Shapes in the Clouds

Hedley remained seated on the log, staring blankly at the murky stagnant water at his feet. He heard a bird chirp nearby and cursed it for its jovial nature. It wasn’t fair for the small finch to be so joyful when he felt as though the world was crashing down around him. His phone vibrated softly in his pocket and he glanced at it, seeing the image of an envelope that indicated a new text message.

‘Where are you?’ it read. His mouth slightly turned up when he saw that it was from Faye. He was lucky to have such an amazing friend in her. He responded quickly and waited for her to come to him like he knew she would.

Within ten minutes he saw her lithe frame trekking through the woods off the beaten path, climbing over fallen trees and jumping from large rocks. Soon she was dropping down beside him on the fallen log. Her hand slipped into his own carefully and for a while they simply sat like that, gazing blankly into the wilderness around them.

“How am I supposed to get her back if she keeps making me be mean to her?” he finally asked, breaking the silence.

“She’s not doing anything, Hedley.” Her hand slid out of his and she scooted back to get a better look at him.

“Of course she is! I wouldn’t yell at her if she would stop being so infuriating.” His eyebrows were knitted together under his dark fringe of hair and his eyes were so distant she was sure he wouldn’t even notice if she were to start flailing her arms about in front of him. “Could you maybe tell her to stop being that way? Maybe then I could have a decent conversation with her and she’ll love me,” he reasoned illogically to himself.

“I will say nothing of the sort to her, you stupid ass!” she exclaimed as she jumped to her feet. Her usually light-hearted manner and spritely features turned dark as she towered over his seated form. “You will learn to treat her with kindness and with the love I know you still have for her. She loves you more than you can imagine and wants to be near you again if you’ll let her. If you don’t change your attitude, you’ll lose your chance to win her back, and you’ll lose me as a friend.”

With that said, she turned and went back towards the school. This time she walked along the pathway, her shoulders slumped and her hands in her pockets. He wanted to go after her, to take her in his arms and apologize for his behavior; Kizzy was the one that was upsetting him, not Faye, and he had no excuse for taking it out on her. He knew that he couldn’t go after her. She wouldn’t speak to him- not now.

He waited a while to give her some time to reach the courtyard before rising from where he had been sitting for the past hour and started back towards the school. He stopped when the courtyard was in full view. He saw Kaelyn and Jerrick seated side by side in the same place as before. Across from them Nikolai and Faye spoke seemingly privately with each other, both looking troubled. Jerrick and Kaelyn didn’t appear to notice as they carried on their own conversation, Kaelyn holding a small smile upon her face and laughing every so often. His chest tightened at this and he averted his eyes from the scene before him, walking quickly into the school.

He knew he couldn’t ditch again, not after doing so yesterday. Oh, he wanted to, but his father would surely ream him up and down and he couldn’t afford to fail a single class this year. He didn’t care that lunch wasn’t over with yet, he was going to his next class.

When he reached the room he was surprised to see that his teacher had returned early from lunch as well. He had had Mr. Toepher for History last year and he had never been on time. He was excited now to be taking debate with one of his favorite teachers.

“Mr. Merriman, what a pleasure to have you be here today, and early at that!” Mr. Toepher announced from his place at the board as he wrote the agenda for the class. “May I ask where you were yesterday afternoon? Attendance showed that you were here in the morning.”

“I wasn’t feeling so hot; went home at lunch. Guess Dad forgot to call me in,” he drawled easily as he took a seat in the back.

“You remember how my class works, Hedley,” Mr. Toepher stated. “Seats are assigned. You’ll be sitting over there.” He pointed towards a desk in the middle of the classroom near the front. Lovely. He schlepped to the appointed table and sat down, using his backpack as a pillow.

He heard the warning bell ring, letting students know that there were two minutes left to get to class, followed by the shuffling of his peers making their way in. Seats were being filled all around him, but his head remained buried in his arms to avoid contact. He just wanted to make it through the day and retreat to the silence of his bedroom. The bell signaling the start of class sounded before he knew it and he did everything he could not to sigh outwardly.

Hedley slid his bag off the desk and sat upright, facing forward. Mr. Toepher had, what could only be described as, a no-bullshit policy. Hedley experienced that first hand last year when he thought he could get away with sleeping in class. That was quickly ended with a trip to the principal and a slip for detention. He now knew better than to fool around with this guy as his teacher.

"We'll be partnering up!" Mr. Toepher announced brightly, once all eyes were on him. There was the usual collective groan from the students, which was repeated even louder after the announcement that the students would not be selecting the pairs. "When I call your names, sit with your partner and wait for topics to be assigned for our first debate of the school year!"

Hedley tried to pay attention, but his mind was elsewhere. Thoughts of Kaelyn plagued him. He closed his eyes, only to succeed in seeing her face painted on the inside of his eyelids. Scenes of their recent confrontations played out like a movie reel that would never end. The memory of his lips on hers, of her blank stare, of him running...

He shook his head in an attempt to clear out any bit of her, to focus on the class at hand. The moment he opened his eyes, all he wanted was to close them again. There in front of him, sat Kaelyn Lafayette. She looked tense, nervous even. He honestly didn't blame her, but he didn't know whether he wanted to feed into her nerves, or soothe them.

"What are you doing here?" he snapped. Well, looks like his mouth decided for him.

"I have this class. If you were here yesterday instead of running away from your problems at lunch, you would have already known that," she seethed in response. She folded her arms across her chest, breathing deeply. He knew from years of experience that this was one of her tricks to keep her from screaming profanities. He just wasn't used to being the cause.

"Well, what are you doing sitting over here then?" his voice softening slightly.

"Didn't you hear, dipshit? We're partners."

He was stunned into silence before shaking his head 'no' in response. He couldn't lie, the venom in her voice startled him. However, it was intriguing at the same time. Before he left, she had been a sweet, carefree girl with anything she wanted in arm's reach. She was rarely seen without a smile and she was always jovial. He couldn't understand this difference in her, but he actually found it rather enjoyable.

A piece of paper floated onto the desk between them, breaking Kaelyn's gaze and giving him a moment to study her. Her hair was a shade darker than he remembered and she now had long bangs that hung to the side, partially covering one of her dark chocolaty orbs. She had always stated that bangs were silly and only meant to hide a big ugly forehead, so it was an unexpected look. Her eyes no longer lit up like they used to, and her lips almost seemed to hold a permanent scowl.

"Alright, we have to pick a topic for the debate and which side we want to argue for. I refuse to get stuck with something stupid," Kaelyn stated.

"You pick," Hedley offered. He didn't care what topic they had, but he truthfully just wanted to avoid another argument with Kaelyn. If he was going to win her over, he had to play nice. For now, at least.

Kaelyn shrugged and looked over the list. She sighed as she read each line off, one by one. Every single one of them dealt with school.
-Social Hierarchies
-Dress Codes
-Detention
-Sports/Arts Programs
-School Involvement in Bullying

Reading off the last item, she knew exactly which topic she wanted. She immediately left her seat without a word to Hedley and over towards Mr. Toepher's desk, letting him know what they had decided on.

"For or against?" he questioned, jotting their names down with their topic on a legal pad. Theirs were the first to be written, so she was glad to have free reign in getting what she wanted.

"Against," she responded decidedly, before turning around to sit back down.

Hedley seemed to off in a daze when she returned to her seat. He was staring blankly out the window, his fingers lightly grazing his lips as he twisted the ring in his lip. She found herself openly staring at it in awe. She hadn't gotten the chance to truly admire his new look. The silver hoop hugged his lip perfectly, a tiny round bead in the center connecting the two ends. His once neatly trimmed brown hair was now a shaggy black mess that clearly hadn't seen a brush- ever. She was also pretty sure that his skin had paled considerably since she had last seen him.

A loud clap from the front of the room snapped him back to reality and his gaze instantly met Kaelyn's. She quickly looked down at the paper on her desk, a pink tint flushing her cheeks with embarrassment for being caught. She could feel his stare boring into her, could almost picture the cocky smirk that likely played across his face, and it took everything in her not to glance up to confirm her suspicions. Instead, she read and reread the syllabus for this assignment for the remainder of the class.

When it ended she rushed to gather her things together, shooting out of her seat with full intention of running to the fitness wing, just to get away from him. Hedley's hand slipped into hers before she could even take a step, a small piece of paper transferred from one to the other. She looked down to see his long willowy fingers lightly brushing hers before disappearing all together, along with the rest of him. She exhaled deeply, not even realizing she has been holding her breath. When she unfolded the small square, seven scrawled numbers appeared before her, with 'Call me after school- Heddy,' written beneath them.