"Miss Martin, you're doing it again."

Kyla nearly fell off her seat. Her senses snapped back to reality, and she hurriedly glanced at the board. It was full of- what even was all that? Hadn't they been learning about basic calculus just some time ago? This was— she didn't even know what it was. 

"Sorry, what?" Kyla managed to speak past her embarrassment. She tried standing up but ended up dropping her own and hitting her knee on the underside of the desk.

"Can you tell me about what we are discussing?" Mrs. Jenkins kept opening and closing her marker's cap, a gesture of irritation. 

"I-" Kyla swallowed. Her knee throbbed. She desperately looked down at her notes, only to find half the page full, "I don't know…"

"Can you tell me about derivatives?" Mrs. Jenkins raised her eyebrows, and began slowly walking the width of the classroom. Some others were visibly afraid. 

"I- I don't think I….can," Kyla lowered her head and braced herself. 

"You haven't turned in the last six worksheets," Mrs. Jenkins said, her voice clipped and precise, "Scored lower than average on the last two tests, and have failed to answer the simplest of questions."

Kyla tried not to let the words sting. But they did, so anyways. 

"I want you to be the first person to hand in the entire exercise tomorrow," Mrs. Jenkins said decidedly, and Kyla internally groaned, "Try to solve the questions yourself instead of asking for help."

Heat crept up Kyla's neck, and she wrung her hands, "Okay."

Kyla was relieved when Mrs. Jenkins finally removed her hard stare back to the board. 

Beside her, Maisie made a sympathetic face, then slid her notebook towards Kyla.

Truth be told, Kyla would never have survived math classes without Maisie. Even after spending more than half her time at the skate park and often sporting scratched knees and palms, Maisie somehow managed to score top of the class marks in every math test. The teachers all disapproved of her many piercings and her purple-dyed hair, but they let it all pass just because she was good at academics.

Kyla copied down whatever she had missed. She was already dreading the evening, when she would have to solve an entire bloody exercise of calculus, which was infuriating enough in itself. 

Kyla struggled to keep her mind focused on the numbers and letters and all the other rubbish. 

But ever since the past year, her control on her mind had slipped. In fact, it was so bad that she often found herself standing somewhere with no idea of how she had gotten there. Her parents were almost the same, but they could put it off to work stress.

Kyla had no excuse other than "school is pressurising" and that wasn't received well by anyone except her friends, who knew it to be true. 

Her parents had suggestested meditation. 

Kyla had ignored the advice. 

The thing was, Kyla didn't know what was wrong. She had been completely fine. She had not suffered any major accidents, or any traumatic events, or any incidents of heartbreak (poor Sharon had been coming to school with bleary eyes for the past week because she had been dumped. Kyla was glad to say she wasn't that far gone) so that left her with no suitable reason as to why she was experiencing such a thing. 

The only thing she did know was that she had weird flashes of what she assumed (and hoped) were dreams. She could never make out details, but she knew they involved someone who she decidedly did not know. 

Shay had suggested she had psychic powers. 

That possibility had been quickly ruled out. 

When the bell rang quarter of an hour later, Kyla was one of the first to leave. The swell of voices slowly increased as people emerged out of their classrooms and headed to the cafeteria for lunch. Kyla went with the crowd, swerving people when they got too close and only lifting her chin in acknowledgement when anyone waved.

"Hey, Martin."

Kyla's mouth turned up without her consent, "Heathers."

"Don't call me Heathers," Shay grumbled, sticking out a leg to trip her.

She jumped over it and smirked back at him, "Don't call me Martin."

"Why? I like Martin from Parent Trap," Shay claimed, "He's a nice person."

"But I'm not him," Kyla said, stuffing her hands into her pockets, "So don't call me that unless you want me to call you Heathers for the rest of your life."

Shay pulled a face and slung his arm over her shoulder, "I heard what happened, Drew told me-"

"Bitch."

"-Kylo, 'bitch' can't be an insult. Anyways, as I was saying, Drew told me. But you know how Jenkins is. Leave her be."

"I have to complete nearly a hundred sums by tomorrow," Kyla groaned.

They turned the corner and walked through the cafeteria doors. It was already crowded.

It wasn’t exactly a cafeteria, more like what would result from combining a gym and an auditorium, but with tables for eight arranged in it. The whole place reeked of months-old oil and leftover kipper, and the lemongrass air freshener did little to help with that. 

"Shay, over here!"

With his “friendly jock” status and admittedly attractive looks, Shay was often heralded by various people asking for help with imaginary homework, or extra soccer practice. Kyla had heard many girls often gushing over his messy hair. Personally, she was of the opinion that his messy hair should be trimmed. 

This time the heralder was Elena, waving frantically and patting the empty place beside her.

Shay laughed, "Thanks, Elena, but I'm taken."

"What do you mean, taken?" Elena screeched, "You're dating Martin?" 

Martin Wilson, a boy known for his inclination toward literature, perked up, "I'm dating who?" 

Kyla waved him off, "Nothing."

"Martin is beautiful, but no, I'm not dating him," Shay said, and began walking to the table where Jack, Maisie and Dana were. Martin Wilson, who was blushing furiously, hurriedly left the cafeteria. 

"That was horrid of you," Dana said, laughing as she did, "Wilson has had a crush on you since grade school."

Dana Walker was one of Kyla’s oldest friends. Known for her efficiency with social media and biology, nearly every guy and a few girls had tried to ask her out. Kyla didn’t blame them. Dana was seriously pretty with her perfect chestnut hair and just her overall aura that suggested that she knew all that others thought of her, but wasn’t exactly proud of it. Another thing Dana was good at was somehow knowing how to comfort everyone.
Kyla could also safely say that Dana was far ahead of what biology they were being taught at school.

"I thought that was a rumour," Shay chuckled. He passed Kyla a tray of food, and Kyla sat down next to Maisie. 

"Need help with calc?" Maisie asked, dumping all her leafy vegetables onto Kyla's plate. 

"I'll manage," Kyla said, looking distastefully at the load of lettuce and celery. 

"Jack, you're frowning again," Maisie said, lifting her chin by a fraction. Her dark, purple-streaked curls swayed and her eyes twinkled mischievously. 

Jack scowled, "Mind your own-"

"Oh come on, don't be mean," Dana said good naturedly, scooping up some yogurt on her spoon, "Eat your food."

Kyla looked a little disapprovingly at Jack’s annoyed expression. Jack was the human embodiment of emotions such as annoyance, irritability, impatience and anything else that fell under the same category. His most used words were “fuck off” and “mind your own business” and “no”. So, not very optimistic, but bearable. He hadn’t always been this way.

Shay picked up Kyla's cheese slice, "I know you won't need this."

"Thanks," Kyla said with a nod. 

They began eating, talking about how annoying Elena was, about their impending PE session that was bound to end in someone spraining an ankle, and about all other mundane things. 

Kyla was listening to Shay talking about some soccer match of his, trying her hardest to be interested in how exactly the goalie had moved at the very last moment to stop the ball from entering the goalpost, when she felt something. 

Her head grew heavy, and her vision darkened. The heaviness persisted for a few seconds. Then, with a sharp stab of pain and a flash, it was gone. 

Kyla blinked, and looked around. Everyone was still talking, nothing seemed out of sorts. But she did notice some people blinking rapidly, and Jack looking over his shoulder, and Dana discreetly rubbing her forehead. 

Through the blur of voices, someone screamed. 

Kyla turned so fast her neck cricked. 

Elena was standing, terrified, looking at an empty space beside her. 

"What is it?" Carla, one of her friends, was the first to speak. 

Elena looked around disbelievingly at everyone, "Alex, he was- he was just here-"

Kyla furrowed her brows, "Who's Alex?" 

Elena looked at Kyla in a way which made Kyla wonder if she had sprouted an extra head. 

"Alex Trint!" Elena screeched, pointing again to the unoccupied space beside her, "Alex Trint, the- Alex!"

It was clear that Elena was distraught. But everyone else only looked suspicious. Kyla herself was thinking about how much of a drama queen Elena was. 

"What's wrong with all of you?" Elena stumbled out of her place, "Alex was right here, he was right there, next to me, and then he- he-"

Elena struggled with explaining whatever was going on in her mind. Kyla was beginning to panic. There was no Alex in their school. 

Eventually, Elena calmed down. She left the cafeteria sobbing quietly while Carla patted her shoulders. 

"What was that all about?" Maisie muttered, soaking into her fork.

Dana looked as worried as Kyla was feeling. 

"Attention seeking little-" Jack was muttering to himself, and he stuffed some of his cold spaghetti into his mouth to shut himself up. 

"She wasn't lying," Dana said, "Couldn't you tell that she was really worried?" 

"About someone who doesn't even exist," Jack shot back, "Look at you, being all righteous and kind even when someone is being a pathetic attention seeker."

Dana ignored his jibe. She always ignored him when he spoke this way. It was a quality Kyla had always admired, being devoid of it herself. Not that she herself was argumentative or anything. She would either deploy the extreme cold shoulder, or shoot back with a retort. There was no in between.

Dana and Jack had begun bickering. Dana trying her hardest to be polite, and Jack beginning to use warm language. Maisie ate with her eyebrows raised, occasionally glancing at Dana. 

"Do you think she wasn't just being dramatic?"

Kyla started when Shay spoke to her.

He noticed and kept his eyes fixed on her, "You okay?"

"Yes, of course I’m okay, why wouldn’t I be?" Kyla said, forcing a nonchalant expression on her face. 

"You didn't answer my question."

Kyla took a moment to think about it, "I'm not sure."

Shay nodded thoughtfully, "Me neither."

"You don't remember all those orphans from Sixth Street?" Dana was saying, "Or that poor family behind the grocery store, their daughter-"

"They went missing," Jack said, forcefully enunciating his words, "They probably got lost in the woods or something-"

"They would have been found, then," Maisie said slowly, "But they weren't."

"So they disappeared, so what?" Jack accidentally slammed his fork down too hard, and it snapped in half. 

"How would you feel if you had a child and they just disappeared?" Dana's cheeks began gaining a deep flush, a telltale sign of her anger that simmered just below the surface.

"I don't have kids," Jack snapped, "So I don't care."

"You would if it would have been-"

"Oh, please, you really think I'd care — that my dear father would care— if anything happened to me? How naïve are you?"

"Naïve enough to feel bad for people who have lost their children," Dana said, forcefully turning away from Jack. She vigorously resumed eating. 

"You do know that other people care about you, right?" Shay questioned, calmly holding Jack's gaze which was burning with hatred. 

"Still don't care," Jack said without a hint of compassion for himself, "Just because you've got a great life doesn't mean everyone does."

Kyla paused in the action of lifting a forkful of celery to her mouth. A glance at Shay told her that he had been affected, if the tightness around his smile was anything to go by. 

Shay said nothing to contradict Jack. Dana and Maisie had started talking about something that happened in bio class in an attempt to steer conversation to safer waters. 

"You okay?" Kyla asked when they had gone to dump their trays, keeping her voice low so that no one else would hear. 

"Fine."

She didn't press him further, and placed her tray atop the stack. Shay placed his above hers and they walked back to the table.

"Are you both free this Saturday?" Dana seemed to be in the middle of planning something. 

"Yeah, why?" Kyla peered into the notebook, then hastily said, "Shit, right. Your birthday. Sorry, it...slipped my mind."

"That's okay," Dana shrugged the apology off, "So, you coming or not?" 

"Of course I am," Kyla shot Jack a glare when he rolled his eyes. 

"I'm not," Jack said grumpily, "I have my extra math classes."

"Since when do you take math classes?" Maisie intoned carefully.

"This year," Jack said, avoiding Maisie's eye. 

Elena who had returned a while ago looking okay, was quietly sobbing again. Some people began looking at her condescendingly. 

"Poor Elena, I wonder what happened to her," Shay mumbled, rubbing his eyes. He stifled a yawn.

“Falling asleep already, Heathers?”

Kyla threw the coldest look she could at Jonathan Corbyn, the soccer team captain and their school’s sports representative. He was taller than Kyla by nearly half a foot, and had dark skin and teeth white enough to blind people whenever he decided to flash them his stupid annoying smile.
He was a bully and a jerk.

“Not sleepy,” Shay answered calmly, brushing some hair off his forehead, “How about you? Prepared to order us around?”

Jonathan sniffed disapprovingly, “Keep up the attitude and I’ll be telling Coach to take you off the school team. Back to the Junior Team for you.”

“At least they have a better captain, Captain,” Shay said tartly.

Jonathan said nothing more. He sniffed once more, blew Maisie a kiss to which she reacted by flipping him off, and left.