Black Heart

I was sitting in English, my favorite lesson ever. In other words, the only one I really listened in, and enjoyed. I loved to write stories of anything that popped into my mind, anything that inspired me. The teacher, Mrs Fray, is one of the nicest people I've ever met, too. English is one of the few things I have some confidence in, I can relate with.
I got to class early, claiming my seat at the front, in the left corner by the window. Mrs Fray noticed me, turned her head and smiled.

"Hello there, Arizona. How are you?"

I smiled back. "Hey, miss. I'm fine thank you, what about you?" I never wanted to pry into her personal life, she was still my teacher after all, but it seemed polite to ask her back.
"Actually, I'm not doing to good. My daughter Kim was rushed into hospital last night, bless her heart. She.." Tears were welling up in her eyes, though she tried to hide them.
"Oh, um, I don't mean to but into your private life miss, I'm sorry."

"No, no it's ok, I know I can trust you, Arizona. And don't worry, you weren't at all. Somebody broke into my house last night, and attempted to kill her. She was lucky, Mark heard something from her room and got there just in time, otherwise..." She swallowed. "Anyway, she was injured badly, knifed straight through the shoulder. Then got away."
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry..." I didn't quite know what to say. This was big. I knew Kim, she was my age and was in a few of my classes. We talked sometimes, and if there was one thing I knew, it was that she was far from vulnerable. She was a strong girl, having done karate most of her life. Hearing she'd nearly died was unnerving.

"Mark stayed over night at the hospital with her. He insisted I should come in today, as I did have a very important teacher meeting this morning. But that's not the worst thing about it." I wanted to tell her it was ok, she didn't have to tell me, but she was going on. "The worst part, all she's been saying since the accident was about angels. Angels. She says one is out to get her, and he was the one that tried to kill her. That he wanted her. To hear her screaming about it non-stop broke my heart. She was never a believer in any myths. They think she's gone mad. I won't let them take her to the psychiatrist ward, I won't. It was just... all too much for her." She put her head in her arms for a while, then straightened up.
"Oh, Arizona, I'm sure you don't want to hear about all this. But your a good girl, and I don't know who else I can talk to." She gave a small smile, took a breath, then picked herself back up. Not a trace of her tears were visible anymore.

"I understand. Don't worry. If you need to talk again, I'm here. And I'm sure she'll be fine."
Normally this would have been weird talking to a teacher like this, but I'd had Mrs Frey for English for a couple of years now. She'd taken a special shine to me, made me feel like I was someone, and we sort of became friends, if you could put it that way. She had never broke down in all the time I'd known her, though.

"Thanks sweetie. What a good girl you are."

I smiled back at her again, just before the bell rang and students came piling in. I watched them all taking seats by their friends, chatting in groups, while nobody gave me or the empty seat next to me a second look, as usual. Lydia and the other girls I knew- none of them were in this class with me. Nobody ever wanted to sit by me as far as I recalled, and it was just the 'unlucky' one that arrived last groaning and sitting there.

Most of the class were in now, the noise hushing down, when he came in. My jaw was on the verge of dropping, I swear, I couldn't believe how coincidental it was how we kept meeting. Plus, he was in my class, my class, the one I favored, and I certainly didn't want distractions. That was practically impossible now, for this lesson anyway, as I was set on praying he wouldn't be the last in next lesson.

He briefly eyed the room for seats, his eyes soon finding the only spare chair, and came strolling over to me, a grin spread over his face. My mind involuntarily glimpsed back to the previous night, fear surged through me. There wasn't much chance it was him, but the fear stuck anyway. It could have been. There was a chance. I shifted a bit as far away as I could from his chair, which he was quickly approaching. A second later, he was next to me, closer than I bargained for. Our chairs touched. He'd slid his chair rather close to mine somehow, very smoothly. He said nothing, but I once again felt his eyes on me. They were all over me, as far as I could tell. Had anybody else noticed? I kept my eyes forward nevertheless, not wanting to start conversation of any sort.

Any other boys attention I would have envied. But it was just him, just him that made me want to scoot away. In any rate, I couldn't. One, I was next to the wall and would be out the window if I moved any further. Two, I couldn't show him he made me uneasy. I wasn't even sure how, he just did effortlessly.
I dedicated myself to listening to Mrs Fray then, who had a while back started talking.
"So, class, I would like you to go off in pairs or threes to write your fiction story project. I expect it on my desk two weeks today, no later," She pointed that comment at the chavs, not even bothering to hide it, who usually handed work in weeks later than the closing date.
"You will be graded on this, as it's your main piece for English this year, so make it good, choose your partners or group members wisely. Get with those people now, please, and you have 5 minutes to start planning. Go!"
I was kicking myself for what a bad situation I was now in. I had nobody to go with except, duh, the person right next to me. Everyone else was already getting up, moving around again to get with work partners. I was, obviously, one of the left overs normally. Now had to work with him.
"Come on, I'm not that bad." He said teasingly into my ear, as if to read my mind.
Boy, wouldn't this be a fun two weeks.