Single post in Shifting Fates

His face pointlessly concealed by folded arms on his desk, Rondrio strove intensely to ignore the constant poking of his right ribs by the girl sitting in the desk next to him. “C’mon, Ronnie,” she pleaded in a voice that grew more irritating with every passing day. “Just tell me if you like Lashay. I’ll hook you up with her.” Finally lifting his head for the first time since Ms. Oliveira left the room, Rondrio leered at the girl out of the corner of his eyes. “Either call me Ron or RW. I’m not tellin’ you again, Reneé. Now leave me alone.” He had barely managed to keep his voice under a shout, but he could already feel some of his classmates’ eyes aiming in their direction. All he wanted was to be undisturbed in his “turtle” state until the bell rang. Before he could bury his face in his arms again, Reneé unexpectedly snatched his right arm from under him. Rondrio’s forehead smacked the desk hard enough to rattle his thoughts for a few seconds. Reneé quickly released her grip. “Ronnie, I’m so sorry!” Rondrio rubbed his head while finding it completely impossible to ignore the snickering around him. Reneé apologetically reached for his hand, but he withdrew just as quickly. “Don’t touch me!” he sniped uncontrollably. With a combination of shock and embarrassment washing over her face, Reneé quietly sank in her seat, her sandy eyes avoiding his direction. Despite her expression, Rondrio couldn’t ignore his frustrations long enough to force an apology. “Who was shouting in here?” asked Ms. Oliveira as she reentered the room with creepy suspicion. It felt like her eyes burned a hole in the back of his head, but Rondrio wouldn’t dare turn to see for himself. Before someone had a chance to snitch, the final bell rang. Rondrio exhaled and shoved his notebook into his backpack like his classmates did with their items. By the time he zipped it up and glanced back for Reneé, she had already hurried into the hall. His shoulders sank. “Screw it,” he muttered. “I’ll apologize tomorrow.” He wouldn’t dwell on it. He shouldered his backpack and stepped into the student-filled hall. His russet eyes uncontrollably scanned the crowd of fleeting students for Reneé before he caught and silently berated himself. Letting this incident plague his mind would completely distract him from studying while waiting for his mother to get out of her weekly teachers’ meeting. Shaking his head free of distractions, Rondrio weaved through the foot traffic and headed for the end of the hall that exited to an outdoor walkway connected to the north hall. Not many students took this path to get to the courtyard so it surprised him to see a girl standing in its center. She had the straightest, black hair reaching just below her shoulders that nearly blended in with the black tee she wore. If her navy blue jeans were any indication, she hid a slender frame under her clothes. Yet something seemed off about her. She stared silently at the school building but didn’t carry a single folder or textbook. “What’s school like?” she asked out of the blue, confirming his budding suspicion. Rondrio frowned. “You decide to skip the first week or something?” “Just answer the question,” she snapped. Feeling his frown shift from curiosity to another emotion, he looked off toward the north hall. “Irritating… and it’s only week one.”