Paranoid

Oli slumped down further in his seat, his eyes burning a hole in the small wooden desk in front of him as he twirled a pencil absentmindedly between his fingers in a desperate attempt to occupy his brain. Physics had never interested him. He knew he could outperform every single student in the room academically, without a doubt; if you sat an exam paper in front of each of them, he could guarantee that he'd be the first to finish and the only one to make not a single mistake. That was only if he wanted to though, which, to be quite honest, he really didn't. He preferred to remain hidden - or as hidden as one can be in a room crowded with adolescents. It was no coincidence that he was sat in the desk at the far back, away from everyone else, his own separate island. People were a distraction. He couldn't stand most of them anyway, and those he could, he saw no point in maintaining a stable friendship with. They wouldn't be around for long. People couldn't be trusted.

Normally the teachers would realise that he wanted nothing to do with them, and if they hadn't quite gathered that yet, one scathing look would be enough to inform them. Today was different. Rather than the usual old bag, waffling on about a subject which Oli couldn't probably teach better himself, there was a young woman in his place. She looked new to the job - warm, friendly, eager to welcome her students into her particular learning environment - she was new, he could tell. They eventually lost hope the older they got and the longer they'd been in the same dead end job. Did she know the way she was destined to wind up? A wrinkled, lined face, aged twenty years in the space of ten, slowly relinquishing her hold on the last shred of hope she had left? Probably not. They never do.

She addressed the class with a cheerful smile and a soft voice as she told them sweetly, "My name is Miss Patel, however I expect most of you will call me 'Miss'. I will be filling in for Mr Greene for the foreseeable future." She looked around the class, her bright smile still plastered across her face, but Oli could see through it, straight to the anxiety beneath it. She was terrified, awaiting the class's response with a feeling of pure dread.

To her relief, most of them seemed to accept her, and she relaxed visibly, raising a hand to brush her chestnut hair out of her eyes as she spoke to them once again. "Seeing as it's my first day here, and my first time meeting all of you, I thought we could maybe scrap the lesson plan for this morning and try a little ice breaking activity? It'll help me to get to know you better, and who knows, perhaps you could get to know each other even better too."

A groaning sound filled the room, the sounds of thirty unhappy teenagers who'd rather do anything but a class bonding session. Miss Patel seemed not to notice, though, or if she did, she was doing an excellent job at hiding it.

"We'll start with you," she said, pointing at a redheaded girl in the front row. The girl glanced up, clearly unsure of what to say. Miss Patel consulted a sheet of paper in her hand, which Oli assumed must be a list of their names - a print out of the register.

She smiled encouragingly at the girl. "Start by saying your name, and then you could tell us some facts about yourself or things you enjoy. Just something to help me get to know you all a bit better, rather than just assigning you all to your names and grades. I'd rather have a more personal environment in the classroom. A friendly vibe."

The girl shook her head slightly. She obviously thought the woman was out of it. She glanced around the class quickly, before beginning in a small voice, with the slightest hint of a quiver, "Well, my name is Lauren. I... I like photography and art and that... that's it really." She shrugged, satisfied with her answer.

Miss Patel nodded approvingly at Lauren's effort, making her way around the classroom, collecting basic information about her pupils, storing them in a database in the back of her mind. She made brief comments in all the appropriate places, and as far as Oli could see, there wasn't too much he could pick at, any obvious excuse to mindlessly hate her. That was until it was his turn to speak, of course.

She nodded her head towards him, as if being given a cue would somehow entice him to speak. He knew he was next, no need to rush him.

He didn't bother looking around the class for any source of courage. He simply raised his head from the desk and looked his new teacher in the eye, his tone deadly serious. "Oli." He stated his name robotically, just a piece of factual information that no one could really tie him to.

He noticed her check her list quickly to match him up with one of the printed names. "Oliver?" she asked, seeking confirmation from him. "Oliver Sykes?"

"Oli," he repeated, correcting her. "I'm Oli, and I despise each and every one of you."

Miss Patel gasped in shock, almost dropping the paper her thin fingers were locked around. He knew she was a new teacher, but he had no idea how inexperienced she was. Give her a week in the job and she'd be used to snarky comments like that.

"Oliver!" she exclaimed, as if she thought that would suddenly make him change his ways. "Oli," she corrected herself, noting the glare she received for using his full name. "That's not exactly the friendliest introduction. Now I'm just going to assume you woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Would you like to try that again?"

Oli almost laughed at her. She really had no idea. "Nope. I really wouldn't," he responded bluntly.

Their eyes met for a moment, just a moment, but it was all the young woman needed to recognise a lost cause when she saw one. Sighing in defeat, she turned to face the board, starting her original plan for the lesson. In the back, Oli produced a pair of earphones from his pocket and slipped them into his ears. It wasn't like he was missing anything anyway.