I was so close to forgetting the novel for first class, and only because my bag was ridiculously light, 1440 pages, and by the pressure of the teacher - a physical copy. eBooks don't teach us the responsibility to care for a borrowed thing, and audiobooks are not reading... her words.
1,440 pages of tracking aristocratic Russian families during the Napoleonic Wars by our "beloved" current-curriculum victim, Lev Tolstoy, and his War and Peace. Oh... no, wait... we were the victims.
First class – Universal Literature, and as much as I loved Miss Lena, you cannot convince me ANY Russian classic author is suitable for the level of understanding of 17year old, hormonal teenagers, whose main worry is to date and be fashionable.
...I really need to stop talking to myself...
Ugh...I'm too tired for this...
I dragged myself and the book through the corridors and towards the first classroom, where a too-happy Mara was waiting for me.
"Rya! Rya!" Mara squeaked as soon as she saw me. "Guess who called me this morning?"
"Lev Tolstoy to give you a summary of his work?" I looked at Mara, too exhausted by the annoyance of the extra 1.5 kg I had to carry around because the school refused to upgrade their thinking.
"Ben! And yeah, I wished... but seriously?"
"Who?" I asked as I sat at my desk, and Mara sat on top of it.
"My date from last night." She pursed her lips, and patience left her eyes.
"Wait, I thought that was Andy."
"No, Andy was the one across the table." She motioned through the air, with a finger, over an imaginary model of our group date.
"No, that was Brandon."
"No, Brandon was the one whose girl was almost stolen by your man." She continued to point at nothing where Brandon was supposedly seated.
"Ew." I said flatly. "And he's not my man. He barely qualifies as a boyfriend."
"Why date him then?"
"Boredom? He's not looking for anything serious, and I like to hang out, so win-win? Plus, he's handsome... that helps."
"He gives me weird vibes, like who even were most of the people yesterday?"
"His girl friends and their boyfriends." I flipped through my notes.
"Sit! Sit!" Miss Lena walked into the class, and Mara scooted back into her chair. "We have a big book to shower with lots of love today, so I hope you are prepared."
"Hey," I poked Mara, as Miss Lena cleaned the table and sang mostly to herself - ' I like big books and I cannot lie...' - "Don't forget to tell me about Ben after class."
"As if I could ever."
***
The bell rang, and dragging our heads more than our feet, we packed ourselves towards the next classroom, with Mara chirping away about her time with Ben after we separated.
"... and he kissed me." she smiled, a blush spreading over her cheeks and towards her ears.
"Wait, already?" I looked at her, eyes wide and a sweet feeling spreading in my chest.
Mara - tall, with brown, rebellious hair, big black eyes, and perfect porcelain skin, which made everyone I knew envious. A natural beauty, as the world might say, and who, by my account, just received her first kiss.
"Yep, and you might want to turn left here, unless you want to go to the shop."
"Yeah, no. There's no need to face the crowd."
We've known each other since forever, and we always stayed together, for good and ... not so good; always up to some mischief. The first outrageous thing that we did together was painting one of our older neighbours' white cat a light blue, just to match her personality a bit better. We received cookies from her instead of being ratted to our parents and grounded, but maybe we shouldn't have been so surprised; the woman saw only the full half of the glass.
We turned left, trying to avoid the crowd in the main hall intending to detour by the secretary's office, but, as usual, the universe had other plans for me.
I glimpsed a figure in the corner of my eye. Stunned, I turned in less than a second to inspect the individual, but he was already gone. I scanned the faces of those in the area, desperately trying to find him, but he was nowhere to be seen.
"Rayna... Rayna, is something wrong?" she stopped a few steps away, noticing I'm no longer next to her.
"What? No ... Nothing ... I just thought ... I thought I saw someone."
"What, an ex-boyfriend or something?" she chuckled. "The way you jumped, I thought you saw a ghost."
"No ... It's just someone I don't think I'll have the chance to see again." I told her a bit disappointed. "Let's go. We're going to be late!"
Of course, it couldn't have been him. Why would he have been in the same school as me? He probably graduated from high school quite a while ago anyway. This was what I deserved for obsessing about it all the time; I was starting to see things. But I was quite disappointed by the idea that I would never know who that person was.
"By the way, how did that happen? You looked fine yesterday." Mara asked, her brows creasing a little.
"Does it look that bad?" I glanced at my foot. "It's just a scratch."
"Well ... you're wearing sandals. If you wanted to hide it, you should have worn trainers. Anyway, how did it happen? Yesterday, when you left the date, you were fine."
Aw, you're concerned. I smiled inwardly.
"Does it matter?" I answered.
"Obviously! If I don't worry for you, then for whom?"
"I stepped on some glass in the garden."
Sorry, but if I tell you I was in the park at night, you will kill me.
"Well, I don't believe you, but let's leave it like that for the moment. You're really no good at lying."
"If you say so. Come on, I don't want to be late for class, or maybe you want a dose of nagging, in raucous eagle-ish, about how dark your future will be if you're not punctual?" I told her, amused, exaggerating my movement as if haunting her.
"No thanks." she laughed out loud. "I'm good. I don't want an overdose."
We got into the classroom relatively in time, and luckily, our Latin teacher, Mr. Simon, wasn't there, but... he was just behind us; which sent us flying to our seats.
"Greetings, students," he scanned the room. "I have an important announcement to make, so pay attention. We have a new classmate starting today. His name is Rowan Young."
The whole class began to murmur at the news, which honestly meant nothing much to me. With my mind miles away at my mysterious boy from the lake and what I thought I saw in the hallway, I was looking towards the teacher's seat, but I was looking more through him than at ... until he walked in. My thoughts combined with the image in front of my eyes, analysing him from head to toe, finding similarities and differences. He was tall and athletic, with brunette hair partially covered by the hood of his jacket and his intense gaze fixed at a point in the back of the class. His defensive yet defiant posture, with his hands in his pockets and his head slightly tilted, made Mr. Simon cough disapprovingly before the introduction began.
"As I was informed, Mr Young has travelled around the world from an early age and has never had the pleasure of studying in a collective. The other teachers and I, supported by the headteacher of this educational institute, are expecting you to make him feel welcome and support him as much as possible as he settles in . Also, Mr. Young, I hope you will quickly get used to the dress code, conduct, and the rules of this school. A respectable high school is not a suitable place for troublemakers."
When he sat at the empty desk in front of me, the parallel worlds I lived in collided, and the person in my mind and the one in front of my eyes became one. I glanced around at my classmates, but none of them looked at him directly, not even the teacher. Nothing in their behaviour said welcoming or accepting, more like avoidant and judgmental; I smiled though.
Because now, my mysterious boy from the lake had a name ... Rowan.