Nao Summers hates drama, but life becomes full of it when he's paired with the school delinquent on a film project. He's also in dire need of a way to break up with his girlfriend who wants to have lots of sex, while Nao would prefer to die. To crow...
Thursday arrived far too quickly for my liking, and it was twenty past noon when I found myself side by side with Axel, staring down one of his classmates.
The specials department was on the first floor and consisted of four large classrooms and an impressive lab. Axel's classroom was much like the other classes': filled to the brim with bookcases, comfortable chairs, and an alarming pile of practice exams. The latter sat on the teacher's desk, an imposing collection of brain-hurting sheets. Several had been collected by Axel's classmates and were being pored over as we spoke. It was a light room with big, curtainless windows, and seemed rather cold and impersonal to me.
"I know I promised, but my workload has doubled since last week," Axel's classmate was saying. He was a tall, lanky kind of guy, with dimpled cheeks and an unfortunate hairline. He had a halo of pimples along his forehead, and an unpleasant tilt to his thin lips. "I really can't afford any distractions right now," he said.
"And we can't afford any delays," Axel replied.
He stood next to me looking taller than ever, but with a different air to his attitude. I stole a glance at him while he quarreled with his classmate. Pinpointing exactly what had changed was a challenge because much of his appearance was so familiar to me now. That tall, straight back of his, the little crows feet near his eyes when he smiled — though he wasn't doing much of that now — and the way his black hair fell into his brown eyes. What had changed...?
"Fine," the classmate said, at last, releasing an exasperated sigh. "I'll spare you twenty minutes, Montgomery, but only because I feel bad for you." He got up, dusted off his vest — who wore a vest to school? — and stepped out into the hallway, acting very much like he was making a tremendous sacrifice.
"We'd better get going." Axel turned toward me, face falling into a frown. "When Peter says twenty minutes, he really means fifteen."
"Alright, let's do it."
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The next hours consisted of filming, but most of all making appeals to Axel's reluctant classmates. These people had been preparing for their exams since September, but still couldn't tear themselves away from their tasks to help us out. I was beginning to think they were doing it on purpose.
Peter had given us fourteen minutes, and not a second more. While Axel tried to convince his fellow students to be interviewed, I'd occupied myself with shooting the whole class from the blackboard. Some panning, overhead shots would be needed regardless of who we interviewed, and seeing as the specials class really didn't do anything special most of the time, this was as good as it got. If these people represented our future doctors and lawyers, why the heck were they so boring?
Axel finally managed to snag one of the girls, a tall girl with dark hair and skin. She'd won an award last year for her science project and was a bit of a big-shot in the specials leagues. She considered me with her golden eyes.
