In Love With My Neighbor

Chapter 5

Zebras were reasonably peaceful animals. They hung out a little here and there. Ate some grass. Drank some water from the river.

That's how life went.

But when a lion suddenly appeared, it was something else. The zebras would immediately switch to "danger - I have to go" mode, and their survival instinct would set in.

They would run like the wind, faster than they would ever be able to under other circumstances, and put everything into surviving - at any cost.

I saw myself as a very endangered zebra there, in the middle of the cafeteria.

And that was probably also why I made a choice that I would never have considered before I was in that situation.

Chris still had remnants from the permanent marker on his face. It was actually very impressive that he had gotten so much off. And even from the other end of the cafeteria, I could see smoke coming from his ears, and his sharp eyes scanned the cafeteria for a certain brown-haired girl named Emily Ross. Yikes.

Strongly determined to remain unseen, I silently sprinted over to the other exit of the room. I hid behind tables filled with people unknowingly sitting and eating their food, and I could feel my heart beating against my ribs.

When I grabbed the handle, it still didn't seem like the i***t had seen me. He was still just standing there trying to find me. I did an inner victory dance, but just before I went out and closed the door, my blue eyes met his angry brown eyes, and I knew I was f****d. He broke out in an evil smile, and ran over to me, but before that I was long gone.

Oh, how I wish I knew high school better. For right now I was standing in a completely unknown hallway, and was on the verge of panicking.

There were doors all the way down and I had no choice but to tear the first door on my right hand, up.

With a scream, I covered my innocent eyes, and rushed in to the wall. Of all the rooms, I just chose to storm into the boys' locker room? Wow, Emily, nice.

There spread big panic among all the half-naked boys. 

"Girl!" was whined while the clothes were thrown on at a roaring speed.

I was just about to disappear out into the hallway again when it dawned on me that this was the ideal hiding place. Chris would never think I was in here, right?  And he was probably out in the hallway right now, so I could not go out again. With a big sigh and a lot of mental conviction, I quickly headed towards a large closet at the other end of the room. I could well be in there.

Despite all the panic and push, and all the "get out "s, I managed to get into the closet and close the door well. I was safe. For now.

****

I woke up with a set. Had I fallen asleep? In a closet in the boys' locker room?! Honestly!

"Well, well. What do we have here?"

I jumped up and out of the closet, and out of sheer reflex, I kicked my knee hard up into the balls of the person who had startled me, taking his head in a tight head lock.

"Aarghh, holy s**t, why did you do that?!" Groaned the person.

"Chris?" I exclaimed, releasing my grip on him. He fell to the ground with a painful expression as he held on to the crotch and cursed.

It had become completely quiet in the dressing room. The only thing you could hear was Chris' curses. I looked around. Several boys stood wide-eyed, staring at me, and I could feel myself turning red in the face. It had not been on purpose! It was pure reflex!

"f**k, I'm so sorry, Chris!" I exclaimed and took to my hair. Even though it had in a way been self-defense.

"Ohh ...Just...Wait, Ross..." He threatened in pain, and I shuddered. I had just worsened my chances of survival.

The sound of the door being opened, and a deep voice shouting "Emily Ross and Chris Hall. My office. Now!" Made my blood run cold.

This was just not my day.