Seven (Completed)

CHAPTER 1 ~ Alex is gone.

 CHAPTER 1

Alex is gone.

The light grey walls of the room were only lit by the white, blinding spotlights on the ceiling. The classroom had no sign of colour; everything was black, white and grey and the only vibrant colours that stood out were those of the stationary and the students' hair, skin and eyes.

A short, grey-haired teacher started hovering over the children's open notebooks. Her brown, wrinkly skin resembled that of a paper bag, crumbled and thrown in the middle of the street. She approached the next desk slowly yet with heavy steps and stopped in front of a blonde girl whose eyes were hidden away from the teacher's sight.

'Anne, this is your second time to come unprepared in the classroom. As a punishment for this, I will request for you to be locked in your room-'she didn't manage to finish her sentence.

'Cell,' Carlos, a boy sitting on the desk to her right, whispered in a tone of sarcasm and Anne raised her head up again, just to look at him.

'Shut your mouth or perhaps you will be next!' she shouted hitting his desk and all the students could make out the veins popping on her forehead. She did not appear kind earlier but, at the moment, every hint of vulnerability had given its place to the hardened characteristics of her bony face. Everybody was holding their breaths. 'I'm fed up with you!'

Carlos was looking directly at her without breaking eye contact. A vein popped at the point where his left eyebrow ended. He was determined to win this battle. He did not respond. Anne's gaze fell upon his face. Carlos looked back at her, expecting to be rewarded with a smile or some other gesture of gratitude but what he received was a vacant stare instead. At that moment the bell rang; it was time for the break.

He lingered in front of his seat for a while after the bell had rung. He was not sure he would make it out of the classroom without a punishment, some scolding to say the least. But the teacher did not give another look at him so he was more than pleased to exit the cold room.

Anne was waiting outside for him, her round eyes ready to explode.

 'Are you crazy? You could have betrayed the whole pack! That's what you always do!' she shrieked, refusing to understand the struggle Carlos went through every single day.

'The "pack"... What do they think we are? Some kind of animals? Cause they sure treat us like we are,' he continued furiously as the two friends started walking along the corridor.

'It's true, Alex escaped,' Edith, "the snitch", had just passed in front of them, whispered those words and vanished with the same hurry that she had appeared.  It took the other two a minute to understand what had just happened.

'What was that all about?'Carlos asked in confusion.

'So ... he did it,' Anne whispered to herself.

'What? Wait, you knew about this?' he demanded to know.

'Yes, well, um ... Alex told me. He-he wanted someone to know in case-' Anne stopped. That was all she was ready to share. That was all Carlos should know. Alex had left and that was it.

'Anne, what's going on?'

'Alex, he's gone,' she answered and only then lifted her eyes off the floor. 'He left.'

'But how-' Seeing a classmate approach them, Carlos dropped his voice. 'Here comes the "chatterbox!"' he said as another blond girl joined them.

'Oh, Anne. I knew I'd find you here!' the girl said, choosing to completely disregard Carlos' presence.