Behind These Refuge Walls

Dark Friday didn't come slow enough. Before I knew it, I was walking to my last class of the day. My stomach churned not from excitement, but from disgust. To top the loveliness of it all, Paige and one of her buddies made the stupid decision to 'keep me company', as she put it. Needless to say, I was in the mood to kill.

"Oh my God, I have a feeling Miss Kroft is so going to make us do something today!"

"I know! She's been all goody two shoes lately, but I saw her walking around with some flyers and--"

Completely oblivious at the conversation at hand, I played with my phone. There was the great temptation to skip class. I declared war to Miss Kroft during our second meeting. It wasn't that I didn't like the lady (she was in fact a charismatic young woman who actually made my day), I simply hated her class: Health Class (which may also be known under the name of Sex Ed, where all the idiots with problems in growing up had fun). And it didn't help that Miss Kroft (or Gina) was working her ass off to get everyone in the conversations. It was this how I ended up as the class jerk, who refused to talk like a silly five year old. The only thing I didn't do was stomp my feet, otherwise my act would have been complete.

"Charlie. Charlie!"

My head snapped in the direction of the blonde. A bored look took over.

"What?"

"You were out of it. Are you coming or not?"

We were already standing in front of the classroom door. Well, I stood like an idiot, they stood like two models (because they're just so cool).

"Yeah, no. I think I'll just skip or something." With a little hope, I could skip shopping with you idiots, as well, I added in my mind.

Paige looked ever so disappointed. "Come on, it's the coolest class!"

I was left no chance to argue her touching my shoulder with her manicured hand, because karma made Miss Kroft show up behind us - or behind me, seeing as the two 'ladies' had already rushed in.

"Did I hear the word 'skip'?"

Now where on Earth would she get that idea from? "Nope."

She smiled lightly and patted my back - a gesture I just loved so much, because it made me feel like her poodle.

"Come on, Charlotte. I'll pretend you weren't debating skipping my class if you just hurry up."

And hurry I did to the furthest, loneliest and emptiest desk. By the window and far from the overzealous teenagers.

"Okay, class. Today I'm going to hand out several pamphlets. I want all of you to have these at our classes, because they'll be our material."

I paid no attention to the presentation of the before mentioned materials, nor looked up when given around ten flyers. I left them on the desk and glared. Maybe I could turn them to dust or something. Or even better, with my telekinetic powers, I could make them fly around. Despite my passionate attempt, I failed. While Miss Kroft continued to speak, my gaze flew oddly around the room. No faces were new. My classmates either watched our teacher's ass, or winked amongst themselves. Strange that I wasn't in their group.

And then he caught me staring. I wasn't exactly staring at him, more like spacing out. Still, a pair of brown eyes caught mine and I could feel my cheeks burn. Lovely. Without a trace of delicacy I tore my gaze away from the same boy who had offered me a ride the day before and tried to pay attention to Miss Kroft. I regretted the moment I did.

"Pairs." People looked at her confused, though I could sense some excited looks. "That, kids, is the keyword this year. We are going to make pairs and therefore have several teams. It'll be fun, I guarantee it."

And boy, weren't they excited. Somewhere in that mass of people who were already planning how to hook up with who they thought their partners would be, only Janice (a silent artsy kid) and I seemed to be terribly upset by this.

"Now, half of the students' names will be written down and the other half will draw. The person who draws a note, memorizes it, and if they know who that person is, they take a seat by them. I don't want people yelling someone's name, alright?"

The bright side was that I ended up written and was saved from the embarrassment of standing in front of the class with a stupid note in hand. The bad side of things was that it took them a whole hour to get assembled and I was literally eating my nails away in hope that I didn't end up with someone I hated (which kind of meant the entire class).

And things didn't get better. Towards the end of the class, there were three people with notes, none of which I liked.

Candidate no. 1: Adam Lincoln. He was too talkative for my taste and dressed like he was in the 80's, but compared to the other two, I suppose I could have survived with him. I mean, from the looks of it he took care of his personal hygiene, he didn't drool over every mentioning of girls and knew a threatening person when he saw one.

Candidate no. 2: Percy Wilmer Davidson (I shit you not!). Now this one was as horrible as his names were. He was the epitome of the kind of person who would suffocate you dry with all of his disgusting behavior. He spoke all too much and spit when he did, barely knew how to sit around a girl without shaking like a man in the electric chair, rarely bothered to make himself look decent and had a huge passion for feet.

And last but the worst, candidate no. 3 was indeed, Blonde-Boy. Him, with his lame pick up lines. Ryan was his name, I believe. At least, that was how all the girls called him. I know not where to start in talking about the bastard. There was not one girl in the class (aside from Janice and I who didn't shiver at his name). I had a tremendous time watching them fight over him and now, when most of them had already been taken and the love of their life stood in front of the class, they looked like they wanted to kill the remaining three girls (which consisted of me, Janice and - oh Lord- Paige, who viciously batted her eyelashes).

Ryan opened his note and smirked. The second he started walking, I knew. I knew that the universe had been plotting against me. Few words could describe what I felt the second he drew a chair closer to me and extended his arm. There were, however, plenty of words that I wanted to shout. I could probably start with: WHY ME?! OH MY GOD, WHY?!

"Ryan McCarthy."

I didn't look at him, already stressed out from the death glares coming from half of the females in the class, especially from Paige who sat by Wilmer's side.

"Not much of a people person, are you?"

I pursed my lips, a habit I had developed as a child.

"You already know my name," I pointed out. My voice made his smirk grow and my nerves tingle.

"True, but it's a lot more interesting hearing your voice, don't you think?"

Now was the good time to search for a way to ignore him, which wasn't as easy as I had initially thought. As Miss Kroft made some other announcements, Ryan sat by my side stealing glances from me every once in a while. I was nervous.

The instant the bell rang, I flew out of my seat like a speeding bullet. I felt almost as if I had escaped prison as I made my way to the parking lot.

"Now you really have some bad luck." I spun on my heels to see Janice, a small smirk playing on her lips. She wasn't mocking me, though.

"Tell me about it."

"Don't worry. You're not an easy girl to corrupt, as far as I could tell. Teach the jerk some manners." She laughed and for the first time in quite the while, I found myself doing the same. Here was finally a girl I could talk to.

"You seem happy with who you have," I observed.

"Yeah, well the dude's silent around me, so I'll live." An old Barracuda stopped further from us and once Janice's eyes fell on the car, she smiled widely.

"Gotta run. Hey, nice talking to you. Charlie, right? I'm Janice."

"Yeah, I know. Nice talking to you to."

With a short wave, the only ray of light in my day ran away and right there, I was caught by darkness again. More precisely, Ryan caught me by the arm. Right then and there, had it not been for Paige jumping between us, I would've have smashed his face. Somehow, I think he sensed my plans, too.

"Easy, Charlie, I didn't mean to scare you." He grinned. "Forgive me."

"Apologies accepted." I forced myself to sound the least stressed.

Paige rolled her eyes. "Look at the time, CJ! Ryan, let go of her, we have to go shopping."

And with just that, I was moved from the claws of one eagle into another's.

"This will be so much fun!" And yet, she sounded like she wanted to kill me.