Behind the Black
Chapter 2
The teacher kept talking, more like lecturing. Dawn took in every word, every book title, making sure not to get sidetracked in her thoughts, or distracted. Every shift in her seat, every change of pen or flick of the hair, it seemed the boy next to her noticed. She felt his eyes on her almost every second passing. Now that she thoughts about it, his name was still just as mysterious as he was.
"I'm sorry but I didn't get your name…" She whispered to his side, slipping a note with her name written in black ink.
He took it full heartily, apparently unaware that the teacher might notice, or maybe he didn't care about that at all, probably the later. To her left, Dawn heard a chuckle and was sure it couldn't have been him. But moments later, the same note but turned to the blank side was passed on her lap with a name written in red ink: Eli. A smirk traveled the new girl's face as she struggled not to look at Eli now.
For once, her thoughts drifted into a different world. All was the same, Degrassi at its best, but one thing was different… Dawn wasn't that new anymore; she was almost old news by now. Her English class was perfect, she learned, she wrote, she continued burning. The noticeable difference was Eli; he was there with her as she wrote, and oddly enough, while she burned her writing in the fire. The daydream was over as fast as it had stared, and Dawn snapped back to reality with an awkward shock. Eli stared at her; he was even half turned towards her in his seat. She simply turned her head slowly as she felt the eyes on her left side. His lopsided smirk looked the same as it had in her head a few seconds ago. Dawn just then noticed his hair; it looked nice form here, almost perfect to run fingers through it. Snap. These thoughts had to stop right away, before some carrying away was involved, or even some touching, not what she wanted on her first day at a new school. It felt like minutes had passed, was the class over yet? Apparently they had been staring at each other while these thoughts traveled her mind as he looked at her with a more mocking grin plastered on his face.
"Still want to wipe that grin off my face?" He asks in a half whisper, clearly not intent on listening to the lesson.
The next sound that came out of Dawn's mouth sounded like a giggle, but it clearly couldn't have been. A Stoner, giggle? Maybe she had taken too much coffee this morning, or forgot to take some, whichever, Eli had noticed it too, the awful sound.
"Didn't know you were a giggler." Eli continued, not missing his chance of adding comments along the way.
The conversation stopped there as the bell rang through the school. The first two classes were over, which meant the worse part of the day for a new kid was about to begin: lunch. Dawn, a spontaneous girl without a care in the world about appearances, decided her time had come to make a move on this school, or maybe she'd start on the students first. Eli had gone for the door but slowed down once Dawn had packed her things. Was it on purpose? Maybe. She caught up to him and leaned in the same way he had done at the beginning of class to her but in his ear.
"To answer your question, yes it' d be nice to see a smile instead of a grin on your face some day. And no, actually I've never giggled in my life, some disturbance must have caused it, must be all this new stuff I have to deal with, including a locker mate who'll be hard o deal with." She smirked and winked at him before walking a bit faster to get to her locker.
In the tremble and caos that were the lalways packed with the entire population of students, it seems one of Eli's friends had caught hold of him, so his continued chase ended there, he would not join her at the locker just yet. Dawn looked back from behind her locker door to see him standing with a boy with reddish brown short hair and oddly feminine eyes. She disregarded that point and tried to guess what it was they were discussing. To her, it seemed that the other boy was explaining something Eli found strongly boring because he kept glancing around, almost nervously. Finally, Eli patted his friend on the shoulder, nodded and started walking her way, which was also to way to his locker.
She quickly turned to look inside her locker, stuff her books and things in it, then took out some pictures she had brought to put in her locker. Dawn gingerly took tone of them, taken a few months back of her brother and her, his arm around her shoulder, both faces beaming with a broad smile. They were at the beach with palm trees lining the edge opposite to the water. Remembering that day, along with the many other moments Dawn had had with her beloved brother, a small smile crept on her lips. Without noticing, she wiped her eyes from dry tears and placed the picture on her locker door with a magnet and grabbed one of the three books in the shelf in her locker. The hallways were now almost empty; mostly everyone was in the cafeteria or in lunch activities or clubs, maybe even catching up on studying for the harder working students. Only a few were left looking for friends or simply sitting alone somewhere.
Dawn and Eli both closed their lockers at the same time and subtlety turned an eye to look at the other. They broke into a short laugh and decided to talk.
"Dawn huh? Stoner…" Eli said with a friendly manner to it.
"Eli was it? … That's where my analysis end… " She added with a chuckle.
"Goldsworthy." He said. "Can't say I haven't heard that name before." He looked up dramatically and then took a slow step closer to Dawn. The move was very hard to notice with the flow of conversation being followed.
Dawn took a glance at her feet, out of nervousness, until she looked up to see Eli standing two feet closer to her than he was ten seconds ago. Her eyes narrowed in an almost arrogant way.
"Can't say I've heard yours before, sorry to say." She said mockingly.
A smirk traveled his face for a second. Dawn thought it useless to linger here for moments longer, she decided she'd talk with him later on, if the opportunity arose again. Her curiosity had been satisfied enough for today, at least about this Eli Goldsworthy boy.
"It was nice to meet you, I'll see you around." Dawn said, avoiding his strong gaze on her features and walked off in the direction of the library.
"Hm, the feeling is mutual." He responded, sounding far too courteous for the time and place, which suited him apparently.
Dawn walked a few steps, decided whether or not she should look back. But her body took the best of her and a slight glance back told her he was definitely watching her walk away. The new girl, now accustomed to her morning classes had finally broken the new kid act with one student, Eli Goldsworthy, the emo looking guy who was sure to be more than a locker mate. Maybe an introduction to the real Dawn Stoner that hid beneath would be needed also, who knows.
Dawn reached the library, sat down at the nearest computer and started typing away the inspiration that lay in her head like dust on an old book. The words, ideas, scenes, everything came boiling back to the surface, ready, even waiting to be written down somewhere, anywhere. But this time, it was more than that, Dawn had a need to show it, to express it, to make someone see what she'd done, what she'd been starting on. An odd thing for a girl who had never in her time of writing countless stories, poems etc ever wanted to show the slightest person. The one time Dawn had shown someone her writing was before her own brother had gone off to university, he had liked it…somewhat. But to be at a new school with strangers everywhere around her, how could this ever be in her train of thoughts? Maybe her mother had been right, a new school and environment could mean change in my life both inside and out. Oddly enough, the only person she had met today was maybe the only person Dawn would ever think of never writing about. He was too mysterious, too outspoken to be secluded to words or even sentences, not to mention paragraphs and fictional stories.
Her fingers typed viciously away. The bell rang, indicating a five-minute warning before the end of lunch and the start of the afternoon classes. A quick glance at her schedule told Dawn that science was a class she could afford to miss for an excuse like this. It was impossible to stop the flow of words, or ideas that kept coming like tidal waves onto the screen. She's stop when her mind was empty, and then would proceed to the forest not too far from school now for her writing burning ritual.
