Not That Bad #Wattys2018

Chapter Eight

My head is on the desk, when I hear a chair being pulled toward me and then someone taps my shoulder. I refuse to put my head up. I was in detention again and my only thoughts were ways I could burn down the school without getting caught. 

"Rori."

It's Eli's voice and I put up my head, only because I was curious about him being here. He's grinning at me and it makes me feel really weird. I hope he didn't expect to tutor me now. Detention was bad enough and I wanted to get home and sleep.

"Why are you here?" I ask.

"I came to see you."

That makes me feel even weirder. He came to see me?

"I mean, what did you do?" I say, grabbing Eli's wrist and checking the time on his silver watch. It's 3:00 which means I still had an hour left. Eli's smile broadens.

"I skipped a class." 

He looks so proud of himself, it's a shock. I never thought the day would come when a boy like Eli, future valedictorian of our year, would skip a class to see me, Rori Villan. It didn't make sense. It wasn't logical either. Like, at ALL.

"Really?" I say, trying my best not to sound impressed. Or confused. I really didn't get it. Why Eli would purposely skip a class, just to see me? I mean, he could've stopped by my house to tutor me like he was supposed to."What class was it?"

"English." Eli says and I smack my forehead with my palm and drag my hand down my face. The surge of pride left me like air from a balloon.

"Come on, Eli! That doesn't count. Everyone skips English, even Mr Griffith skips English. It's so insignificant."

"And yet you're failing." Eli says, giving me a pointed look.

"That was a low blow." I say, feeling slightly offended. 

Eli shrugs and his eyes wander around the room. We're the only ones here. There wasn't even a teacher. I guess Ms Ford figured that despite the fact Eli was in detention he would still be able to control me. Heh. She was lucky I wasn't in the mood for real trouble. Eli's dimples disappear as his smile fades.

"Where's the adventure?" he asks, pouting.

"There is no adventure." I say, putting my head back on the desk, but then I put it up again. Maybe I didn't have to spend the hour sulking."But there could be."

Eli grins at me and I can't help but grin back. I run out the door and into the empty hallway, Eli at my heels. It was such a major contrast from what is was a few moments ago,when there were still students at school. I use my back to push the door to the school basement open and Eli walks ahead of me and flicks a switch. When the lights flicker on, the room glows in a dim white light. We descend the stairs together and I look at Eli expectantly.

"Yeah, I've been here before." Eli says unimpressed, looking at the black and white photos strewn across a table. "With Imogen. This is the photography club meeting place, right? Imogen is president because she's really good at these things. Her parents own that place, Foto?"

I force a yawn to show Eli that I really couldn't give a fuck about Imogen or anything she did. She was insignificant to me, except when she was in the way of something I wanted.

"Yeah, yeah, don't care." I say.

I look at a photo of a class. The photo is in black and white and it looked like it was taken way back in the seventies or something. But then I see Jaq standing at the front with a football in his hand. I have to fight the urge to tear his face from the photo and burn it with my lighter. But what good would that do? I'd prefer if I could do that to him in real life.

The other photos are really good. I always prefer photos I can actually hold and stick up in my room. There's this vintage, authentic feel about them that I just like.

"But have you seen this place?" I say, when I've seen enough. I gesture for Eli to come closer and press my back against the wall to face him. He's smiling down at me and the weirdness I feel is overwhelming. So I keep a straight face, hold eye contact and say, "I'm about to show a place I've shown only a few people. This is where I keep all my dead bodies."

Eli coughs in shock and I cross my eyes so he knows I'm only joking. So he still thinks I'm capable of murder. Eli raises his eyebrows when a rectangular crack appears on the wall, revealing a hidden door.

"This is where Chase and I used to hide when we didn't go to a class." I say, "But then we decided it was too hot and stuffy and dark. Not to mention extremely boring."

Eli walks inside and turns around taking everything in, which is not much. There are two broken stools in a corner, a chest of drawers filled with thumbtacks and ink catridges and large pieces of paper. He walks towards a huge old printer and checks it out. It's caked with dust and he blows so he could read how it works.

"Why is this place so top secret? I mean, it's just an old printer in here." Eli says. I shrug and watch him turn the printer on. There's a loud beeping sound that pierces the silence and he panics and presses a button to silence it. The printer does quiet down and it prints a very large sheet of white paper.

It's the kind of paper that's used to print banners and stuff like that. I want to get my hands on some because I see it could be handy in the future.

"You know what would be funny?" I say, "We could print really embarrassing wanted photos of teachers, like Ms Ford, and put them around the school."

Eli loosens his tie. It looks like he's uncomfortable about doing something like that. Maybe too big a project for him. But that was nothing to me. I mean, what was the harm?

"Or." says Eli as he presses some buttons on the top, "We could do something else."

***

In the morning, I keep my eyes on the wooden stage of the auditorium while Mr Terv addresses the school. He's talking about bullying and then final exams. My stomach lurches when he stresses on how important the exams were to our future and what not. I'm not ready yet. I'm scared I won't ever be ready. What Eli says goes in one ear and out the other.

I look at Eli and he's already staring at me. He's on the stage too, sitting next to Ms Ford. He winks and I know that means it's time. I get up from my seat, make a frantic/scared face and point downwards. Mr Terv gives me one look then continues speaking and it only makes me more eager to embarrass him. I raise my finger in the air and point downwards forcefully. Soon the entire school is pointing downwards too and they have no idea what's going on.

Eli can't stop laughing. I want to laugh too, but I keep my face serious. It's only when I shrug and sit, does Ms Ford get up and whisper something too Mr Terv. They both look down and I bite my lip.

"What's this?" Mr Terv says, noticing for the first time that he was not actually standing on the stage, but on a very large piece of paper.

"There's writing on it." Ms Ford says."It looks like french."

I can see Eli clutching his stomach, laughing so hard now his eyes are slits and no sound is coming from his mouth. Ms Ford puts on her glasses and walks to the end of the stage. "MAIS SA..."

"I think it starts here, Ford." Mr Terv says from the opposite end of the stage."OWATTA AS SIAM."

"OWATTAASSIAM?" Ms Ford repeats. The few people who got it laughed. "I don't think that's french." Then more people started laughing. And then more, until the entire student body was rolling on the floor laughing.

"OWATTAASSIAM." Mr Terv said slowly, "OWATTA..." 

He turned blue in the face and he glared at me. And then Ms Ford got it and she glared too. So I smiled and shook my head. It actually wasn't me this time. Eli managed to put a straight face and we looked at each other. The weird feeling got so strong then,  I couldn't get it to go away.