School of the undead

"It's finally Friday, this week has been so long." Danielle said, while we made our way through the crowded hallways.

I was holding onto her backpack so I wouldn't get lost on the way to our lockers. We always did that. It was one of our little habits, holding hands or each other's bags. When i was the one leading the way, she'd be the one holding onto me.

"I am so hungry. Can you believe we have to wait two more hours till lunch?" She says, very much irritated.

"I know, you want some candy?" I opened my locker. We were lucky, we were only two lockers away, which very rarely happens.

"I'll take anything at this point." She looked at me and put out her hands.

I searched around inside my locker for some, but my hands touched so many things, none of which was candy. It was mostly useless stuff, It smelled bad too, almost moldy. I wondered if it was even possible for mold to grow here.

"You know Daph? When you can't find something you always have in there, it's probably time to clean it up ." Danielle shook her head, unsurprised at the mess inside my locker.

She said nothing else, just turned around to hers. I smiled, turning to mine. Maybe she was right. Maybe it is really time to clean my locker.

I took my old notebooks and replaced them with the ones I needed for next period. When I moved to close my locker, I felt something on my cheek. It was cold and wet. I stepped back, Jake was holding a can of soda in his hands, leaning against the wall.

"Hey, I thought you weren't coming today," I closed my locker and took the drink. "Thanks."

"You're very welcome." He smiled, flashing his dimples. "And I wasn't. I'm pretty sure I have a cold, but Jay called me this morning"

He ran a hand through his hair. "He announced very proudly that he was going to skip the first two periods and he asked me to come back with him" He looked behind me.

"What do you mean you have a cold?" Danielle came up from behind me.

"Well mom, I'm freezing, my head hurts and my forehead is hot." He leaned his head on the wall and closed his eyes.

"Why didn't you stay home then?" She raises an eyebrow. "And what do you mean Jay asked you to come back?"

I couldn't help but laugh, she looked like an angry bird.

"Your boyfriend asked me to come so he wouldn't be the only one getting in trouble " He gave Jay a faint smile.

Danielle turned towards Jay and gave his hand a loud smack.

"Why would you do that? Look at the kid, he's clearly sick."

"Okay, first of all, ow, that really hurts. And I really called, if you would please listen, is because if he had stayed at home, we all know he wouldn't have eaten anything or taken any medicine." Jay rubbed his hand.

Danielle took his hand into hers and rubbed it with an apologetic smile and kissed it. I cringed and turned away before I could see more.

Instead I looked at Jake, who was still leaning against the wall with closed eyes. He looked tired, his whole face pale. He almost looked like a vampire. Unnaturally white skin, pitch black hair, perfect skin, plump lips and unrealistically gorgeous eyelashes.

I had always loved his eyelashes, they were naturally so curled. Me and Danielle used to joke that he would steal his moms eyelash curler every morning before coming to school.

"Enjoying the view I see." He opened his eyes so suddenly that I didn't have a chance to look away in time. Damn it.

"As if" I scoffed, carefully trying not to break the eye contact he started.

He tilted his head and smirked. "Okay, but you gotta admit this face," he circled his face in the air. "Is to die for."

He made a smooth turn right as the bell rings. He was pretty but definitely not to die for.

I made my way to my seat at the back next to Jake. The teacher put us together so he could help me with my work. He was the ace of maths while I couldn't even solve a simple equation without double checking the answer. Maths was the ennemi I made along the way.

I got to be next to my best friend, so I guess it wasn't all that bad. Although I don't think our teacher liked us chatting, he always gave us dirty looks during the lessons.

Jay and Danielle were in front of us. They were much worse than us. Always in their own little world.

At least we only chatted, those two were always holding hands under the table, talked about what they wanted to do after school or played with each other's hands. It got annoying sometimes. Since me and Jake were behind them, we always had to witness their lovey dovey ness. They reminded us how single and miserable we were.

"You understand?" Jake asked, pulling me back to reality.

He pointed to my unsolved problems. I hadn't even solved any yet. Everytime I picked up my pencil and stared at a stupid equation, my brain felt like it was about to explode. I already accepted the fact that maths was not for me, at least two months ago. I don't get why I still have to try.

"No clue what to do." I say, pushing my notebook towards him.

"Jesus Daph, do you even have brain cells?" He gave my head a slight knock. I pushed his hand away, running a hand through my hair to smooth it out. "You do understand you have to at least try , right?."

He was looking at me with his usual disappointed look. He had so much hope in me, it genuinely hurt me to fail him. But it is what it is.

I opened my mouth to give him an answer, but my attention was swept by something outside. It was like a line of black. They were moving so fast, I tried to take a better look by pushing Jake's head out of the way. Jake muttered something I couldn't hear, my eyes were glued to the sky.

Birds.

It was all birds. It was a herd of birds flying away. I looked at the direction they were coming from, but there was nothing weird to be seen.

"What the hell, Daphne? I told you never to touch my hair." He said, fixing his charcoal hair. He followed my gaze out the window. "What are you looking at anyway? What are those? "

"They're birds." I leaned in closer, still following the birds with my eyes.

"Why are there so many of—" a loud bang interrupted him. We both looked up, startled by the noise.

Everyone was looking at us, Mr. Smith was standing next to me, his gigantic textbook on my desk where he had slammed it. His stare was strong enough to burn a hole in our heads. He looked to be more disappointed than mad.

"I told you Daphne, no daydreaming in my class and now, even worse you got Jake to join you? I'm very disappointed in you, both of you." Mr. Smith took off his glasses and came closer to us.

"What ever is it that you're staring at, that is more important than my lesson?" He leaned forward, looking intently at the birds. Our dear teacher was so British that anything that came out of his mouth sounded richer and more pleasant to the ears.

"There's just so many." Jake pointed out.

"Indeed, there is. Strange, one might think it's doomsday already." He straightened up and clapped. "Okay back to the lesson, everyone. And you two" He pointed at us. "Not a single sound out of you until the bell rings. Have I made myself clear?"

We nodded.

Jake quietly helped me through the rest of my equations, his eyes occasionally drifting back to the window, part of was still elsewhere—and so was I.

The birds were gone, but the unsettling weight in my gut wasn't. If I'd learned anything from all the movies I'd binge-watched—and the endless wildlife documentaries our biology sub, Jane, insisted on showing us—it was that birds don't usually disperse like that for no reason. They often fly off when they're trying get away from something.

By the time class ended, I felt like I'd lost more brain cells than I'd started with— I was officially in the negatives in the brain cell department. And somehow thinking it out loud made it sound even sadder than I had imagined.

Two hours of maths without a break was more than enough to make my stomach scream for food. It was so bad Jake looked like he was fighting for his life next to me, while Danielle and Jay were both doubled over, hysterically laughing. I kept my head low as others turned toward us, following the noise.

Five minutes before class ended, Jay turned around, looked me straight in the eye and said—'Hold it in, Daph. Only five minutes left.' Then he turned back around and burst out laughing.

I didn't think it was that hilarious—mostly because i was literally starving. My stomach hurt so much I felt like I might actually throw up if I didn't eat anything soon.

"Guys, can we please hurry up?" I said, practically dragging Danielle toward the cafeteria. "I am so hungry."

It wasn't until I finally got some food in my stomach that I felt my senses come back to me. I was that hungry. I gobbled it all up in less than five minutes, all while my friends stared at me, amazed.

I sat there scrolling through my phone as the rest of them finished their food, when Sarah—one of our classmates, who was also on the long list of girls with an unrequited crush on Jake—made her way over to our table.

She said hi all around and plopped down next to Jake. Then she started her usual, never-ending conversation with him, slowly inching closer as she went on. Danielle nudged my shoulder and laughed. Jake was skidding away too, though he ended up pushing jay off his seat in the process.

He kept glancing at us, his eyes practically begging for help, as Sarah's hand moved up and down his bicep. She commented on how good he looked in just a black t-shirt, and then, for absolutely no reason, randomly muttered 'wow'.

To make matters worse for the poor guy, after about five minutes of witnessing all this, Jay cleared his throat "Well, we'll just leave you two lovebirds to it," he said, getting up and motioning for Danielle and me to follow. "We wouldn't want to get in your way"

Jake shot us a 'don't you dare' look and sighed, because he already knew us too well to think we'd pass up teasing him. Then his eyes locked on mine, and I saw a wave of emotion sweep across his face—something I couldn't quite put my finger on. I hesitated. I felt bad. I wanted to stay and get him out of Sarah Chance's hold.

As much as I liked her, she was a pain in the butt. She never really listened when you talked, always cutting in like what you said didn't matter.

But this was Jake I was trying to help. The same idiot who told his friend from the football team that I thought they looked good. The guy who kept messing up after I spent hours getting ready. The boy who mocked my math grade and then panicked when I started crying. And so, so much more. He more than deserved this.

Before I could even decide, Danielle grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the table. Satisfaction bubbled up inside me as I watched him give me one of his forced smiles.

We made our way outside and killed some time outside before class started again. After around ten minutes, we got our Jake back—but sadly without our sweet Sarah tagging along. He looked  completely worn out, like he'd been asked to babysit five energetic kids.

He was paler than he had been earlier, which I didn't even think was possible—an unpleasant shade of greyish green creeping into his complexion. He came over to Jay's side, threw an arm over his shoulder, and slumped against him.

"Dude, my head's going to explode," he said, covering his mouth with his free hand. "Sarah chewed my ears off about how fantastic her weekend was."

"Really?" Jay laughed. "So... did she have fun or what?"

"Why don't you go ask her yourself?" Jake shot back, pushing Jay aside. "No, seriously. Im sure she'll be more than happy to tell you all about it."

The bell rang before we even got to the end of Sarah's epic weekend. The rest of the day was a blur. Our classes flew by, surprisingly without any of our teachers unloading a surprise test or extra assignments—the usual Friday torture.

I was exhausted, even though I hadn't done anything other than daydream and annoy the heck out of Jake, who, unfortunately for him, was stuck beside me for most of our classes.

Our teachers had obviously made an unspoken vow to seat us together. Their unofficial reasoning? 'She calms him down with her quietness.' I honestly didn't know whether to be offended or flattered.

Because, even though it sounded more like an insult than anything else, there was almost a hint of praise hidden in their words. Maybe they liked my shyness. Maybe they were slightly disappointed they didn't have more students who lived in their own little worlds all the time.

I mean, it would make their jobs way easier without all the wannabe class clowns who think insulting their teacher is the best way to earn their friends' approval.

I only snapped out of my thoughts when my body crashed into Jay's back. I shifted to his side, rubbing my head. Why the hell were teenage boys' backs like concrete?

"Why'd you stop so suddenly?" I asked.

"Huh?" he said, his eyes darting to me, an apologetic smile spreading across his face as he reached for my head. I swatted it away. "Sorry, these idiots are blocking the way."

I followed his gaze to the hallway outside our classroom. Almost all our classmates were gathered around someone, low mumbling filled the air.