Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The next time that Alex woke up in the infirmary bed, it was to find Nicky’s nose inches from her own.

“Ahhh!” she screamed in alarm sending her friend careering backwards. The light was fairly dim, but Alex could see that she had bumped her head on the sloping ceiling. “Oh my god, are you okay?” she asked, leaping to attention.

“Ow…” Nicky began, cradling her head in her hands and wincing slightly as stars danced in her vision. Alex, hearing that her friend could talk and wasn’t unconscious sat back down on her bed, relieved.

“That was your own stupid fault Nicky!”

“You could at least be a little sympathetic,” she said reproachfully, sitting next to Alex on the bed. “So how are you anyway? What are you doing here?”

“Well, shortly after you left me in the clutches of that evil little man,” Alex began, ignoring Nicky’s helpless input (“You told me to go! He’s not that bad! I thought he was one of your favourite teachers?”) “I started feeling faint. Actually, first, he insisted I come talk to him if I ever needed it – rather awkward, as you can imagine, and then I fainted.”

“Let me guess, he caught you like a knight in shining armour.”

“Yes,” she admitted sullenly; Alex had never been fond of participating in cliché, no matter how fun it was. And crushing on a teacher was definitely borderline cliché in her opinion. However, Nicky did not have to know about this little part.

“And he brought you here?” Alex nodded silently. “That is so sweet of him!”

“Well he couldn’t very well just leave me there in the lab on the floor, could he?”

“I suppose not. But still, he is sweet, won’t you admit it?”

“Fine, he’s sort of sweet I guess. But that doesn’t leave this room,” she hissed, threatening her friend with a jabbing finger.

“Okay okay. God forbid Alex Phoenix has a soft spot for a teacher. I mean come on!” Nicky joked. Alex poked her but let it slide.

“What time is it anyway?” she asked presently. “What, I’m curious.”

“You just want to get back to lessons! Suck up. And it’s time you got a watch.”

“No, seriously.”

“Five thirty.”

“What?” Alex exploded and jumped to her feet immediately. “Oh, I have to catch up with everything I missed – now I won’t sleep properly tonight, oh damn you stupid mind,” she hit herself in the head.

“Al, calm down!” said Nicky gently. “You need more sleep anyway, this isn’t going to affect you sleep pattern. And you only missed Biology and Maths. They’re not hard to catch up on – not for you anyway. Come on, I’ll see all the teachers with you if you want. But we’d better go now, else they’ll be going home soon.”

“Thanks Nicky, you’re a star,” she said, relieved, rubbing her eyes. They checked with the nurse that it was okay for Alex to leave; she said it was fine, but on the condition that Alex came up immediately if she felt the slightest bit faint. Alex assured her that she would, without the slightest intentions of complying.

“Where to first?” Her friend was all bounciness and joy as they walked into the fast fading sunlight.

“Maths. Mrs Kalún always leaves fairly early, I think.”

“Maths it is.” They headed over to the Maths block where, after waiting about eight minutes – actually only one, outside the staff room door, if was opened by Mrs Kalún, who didn’t look too pleased to see them.

“Hi, I’ve come to catch up on the lesson?”

“Why were you not present, Alexandra?” Alex shrugged at the hideous use of her full name.

“I fainted and got taken to the nurse’s office. Didn’t wake up till about five minutes ago.”

“Oh.” She didn’t even ask how Alex was, despite the fainting. “Nicola, can you show her what we did in today’s lesson? Hang on, I have a couple of sheets for you.” She disappeared into her office and reappeared seconds later with several work sheets fresh from the press.

“Thank you,” she said politely and Mrs Kalún merely grunted before leaving them alone in the corridor again. “Fine.” Alex stuck her tongue out at the closed door causing Nicky to burst into fits of giggles. “Right, biology?”

The pair found Mr James relatively easily; he was in the science block, scribbling something or other from his position on the floor out in the hall. His papers were spread out everywhere on the floor.

“Um…Mr James?”

“Ah, Alex. How are you?” he asked quite absently.

“I’m okay, I came to catch up on the lesson I missed,” she reminded him.

”Ah yes. It you’ll just give me – a moment.” He hoisted himself up and managed to navigate his way through the mess to the staff room door. “Yes, I have a work book for you, and the homework from last week, which I’ve marked. Excuse me,” he nodded at Mr Canning, who had come out of the door to see what the fuss was about.

He leaned against the doorframe, looking nonchalant and sipping what appeared to be coffee.

Alex closed her eyes and sniffed. It smelled so damn good, and she was tired – for some unknown reason seeing as she had already slept about sixteen hours that day. There truly was nothing like a good caffeine shot. She opened her eyes to be met with an amused glance.

“What, smell good?” he asked, teasingly.

“So good,” she admitted, glancing at Nicky.

“Do you want some? You’ll probably be a while –“ he turned to look back into the staff room where Mr James was cussing at his own messiness and attempting to pick up and arrange the papers which he had just dropped.

“Why not? That would be nice, thanks,” she said. “Nicky?”

“Hmm, what?” Nicky had clearly just been dragged out of dream world.

“Want some coffee?”

“Sure, why not?” she said imitating Alex’s response and making the physics teacher snort into his coffee. “Ew, that was gross,” she continued making him laugh some more.

“Right, I’ll go boil some water then,” he offered, receiving eager nods from the two teenagers. They were left outside for a while after this.

“Brilliant, free coffee!” exclaimed Nicky, rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

“Free? We always get free coffee?”

“Technically, yes, but it always goes on the bill, you see.”

“Ah, ‘tis true ‘tis true,” smiled Alex mournfully shaking her head. Nicky wrinkled her nose at the use of Shakespearian, melodramatic language. It was hardly fitting.

“Here are your coffees, your majesties,” Mr Canning reappeared, carrying three cups dangerously with only two hands. Alex smirked.

“I rather like that title – shall we keep it that way?”

“You wish,” he shot back, one eye half closed, in an almost winking motion. It was all quite strange, Alex decided – but then, he was quite a strange person.

“Right,” began Mr James as he bustled back out of the staffroom, his moustache twitching somewhat. “I’ve got you these here, couldn’t find the others, but it should all be fine. And if you need anything, ask Nicky, she seems to understand everything just fine. And if not, then you can come to me.”

“Just great,” murmured Nicky in a high pitched voice, “what am I, wonder woman?”

“So it would appear,” replied Alex, amused, the corners of her mouth upturned. “Drink up, we have absolutely nowhere to be, but drink up anyway.”

Mr Canning rolled his eyes at this and sat down on one of the computer chairs that occupied the hallway.

“Catching up with everything alright?”

“I missed a day, not a week,” she said dryly. “Actually, only half a day really. And yes, although this crack on my head has been a little bit of a hindrance to my thought process.” Mr Canning winced at this and looked extremely guilty.

”I’m sorry about that, really,” he said, “my bad.”

“Yes, indeed,” she said, making him squirm.

“Al, you’re making the poor man squirm, leave him alone,” reproached Nicky, draining her coffee and slamming the cup down as a sign that she had finished.

“Sorry. And it’s okay, there’s only a small bump. Doesn’t really hurt at all anyway, falling on the floor after a dead faint – that would have hurt a lot more. Thanks for catching me, by the way. And thanks for the coffee while we’re at it.”

He waved her thanks away.

“No problem-o. I aim to please.”

“Clearly,” muttered Mr James from his corner, and they all turned to face him, laughing. “What, I didn’t say anything,” he continued, and delved back into the harsh world of marking.

“Well, we’d best be off.”

“Right…back to our rooms where we’re going to chill and not do any work at all,” finished Nicky confidently.

“Yes, that,” confirmed Alex, nudging her friend and smiling.

“So thanks for the coffee,” finished Nicky, smiling wickedly at the two men, “and see y’all tomorrow.”

“I suppose you shall,” replied Mr Canning; he too had drained his coffee and now picked them up in a much more precarious manner than he had previously done. “Bye, don’t stay up too late, Alexandra, I know you’ve slept what, sixteen hours today, but I don’t want you being all distracted in tomorrow’s lesson. It’s going to be fun.”

As he headed back into the staff room he heard Alex mutter sarcastically, two things.

“It’s Alex. And translation: by ‘fun’, he means ‘torture’.” They headed off together in amicable silence, as friends do after Alex had thanked Mr James for the work, and he had told her it was his pleasure – of course it was, he didn’t have to do it.

“I’m gonna leave you to catch up with your work, okay Al?”

”Why, where are you going?”

“For a run, to the gym. Who knows?”

“Okay, well I’ll see you later then.”

“You betcha.” They waved goodbye and each of them went their separate ways; Alex back to her rooms and Nicky up to the sports centre that their school had recently built. The only thing missing from it, she reasoned, was a decent punchbag – that could make all the difference to the temperament of the girls there.

Boxing was brilliant for anger management and de-stressing overall.

A/N: I know it’s been a while, and I’m truly sorry, but I sort of lost a bit of inspiration for this story – and got caught up in my other ones. But I’ve made a pact to myself (which I will probably break, but will try to stick to) that every time I write a new chapter of each of my stories, I have to have a new chapter for all of them.

I’m hoping it’ll work out well.

Please review, I love reading all of your comments whether they are good or bad – criticism is always welcome, it’s to the cause of improving my story. So thanks for reading

- Menace