Noone In Particular

School was a constant blur for Hazel.

The bleach blondes always tried to provoke her to say or do something at least slightly animated, they failed every day.

Hazel had one friend, her name was Christina, but every person in the school knew to call her Chris.

Chris was the only person that truly expected Hazel for who she was. She watched over Hazel, protecting her from inappropriate slaps from the baseball team and rumors of witchcraft that floated around Hazel on a daily basis.

This day was the same as any other.

Hazel was in English, seated where she always was, in the far back on the left side of the room. Mr. MacCalleon was choosing partners for a new assignment. Hazel hoped that she would be paired with Addie Stark, knowing that she would be able to hold up half a work load.

Addie was assigned to Oliver Czarnota.

The class door opened with its familiar creak. Hazel kept to her book, making sure she got every detail into her notes.

“Mr. Sunryte, please do not start your day with tardiness. I assure you that it is not tolerated in my classroom,” Mr. MacCallum droned. “You will be partners with Ms. Zuniga over there.”

Hazel directed her gave upwards and found herself looking at a pale boy with tattoos snaked up and down his arms. She was fine with a new student being her partner.

Elijah Sunryte was more than fine with the partner he was assigned to. In fact, he was very intrigued by her.

He dragged an empty chair over to her desk and introduced himself to her as Eli trying to start up conversation. But she just nodded, straight faced and went back to taking down notes in her notebook.

So he tried again.

“What exactly are we doing, for the project I mean?”

She looked up at him and muttered something about how she was thinking of doing a biography on Sylvia Plath.

He nodded, thinking to himself that it would take a lot more effort to get passed whatever shell she had and to get to know her.