Just Another High School Story!

Leah felt broken on the inside, tired of trying to impress everyone, she felt like it was the only way that people would like her... she felt like no one loved her so she needed to earn everyone's respect instead. Otherwise, what would she have left.

Leah went to sit in her class when the teacher walked in and Ethan tailed behind, "Daebak, he is in my class, I mean why?" She thought to herself. Since she always sat in the first row, on the first bench, in the middle, something she was gravely regretting this very moment because whom would the teacher see fit to sit with someone who needed help catching up, who else but miserable her, indeed! The teacher asked Ethan to introduce himself; everyone already knew him, so she didn't see the point; actually, everyone already knew him, it was the cool kid, it was Ethan Waller, had anyone even forgotten him? She doubted it. "Y'all probably already know me, so all I gotta say is that I'm back!", Ethan said, animated as ever, and what Leah hated, he was just as confident as ever. Leah's eyes were focused on her textbook, she had put in AirPods the moment, Ethan walked in and let her hair loose so that she could cover her ears. The teacher told Ethan to sit next to the blessed topper, she would help him get up to speed, maybe he had a death wish or something, or maybe this was just the work of the fine threads of fate meant to tangle. Ethan slipped into his seat and understood that she was unaware of what was going on around her, he had noticed this in middle school, she would be so consumed in her books, or her writing that she would not even budge if you dropped a boulder on her head. Ethan loved seeing her again, she was just as pretty as he remembered. Satisfied with how the seating had turned out, he looked at her with great pleasure, she finally noticed his eyes on her and wondered what he could be thinking about, "Sulma, don't tell me that he is planning to continue his bullying thing with me." (Sulma: No way; another Korean word) She coughed lightly to break his stare but seeing that he would not stop, she sneakily took out her AirPods, and stuffed them into her pocket, Ethan laughed to himself and finally took out his textbook. As much as she disliked the homo sapien next to her, she figured that it would be better if she would help him, keep up her goody-two-shoes reputation, after all, she was the good girl, it was what was expected of her, and also she would need some credits to win the coming elections. The principal had suggested it to her.

She started showing him what they were reading and lent him her notes and even helped him highlight important passages, she was surprised as he seemed interested in studying, especially, English which was Leah's favourite subject, she was their teacher's favourite, he referred to her as the 'only intellectual being' in their class because she was the only one who thought about a question before answering it, something kids find hard to do nowadays. They were reading a poem by Emily Dickinson, when he suddenly said, "Sir, can't you read it a little in rhythm or something?" All this while, Leah had been nudging him with her elbow, everyone knew Mr Alphabet, as they had nicknamed him was very bad at poetry recitals, but everyone kept their mouths shut about it, why couldn't Ethan, why did he have to be so honest? Mr. A didn't like it when students objected to his poetry reading, you could say it got on his nerves, for as everyone does, he felt that their was no on in the world who could ready poetry better than him.

Leah and everyone in the class thought that Ethan was gonna be sentenced to Poetry Prison, which basically meant trying to write reports on Milton's poems, very hard to comprehend, and especially hard to write a report that appeases, he was in big trouble.

"I don't mean to offend you, I just mean that Emily Dickinson was a little crazy and I think there is only one person in the whole class who can read a poem written by that genius." Mr. A, previously, obviously offended and ready to pounce at Ethan with the 'Poetry Prison', or questions about poetic devices, his usual grenade, was taken aback as he was curious whom Ethan was talking about, he grabbed Leah's collar and lifted her like you lift a dirty towel, "She's the genius." He said, and Leah cussed at him, so slow that only he could hear, she said, "I hope you get a coin in your burger." This was a joke that they used in their school, their was a weird story in their school about a cafeteria worker, they said that she used to put a coin in naughty kids' burgers with the intention that they would swallow it, or choke on it, God's choice, of course, a stupid story, of course, this was just a story and though no one really believed it, or corroborates it, but they made a joke out of this story, and said that the cafeteria worker's ghost went around putting coins in kids' burgers, hence, Leah's cussing was related to this story, of course, nothing ever came of it, and it was dismissed as a stupid story but Leah loved it as she had created it and so proudly cussed at Ethan with this sentence, Ethan found it so cute, he submissively shook his head while sitting back down and muttered to himself, "Why's she so cute?"