Ink

Cheater Cheater

"What is this, Michael?" I jumped up at the sound of my teachers voice, looking up to see her standing in front of my desk.

"What's what," I stuttered, looking up at her and setting my pencil down. She pointed at my arm, and my gaze followed, and then I saw the sloppy writing poking out from beneath the sleeve of my hoodie. I knew for a fact that I didn't do that, so I retaliated against the false accusations "I swear I didn't do that! I love ancient Greek mythology, you can call my mom, I've been interested in it since I was in fourth grade, I have no reason to cheat on the test. And my hoodie sleeve was down, I couldn't have even seen it."

"I'm still going to call your mother, and you're getting a 0 on the quiz for cheating. I expected more from you, this type of behavior will not tolerated young man."

"I didn't do anything!"

"Go wait outside, I will not stand you raising your voice at me. You can expect a trip to the office and a call home."

I stood up and stormed out of the door. That is, if storming out means gently stomping, catching the door before it slammed and sitting in the hall by sliding down the wall and landing on my butt with a quiet "mph."

I heard a quiet snicker before my teacher yelled "Hey! What is so funny?"

"Uh, nothing ma'am," I head my classmate stutter out in a somewhat snickering manner.

"You too, Leonardo? I don't believe it. Go join Michael in the hall, I'll be out once everyone else finishes their test."

I watched the door as it flung open and the kid everyone knew as Leo stomped out, his old, mud covered Chuck Taylor's making noises that echoed off the walls and down the hall. The door violently slammed shut and I jumped as I felt the impact just to my right.

I looked up at him as he stood across from me, leaning against the wall. His slightly long, messy light brown hair fell into his face, nearly covering the dark brown eyes that were framed by thick, dark eyelashes. Damn, those eyes, they'd be the death of me. "Is it necessary to be so violent, Leo?"

"Yes, it is. Greek history is hard and I'm a dumbass, did she expect me to just take another failing grade? My parents will kill me if I fail," He pouted and sat down, those dark eyes fixing on me as I sat with my legs crossed. "I still don't understand why you did it. You answered nearly every question she asked and got them all right. You're smart."

"I didn't do it though," I protested, pulling up my jacket sleeve. "The handwriting isn't even mine, it's too sloppy. I can hardly make out what it says... 'Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter,' is about all I can read. Other than a few doodles. A flower crown, a few dicks, and people writing 'so-and-so was here'"

He was quiet, which was weird for him. I looked up from my arm and saw him looking down at his, pen in hand. His hair fell in his face, covering it from my view, and since the red plaid shirt he wore unbuttoned over a black tee only had sleeves that reached his elbows, I could see all the writing on his arm. Not the best outfit to wear when you're cheating, to say the least, especially when all your notes are on your arms.

I looked back at my arm when I saw him sit down the pen he had, and saw new writing on my arm. "It's you, huh?" I read the words out loud and looked back up at him. He had picked up the pen and began to start writing again, and I looked down and read it again. "Pfffft- me? You thought I was cute?"

"Yes, I did, with your perfect grades and even more perfect hair and you're a teachers pet and a huge dork and it's adorable."

"Please, my hair is a disaster area, look at this crap," I said, running my hand through the light brown strands that I parted to the right. "I need a hair cut. And I'm not a dork, I just like history. Especially Greek mythology but you just ruined my grade."

"But dude your eyes are so fuckin pretty, like, seriously. They're that beautiful jade green and they have little light blue specks and they're gorgeous."

"My eyes are terrible though, you're the one who has gorgeous eyes. They're dark brown and light brown lines crack across from your pupil like a spider web and it's so pretty."

"Oh my god, shut up, they're not that good."

As soon as his sentence finished, the door opened and my teachers squeaky, irritatingly high pitched voice called me away from those eyes. "Boys, come here." I stood up and walked to her, pulling my sleeve back down as I did and standing beside Leo. "I want you both to explain this, immediately."

"I didn't do it, I swear," I said quietly, looking down.

"You told me to study and I didn't wash it off yesterday," Leo said, and as I glanced to my side and saw those big, puppy dog eyes looking innocently at her.

"Both of you go to the office, now. I'll call them." She shut the door and we both turned and walked away, my eyes still fixed on his even though they were looking ahead.

"You like staring, Michael?" His eyes shifted and met mine and I immediately looked down and covered my face, blushing. "Aww, don't worry, I like starting at you too, always have. But I have fast reflexes and look away before you catch me." I felt his hands loosely wrap around my wrist and pull my hands away from my face, and I looked up at him, trying to control the blood rushing to my face. "The thing is, my eyes often end up a bit further down than yours."

I saw his eyes move from mine down to my lips and he leaned in, gently pressing them against mine. I put my hands on his chest and shoved him away. "As much as I'd love to, were in the school hall. I'm already going to get in trouble because someone wanted to cheat, I can't make out with you in the hall."

"Hmph, fine."