Feather After

Chapter 8

Feather After // Chapter 8 // Caterpillar And Butterfly

Aria's POV

"Who is he?" I asked Misty as we walked down the hall for our English class. That guy out there did not care about his life. I mean it's okay to be wild and free but it wasn't surely okay to be wild-er and free-er. That guy was someone who everyone was talking about. Back to me, it was nice to be back and suddenly everyone was taking interest in me because the whole school knows about the little incident.

"A guy, well in the starting of tenth grade he left, I don't know why. He moved away. Something happened in school that day and his parents were called. He went away that day and nobody has seen him till now." She told me. A part of me wanted to believe her but the other part of me didn't want to because there was no point of judging someone unless you have heard the strong from their point of view itself.

"Mystery, huh?"

"That's why everyone loves him. He used to play soccer then. I don't know how things will turn out now. It's quite unbelievable. He's back all of a sudden."

And we reached our classroom. We entered inside the class and as usual I sat at the second last seat in the corner of the room towards the window and Misty sat next to me. Her friends seeing her came and sat around her. I offered everyone a smile, that's the most I could do. They all were nice but belonged to middle class family and like always I didn't want them to feel like I, was showing off stuff. I chose to be quiet and kept my mouth shut.

I take out my English book and stood up to sharpen my pencil, from the electronic sharpener kept on the teacher's table. I loved sharpening pencils from that big sharpener. Even when my pencil was sharpened, I broke the tip and sharpened it again.

"Hey sharpen my pencil as well," Someone said. Without looking at the voice source, I took the pencil and moved forward to sharpen it. I sharpened the pencils and I turned around. I sat on my seat and gave it to the person who the pencil belonged to

The teacher entered the classroom and she asked us to keep our books closed for a change and sat on the table. The whole class(for the first time) was paying attention to her.

Mrs. Robinson was the English teacher (one of the finest) and the leanest one as well. She did not believe in the concept of scolding young adults and she was quite successful at it.

Even when students did not listen to her, they still respected her. "Let's talk about poetry! We have a group assignment now," She announced in the class and the reaction was a mixture of oh-noes and oh-yeses. She hushed the class and continued, "I know not all of us read poetry and not all of us appreciate it. But if we try to understand it, I'm sure we all will be able to connect with the author and his/her feelings."

She stopped and looked at the class and when she saw everyone was listening to her she continued, "we will not work on any poem of the medieval era or the independence thing, I know it's very boring. I don't like it as well. So I don't expect you to like it. The twist here is that we will work on our poetry."

"What?" Misty exclaimed and looked at me. I was going to explain to her what I had understood but then Xavier, the person who was sitting in front of her turned around her and said, "like we exchange letters. We will exchange poems." So, the guy who gave me to sharpen his pencil was Xavier.

"Xavier got it right!" Mrs. Robinson said and clapped her hands. "Your partner who will be chosen by me will read your poem and you will read your partner's poem. You will interpret what your partner is saying and in this paper, not only myself but your partner will assess your grade."

"This is full of crap," Joe exclaimed.

Mrs. Robinson ignored him and continued, "your partner's list will be hung on the soft broad outside the class until then you can do whatever you want to do. Is it Okay? I rather have you working on your poems," she climbed down the desk and soon the period was over.

"What is your next class?" Misty asked me as I was picking up my notebooks and pouch.

"Free," I said and smiled at her. It was yoga class but Miss. Jyoti was absent. I heard her sigh but I didn't say anything.

"Oh, that's nice, I have economic. I will meet you later. Okay?"

I nodded and she rushed out of the class and I soon followed her lead. I walked into the library which was in the other block. On the way there, I couldn't help but enjoy the nice weather and the Birds chipping. I liked being surrounded by nature excluding snakes. They are very dangerous creatures.

In the library, there was nobody to my surprise. My sole reason for being in the library was to collect the poem which I had left today in the morning. I was hoping it was complete like it was the other day. I actually wanted it to be complete. I look around the whole library and see if anyone is looking at me then, pull out one book, from the romance section.

There was my paper and the lower part of it was covered with someone else writing. I looked at it.

When you ain't useful,

You feel useless.

When people around you work,

And you can just sit and burb.

When people can dance,

and you even hate to take a chance.

When people are in love,

and you are buff.

That's what I had written and I was being hopeless and stupid as usual and the lines written below were written by him, it was not only beautiful but also breathtaking.

I'm here to tell you

That when the days are blue

And you have no clue.

You have a spark inside that needs to ignite.

Because even an ugly caterpillar,

Turns into a beautiful butterfly.

I smiled when I read those lines. That stranger could make such small words mean so much. It was very inspirational for me. It had made my day. I fold the paper and keep it in my pocket and silently walk out of the library. The librarian still wasn't back to my surprise. When I was walking to my English room, I saw a lot of people hovering around the soft broad. I even saw Misty squeezed in the crowd.

She came out of the crowd after pushing and pulling and asked me to guess who she got. When I guessed she glared at me and told me she had got Xavier and then she expressed her hatred for him. And she even informed me that my name was not on the list.

"What about your economics class?" I asked her.

"She doesn't know what she teaches. I rather do it on my own. Anyway go and ask her," she pushed me towards the room and I stumbled, balanced myself and stepped into the room."

Mrs. Robison looked at me and said, "I know why you are here. I couldn't find A suitable partner for you until now. Miss. Rhett this is your, partner. Mr. Hudson just joined the school today."

Ignatius looked at me, hopefully, that was his name. I politely smiled at him and he smirked down at me.