A Murder Of Crows [boyxboy]

A Murder Of Crows {5}

                I walked towards class the next day, the sky gray again. Rain all week, apparently.

                "Jpeg!"

                God, no, maybe if I just ignored her and kept walking, I wouldn't have to deal with this shit so early in the morning.

                But of course, Val caught up to me, a smile on her face. A boy walked next to her, and he had on the Crows pin. What an amazing morning, truly made me want to have a tasty bowl of Cheerios and bleach.

                "What?" I said.

                "This is Cole," Val introduced. "Cole, this is Cor."

                "Hi," Cole said.

                "Yea, hey. What do you want?" I asked Val.

                "To introduce you guys, duh. That's why I just walked up to you and introduced you," Val said.

                "Okay? That was pointless, but thanks for the waste of time," I said.

                Val elbowed me. "Friends are good to have, Cor."

                "I know. But this was still a waste of time," I said.

                Look, I got it. Friendship and relationships were important. I wasn't edgy like Kieran, who probably said things like social interaction scared him. But I didn't want anything to do with the people I was stuck with, and I certainly didn't need to grow that circle of trouble with even more kids involved with all this stuff.

                "He's a little grumpy," Val told Cole.

                "He's also standing right here and can hear you," I reminded.

                "Yea, I know," Val said. "So anyways, Cole, Cor is a little hard to warmup to at first, but he'll come around."

                "Or he'll walk away," I said, speeding my pace.

                "See you at lunch!" Val called after me.

                I entered the building and went towards my first class. Kieran and Mia were talking in the hallway, so I went up to them. If I went into the room too early, I was worried Jamison would be in there and try to talk to me.

                "Val is taking on her role a little too well," I said as I joined them.

                "She's good with people," Mia said. "I'm not sure how you're going to pull this off, though."

                "Thanks for the confidence," I said.

                "Cor."

                As soon as we heard Jamison's voice, I could feel the tension in the air. Mia gave a cold look in Jamison's direction, and Kieran's face took on that terrifyingly blank expression he got when he was going to do the Doctor's work.

                I faced Jamison and he held the textbook out to me. He was a little stiffer than before, well aware of the tension swallowing us.

                "Thanks for letting me use it." He forced a smile, as natural as he could manage it.

                I held up my hand. "Keep it. I don't want to carry it around all day. I'll take it back at the end of the day."

                Jamison's smile turned rueful. "Damn, I was hoping I wouldn't have to keep it all day."

                "Your hopes are dashed," I said, and nodded towards the classroom. "Just drop it on my desk during our last class."