The Way You Lived Your Life

It was only the second week of October. School hadn't been in long, but enough to drive me nuts from boredom.

The math problems on the board had been there all day. By now, everyone should have been finished, but the teacher wasn't going to erase them until every single paper was turned in. There was still too many kids not doing their work.

I was one of them. Secretly, I liked making the class suffer from boredom like this; being forced to be silent the whole day. The teacher got pissed about something, and yelled at the class, "If I hear one sound during the time you do your work, I will give you detention!" This way, everyone in class wouldn't be talking so loudly and I could concentrate on my lyrics.

That's how I spent my days. I didn't give a fuck about school, and I loved music more, so I used class time for my music. It's hard to do with a bitch of a teacher and annoying classmates though. That's why times like these are so helpful.

Too bad the teacher wasn't going to get her last paper.

I had been writing songs, and lyrics for hours, it seemed. Nothing changed for that whole time. Everyone was still sitting in there chairs, aching to get up, looking around the room, or sleeping. I was the only one not paying any attention to the clock or door.

..Until it cracked open slightly. Everyone's head perked up, and turned back to the door, alone with mine. The teacher didn't hear the door, but she noticed everyone staring, so she got up and walked towards the door.

Before she reached it, it opened completely. We saw the principal holding open the door, looking at someone like he was pissed. Finally, a kid appeared and walked into the room.

I glanced back at the teacher, who was now nodding her head to the Principal. As soon as she turned back into the room, she shut the door, then spoke to the class.

"It appears we have a new student, so let's show Mr. Pritchard to his seat and welcome him." She said with obviously fake optimism. Then she pointed to a seat, and he walked toward it.

I shrugged my shoulders and went back to my writing. I seriously didn't care if we got a new weird kid in class. Besides, he surely didn't look like the kind of guy who liked walking into a room with everyone staring at him. I didn't want to be one of the ones making his day worse.

I heard a noise to my left and saw the 'new kid' sitting next to me. I wasn't excited, but I didn't care. As long as he didn't bother me like the several kids were, who were staring at him. I hated when people just stared at someone because they had nothing better to do.

I shrugged it off again, and tried to think of the line I was going to put down.

Once the pen hit the paper, I heard a shuffling noise next to me, then a whisper. "Can I copy off ya?"

It was the new kid.

I had a short argument of what to say in my head, then tried to be quiet. "I'm not working on the same thing the class is."

"Then what is that?" He asked, being very nosey.

I sighed. "Music." I wasn't in a talkative mood.

"You write lyrics? That's awesome. I play guitar."

I looked at the new kid, who was leaned back in his chair looking at me with a weird smile on his face. He looked like a weirdo, but he didn't seem bad. He had a punk look to him, and he had long brown hair.

"I play too." I said with a smile. "Here, take my math. I'm not going to turn it in."

"Thanks." He said taking the paper, and that was the last I heard from him in class.

I found myself glancing at him every so often, just like so many other kids. I was looking for different reasons though. I was curious about him, and for some reason I had a little attraction to him.

As soon as I looked at his eyes, he caught me looking. I quickly thought of something to say before he got mad at me for staring.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Mike. Why?"

"Just curious." I said, then turned back to my desk.

"What's yours?"

"Uh- Billie." I answered.

I could see he wanted to laugh, and for some reason I didn't care.

Not even seconds after, the teacher was at my side. "Mr. Armstrong? Do we have a problem here?"

I slowly turned to her. "No. I was just helping him."

She glanced at Mike, then turned to me again. "With what?"

"I can't tell time," I heard Mike say, "so I asked Billie what time it was."

The class was giggling, and I was trying not to. The teacher glared at me. "Where's your math?"

I rolled my eyes. "I turned it in."

I could tell I just ruined her day, because she loved getting me in trouble, because it was so rare. The lady hated me, but she could never come up with a lie good enough to convince herself I deserved to get in trouble. She tolerated bitching at the other students in the mean time though.

"Just be quiet," she managed to say calmly, and walked away.

Some kids giggled after that, but then it got silent again.

I glanced at Mike, and he was scribbling on my math with a smirk on his face.

I could tell, Mike and I were going to be best friends....