I Never Meant to Be so Cliche

The class ended quickly, much to my pleasure, and I took my time leaving the class. I wass never late, but they always gave us way too much time to get to classes. The school wasn't that big, and people just wanted to gossip and talk in the halls. They annoyed me really. They just all blocked my way, so I had to shove past them to get through. I couldn't yell at them. Although, sometimes I wish I could.

Keaira caught up to me in the hall. For whatever reason, I don't know.

"Hey. Max, was it? I was wondering if you could help me catch up on my math, since you seem to know your shit." She said not really looking for an answer. She assumed it was going to be a yes. You know what they say about assuming.

I motioned my hands all over the place. It was sign language. i tried it out on everyone I meet. Most don't get it. I'm still waiting for the day someone does. Today was not that day.

"Oh, you do sign language. I don't know any sorry." She said shaking her head in a shameful way.

"He said he couldn't do it because he has stuff to do after school." Someone said in a gruff voice beside us.

My head shot to the left. No one knows sign at this school. At least, I didn't think so.

It was Ronnie who said it. I was flabbergasted. He knew sign all this time. I never really was in the same space with him, so I never would have known. But, still, this is something I would've wanted to know. I would at least have someone who understood me, let alone talk to.

I made some more signs. You understand sign?

I'm not a complete dumbass. Thanks for thinking it though. He signed back.

I was shocked to say the least. I never told anyone I thought he wasn't smart. I was too anti-social for that. There is no way he would have known; unless of course he read my mind, but that was just stupid.

"So, you can't teach me then?" Keaira asked annoyed. I completely forgot she was there. This revelation was too shocking.

That and I honestly didn't care about the new girl who stood in front of me. She wasn't going to fit in with my life. No one really would. It was something I accepted long ago. I was too. . . abnormal. I guess that is what you call it. Though abnormal is the cousin of cliche.

I'm going to be late to class. I signed before shoving past her. I heard Ronnie snicker, and her huff. She must have gotten the message.

The day drug on in a boring fashion. There was never anything interesting about school. It was just something that would never change. No matter what era you are from, schoolwill always be a prison for teenagers. It was fine when it was just coloring, but everything after that was excuses and tardies. It was just something that was.

I don't want to bother to tell anyone the things I learned, nor do I want to discuss the lovely presentations in my science class. I was lucky in that one. The teacher was still in the sympathetic stage, so he let me get someone read it on a recording and be done with it.

There were mutliple stages when it came to figuring out I was a mute. They went something like this:
1. Confusion. This was the stage that people didn't understand why I didn't talk to them.
2. Knowledge. This is when their tiny little brains figured out that I didn't talk.
3. Sympathetic. Here you have the common misjudgement that I was a mute for certain home reasons or bad situations in the past.
4. Plotting. When they try to get me to talk.
5. Anger. When they realize that I won't talk.
6. Acceptance. When they know I'm a mute, and they know I want to stay that away. During this phase most leave me be. Some don't, like my first peirod teacher for example, but most do. They already think I have a terrible life, so now they just wanted to see how I was going to cope with it.

It didn't really bother me. I went through the stages about as often as the seasons changed. Only some really understand the reason for me being like this, and only a few ever will. I never want to talk about it. I never want to talk in general because of it. Speaking is a form of power, but it is also the ultimate weakness.

The bell wrung bringing me ou of my many thoughts. It was the last class. It was a Friday, too. So, I didn't have to do anything after this for a while.

I walked down the twisting hallways. I always go the longest way possible because I never want to get caught in the abyess of people struggling to free themselves from the quicksand of education. The back halls were calmer anyways. They were more mellow. Something about them just calmed me. I was pathetic. A hallway calmed me. Shouldn't that be another person's job?

The halls breathed out children as if they were smoke from its lungs. The school was like one body, and we were the mindless cells just going along and doing what we were supposed to. It bothered me sometimes, this thought. It was strange to have things bothering me, so it seemed to eat away at my core until I finally shut my thoughts off. When did life get this predictable? When did it get this mindless?

I turned the corner, and I instantly regretted it. I saw Ronnie with the new girl. They didn't look friendly with each other. They looked down right pissed off. I would know a look like that anywhere.

Ronnie had the girl pinned to the lockers behind her. The bright blue made her black form stand out like a lion in a sea of zebras. I knew she wouldn't last long. I didn't knew what this little conflict was about, but I was the type of person who would fgure it out.

"You shouldn't have come here." Ronnie growled.

"Your time is up. This is fair game now." She spat back vicously.

"You only work for a high price, little dark one. Who sent you?"

"Don't call me that." She said venomously. She tried to take a swing at the boy, but he just pushed her back into the lockers. She was no opposing threat to him.

"Who. Sent. You.?" He pronouced each word.

"Who do you think? He doesn't want you spending anymore of your time on this. He wants you back where you can do something useful, not wasting your time on some peice of shit."

He pulled her back and then ramed her in the lockers again. She groaned in pain.

"Call him that one more time, and you won't get to go to that bastard you like to call a master." He scowled.

"Is that a threat?" She mocked though a grimace.

"One that I will go through with. Why do you do this for him? You aren't even his favorite. You will get nothing for this."

"It has been a while since you have been home. Why do you think I am here? I am the greatest temptress in the business now." She said with pride.

"Siren or not, you will never get him. He's mine."

"That was before. He doesn't remember a single thing. He doesn't remember you. You are nothing to him. He's fair game, and I will beat you this time. With you crumpled on the ground in defeat, I will be the most powerful besides the Master himself." She said with a smirk.

"He's acting the same way he was when we met the first time. Why are you so confident I won't fix him again?" He asked.

"I wasn't there the last time." She shrugged.

"You can't even imagine the power he posesses. I'm the only one who can help him. You know that."

"With a voice that powerful, Master doesn't want him around that much longer. I'm here to make you step it up. You can either get him, or we will kill the little mute boy you hold so dearly to your heart." She said before pulling away from the lockers and walking down the hall.

Ronnie sighed and looked down. He was deep in thought about something, but what? This boy they ween to be talking about? What did they say? He was mute? Well, I'm the only mute in town, but it couldn't be me. That would be impossible. They must be talking of someone else, and who was this Master they speak of? He seemed powerful enough to scare these two. Well, not Ronnie. He seemed almost angry with him, like he knew something the girl didn't. This was all too much. I was messing lots of information. It probably is nothing to worry about.

"Wait!" Ronnie called to the girl. "How long do I have?"

"Six months, and you know he is being generous with this." She smiled turning only to say what she wanted before leaving my sight.

I sighed. They certainly had a lot of drama. I was waiting for Ronnie to leave, so I could walk past. But, he seemed fixed on his spot. He suddenly stiffened, and so did I. This was bad, very bad, and I knew it. I could feel it.

His head shot to my general direction, but I was hidden. He couldn't have seen me. He couln't have even heard, could he? He started walking towards my spot, and I started to shrink back with every breath he took.

"You shouldn't be here." He said once he got to me. He had a look in his eye that was dangerous but also intriguing. "You heard too much." He continued.

I stayed as small as possible in his sights. He could kill me. He would kill me, if he thought I was doing something against him. But, I thought that he wouldn't do something like that, not to me at least.

He was thinking something over, my fate maybe. He was thinking of all the wicked things he wanted to do to me with his knives people say he has at his house.

"Come with me." He demanded quickly before grabbing my wrist and pulling me with him.

I guess you can't really escape your fate, now can you?