Teenage Mischief

05 Playmate

August

A few days ago

"Good afternoon. August, right?"

I nodded at the middle-aged teacher and took his hand to give it a few shakes. "Good afternoon, sir."

"This is Samir. He'll be showing you around and informing you of our principles and everything you need to know."

A tan curly-headed boy stepped from behind him. He seemed to be about my height and was also wearing the school uniform. We shook hands and I offered him half a smile. I wasn't in the mood to beam around and act like I was dying to be there. 'Let's just get this over with'.

The middle-aged teacher, or as he introduced himself, Mr Davis, walked around with us for the first five minutes. After that, he made some excuse about a meeting I couldn't care any less about. It was a good thing he left since it was less awkward if I was with someone my age instead of someone double it.

The moment he was out of sight, Samir turned around, halting us midway on the stairs. "Was that Amanda you were just talking to?"

My eyebrows tugged together as I asked, "Who?"

"The girl you were talking to outside school," he said and my mind drifted back to that pest of a human I had to deal with. So her name was Amanda? The nerve of her! I still couldn't believe how she was blaming me when she was the one who sucked the breath out of my lungs. She should be apologizing to me but instead, she's yelling at me and insulting me even. Good thing I put her in her place. I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't enough though. I wished I could torture her a bit and make her shed a few tears.

"That nuisance?" I asked as I pushed past him and kept on going upstairs.

"Nuisance?!" He gasped as if it was directed towards him. "Dude, that's Amanda Holloway. Every guy here has had a crush on her at some point."

'So everyone here has a bad taste? Noted.'

I shrugged as I scanned the fourth floor. The locker-lined hallway showed a few scattered students, each of them a few feet away from the other. Some were standing in groups while others were preoccupied rummaging through their lockers alone. Some of the blue doors next to the lockers were closed while others were left ajar. The walls adorned with student art and hanging garbage bins were painted light grey. So light it could almost be mistaken for white and the air around us was filled with the scent of cleaning supplies and overused colognes. Towards the end stood a few teachers, looking at some files and laughing about God knows what.

"Hello?"

I looked at Samir as he snapped his fingers to get my attention. "What?"

"What were you talking about?" he asked, looking excited and eager. What could he be talking about? Suddenly, I wished the teacher was still with us. We would be done by now and I could go home if he was. Now, I was forced to engage in unwanted conversation. He saw my oblivious reaction and chose to elaborate. "With Amanda. What were you guys talking about?"

"Oh." I nearly rolled my eyes. Was he still thinking about that nuisance? "Nothing much. She mistook me with someone else."

He nodded and signed for me to follow him. I did.

"I heard the teachers talking about you earlier. We were all kind of shocked to get a new student in our class," he said, looking at me a bit too long as if trying to find something on my face. "Do you have connections here?"

"What?"

"The applications for this school have to be made a few years in advance and no one new is admitted until the year is over. It's been a month since the school year started and you're mysteriously joining us now. It gets one to wonder."