Grey Souls Part 2

    Lunch ended. Class chatter resumed. As a result of the constant chattering, my homeroom was ordered by Ms Findler, the Tenth Grade Coordinator who was standing in place of our homeroom teacher Ms Whitely, to stand for the  entire ten minutes of roll call/ homeroom period. No one took her serious and the chatter ensued. My disgust was ripened as I watched one after another disrespectful girl dare to sit.

    As soon as the bell rang, I changed my books in my locker, then progressed to the Lecture Hall for French. A part of me- no, lie…the ENTIRE ME wanted Mlle Prince to forget like last week we had class in the Lecture Hall. I wanted the thirty-five minutes to the graph for my Physics lab write-up. Though to be honest, I wasn’t in the mood for work. As I walked to class, I saw Dominique Riley, KayLee Bart and Kayla Hunt walk towards room 9/38, then remembering where we had class they turned. Looking at me looking at them, they probably thought I was going towards 9/38 too.

    “We have class in the Lecture Hall,” chorused Dominique and KayLee.

    “Yeah. It’s a Tuesday remember?” Kayla harmonized in that fast stammering way she always spoke.

    “I know that. I was just wondering where you guys were going,” I explained. As we walked o together, Dominique fell in step with me.

    “Oh shut up!” She said in that I’m-acting-light-hearted-but-I-really-do-wish-you-would tone. “You couldn’t just pretend, so I could know something you don’t for once? Why you have to be so smart?!!”

    Being the person my mother raised me to be I kept my distaste to myself and changed the subject to what I really do not remember. It wasn’t important. What my mind did was renew my episodes of having great dislikes for the Dominiques I was forced to let go of without using a real nasty retort. Not one. Not ever. My second mental note for that afternoon was to write a poem on how much pricking I have taken and will have to take in the future. I hated it when people looked at me and stereotyped me or mistook my interest. Labeling and depending on me as “smart” or “nerd”. Not that I was entirely objected to being a nerd. Heck I loved the Vlogbrothers! And that was what they were all about! Even before them, I wanted everyday a day to learn something new and no matter how old, to never stop learning. Then again, maybe they are not entirely in the wrong. After all, I have probably been abusing books, schoolwork, etc. Using it as my key to the door that leads to the open door.

    As I opened the door to the Lecture Hall, I swallowed the bitter taste that was building in my throat. I made my way to my usual seat and sat trying to avert my thoughts. Physics homework was no longer on my agenda. I sat and stared waiting for a distraction.

    Joanna, Olivene Brown and Shimary Scott entered. Olivene switched seats with Joanna to sit behind me. Perfect distraction. Mission: Take away that book. I grabbed at it. Joanna’s forefinger was between the pages and so I pulled the book towards me so her finger would slip out with minimal hurt. I feared I was twisting her wrist that was once broken- I never could remember which wrist it was. Thud! Mission accomplished.

    “No! Don’t lose the page!” Seriously, as if I was listening! I quickly wedged the book beneath my thigh. After futile attempts to calm the class down and get them to [i]DFTBA, someone alerted that Mlle Prince was on her way. So the witch’s daughter- she was too pretty, sweet and dumb to be the witch- was on a stolen broom. Well, I’ve gone through so many worthless sessions with her that I suppose this would have to just join the others. At least we were in AC right?

    Not only did she come to class; she brought work! Now not to discredit her claims or anything but if she actually went to France for two years to teach French kids, how did she survive? I mean, the accent- oops sorry accent that she uses! So after seventeen painful questions, times two as she repeated each, we commenced marking our answers.

    During the test, Joanna occupied herself with writing something on the page she was doing the  ‘test’ on. I saw just a few sentences that she had managed to write. In truth, I thought they were part of a letter intended for Keresha. I feigned interest, I really liked to annoy her the way she did me. At first that was it. Then I got interested, the way I always did when she started on a story, though I had never seen her finished them. Wanting to see it, I grabbed at the folder. She closed the folder in time and I momentarily accepted defeat. Momentarily. I lunged again, succeeding this time.

    “No! You can’t read it!”

    So I leaned to my right, away from her, and ensued to find the page single handedly. As I closed in on the leaf, she made a stronger attempt to get the folder from my hand. As she caught the polder, I instinctively tore out the page.

    “Animals!” The girls about us stared perplexed at what was to them another Racquelle- Joanna moment/fight.

    “No!” Joanna was acting childish now. As my eyes flew over what she wrote, my volume of yellow was significantly reduced. The bell rang and she got up from her seat. I sat wishing I could paste in the folder leaf  somehow.

    “Seriously! Is this what you didn’t want me to read?” My face was smiling but somewhere in my stomach, something made a dive. I tried to hand it back to her but she just walked away to stand behind Shimary who was sitting beside Olivene.

    “Ah not talking to you” Joanna baby-voiced- if that is even a word, if not I’d coined it then and there.

    [ii] “Oonoo please sawt out oonoo problem cah mi cyaah tek it!!” Shimary said. She was the usual irritable person as she packed her bag.

    I don’t remember how exactly, but Joanna took back the folder leaf and persisted to ‘ignore’ me.

    “Okay, I’ll write about what happened,” I offered. I winced on the inside, hoping she’d keep ‘ignoring’ me. She was, so I said, “ Good! At least I won’t have to write about what I feel! And at least you won’t know what my awful thoughts were so as to think badly of me!”

    Big mistake! Big mistake saying that to someone who thrived on Psychology! Of course that did it!

    “Alright then,” She tried hard not to smile. Crap!

    “O-Kay….” I tried to back pedal. “Alright….So I won’t speak about what I felt. Instead I’ll write on what just happened okay?” I continued my walk in the direction of my Physics class.

    “Okay.”

    I felt rotten. I knew what it was like to have someone invade my privacy and here I found myself the perpetraitor. I walked on to class, and as I stepped down a second flight of stairs I looked back to see what it was I had stepped over. There on the third step was a black and white peppered moth.