Hush, Hush

Drip. Tick...tick.

Drip. Tick...tick.

Drip. Tick...tick.

That’s all I was able to focus on during my AP Calculus class, the dripping of water into the window and the ticking of the clock. Then were my classmates adding to my list of distractions. Shuffling of paper. Whispering answers. Tapping erasers against desktops. Clicking of both cell phones and calculators.

The bell rang and while all the other students rushed out of the classroom throwing their tests at Mrs. Bellmore. “Adam, I’ll let you finish up tomorrow. I know it was bit noisy in here.” I smiled in relief and handed the plump woman my half empty. “Hopefully your classmates won’t be so rude tomorrow.”

“It was more of the water dripping than my classmates.” I told her gathering my books off the floor.

“What water?” She asked shooting one of her dark eyebrows up.

“Never mind.” I shook my head and exited the class in a hurry to go to Photography class. Photography was uneventful. The teacher went over the basics of shutter speeds to those who where new to the class. My grampa was a photographer, he told me all of that when I was much younger.

I decided I knew my camera well enough that I was exempt from Mr. Roe’s explanation. Instead of listening like a good student, I doodle pictures of the little boy I saw every morning spitting up water.

“Ha! Ez!” A girl sitting to my right laughed and pointed at the in depth picture I drew with a black pen.

“What?” I asked looking up at her. She was clearly of Spanish decent. Here skin was much darker than mine...but I’m always very pale. She had jet black hair that was cut into choppy layers and reached to just above her ass. She had these really interesting brown eyes that looked almost like they had orange in them, but she had black make-up all around them making her look kind of like she had cat eyes.

“It’s Ez isn’t it?” she cocked her head to the side studying my the picture and then turning her eyes up to me.

“Lola!” a guy with shoulder length black hair yelled from another table, motioning for her to go to him. Grinning the girl sitting next to me jumped up from her seat and scurried to the side of the short guy. Though, I’ve always been the tallest kid in my class standing at six feet and three and a half inches tall.

I couldn’t believe she made me wonder who the hell Ez was and then ran off. Maybe that’s what the little water spitting boy’s name is. Maybe I’m not the only one who can see him. Maybe everyone can see him! No. No, if everyone could see him there would have definitely been some sort of museum made out of the school.

The bell rang and I walked lazily through the hall. I had my notebook and two folder in clutched in my hand that I kept at my side as I walked. After two weeks of attending Pinebrook High School it people were still just noticing the tall anorexic looking new ‘scene’ kid. Kids at Pinebrook thought if you had longer hair and wore pants that were bit tight that you were automatically trying to be ‘scene.’ I got told a few times in those two weeks that I failed at being scene by one tiny, pierced, tattooed, girl with colorful hair. Though another girl similar to that one told me I was so scene it hurt. I didn’t understand Pinebrook kids.

Anyway, after walking through the hall and ignoring the comments I heard from random people I made it to Art class. I threw my books onto the white art desk carelessly and sighed. I should have been used to being an outcast by then but I guess I must have set my expectations for Pinebrook far too high. I took out my charcoal portrait of coal miner.

I hate charcoals. They make a huge mess. I was wiping my blackened fingers off on a damp paper towel when I caught her staring at me again. She did it all the time. There was a girl who sat in the back of the room. She had long dark brown hair that had random stripes of bright yellow place randomly thorough her hair. We stared at each other from across the room for what had to be at least two minutes straight before someone spoke to her, pulling her attention off me which in turn allowed me to continue to work on the messy portrait.

I looked back up to see if she was looking at me again...she was. This time Lola was standing next to her staring at me as well. Lola grinned at me and marched in my direction. I tried to look like I didn’t notice.

“Hey there, Adam!” she greeted me leaning on the edge of my desk. I was shocked that she even knew my name.

“Hey.” I replied quietly. I was always quiet when I was uncomfortable around someone.

“So, I was telling you about Ez before but I never got to finish.” I nodded and waited for her to continue. “One time there was this physic who went to school here and she would always see this boy at the end of this hall spitting out water like a fountain. She told everyone his name was Ezekiel and that a long time ago there was a flood and they used the school as a flood shelter or something and water reached the second floor where it was supposed to be safe and Ez was drown or something like that. I don’t know for sure...but that girl was a little off so it’s probably not even true. The picture you drew just reminded me of her...that’s all.”

“Oh.” was all I said. At least I knew the boy I was seeing was actually real. Plus, the school being a flood shelter explained a lot things. Like the smell of the building, and the dripping I heard during Calculus.

“I’m Lola by the way! I noticed you have the same lunch as I do, you should come sit at my table!”

I did something crazy that day, I actually sat with Lola and her friends when lunch rolled around. I met her whole group of friends. They were Pinebrook High’s ‘scene kids’ and they were loud and obnoxious. The girls were made up and exposing a pleasing amount of skin, the guys made a point to flirt with one of the girls and then turn around and flirt with another. The girls would exchange fake smiles at each other. That was only on one sit of the table. The other side was filled Lola, her boy friend Cody, the girl from Art class, a two guys who looked far too similar for me to tell them apart one was named Shawn and the other named Casey. Along with the three guys, Lola, and Art girl (who still hadn’t spoken) were a plethora a girls throwing there names at me. I’m going to say there were at least seven girls whose names I could not place with faces. The entire group took up four lunch tables in the back of the cafeteria.

I was beginning to think the girl from Art class was another person only I could see. See didn’t speak to anyone, she didn’t have any food, she didn’t really even seem to be noticed by anyone until Cody accidently fell on her because Shawn pushed him.

“I’m so sorry, Dea.” Cody apologized placing his hands on the girl’s shoulers. I noticed she was almost as pale as me and she had one blue eye and one green eye hidden behind a pair of thick black rimmed glasses.

“S’okay.” she responded, keeping her eyes locked on the words of the book she had been reading quietly. Dea. It was different. I had never met anyone with the name Dea. Technically I still hadn’t met anyone named Dea...but I was determined to. It was basically all I was thinking about when a girl was chatting my ear off about some show that I apparently had to see.