Chapter 7

2 WEEKS had flown by and it was really hard to notice with all the work I had been doing. Issac, Kaitlin (though she went to a differentscool), and Mason had become my new group. They noticed what a jerk Bea was being and decided to hang around with me. Since they where my real best friends, I felt safe with them. Being with Bea was messing up my life, I had so much unnecessary drama, issues, school was becoming hard knowing I had to face her every day. Thank goodness for real friends.

            And now that I think of it, Justin wasn’t attending school regularly. He’d attend for 2 days, miss 1, come back again then miss another. I wonder what was going on.

“Hey, where’s Justin?” Mason finally brought up at lunch.

“Who knows? That guy is always disappearing.” Issac said chewing his sandwich.

“Ah… I hope he’s not sick or anything.” Mason looked down. Actually, we both looked down. I guess we both care about him.

“Well then,” I looked back up and tried to put on the best smile I could put on. “we’ll get mad at him!”

“Huh?” everyone else said in unison.

“Yeah! He’s going to come back soon. And when he does, let’s laugh and get really mad at him!”

Then we all started to chuckle, then the chuckles turned into laughs. I could just imagine Justin’s confused face, all of us getting angry at him then suddenly starts laughing. What a site that would be!

            When lunch was finally over we went back to class. I had my college-prep class next (with Issac; he got switched into that class) and I was looking forward to it. We got to work on essays today, and I just LOVE writing.

“Alright class,” started Mrs. Hall. “we’re going to work on our essays today! If you get finished early just hang tight until everyone is done. You can talk quietly to a neighbor but only if they’re finished too. Ok, you have 1 hour. Go!”

            The sound of pencils racing across the paper; words dancing around the page. I felt so at-ease when I wrote. Nothing could stop me once I got a good idea in my head, I’d jot it down before I forgot.

“My my, you’re late young man.” Ms. Hall’s voice was kind of in a dreamy state. What she had to say didn’t matter to me so I hardly even heard it.

“Oh, I brought a note.” But that voice… That one caught my attention. I looked up from my paper, and there he was. Justin!

            He took a quick glance at me, then took a seat in the chair 2 seats ahead of me. He was here, but his face looked pretty upset. I didn’t feel like getting mad and laughing at him anymore. At first I just thought maybe he was sick and that my plan would make him feel better. But no, the look in his eyes and his facial expression was something else.

            When that hour was over, there were still people working on essays. I was done, so was Mason and Issac. Too bad Kaitlin wasn’t in our grade, she’d have a lot of fun here.  Mrs. Hall decided to give everyone else the rest of the class period to finish, since it was due today. Justin was still working, and Mason and I paid very close attention to him.

“Wow, you guys are like hunters and prey.” Bea called from behind. “Leave the poor kid alone.”

“Shut up.” Mason shot back. Bea had a face of shock. Since she had always been the leader of the group, she was surprised someone would talk back to her like that.

“Excuse me? I--“

“Should be getting back to work, you’re not even finished with your essay, Miss.” Justin said from his seat. Amazing, he didn’t even look up from his paper, how could he have known that we were even talking about him?

“Whoa.” Issac said under his breath, hoping Bea wouldn’t hear him.

            She bit her lower lip and went back to work. I traded seats with the boy sitting next to me so Mason, Issac and I were in some sort of triangular seating arrangement; It made it easier for us to speak.

“Justin is pretty cool huh!” I whispered.

“Eh, I’m still not so sure about that guy. He’s kind of hard to figure out. What do you see in him anwyays?”

“Ahhh Issac, you’re just upset because I’ve fallen for him and I rejected you 5 times.” I laughed.

“Ok ok, maybe I’m a little jealous, but I mean really. What’s up with him? He missed like 6 days of school and it’s just the first 2 weeks that we’ve started!”

“Well one thing’s for sure, he wasn’t sick.” Mason butted in.

“How can you tell?” I asked, even though I too knew that he wasn’t sick.

“Well, even if someone was sick, they could still come to school unless it was some kind of catchable disease. And usually if you miss the first 4 hours of school, you’re not required to come back for the rest of the day. I wouldn’t want to say that he’s skipping, but that’s all I can conclude for now. And nothing in his face or eyes or posture shows any signs weakness, and he’s been pretty healthy.” Mason glanced at Justin.

“Yeah, I guess that can be true.” Issac added.

            I watched and watched him. he seemed really into his essay too. Before I knew it he was done and I didn’t notice until he turned around and looked at me. I quickly turned away, but something was different about him at that moment. His eyes… His eyes where blue; They were blue! Blue like the ocean or blue like a summer sky with no clouds. How odd, I wondered if those were contacts.

            I peeked a little bit over my shoulder, he had turned around already and I couldn’t see those bright blue eyes anymore.

“Hey, you guys?” I tapped Mason’s and Issac’s shoulder.

“Yeah?” They both said in unison.

“Did you notice Justin’s eyes? They look really… Odd.”

“Huh. Odd how?” Issac leaned forward in his seat.

“Like the color is odd. I don’t think they’re natural, and actually, I don’t think that’s the color he had last time I saw him.”

“So what,” Mason interjected. “he’s got colored contacts? It’s his choice if he wants to wear them or not.”

“No no, that’s not it! It just… Ah, I don’t know how to put it. It seems too odd, too weird!”

            They must have not understood my logic, because they turned right around and went back to whatever they were doing before I called them. But I understood my logic. I had to know what was going on with him. I thought we could friends, but when he started disappearing I never had the chance to talk to him. I didn’t even get his cell phone number.

            After school I was invited to come over to Kaitlin’s house, and since she and Justin both live in The Villa, I took that as an opportunity to follow him. Not as a stalker, but like… Like a reporter! I was just getting the scoop of the story.

Odd that he didn’t take the bus, so I didn’t take it either. I walked behind a group of kids that were walking behind him. I didn’t want him to see me, then he might have thought I really was a stalker!!

            We finally made it to The Villa, unfortunately his house was in the opposite direction as Kaitlin’s. But it couldn’t have been too far, so I kept following him. Big mistake.

“What are you doing?” He said and stopped in his tracks.

Whoa, did he know I was following him this whole time? But how? Just like in class, he didn’t even turn around!

“Hey, I’m not talking to a wall.” Then he turned around and faced me. “Who are you? Why are you following me?” His voice was serious and intense. He wasn’t joking around, and he seemed a little peeved.

“Well I... I wanted to see what, what was wrong.” I backed away. “You’ve been, uh, missing a lot of school days. It’s not good for you Justin, especially since it’s just the beginning of--”

He glared at me. Those blue eyes that I thought earlier were a beautiful pool of water, was now the silence before the storm. He was acting so weird! This was NOT the Justin I had met on the first day of school.

“Go away, leave me alone.” He said, then turned around and began walking home.

“What… WHAT IS THIS??” I screamed at him. He stopped.

 “I… I don’t know what your problem is, but WHY are you being so rude!! So mean!! I know you’ve missed a lot of school days, but how could you forget me? You said I was your first friend! You backed me up when Bea threatened me!! How dare you treat me like this, Justin!” I felt like crying. He was being a total jerk.

“I can’t believe… I can’t believe I fell for a jerk like you!” I ran and didn’t look back. I don’t know if he turned around or not, I just ran. I ran all the way home.

 I called Kaitlin later that night and apologized for not coming over.

“Awww, it’s ok Aika!”

“Yeah sorry, I just remembered that I was really busy so I couldn’t make it.”

“Oh yeah, no worries! Well see you later!”

“Ok, bye.”

When I hung up the phone I felt sick. I lied to my friend, and then what Issac said to me in class entered my thoughts: ‘What do you see in him anyways?’ I don’t know what I saw in him. I thought I saw the real-life Kida Masaomi, my dream boyfriend. But he was just Another Brick in The Wall. Or in this case, another boy in the wall.