Free Falling

1|Home of the Pandas

    A paper ball hit the side of my head, then rolled to the edge of the desk. Nonchalantly, I picked it up, the rough edges digging into my palm, and unwrapped it quickly as to not draw attention to myself. Letting my eyes roam over the bolded words that were written in all caps and neat handwriting, I rolled my eyes.

THEY'RE HERE!!!!

    I scribbled down a short reply, balled the paper up, and chucked it back at the blonde girl who sat three desks to the right of me. With my miraculous aim, the ball hit the middle of the desk. I could hear the crinkling of the paper and then a short intake of air, and a few minutes later I was yet again struck by the sharp corners of a prickly paper ball.

NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO ACT LIKE YOU DON'T CARE! I'M FREAKING OUT!

   Rolling my eyes again, I this time discarded the paper onto the floor, not bothering to respond back to my best friend's semantics.

    I went back to absentmindedly doodling in my notebook, creating swirls with my pencil, and drowning out the teacher's monotone voice of which no student paid attention to. A familiar scent of vanilla wafted into my nose, and I looked up to see that Skylar had switched seats with Lucas and was boring her baby blue eyes into my head. With a sigh, I intertwined my fingers and looked at her with raised eyebrows.

    "Why aren't you freaking out?" she hissed in a whispered tone.

    "Because I don't care about some boys, Sky, and you know this," I replied with boredom.

    "Oh, come on!" she retorted, flicking her wrist at me. "Don't tell me you're not a little bit curious to know who they are. We haven't had new students in so long, and I'm tired of looking at these old faces."

    Marionne High wasn't a big school, and the town barely doubled in size, so everyone knew everyone by first and last name whether they were popular or not. Everyone's dirty laundry was out in the open for speculation or judgment because everyone was bored here, having nothing else to do but gossip. There were so many scandalous rumors that the school was ranked number two out five of the most gossip-filled school in the district. 

    Anyway, after a while of spreading rumors about the same people we saw every single day, the gossiping got old and people found new ways to entertain themselves in this dump of a town.

    However, once word got around that four boys were going to attend this school, rumors began spreading like wildfire. In a matter of minutes, people were spreading potentially false information about some guys who hadn't even walked through the front door yet, and I didn't want to indulge in any of it. And that included not having any preconceived notions about them.

    But Skylar didn't seem to get the message as she pushed her phone in front of my face. "One of them came in handcuffs." On the screen was a videotaped by one of the students here, and the camera was pointed at an olive-skinned boy who was being "escorted" by a    policeman.

    The students in the class were silent, even the teacher, as they watched him shuffle into the classroom with a policeman shoving him forward every two seconds, an irritated scowl on his face as if he had lost a bet and had to be the one to bring the boy in.

    The handcuffs looked like they were digging into his wrists, but the look on the boy's expression was the opposite of uncomfortable or painful. In fact, he was smirking like this was all some sort of a joke. No one was laughing, though.

    "Who is this?" I asked.

    "I don't know his name, but he is damn fine."

    I went to question her taste in men, preferably the ones with inquisitive backgrounds, but I bit my tongue before the hypocrisy could escape. I couldn't be one to talk as I had been attracted to those types of boys in the past. However, I was done with their attitude, their charisma, and their enchanted spells that reeled in lonely girls desperate for attention, not that Skylar was one of them. But I had been one of them. Fortunately, I closed that door a long time ago.

    As I watched Skylar ogle the screen, her eyes filled with excitement and curiosity, I couldn't help but want to protect her from getting herself involved with the likes of a boy, a "bad" boy, who would only take her kindness for granted. I knew she longed for the taste of the wild, rebellious side. She'd even voiced that she was jealous that I had, despite the consequences that came afterward.

    But it was only a glorified nightmare that resulted in chaos, and she didn't understand that. She didn't understand that I would trade my experience for her innocence any day.

~

    I was in computer science playing random typing games to pass the time when I felt someone sit beside me. Not interested in who had chosen that seat versus the many empty seats scattered about the room, I went back to the game, missed a letter, and groaned.

    "Bored, huh?"

    I turned my head and met the potent smell of some sort of cologne. The unfamiliar boy grinned at me and powered on the computer.

    "Out of my mind," I replied coolly, glaring at my computer screen as if was the source of my problem.

    For some unknown reason, my eyes flickered to the boy again. He had to be one of the new students because I had never seen him before.

    "What's your name?" I asked, starting up a small conversation. There was nothing else to do in this boring class where the teacher hardly taught. Mr. Benson was behind his desk, most likely playing Minecraft with his other underpaid buddies.

    "Miles," the light-skinned boy said, flashing me a row of his nice, straight teeth. "And you are?"

    "Cathy. Welcome to Marionne High, home of the Pandas."

    He frowned and scrunched his eyebrows. "There's a mascot of a brown bear in the yard."

    I blinked. "s**t, could've sworn we were the Pandas."

    He laughed and shook his head. He turned back to his computer while I tried not to stare at him. Skylar was right; it was boring seeing the same faces every day, and Miles was a peculiar face, a very handsome face that diversified the sea of average-looking faces.

    Stubble grew around his mouth and spread along his defined jaw, accentuating his slim face. His eyes were a mixture of a light brown and green, not quite hazel toned, though. His hair was cut short and was faded at the sides.

    Miles caught my eye and smiled. "See something you like?"

    I laughed, not bothered that I had been caught. "Curiosity does kill the cat."

    "And what are you curious about?"

    I shrugged. "Hell if I know."

    The bell rang and as soon as I went to leave, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Miles asked me for directions to his next class. Two other boys were standing outside the room, apparently waiting for him. One of them was a pale, freckled ginger while the other was the boy I recognized from the video.

    Now that I was up close, he was very attractive. His black hair sat up in a neat bun on top of his head, and he was laughing at something. I had a feeling that he was the jokester out of his group of friends because of the mischievous glint in his eyes. He smelled like a troublemaker.

    "See you later, Cathy." Miles waved and joined his friends. They all trailed down the hallway and disappeared around the corner.

    I was headed the opposite way to my next class when Skylar suddenly popped up out of thin air, her eyes wide and body jerking ecstatically. Her red-painted fingernails dug into my arm as she squeezed it, squealing like a classic school girl.

    "Did I just see you talking to Miles Perkins?"

    I shrugged her off me before shrugging my shoulders. "He needed directions to his next class." I dismissed the fact that she knew his full name, knowing that half the school already knew the new students' full government. It was scary how fast these people retrieved any information about anyone. It would put the FBI to shame.

    Her face fell at my nonchalant expression. "You just met one of the new guys and you're not even a little flustered. What was he like? What's his next class? Did he smell nice because I heard that he wears this cologne that smells like absolute heaven..."

I wished I could say that I stood in the middle of the hallway and answered each one of her questions, but sadly I had run out of patience to keep up with her stalker-y behavior.

Silently, I walked away, leaving her behind in a sputtering mess.