Chapter 10: I need to find Carlen

Chelsea seemed a bit disappointed in me as I did not approve of her warning on a jiffy. However, I cannot be naive. It is not like I do not trust her, but to be swayed by someone without any reason seems baseless to me. I was born an independent thinker. 

However, I can be a coward at times, I tend to run away from things. So now, I have to talk with Carlen. I hope he has the next class with me. We have the Physics class in the same building, Avalon. 

As we walk towards our next class, the air is certainly awkward. It never gets awkward with Chelsea around, this is the first time in my entire school days. We have been best friends from our kindergarten till now. 

This is giving me a headache, it is just the first day of school. Is the rest of the year going to be the same? That entire thought makes me sick to my stomach. 

"Did you start with Physics?" I ask her breaking the silence. It is getting too much for me to handle. 

"No," she says abruptly. 

"Oh, what about chemistry?" I ask. 

I want to keep the conversation going. 

I despise short talk, but at least it is better than being silent I guess. 

"No," she again says abruptly.

It is quite a pain in the ass to keep up a one-sided conversation. 

"Oh, what about Maths?" I ask yet again. 

"Rinette, I cannot talk with you unless you agree to not talk with that new group," she says.

Rinette? To hear it from her sounds odd. 

"Chelsea, I am sorry but you do want to know exactly why you want me to do that. Previously, you provided me a vague explanation for it," I say. 

"So you do not trust me?" She asks.

"It is not about trust, I want to know the reason for it, and the odd attitude you are showing to me," I say. 

"You know Rinette, this curiosity of yours will only lead you to your grave one day," she says as she leaves me, and enters the class without me. 

I do not notice it until now that we are in front of my Physics class. I do want to know why she is treating me so coldly. However, I feel she does not want me to talk with her anymore. 

What happened after Chemistry class? What is she hiding from me? And why on earth is she not providing me a good reason for the thing she wants me to do? 

I feel like Elara now, I too have thousands of questions. I have to find Carlen to know more about EVERYTHING. 

To my surprise I do not find him. I see Elara, Aurelius, and Lucifer in their seats, and Chelsea sitting beside Lucifer.

I gained the courage to go to Elara who had just mentioned me as some 'lost princess' a couple hours ago. 

"Does Carlen have Physics?" I ask. 

"Yes," she replies. 

To my surprise, she seems to be the only one who is treating me like normal. Unless I am being manipulated, she seems like someone who can help me out. 

"Oh, do you know why he is not here yet?" I ask.

"Why do you also have a crush on him?" Aurelius asks interrupting us. 

"No!" I reply hastily. 

"I do not know, he did not come with us and left early in Math Class," she says. 

"Alright thanks for your help, Elara," she says.

"Welcome," she says smilingly. 

I get to my seat. Where did this guy go? Did he actually disappear out of thin air? I decide to wait for him to come. If the lecture starts, I will simply ask the teacher to use the restroom to search for him. 

Why am I even searching for him? Only God can answer that now. 

I leave my overthinking, and take out my notebook for the Physics class. The class has started, and Carlen is officially missing. The teachers seem to not care. There can be two reasons, one he does not know him enough as he is new, and two he thought that someone skipped the first Physics class because well it is 'Physics' we are talking about.

Yeah never liked that subject. I do not hate it, but the syllabus is structured poorly. 

I decide to leave the class with the excuse to use the rest-room. Well, this is the first time I have ever used the restrooms during class. At this point, I just let it slide, the entire day seems tiresome. I want to have some rest.

I do not find anyone in the entire corridor outside. I walk to the restroom, it is empty. I walk in the hallway on the left to the restroom, there are some classes there. However, there is a space at the end of the hallway. 

If someone were to do some secret communication, it is probably the best place I think. I have the entire map of the school in my head since I have been taught in this school from the beginning. 

I take the turn to the empty hallway. Nothing except some suspicious bunch of juniors skipping classes. It is a boy gang, I pay them no heat. I am deciding to leave until one of the boys grabs my hand. 

"Where do you think you are going pretty?" Someone in a male voice asks.

The area is far from the classes so I bet no one can hear it, and there are no CCTVs. This is truly the best place to do anything in private. 

However, I am disgusted by the awful attitude of the junior boys. I first try to get rid of his hold, and he tightens it.

I am deciding between playing the nice senior and scaring them off or putting on a fight with my Karata and Martial arts knowledge. 

"I have fucked plenty of bitches like you-" he says.

I put on a fight. 

I punched the junior boy in the face. No matter who he is, I cannot care less. We are not supposed to treat anyone like that. I turned back to look at him. 

He stands up to his boy gang. 

"You are not even man enough to fight alone, but you dare to disrespect another woman? Do you have no shame?" I say with a deadly tone. 

I probably have given him hundreds of death stares by now because he looks scared. 

"Let us go back to class," he orders his boy gang. 

Oh, so he is some kind of a captain of this lame-boy group. 

"Before you do that, if you ever lay your hands on a woman I will make sure your hands are cut," I thread them.

They are looking like they going to pee their pants. They run back to their classroom. It is in the hallway, they are two grades below me. I understand it since only the 10th and 12th graders are supposed to have class here, and does not seem like a 12th grader to me.

I took note of it in case they decided to give me some trouble in the future. 

I can finally leave this vacant place now, but God has other plans. Just when I decide to leave, some unknown forces grab me by the shoulder and push me into one corner. 

My adrenaline is turned on, my eyes are closed. Whoever does that knows that I can throw some punches because they have grabbed me by the hands. I will not let him or her off easy. 

I open my eyes, it is Carlen. 

-Thanks for reading-