“Apparently it’s ‘against the school policy,’” She ranted, “School policy my bootie.” Hyun-Woo rested his hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” He said. Tigress smiled warmly at him. The teacher started talking about stretches. Hyun-Woo muttered under his breath. “Mr. Bardot? May I go to the bathroom? Yeah? Thanks, byeeeeeee!” Weirdo. Tigress looked at me. “You okay?” She asked. I nodded, stretching to my side. Was there something wrong with my face? I smiled awkwardly. “I guess not,” Tigress said. I sighed. We continued doing gym stuff. “Today we’re playing regular dodgeball,” Mr. Bardot said, grabbing the dodgeballs from the mesh bag. “Hehe, guess who’s back!!” Hyun-Woo chimed. “I’m sure you were going to the bathroom and not messing around in the halls,” Tigress said sarcastically. I chuckled. “To be fair, I was drinking water,” Hyun-Woo defended. “Suuure, SUUURE,” Tigress argued. Hyun-Woo threw one of the dodgeballs at himself. “Oh well, guess I’m out!” He shouted in a satirical tone. Tigress wheezed. Hyun-Woo proceeded to stick out his tongue. By now, all three of us were out. We were laughing at all the bad players, despite being the first out. We weren't the worst, but we didn’t plan on winning any awards. Eleanor did though. We’d surely be leaving class in a few minutes. The bell rang. I was right. Chapter 3 Eleanor and Hyun-Woo ran out of the gymnasium, while I stayed behind. When I made it out of the gym, Zach was standing there, smirking. “Hi, Zach,” I said. No one called him by his actual name, Zachariah, instead we called him Zach. Eleanor, if she was upset, she’d call him Zachary, which is a completely different name, but, you know, Eleanor. “Hello, peasent boy Gupta~,” Zach chimed back. I genuinely don’t know why he calls me that. “What assistance did you need from I, Zachariah Robert Edward William?” I felt like wheezing. I probably looked like I had held my breath for 35 minutes and was waiting to let it out. I wheezed, grabbing onto the wall. “Wha- WHAT!?” Zach shook me around. “Hey Zachariah!” Eleanor beamed, waving. “Rich boy,” Hyun-Woo snickered. “Hiiii Elli! Hey Hyun-Woo!!” Zoe exclaimed, lifting herself up using Zach’s shoulders. “Ow. Ok, what did you- ZOE I SWEAR- What did you need us for?” Zach asked. Zoe cocked her head. Hyun-Woo nodded. “Well…Uh, the other day, I witnessed something strange…Anwin…Disintegrated…” I scratched my scalp. “Huh? Why!?” Hyun-Woo asked, getting up in my face. “Move please…I um…I think, maybe, we might be in a simulation,” I said. “That’s impossible,” Eleanor and Zach said in unison. “Jinx,” Eleanor snickered, before lightly shoving him. “So…What do you two think?” She asked, nodding at Zoe and Hyun-Woo.
“Totally true, no way he’s lying,” Zoe said. She’s…Really gullible. “Yeah…I guess,” Hyun-Woo sighed. “Pick a side, stickbug,” Zach complained. “-And my dog can talk,” I added. “I think you’re lying,” Zach snapped. “Aarav would only lie if it meant helping someone,” Eleanor admitted. Hyun-Woo nodded, crossing his arms. “Whatever, Stickbug,” Zach snapped. “Call me that again, I’ll punch you,” Hyun-Woo said, shoving Zach. “Well, me and Zoe are gonna go, we’ve only got 3 minutes till the bell,” Eleanor said, running off. “Byyyyyyyyeeeee,” Zoe waved. I turned back to Zach. He scoffed. Please don’t fight, please don’t fight, please don’t fight…Hyun-Woo stuck out his tongue. “Excuse me, Stickbug, who said you could disrespect me!?” Zach snapped, pushing Hyun-Woo over. Hyun-Woo kicked his knee, making him fall. I bit my tongue. Great! Zach stuck out his arms to break the fall. Hyun-Woo kicked him off of him, getting up to run off. “Bye, rich boy,” He chimed. Zach muttered something, crossing his arms. “Sorry,” I said quietly. Zach nodded, getting up to his feet. We walked to Mr. Shepard’s room, sitting down in our chairs. ELA…Ew. “Hey, Gupta!” Mr. Shepard beamed, patting my back. I jerked up, smiling awkwardly. Zach waved. “Hey, William, you got that essay in, right?” “Mm-hm!” Zach replied, smiling. We took our seats. I didn’t like ELA, but Mr. Shepard was a great teacher. He was the youngest, only 23 years old. He didn’t try to be funny to us, he actually was funny. “Today, we’ll just do some grammer work,” Mr. Shepard announced, pushing his glasses up his nose bridge. “Some of you still need to turn in the essay- thank you Zach- and one of you is still doing the rough draft.” He handed out the paper, smiling the whole time. Annie and Sullivan chattered quietly. “You two want to work with me?” I asked. I was really talking to Sullivan, but it didn’t matter too much. “Yeah!” Sullivan replied. Moblit drooped. “I thought you were gonna work with…Me,” He said, hanging his arms down. “You can work with us if you want,” Annie said dryly. Sullivan nodded. Really!? “Th-th-th-thanks!” Moblit beamed, hugging the three of us. I cringed a little inside, but I wasn’t going to show I didn’t like him. That’s just rude. But, then again, he was my bully, so, it shouldn’t offend him. “The first question iiiis… hm. How good is yo momma?” Sullivan joked. “Really?” I asked sarcastically. A smirk spread across Sullivan’s face. Moblit was desperately holding in a wheeze, and Annie had straight-up walked away. To be honest, it wasn’t funny to me. Sullivan was still smirking evilly while laughing his cheeks off. “I don’t have a ‘momma’,” I said, slapping Sullivan. “OHHHHH,” He replied. Moblit grabbed his waist, trying to lift him up. “Ow! Bro, calm down!” Sullivan wheezed, attempting to breathe. “Okay, the first question is a two-choice question. I’d call it multiple choice, but it’s really not. ‘Suzy walks into a tree, Ow, she blank. So the options are ‘said’ or ‘says’,” Annie explained. “Says??” Sullivan asked. “Yes, because otherwise, you’d have to change the tense of walks to past tense- walked,” I said. “‘Suzy walks into a tree, Ow, she said’ makes no sense.” Moblit nodded. Annie gave me a thumbs up, and we got onto the next question. ELA went by pretty fast. The work was easy, and we all got the hang of it pretty quickly, luckily. Zach and I walked to lunch. I was starving! Zach had packed his lunch- gourmet(as usual…), and I (as usual) had to buy lunch. Thankfully, we got lunch before any other grade- the food was fresh.
