Ch. 9: Slithering

CHAPTER NINE:

Break ends with me again in the bathroom splashing some water on my face. Ally had tracked me down after my full freak out.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” She asks me, one hand on my shoulder as I look at my face in the mirror. 

I glance around and notice there is another person in here with us. I don’t want to talk about all this with a random stranger as a witness, so I shrug her off. She looks concerned. I use a paper towel to dab my face fully dry and walk back out to the hall. We should be rushing to class.

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. I’ll explain later, okay? We’ve got to get going.” 

Ally didn’t look quite satisfied, “Okaaay.., but I’ll at least show you where you’re going. Ally led the way to my next class, Humanities. The class was two doors down from Mr. Chu’s Homeroom, where I had started part of my day yesterday. A student opened the door from inside and turned around to face those of us gathered by the door.

Ally nudged my arm, “That’s Ms. Del Rios. Our Humanities teacher.”

Sure enough, at a closer look, the petite woman who had opened the door was an adult. She wore a large gray sweater, dark pants, and above-the-knee boots. She looked like her clothes were swallowing her whole. Her choice in attire probably contributed to how small framed she looked, but her serious face had me believing Ally’s statement to be true. Ally waved bye to me, and I followed the trickle of students inside. This will be another weird result of my oddball schedule. While Ally is in my Humanities class tomorrow, she isn’t today. Once I stepped inside, Ms. Del Rios made eye contact with me. She swayed up to where I was standing, oversized sweater and all, and held out her hand.

“Hi, I’m Ms. Del Rios,” she introduced herself with a soothing, calm tone. She seemed warm and personable. Judging from her facial features I deemed her to be perhaps Filipina, many students in the school were of Filipino background. She gave me the last available seat in the room, up near the front whiteboard. The student desks were arranged into a giant U-shape. More students showed up while I took a minute to look at the front board. Looks like we would be starting the day with silent reading time, making me really happy since I was going to be able to read a book I had been carrying in my bag for weeks. Looking around, I recognized a few faces from my science class, including Lucy and Elizabeth who were at the opposite side of the classroom. Sarah, who sat next to me in science, came through the door, and waved kindly at me while she walked to her seat. 

“Oh hey!” exclaimed a voice to my side, and I turned to see Bella from Science and Trigonometry, “How’s it going?” she asked. 

Her genuine interest really helped snap me to the present after the lingering terrible feeling from earlier. 

I smiled and responded, “Oh you know, second day stuff - well sort of like first day stuff?”

“Ah yeah, it’ll take a minute but before you know it I’m sure everything will start to feel more natural here,” she looked down and noticed my book. “Oh yeah, for schedule stuff,” she pointed at the agenda on the front board, “Ms. Del Rios’ classes start either with silent reading or silent writing, it's a rotating activity.”

I nodded, and our teacher gathered our attention, signaling the start of silent reading. I mostly read but did glance up a few times to notice other people, including the dark soul/ bright soul who had approached Ally and I after school yesterday. He was wearing a black beanie but it did almost nothing to hide the brightness of his blazing hair and bright eyes. His wrist had a chunky black band on it and he was holding a book from the top, with the book standing up on the desk. Kinda odd. I refocused on my book until I heard a door open. Looking towards the sound I shuddered, there was that guy again, Vance, standing in the doorway, looking at my teacher. Son of a - he’s in this class too. He turned to look at me and I shot my eyes back down to my book, shrinking down in my seat like if only I could shrink down short enough he won’t look at me. The words on the page sat there unread, as I stared at a single letter on a page, trying to breathe. Trying to relax my body. I started counting in eight-counts. Eight-counts are repetitive measurements in dance class to count out our timing. I’m not sure where it came from, but it felt like it was starting to ground me. I heard a chair slide across the floor, and a bag dropped down. Thinking it could be safe to peak up again, I looked towards the door and scanned the crowd of students. Passing my gaze over Ms. Del Rios, the bright-haired grunge guy, Sarah, and a few other familiar faces, all focused on something. I felt my body relaxing as my gaze continued across the room until it reached him. He was staring at me. Aggressively. Could a stare be aggressive? Holy sh - Look away! I tell myself. 

My body is on overdrive, in hyperfocus, for the remainder of class. I can barely look up. I can barely hear Ms. Del Rios as she reviews the agenda and explains our reading project. My ears - everything feels like I am underwater. I can feel this cold electricity at the top of my spine, and I cannot understand how such a creep could possibly be making me feel this way. I don’t know this guy, I’ve never spoken to him before - why is he staring? And why does his attention make me feel like I have a giant snake slithering over my body?