Dylan slumped against his locker. He'd already had homeroom earlier in the morning and now both he and Felicia had English with Mr. Brown. It could be worse, they could have gotten separate classes or Mr. Darion, who was a hundred times worse than Mr. Brown, but it was still tiring. Why did they even have to have classes on the first day? Sure, they'd had homeroom for like two hours, but it was still the first day. Ms. Fletcher, their new homeroom teacher, had given them their new schedule and explained in a speech that 'Now that you're seniors, you have to set a good example for the freshmen', not that he'd been fully listening.
"What do you have after lunch?" Felicia closed her locker and turned to Dylan. He looked down at the paper he'd placed on top of his English textbook.
"Biology with Ms. Baker, then Spanish with Mr. James. What about you?" He saw Felicia's face fall.
"History and gym," she sighed, "alright, let's go."
The two of them started walking toward their next class. Dylan absent-mindedly picked at the corner of his schedule when Felicia's arm stopped him. He looked up at her and gave her a face that said 'what are you doing'.
"What?" He frowned, pushing her arm from his chest.
"Who is that?" He followed her gaze forwards, his eyes settling on a black mop of hair. "Is he new?"
The boy wasn't turned toward them, but Dylan could see the profile of his face, and damn. No wonder Felicia reacted. The guy was radiating confidence, had a face chiseled by gods, jawline sharp as a knife and even from this distance, Dylan could guess that his eyes would be piercing. A smile spread across Dylan's lips.
"Don't you have a boyfriend?" He teased and Felicia slapped him gently.
"Yeah, I do, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating beauty." She turned back to the guy. "Have you seen him before? He seems familiar."
Dylan just shrugged. The dude did look kind of familiar, but he didn't really care. "Come on, I don't want to be late." He grabbed her arm, pulling her with him. The bell rang just as Felicia muttered:
"Nerd."
"How is not wanting to be late considered a nerdy thing?" Dylan asked, letting go of her arm now that she willingly walked along with him. It was her turn to shrug.
"Don't know, just is." She smiled innocently and Dylan rolled his eyes.
They entered the classroom just as the second bell rang and made their way to the back of the class. Dylan let his books down on the desk with a thud and sat down in his seat. Mr. Brown closed the door behind the last couple of students that hurried through and turned towards the class.
"Welcome back, everybody." he started, his eyes looking out over the sea of students. "I hope you've had a wonderful summer break, but sadly it ends now. This semester we will be giving our all, and we'll start with-"
Dylan zoned out. He was already tired of this class. There was a reason why he planned on majoring in marine biology and not english. Resting his head on one hand, he stared at the board where Mr. Brown had begun writing something.
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When the bell finally rang Dylan shot out of his seat as if someone had set fire to his pants.
"Please remember, we're reading chapters one through four this week." Mr. Brown sighed in defeat as everyone filed out of the classroom, not listening to him in the slightest, and among these were Dylan and Felicia.
"Finally, lunch." Felicia let out an exasperated sigh. Dylan smiled at her dramatic gesture, even though he, too, could feel his stomach turning with hunger.
"Um, Felicia?" Dylan turned towards the new voice. It came from a shorter girl that he was pretty sure he'd seen around the school last year. No, he was one hundred percent sure he'd seen her; her black-to-neon blue ombre curls were hard to miss, especially with the stark contrast against her chocolate-colored skin.
"Blaire!" Felicia exclaimed, throwing her arms around the shorter girl. Dylan gave the two of them a strange look. "How was the rest of your summer? Your hair smells really good by the way."
Blaire smiled sheepishly. "My summer was great, thanks. Hey, can I talk to you?"
Felicia turned her head to Dylan. "You go ahead, I'll be right there." She said, ushering him towards the cafeteria. He nodded quietly.
"It was nice meeting you!" Blaire called behind him.
"You, too." He smiled, watching them disappear behind the sea of moving bodies. He scratched the backside of his neck. Since when did those two speak? He couldn't recall a single instance that it had happened before. Oh well, he thought, getting in line to get food. Today, they served some kind of meat stew which smelled faintly of motor oil.
He scanned the cafeteria for a good place to sit, just about to take an empty table when he heard his name.
"Ay, Dyl." A few tables away a hand waved at him, beckoning him to come. AÂ smile spread across his lips as he recognized the group of people sitting there.
"What's up, my man?" Landon grinned from ear to ear as Dylan grabbed a seat next to him. Around him sat a few of his fellow soccer players.
"Nothing much, just wanna go home." He replied to the greeting. Landon nodded in understanding.
"Same, dude," Shawn, sitting opposite of him, said with a defeated sigh.
"And to think it's only the first day." Landon threw an arm over Dylan's shoulders. "Cheer up. Hey, you're trying out on Wednesday, right? You know we need you."
Dylan laughed. Landon always looked at the bright side of things, one of the traits making him a great captain. "As if I had a choice, Coach would kill me dead if I don't."
"Mm, true." Jake agreed. "Anyways, what have you been up to this summer? Haven't heard much about you, Dyl."
"Gotten any?" Cole, who previously had been quiet, smirked. Dylan snorted his water at the question, an action which made everyone around him laugh. He coughed, desperately trying to get air into his lungs.
"Is he dying?" Felicia's voice made Dylan look up, his eyes teary from coughing. She dropped her tray on the table and sat down across from him with a small smirk.
"Well, well, if it isn't the one and only Felicia Solander, goddess of the sun and all creation." Shawn cheered as he made space for her. The two of them had always had a good relationship, and with Shawn's disregard for personal space and Felicia's touch-starvation, they had a friendship that almost rivaled hers and Dylan's. Almost.
Felicia chuckled quietly at the compliments and grabbed a bite of her food.
"He's fine," Landon answered her previous question. "We were just making some inquiries about our dear friend's love life. Now, Dylan, answer Cole's question."
"Which is...?" Felicia interrupted.
"If I've, and I quote, 'gotten any'." Dylan laughed. "To which the answer is no, of course."
"What do you mean 'of course', you never know," Jake grinned. "One day we'll ask you and the answer might be yes."
"I doubt that." Shawn joked, making everyone laugh.
"Rude." Dylan chuckled.
"Naw, we don't mean anything by it." Landon grinned as he put down his fork. "Sorry guys, but we've gotta go if we want to practice before class starts. Bye Felicia, and we'd see you on Wednesday Dyl." He stood and the others followed suit, all grabbing their trays and uttering various forms of 'bye'.
When they'd all gone, Felicia leaned forward. Dylan could tell that she was excited to tell him something. Considering she hadn't said anything until now it had to be important.
"I know who it is now." She hissed, rolling her eyes as Dylan frowned in confusion. "The new hottie, it's Christopher Davis!"
Dylan's frown deepened. "What?" It wasn't that he didn't know who it was. Everyone in town knew who Christopher Davis was. He was the hottest player of Elwood High's, the other High School in town, football team. In addition to being a player on the football team, he was also known for being a player.
"Yeah, I know right? But what's he doing here?" She looked conflicted, thinking so loud that he could practically hear it, and Dylan cleared his throat. She continued: "He doesn't go here, right? Has he transferred?"
Yeah, it was strange. Dylan leaned back in his seat. He rested his hands on the table, thinking, fidgeting. The biggest question in his head was really how both of them hadn't realized who it was until now. His eyes roamed over the room, looking for a certain dark-haired head. It didn't take long to find it.
"What?" He repeated in a hushed voice, leaning forward again. Christopher Davis. He was hot, everyone thought so, with his jet black hair and defined angles, and just his charismatic bad boy vibe.
"Yes, yes I know, I realized it when I was talking to Blaire," Felicia beamed to herself.
"How do you get to know her, anyway?" Dylan frowned slightly. Felicia grinned at him.
"Aw, are you jealous?"
"No, but it seems Xander should be." He shot back with a subtle smirk. Felicia stuck out her tongue and scrunched up her nose.
"Whatever. I met her on the camping trip, you remember. Wait, no, you weren't there." Felicia looked apologetic, but Dylan just shrugged. "Anyway, we got to talking and she's really cool. She wanted to ask if I was going to join the photography club."
"Are you? Going to join, I mean."
She tilted her head slightly, thinking. "Maybe... It sounded like fun." Dylan nodded and poked his food. It could be good for her, getting in some clubs and seeing what she liked.
"You should." He said, folding his food with the fork over and over.
"Stop playing with your food," Felicia mumbled, lost in thought. Then, she stood. "Come on, you're obviously not going to eat and I want to sit outside."
"Fine." Dylan grabbed his tray and threw out the rest of the food, feeling a little guilty. You know, dying planet and all that. But he couldn't really blame himself too much; if the school served better food, there would be less waste.
They ended up on the bleachers outside, watching the soccer team's practice. Dylan had been asked to join, but he had politely turned the offer down, favoring resting.
"Why don't you join them?" Felicia asked, not looking up from her phone. Dylan laughed quietly.
"I'll take every opportunity to rest before Coach hops on my back," he joked lightheartedly. The coach was amazing, don't get him wrong, but with four practices a week it got a little much. Felicia chuckled, but Dylan was pretty sure that she hadn't listened, too stuck in whatever was going on online. Xander, probably.
He sat in quiet for a while, not thinking about anything special. A feeling of exhaustion washed over him like a tidal wave. Who knew that the first day of school could be so tiring. Okay, let's be honest, everyone knew that, but still. A few minutes later the bell rang, snapping him back to reality.
"Let's go."
He just nodded, not having enough energy to even answer. Now he had biology, thankfully. Something that he was good at and liked. Really, really liked.
"I'll see you," was the last thing Felicia mumbled before scurrying along toward, what was it, history? He couldn't remember. He made his way towards the biology classroom and entered just as the exact moment bell rang, without a second to spare.
There weren't any seats free in the back rows, where he preferred to sit, so he just grabbed a seat by a window close to the board. Hurrying to catch up, he got his textbook out and turned to the page number written on the large whiteboard. Apparently, they were starting off with some basic ecology.
"As you can see, you should all turn to page 103 in your books." Ms. Baker started the lesson with a smile on her face and Dylan listened intently, as opposed to everyone else in the class. This was his field of expertise.
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