𝑾𝑨𝑳𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑬𝑫𝒀━━𝒆𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒆 𝒎.

𝒊𝒗. 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒈

( walking tragedy ! )
chapter four, trig
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━━she was listening to her math teacher drone on and on about angles and degrees, pointing between his poorly drawn diagram of the shape of a baseball field and a page of notes he had handed out to the class earlier.

ara played with the corner of her paper, folding it back and forth and back and forth until it eventually ripped off. why did she need to take this fucking trigonomics class? it held no use to her whatsoever. she folded the small piece of paper between her fingers and flicked it into the air.

instead of landing on the ground like she wanted it to, it placed itself on the desk beside her━━a desk that belonged to some kid she didn't know the name of, who just so happened to be wearing a hellfire club t-shirt. she had seen him earlier today at lunch.

he looked at her in disgust and brushed the paper onto the floor with the end of his pencil, but not before giving her a death stare. you've got to be kidding me.

"jeff? miss murray?" the teacher snapped his fingers, not only catching their attention, but the rest of the class as well, "do we have an issue?"

"no sir." they both said in unison, looking up from the paper lying motionless on the ground. the students in front of them were craning their necks and practically leaning out of their chairs in order to look at them. piss off.

usually, you'd assume that having a desk in the back of the class was great, and that the teacher would never see or hear or call on you. but arabella swears that this particular teacher had it in for her. she hadn't gone one single day this entire school year without being called out by him.

don't get her wrong, she was a smart girl, but hated talking in front of the class━━or any large group for that matter. and whenever she was called on, she wished she could've been in the front row to avoid anyone seeing the frozen look on her face.

but here she was, legs propped up on her desk and leaning her head on the wall behind her. frozen. the teacher motioned for her to put her feet down and she did so slowly, glaring at the people who decided they were brave enough to test her patience today.

the teacher turned his back and the rest of the class followed suite. ara glanced at the girl sitting on the other side of her, whose attention seemed to be fixated on her watch.

"how much time left?" she whispered to her. the girl didn't say anything in response but held up three fingers, counting them off. three. two. one. the bell finally rang and people began dumping their books into their bags.

ara already had her backpack full━━she never unpacked it actually. she had been too anxious about meeting chrissy to focus on school at the moment, and wanted to get out of the class as soon as possible. she slid out of her desk, slinging her bag over her shoulder as she made her way to the door.

"ahem." she slowly turned around to face the teacher, who had his hands folded in front of him. students pushed past her and nearly knocked her into the chalkboard, but they didn't seem to care. she didn't blame them.

"hey, i really need to get somewhere. i'm sorry but do you mind if we talk tomorrow instead━━"

"ms. kelley spoke to me after lunch today." he leaned forward. please don't be about lunch. "i know how hard it is at home with your brother gone." wait, it wasn't about lunch?

"oh━━yeah." she tried not to show how surprised she was, instead offering him a weak smile.

he put his hands in the air, as if surrendering. "i know i'm hard on you in this class, but that's only because i want to push you." ara almost felt lightheaded. he was telling her this? "you're a great student, arabella."

"thank you so much." she grabbed the straps of her backpack and smiled, turning out of the doorway and into the empty hallway. shit.

her feet began moving at a quick pace, one foot in front of the other, though almost tripping a few times. hands met metal handles and the large glass doors swung open, revealing the bus port.

she turned the corner, scanning the area for her friend━━but she was nowhere to be seen. ara smacked her hands on the side of her legs in defeat and went back around the same corner, about to head home.

looking back and forth to cross the street, she noticed a figure moving on one of the school fields. of course. "chrissy!" she yelled and started running as fast as she could towards her. "chrissy wait!"

by the time arabella stepped foot onto the grass, the other cheerleader had disappeared into the woods. "oh fuck here we go." she sighed and held her breath, walking underneath a sky full of nothing but green leaves.

"chrissy!" she yelled again, stepping over a large tree branch, making sure she didn't fall. she stopped to catch her balance and heard leaves crunching not too far ahead of her. running towards the sound, the quickly saw a white jacket.

"oh. my. god." ara gasped for breath, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. she jumped, screaming as she did so. "woah, you okay?"

"yeah i just━━i thought i saw something." ara looked at her with questionable eyes, nodding slowly. "what took you so long? i thought you stood me up!"

"what? i'd never do that. i just got caught up with another teacher." she half smiled.

"another one? ara what are you doing?" the girl just shrugged it off instead of answering the question. she really couldn't answer even if she wanted to because, honestly, she had no clue.

"okay but what are we doing? we're in the middle of the freaking woods, man!" she put her arms in the air and spun around, almost running into someone. "holy shit that made me dizzy." she put a hand to her head and closed her eyes until her brain seemed to still.

"spinning tends to do that." he laughed and took his jackets off, setting them on the wooden table.

ara looked at chrissy and widened her eyes. "what the hell?" she mouthed to her. the girl waved her off and sat down. she decided she would rather stab herself than sit with eddie munson, so she leaned on a tree trunk instead.

eyeing him as he spoke to her friend, she noticed a faint redness on the side of his face. he must've felt her staring, because he turned his head to look at her. "i had to ice it and everything. couldn't risk bruising my insanely attractive━━"

arabella snorted despite her attempts to hold it in, and covered her mouth with her hands so fast it hurt. "she's sorry about that, by the way."

"what?" she locked eyes with chrissy. "no, i'm not for the record." had her best friend really just said that to him, the boy who had been constantly tormenting her for years? he did not deserve any remorse.

chrissy gave her a serious look. "ara!"

"okay, you know what? i'm gonna let you two do your little drug deal or whatever but i'm outta here." she pulled on the zipper of her jacket, closing it and facing away from them. "chrissy, i'll see you at the game."

"wrong way." eddie said, pointing the opposite way of where she had started going. she didn't show any sign of a response except for the way she did, in fact, turn around and walk where he told her.

maybe it was a mistake.

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( note ! )

━━  .* ੈ✩‧₊˚  /  i think this is my favorite chapter so far, and i have no clue why.

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