Tuesday was a dark morning. It had been raining since late the night before, and the grey haze still hung in the air, which was unusually chilly for September. Begrudgingly, I worked myself out of bed, a sleepy grunt escaping my lips as my bare feet hitting the cold ground. I pieced together my uniform, and topped it off with a cozy sweater, not quite up braving the breeze just yet. Forgoing breakfast, I eventually trudged down the stairs, as ready to face the day as was possible, or necessary. Jake didn't look thrilled to be kept waiting.
"You look like you just got hit by a train." He snarked, arms crossed at the bottom of the stairs.
"Thanks." I groaned in response.
He rolled his eyes, turning on his heels towards the door and I played follow the leader outside. A few minutes of groggy, irrelevant conversation later, we pulled into the parking lot of Degrassi. Even with my reluctance to shed my sheets, we had a few minutes to kill before homeroom. As soon as Jake's feet hit the still wet pavement, he was beelining to a small seated clique of new friends across the lot. Going our separate ways, I walked into the building, readied my supplied for my class, and headed towards the room. Maybe I'd get started on our first project, maybe I'd sleep, I hadn't decided.
Stepping past the threshold, as if the day could get any darker, I found myself alone in the class with whom else but Elijah Goldsworthy. Perfect.
The rain starting falling harder, careening loudly onto the roof of the building then. Appropriate. I considered backing out of the room and… well, running for my life in the other direction, but my surprised gasp alerted Eli to another presence, and he certainly noticed me now. I hadn't given myself much choice but to continue into the room. I clutched my folders tightly, half to calm the slight shaking I was now aware of, and when I got closer to my seat, to him, I saw that the verdict today was frantic.
"Hi." I rasped politely, awkwardly shifting into my seat and turning away from him. He didn't answer, but his eyes were wide and furrowed when I spoke.
Was that wrong of me? Should I have left after all? Should I still?
Before I could answer my own thoughts, I was pulled from them by a strange noise behind me. What started as a sigh, turned into a whimper, a gasp for air, even. I wasn't even sure what to call it, but when Eli made the sound again, my curiosity betrayed me, and slowly, I turned around to assess. Our eyes met briefly, and I could have sworn that his had become more frantic in the three deathly silent minutes that had preceded.
With a muttered obscenity, Eli rose from his desk, actually pushing it a small distance across the room and rushed from the room, brushing angrily against me in the process and losing the contents of his binder in his haste. I was too engrossed with the unfolding scene to call after him. After a long moment had passed, I scoffed, confused into the open room, and eventually, bent to pick up the scattered papers between the rows of unoccupied desks, just as the bell rang.
Soon enough the classes were filling and I shook myself from the oddity that was whatever had just happened.
Swallowing, I pushed Eli's desk back into place before anyone noticed, and resumed my seat in front of it, pulling out my materials for the class and putting on an excited face for the first day of our project, so enthusiastic you'd think I was out to cure cancer.
Every few minutes until the end of class, I checked the clock, and each time, three minutes at most had passed. Eli never returned.