Little Black Notebook | Editing | ✓

1

*Make sure to check out the attached audio to complete the chapter atmosphere*

"Are you coming outside or not?"

I sigh a deep breath before straightening my hunched back and swiping my crumpled clothes. This is all I've been up to these past few weeks. Laying in my bed early in the morning, waiting for a text, straightening my posture, getting off the bed, down the stairs and then out the door. 

"Sheesh, one would think a person like you should be more enthusiastic." I was greeted with a punch on my shoulder. "You alright?"

Staring at the ground underneath me, I shrug, giving my friend a weak smile. "Mmm."

"Talkative much?" 

"Jenna, it's 7:30 am." I rub my eyes.

"Jenna it's 7:30 am..." She mocks me with the most disturbing face a person can manage to make in such early hours of the day. 

"Grow up." After checking that there are no cars around, I fasten my pace and cross the street. "And hurry up or I don't think your facial expression is the only disturbing thing I'm gonna have to look at today."

Jenna quickens her pace, not saying anything for a change.

The morning was waking up. Sun was stretching its arms that lit up the moody sky and it almost felt as if it was chasing the rest of the clouds away. The easy breeze that I could feel from time to time caressed my skin gently, the skirt of my uniform lightly dancing around with each step.

"Crap, I forgot my glasses," I say abruptly as I tap the top of my head frantically in a last-minute hope attempt that I accidentally put them on.

Sighing, I drop my left hand to the side, gripping my bag with the other.

Jenna looks at me in a pity. She knows how bad my eyesight is. "You didn't take your lenses by any chance, did you?"

I shake my head. Of course I didn't. I never do.

This is going to be a long day.

*

I groan internally while trying to comprehend what was written on the board. Not only did I forget my glasses, but the fact that I'm sitting in the last row isn't helping either. 

After I finally decided to give up deciphering the smallest possible writing (I swear today the teacher was writing even smaller, as if to spite me), my stomach decides to let out the most miserable sound, breaking the concentrated silence that filled the room. 

Letting my hair shadow over my face, I put my head on the table, ignoring the snickers and chuckles that followed.

Can this day get any worse?

*

Scratch that. Just a few minutes in and literature turned out to be even worse.

The small letters in the book were blurry as hell, which frustrated me to no end. Sometimes, I wish that someone could invent pain-free eye transplantation.

Instead of focusing on the task the teacher had given us, which included some reading of our literature book that I found nearly impossible, I turned my attention to something a little bit more interesting to me at that moment. An unknown guy sitting in a spot diagonally to the right, two rows in front of me. 

His hair was jet black and disheveled, he was wearing the usual school uniform like the rest of us and he was rapidly scribbling something in what seemed to be a small pocket sized notebook.

Have I ever seen this guy around before? I'm pretty sure I haven't. I mean I might be wrong since I don't have my glasses and usually, during literature, I don't really pay attention to anyone or anything except poetry... But I would've noticed someone similar to him in my class or in my school since it is a very small one and everyone knows each other...

"Hey, Yuna!" I hear someone whisper-shout to me. "Yuna!"

I slowly turn around in my chair, coming face to face with a girl that's in most of my classes, Ally. Her light blonde hair framed her heart shaped face and her big blue doe eyes looked at me with mischief. I befriended her simply because I have to spend a lot of time in her company. Since Jenna's in different classes compared to mine, I had to find someone else to hang around with during the day.

"Yes?"I reply.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"No, not really."

She sighs in relief, a smile beaming on her face. "Cool! I was wondering do you maybe know who's that guy over there?" She nods her head in direction of the unknown guy I was looking at just seconds ago.

So I wasn't the only one who noticed the guy? I already started thinking my mind is playing tricks on me.   

Following her gaze, I found the anonymous person still engrossed in his notebook, seemingly sucked in whatever he was doing. 

From my point of view, I could clearly see his focused gaze firmly glued to the paper. His hand was tightly gripping the pen he was holding. He was left handed. Aside from myself, I have never met a person that was left handed.

"No, not really," I repeat myself, turning my gaze back to Ally.

"I still can't believe that there are people like you who are so not talkative." She huffs, her eyes fixing from the guy to me and then again back to the guy. She leans in closer to me. "I heard he transferred recently. This is his first full day in school, with the rest of us."

I look at her and raise my eyebrow. If she already knew something about him, why bother asking me?

As if she was reading what crossed my mind, Ally shrugs and leans further away. "I just thought you might know more. Doesn't hurt to ask."  

*

I was putting books in my locker when I heard someone's footsteps approaching.

It can't be Jenna nor Ally. Jenna had drama group at this time of the day and Ally was long gone home after our classes ended.

The footsteps were slow and somewhat light. By the sound that the shoe was making against the floor, I figured it was definitely a male, since girls had a strict shoe code with hard soles in our school, unlike boys.

Even though curiosity was somewhat eating me from the inside, I refused to check who was coming and continued placing books in my locker, leaving the ones that I didn't and taking the ones that I did need.

A sound of key and papers rustling echoed through the now empty hall, just a few meters away. I zipped my bag as my heart pounded furiously inside my chest.

You stupid little... Calm down will you? It's no one dangerous! The halls might be empty, and it's definitely some student doing the same thing as I am right now.

As I stood there, giving a pep talk to my uncontrollable heart, the sound of locker closing and footsteps leaving the scene broke my thoughts. I breathe in, slowly closing my own locker, clutching my bag closely and looking around.

No one.

Did I imagine things again?

About to leave, I make a few steps but in the process stumble over something on the ground. 

Looking down, I pick up a small black notebook that was left behind on the polished floor.