MEDICINE | alex rider

fourteen

If the girl said she wasn't a prideful person, she would be lying. It was what she fed on to keep her going, it was the force that pushed her to be better.

Well not better morally, she didn't have many morals, if not any at all. She never really spent time going over whether things were right or wrong, she was religious, she didn't pray, she didn't find a point in it, hoping something was going to happen wasn't going to keep her alive, not if the agency got to her first.

She sat at her desk waiting for her first period to start, it was the Monday after the party and every bone in her body was still sore, she was pretty sure her ribs were bruised. Who knew Alex could kick so hard? Luckily she didn't have any visible cuts or bruises, just a few on her pride.

Alex walked in and sat in front of her, next to Tom, when he turned around she nearly cringed. He had a small bandage peaking out of his hair that lay on his forehead and a long cut across his cheek that had barely begun to scab over "That's a pretty nasty cut." She said, nodding at his cheek.

He lifted his hand to touch it but stopped midway and put his hand back down "Is it that bad?" his voice was quiet, his brows furrowed while he looked at her.

She opened her mouth to say yes but then stopped herself, it was her fault that he had the cut in the first place. "No, it's not." she didn't say that because she felt bad... No, she said it because she took pity on him.

Tom turned to him and clapped him on the shoulder "For what it's worth, I think it's pretty badass."

Zarah hadn't even noticed Tom was there, Alex put his normal smile on his face, yet it didn't quite sit right with her, his lips didn't sit as high as they usually did and his shoulders were a bit tenser "Thanks, mate."

Tom nodded along happily, oblivious to everything else. She had many opinions on Tom, none of them were good, though he was good for Alex she supposed. They balanced each other out well enough, I mean they had to have done something right since they weren't dead, even if she didn't know what that something was.

Her stomach hurt but she wrote it off as her being tired, she hadn't gotten much sleep over the weekend, she had to force herself into the shower the night before, and even that hadn't lasted more than a few minutes.

The door of the classroom suddenly opened and in walked the gym teacher, he stood in front of the board looking back at them expectingly, expecting what? She didn't know. She didn't even know why he was in the class, considering it was her math class and her gym class wasn't until the end of the day. Glancing around the classroom she wasn't the only one confused.

"Morning children, open your textbook to page 340." he glanced down at his watch which wasn't there, when no one moved, he looked back up  "What?"

No one said anything until one kid, whose name she didn't bother to learn, raised their hand. The teacher nodded at the student to speak while he crossed his arms "Pardon my forwardness but, why are you here?"

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't I be here?" The teacher asked, standing shoulder-width apart.

The student along with everyone else gave him a weird look "Because this is maths, and you're our athletics teacher."

"Oh, that," He laughed, clapping his hands together "I'm your substitute teacher for today, your usual teacher is out sick."

Zarah nodded along, sometimes she wasn't sure how he still had his job. Alex turned around to face the girl, his hair fell over his eyes and he push it back, bringing his voice down into a whisper "I think our athletics teacher has gone through a psychotic break."

She shrugged, she didn't blame him, if she had to spend as many years around so many kids as he had, she would go crazy too "Probably got hit in the head with a ball one too many times."