Bad News

Bad News - Chap. 4

Chapter 4

 

After the general shock of Camila’s presence flooded away, Mrs. Kane started her class. Lauren couldn’t help but look at Camila from time to time. Camila looked like a statue. She didn’t move a single muscle for a long time.

Time passed by slowly and Lauren had a hard time focusing on anything that Mrs. Kane was telling them with Camila sitting next to her. She was taking notes, but she didn’t register what she wrote. Finally the bell rang, signaling the end of her first class of the day.

She watched Camila getting up slowly and dropping her books in her bag. She forgot to do the same herself, which caused her to be the last one in the classroom. She quickly gets up, throws her books into her bag and quickly makes her way to her next class.

When she enters the room, she sees Camila placing her books on her table in the back. She slowly walks over and sits down at the table next to her. She focuses on her own bag and pulls out her books and notebook. That’s when she realizes she doesn’t have a pen anymore.

‘Shit.’’ She mutters softly to herself, while rummaging through her bag in search for a pen. Must have forgotten it earlier when I quickly packed my bag.. She thinks.

Lauren sighs heavily and lets herself fall back in her chair. She decides to just listen closely to what the teacher would tell them, and ask Dinah or Normani for a pen later today. She doesn’t want to ask anybody else in class, because she doesn’t really know them, and she's too shy to just ask a stranger.

Mrs. Grace walks in and starts listing the names, and just like Mrs. Kane, she is shocked at Camila’s presence. Luckily for Lauren, Mrs. Grace just wants them to read something out loud, so she doesn’t have to worry about making notes.

Tucker was reading a part of ‘The Kite Runner’, and Lauren listened and waited patiently for her turn to read. Halfway through the page, Mrs. Grace called her name, and she continued reading where Tucker had stopped.

Lauren is reading effortlessly and after two pages, Mrs. Grace speaks up again. ‘’Very good, thank you Lauren. Okay, Camila, will you please continue?’’

Camila doesn’t move an inch though, and keeps looking down. If Lauren doesn’t know any better, she would think she was asleep. Everybody is looking at her, wondering what is going to happen next, knowing Camila never says anything out loud. Mrs. Grace seemingly has the same thoughts, because she stands up and makes her way over to the back of the room.

She stops next to Camila’s desk. ‘’Listen Camila, I know you don’t like to speak up, but if you don’t read this out loud right now, I have no other choice than to fail you for this assignment.’’

Camila doesn’t seem to care at all though, because she still doesn’t move a single muscle. Mrs. Grace seems to start losing her patience, waiting for an answer from the girl. She reaches out and puts her hand on Camila’s shoulder to try and get her attention. Wrong move.

Camila quickly grabs her hand, pulls it to her and slams her hand in the inside of Mrs. Grace’s elbow. Then within a second she slams her hand down on her table, while keeping a firm grip on it. Mrs. Grace yelps out in pain as she grabs her arm in her other hand.

Every single pair of eyes in the classroom is looking at what just happened. Mrs. Grace’s cry of pain seems to snap Camila out of her trance, because she slowly lets go of the teacher’s hand. Mrs. Grace immediately hold it close to her, while she tries to push back her tears in her angry eyes.

‘’OUT!’’ She yells at Camila loudly, who is once again looking down, her hands shoved into her pockets. ‘’Get the hell out of my classroom, and don’t ever come back!’’ she yells again and points to the door with the hand that isn’t starting to show a big blue bruise.

Camila slowly picks up her bag from the ground, and starts to gather her stuff. All the attention is still on her, including Mrs. Grace’s, who iswatching her pack her bag impatiently.

Camila is taking her time, and it is irritating the teacher. Mrs. Grace starts to tap her foot on the ground, and after a few moments, she starts walking towards the door, holding it open or Camila.

Camila stands up and throws her bag over her muscular shoulder. She turns and starts making her way to the door, passing Lauren’s table in the process. Lauren is still dumb folded in her chair with what just happened. Her eyes are wide, her heart hammering in her chest, and her mouth is still slightly hanging open while she's looking at the spot Camila sat just a few seconds ago.

She hears a soft thud, which makes her snap out of her state of shock. She turns to the door to see Camila disappearing through it, and Mrs. Grace shutting it loudly, still holding her bruised hand in the other one.

‘’You can all go for now, I think I have to go see the school nurse.’’ Mrs. Grace says, pain evident in her voice.

Most people are too shocked to get up and leave, and just sit there looking at their teacher. Some students finally stand up, and after a few moments, others follow their lead and gather their stuff. Lauren realizes that she has to pack her things too and grabs her bag off the ground.

She closes her books and puts them in her bag quickly. When she reaches for her notebook, she freezes once again. There's a blue pen lying on her notebook. One that definitely isn’t hers. She carefully picks it up and takes a closer look at it, when realization hits her.

This pen belongs to Camila. She must have noticed that Lauren didn’t have a pen, and she gave her hers. A small smile appeares on Lauren’s lips, and her cheeks are growing hot quickly.

How could she not have noticed Camila looking at her. She must have looked at her, because she wouldn’t have seen Lauren’s lack of a pen if she hadn’t.

Lauren drops the pen into her bag, and leaves the classroom. This is what makes Camila even more mysterious than she already was. First, she almost breaks her teacher’s hand, and then she’s being nice by giving Lauren her pen. What on earth was this girl’s deal?

Lauren starts to make her way to the cafeteria to spend the rest of the hour there, until lunch time. Just before the bell rang, she decided that this might be an opportunity.

She could go up to Camila tomorrow to give her the pen back. Maybe she could try to start a conversation with her. Maybe she would look up to her. Maybe Lauren would finally be able to really look at Camila.

Lauren sighs deeply and silently wishes for tomorrow to arrive quickly.