The Emo Girl

Best Essay in class

"I've checked your essays and they were very disappointing," said Miss Smith, shaking her head. "But there was one essay that stood out, though. And that one essay is actually really good."
The whole class started murmuring about who's essay it was gonna be. Well, definitely not mine and Ash's. I can already tell that my part of the essay is really bad.
"The best essay in the lot is the one by Penelope and Ash," said Miss Smith to my surprise. "Their essay was really good. Good elaboration, good points, very few grammatical errors."
Wait what? Our essay was the best of the lot? How?
"Penelope and Ash?" called Miss Smith. "Come here and get your essay. James, please pass the rest of the essays to your classmates."
Ash and I went to get the essay. It was a short story and I decided to take it because I wanted to type it out online when I went home. Ash said nothing and let me have the essay. She went back to her place and continued to look at something on her phone. We weren't allowed to use our phones in class, but this girl somehow got away with it because the teachers don't even bother to look at her. I kinda feel bad for her, because some people even considers her invisible.
I went back to my place next to Lea and put the essay away in my file. Just then, my phone vibrated in my pocket. The teacher was busy finding some notes in her bag so I decided to check what it was. I saw my lock screen had a new notification from the writing app. My loyal reader had just finished reading my latest chapter and voted it. They also left a bunch of comments on the story. I'll read those later, during break.
The teacher turned to the class and was telling something about a new essay. I quickly put away my phone and paid attention to what she was saying.
"I want all of you to get into pairs again," said the teacher. "I'll give you a sentence and you have to continue with a story. Quick, get into your pairs."
So of course, I went to sit with Ash because she's the only one besides me that doesn't have a partner. She was still wearing her earphones but took out one of it and left it hanging so that she could hear what the teacher was saying and at the same time listen to her music. The teacher wrote the first sentence of the essay on the white board and then turned to us.
"I want your essay to start with this," said Miss Smith, pointing at the whiteboard. "If you don't write this, I'll give you a huge duck egg."
The class started laughing. Miss Smith can be pretty funny at times. Everyone was laughing besides our emo friend. But then again, even if she was laughing, I couldn't tell because of that mask. Maybe she laughed silently? I don't really know.
From her hanging earphone, I could hear that she was listening to some music. I didn't pay much attention to it because this girl does that in class all day. But the music sounded familiar. I listened closely, and found that it was Each Promise from the game KOF XIII. Wait what? This girl played KOF? This is the first time I've seen anyone besides myself that plays KOF.
I nudged her and she turned to me, her icy blue eyes staring at me. I was taken aback, but decided to ask her anyway.
"You play KOF?" I asked her and she looked surprised. "Sorry I asked, I just recognised the music you were hearing as the theme of the Elisabeth team."
She just continued staring at me with a surprised look in her icy blue eyes. She looked pretty scary, and I just sat there, staring back at her.
"Yes I do," she finally said, to my relief. "You're basically the only one I know besides myself who plays this game."
Same here, Ash.
"Yeah I feel the same way too," I said. "I never knew anyone who played that game besides you."
Just then, the song was over and it changed to something else. This time, I realised that it was Metallic Experience from Tekken 7. Wait, she plays Tekken too? This is my dream come true! Literally no one I know plays Tekken...
"You play Tekken too?" I asked her and she looked surprised again.
"How did you know?" she asked me, and I picked up the earphone that was hanging down her chair and showed it to her. "Metallic Experience."
"You know that song too?" she asked me, with a mixture of shock and surprise. "I can't believe it!"
"I know right," I said. "What else do you play?"
"I think we should start the essay first," she said, ending the topic. "The faster we get started, the better."
I nodded and took out a few sheets of foolscap paper from my folder and laid it on the desk. I started writing while Ash started putting away her earphones and MP3 player into a little pouch. She put the pouch inside her pocket and turned to me while giving some ideas for the essay.
Soon, we finished the essay and handed it in to the teacher after writing our names. She took it and smiled at us.
"I'm expecting another excellent essay from the two of you," said Miss Smith. "Your essay yesterday was excellent and I'm expecting this to be the same too."
We nodded and went back to our place. Ash started to take out her MP3 player again and started listening to her music. The music sounded a lot like Heat Haze Shadow from Tekken 7, but I'm not surprised. I think I wanna have a chat with her during break. If I'm not mistaken this girl eats alone in a corner of the cafeteria. I usually just eat with Lea, Janet and Kate. They're not really my friends, but at least they let me sit with them during recess, right?
So when break time finally came, I took my lunchbag and went to look for Ash. Just as I expected, she was sitting alone in a corner of the cafeteria. She was still wearing her face mask. Wait what? How can she eat with that thing on?
I put my lunch bag on the table in front of her while smiling at her.
"Hi Ash," I said, sitting down in front of her. "Aren't you eating?"
"Does it look like I'm eating?" she asked, pointing to her mask. "You expect me to absorb the food through the mask?"
"Oops my bad," I said. "What are you gonna eat?"
She pointed to the plate with a few hash browns on it in front of her and I nodded.
"Whoa I never knew they sold hash browns here," I said. "Wow..."
"How come you never knew?" she asked. "You've been in this school for like three years, and you don't know?"
"I never bought anything from the cafeteria," I said. "I usually bring a few sandwiches from home."
"I see," said Ash, nodding. "Why are you here anyway?"
"I don't know," I said. "I just wanted to have my break with you."
"Hmm whatever," she said, still not taking off her mask. "I can clearly see that you wanna talk to me."
I nodded while opening my lunchbox and started taking out one of my sandwiches.