's go!!" Sashi's voice suddenly brought me back to my senses. I turned around at ran to catch up with her.
"Seth! Why are we going to Lacy's?" Sashi asked when we caught up with him.
"Because we can't talk there. Too many people." We stared at him.
"Seth... There's no one there... Only like... 5 people."
"Exactly, Lacy. And who was sitting behind us?" He was going partially hysterical.
"Uh, Mr. DeCartes?" I said. Obviously, we were confused as to why he was freaking out.
"Yeah. That's why. Figure the rest out for yourself." He said, slowing down a bit. We just walked in silence. We finally reached my house, went inside, and that's when Sashi spoke up.
"What's so important to drag us all the way over here, huh?" She snapped, closing the door.
"What?" Seth looked at her in confusion. "Nothing. I-... Eh, it was just really mucky there. Too empty, you know?? And it kinda seemed like Mr. Decartes was eavesdropping."
We glared at him. Obviously annoyed.
On Thursday, Creative Thinking class came once again. The time where everyone would find out who was right. But… our hopes were crushed.
“I’m going to call you up one by one to tell you whether you were wrong or right.” We all groaned in response. “Also,” he added, frowning, “you can’t tell anyone if you’re right.”
So, one by one, in alphabetical order, we were called up to his desk. Each person walked away with a frown on his or her face. You could tell who was wrong and who was right. The thing is, so far no one was right. I was called up next. I shook as I walked over. I knew I was right, but I was worried without knowing why.
He had an extremely serious look on his face, and that made me worry even more. He hadn’t had this look on his face with the others.
“Lacy, why did you guess 23?” He asked quietly, the rest of the class trying to hear, but not succeeding. They couldn’t hear us in the least.
“Because that’s how old you are.” I answered, my voice shaking. I knew I was right.
“W-well, it’s not!” He whispered frantically. I stared at him.
“But it is… you are 23.” I whispered, he was about to answer, but the look on his face caused me to walk quickly back to my seat, looking shaken.
Sashi gave me a weird look, but her name was called the next second, and she walked to his desk.
Obviously, she, and the rest of the class, was wrong.
The next day, Friday, we noticed that Mr. DeCartes wasn’t at school. Nor was he there for the whole next week.
