Chapter Two
Chapter Two: Meeting The Devil Incarnate
Sophia Crawford
I was focusing on the mathematical posters on the Math class’s walls when the bell for the very first period of today started to ring. The noise echoed throughout the halls, making the walls shiver and my ears ring, but it didn’t take too long for the ringing to stop which I was grateful for. I don’t want to have a full on mental breakdown in front of everyone, including Mr Yuri.
Seeing the crowds of people in the hallway scrambling to get to their first class of today, I was relieved to have been seated already. It’s a stampede out there with the many students trying to rush into Mr Yuri’s class, and the others were trying to find their seats before someone snatches it from them.
I can just imagine the trouble I would’ve endured if I didn’t come to class early enough like I did—I would have been stepped on like I was some piece of candy wrapper lying on a sidewalk.
The students scurried to their seats like they were ants in a colony.
Mr Yuri only shook his head, looking at the chaos outside and in his classroom.
A girl with curly golden brown hair stumbles into the class. She nearly dropped the books she had propped beneath her arm, but luckily she managed to not drop anything in the process. She survived the chaos, barely.
I chuckle to myself when she wiped her eyebrow with the back of her hand dramatically and blowing out a breath through her warmed and pink cheeks.
As the last of the students made their way to their seats, I open my book and stare at the Math problems Mr Yuri started to write on the whiteboard in front of him with a black marker.
Mr Yuri looked like your typical math teacher—black hair, glasses, a long-sleeved shirt with a red dotted tie, and a black pair of tailored trousers. He was young, and by the looks of the ring on his finger, he was married too.
Not that I cared, though.
It was interesting to know that Mr Yuri had a life outside of this classroom, and every single student inside this classroom had a life of their own, too.
The chair beside me scrapes against the ground and the same girl who stumbled into the classroom not long ago plops into the seat, throwing her books down onto the table in front of her, causing a loud thump.
She sighs heavily. “I can’t believe I survived that stampede,” another breath explodes from her mouth, “it’s always a damn stampede on a Monday.” She shakes her head and tucks a beautiful curl behind her pierced ear.
“Luckily I was seated before the bell rang. I don’t think I would have survived it.” I chuckle nervously, letting my hair fall to my face to hide the scar across my cheek so she won’t notice it.
I don’t want the only girl who has went out of her way to talk to me to run away from me or to laugh like everyone else did in the parking lot and in the hallway. I don’t think I would’ve taken it very well if she did.
I came here with a small fraction of confidence my grandmother managed to give me but that guy with dirty blond hair ruined that in an eye wink, but now, this kind girl with a very gentle smile made me feel slightly better.
“I don’t really do very well with crowds.”
The girl chuckles lightly. “You must be the new girl.” She extends her hand out toward me, to shake my hand. “I’m Kiana, but my friends call me Ana. And by friends, I mean my boyfriend. He calls me Ana.” She laughs.
I take her hand and shake it.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that I felt comfortable around Ana already. She just has this friendly vibe to her and she has one of the kindest smiles in the entire world too—a smile that made me feel welcome and at ease, especially after the morning I had.
It was definitely a change seeing that I’ve spent my entire morning trying to avoid every single person in sight, but failed miserably, but she sure as hell knew how to make someone feel at ease and comfortable on the first day.
“I’m Sophia,” I greet her, returning the smile.
“That’s such a beautiful name,” she says, letting my hand go after we shook hands, “I always loved the name Sophia. It’s so pretty.”
My cheeks warm at her kindness. “Thank you, Ana.”
Ana then sighs, looking at the Math problems Mr Yuri was writing on the whiteboard and then turns back toward me. “I really hope you would like it here, Sophia. It’s not every day we get someone new around here. The office lady probably gave you a hug when she saw you. She’s nice like that.”
“No, but the hug was pretty close.” I lift my shoulders in a half-shrug and chuckle. “The front desk was the only thing that separated us. It prevented her from coming at me with open arms.”
“I would take her hug any day. She’s so kind, but her nephew, on the other hand? He’s the real devil incarnate. He makes you want to leave this school faster than you arrived.” Ana shudders and I frown at her.
“That’s not quite right…” I shake my head slowly. “The lady in the office said that her nephew would be more than happy to show me around the school if I ever got lost.”
Ana shakes her head, her curly brown hair falling to her face in the process. “I think you have a better chance getting shown around by the actual devil himself because her nephew—” Ana shudders again, “—is a real asshole.”
Before I could ask her more about the office lady’s nephew, Mr Yuri claps his hands together to catch our attention. “Okay class,” Mr Yuri starts and the two of us turn in our seats to look at him, “today we’ll be doing some easy equations so please take out your pens and notebooks so we can begin—” Mr Yuri gets rudely interrupted when the door to his classroom flies open and the rude blond haired guy from this morning came strolling into the classroom.
He clicks the door shut behind him and walks past Mr Yuri without even stopping to apologize for being late to his class. He saunters to the only empty seat at the back of the classroom and plops down into his seat lazily. He didn’t even bother to take anything out from his bag. Not a pen. Not a notebook. Absolutely nothing.
Ana scowls at him and for a second I didn’t even blame her for it. He seems rude and definitely arrogant. It made me wonder if she had suffered by the hands of his rudeness like I did this morning. “Why are you scowling at him?” I wanted to know why she hated him. I mean, I had a perfect reason to hate him, but a sweet girl like Ana? I wonder what he did to piss her off.
She leans into me and whispers, “that’s the office lady’s nephew,” she explains to me, “and he’s not so nice like she puts him up to be. You are lucky he didn’t show you around. I think he would’ve ditched you in the first minute. No, second.”
My eyes widen on the spot.
The office lady wanted him to show me around? The guy who offended me this morning? I am so relieved and thankful that I found my own way around the school grounds without his help or anyone else’s.
I would’ve been better off.
“Do you know him?” She asks when she noticed the nasty scowl on my face.
I nod, glancing at the rude blond haired boy over my shoulder before I turn back in my seat. “I was unfortunate enough to have been the one to literally run into him this morning. He was a real ass to me. I can see now why you call him the devil incarnate. He is so damn rude.”
I look over my shoulder again only to see that he was already looking at me.
I turn my head so fast, I actually bumped my notebook and pen to the ground with the fast movement. My thick notebook clatters to the ground, causing a loud thumping noise to echo throughout the entire classroom.
I feel my cheeks heat up.
This was something I wanted to avoid—people looking at me like I was a freak—but here I was, slamming my name with mud by embarrassing myself.
I wanted to bend down in my seat to pick my stuff up from the ground, but Ana beats me to it first. She bends down in her seat and picks my notebook and pen up from the ground for me, and she dusts my notebook off first and places it back in front of me and onto my table.
I thank her under my breath.
I couldn’t have been more grateful, to be honest, because I know if I had to pick up notebook and pen up from the ground, I would have fallen out of my chair, and I would have embarrassed myself more than I already did.
“Okay, now that everyone has arrived and is seated, can we begin today’s lesson please?” Mr Yuri asks, eyeing the office lady’s nephew at the back of the class before he turns to look at the whiteboard with multiple equations written on it.
Math went really well under the circumstances—me making a fool out of myself for being caught looking at the office lady’s rude nephew and bumping my things off my table—and as the period neared its end, I suddenly felt this wave of sadness washing over me.
It wrapped around me like a blanket.
I truly missed Daniel in times like these.
We’d be in class together, rolling pieces of paper in small balls before throwing them at the students’ heads sitting in front of us just to annoy them. I can actually picture Daniel’s sly smile before throwing the tiny paper ball at someone’s head. I can picture him running his fingers through his hair, and I can picture his gorgeous smile.
I can still feel him—even though a year has passed—squeezing my thigh every morning when he drove us to school. I can still feel his warm breath fanning the back of my neck when he would hug me from behind.
I don’t think I could ever forget the way his hand felt in mine, or the way his delicate lips felt against my forehead, or the way his laugh sounded.
I don’t think I want to forget, either.
The simple thought that he won’t even be able to finish his last year of high school made my heart squeeze inside my chest. Daniel would never be able to laugh at my shitty jokes or make one of his own again.
He’s gone, forever.
The ring he used to propose to me with was hanging around my neck on a thin chain and the more I thought about him and what happened, the more it felt like the chain was starting to choke me. But even though it hurt me inside to have the ring on me sometimes because of the bad memory it held, it also made me feel a sense of relief—that he was always with me somehow, even in death.
I sniffle lightly, careful not to let anyone hear.
I pull the beautiful ring out from under my shirt and give it a squeeze.
“Sophia Crawford,” he starts and my heart started to hammer wildly inside my ribcage, “would you make me the happiest guy by marrying me someday?”
My chin trembles and I swallow hard when I look down at the ring in my hand.
“Is everything all right?” Ana asks.
I quickly shove the ring back under my shirt and turn my head to look at her. “I’m fine,” I smile softly at her, “I’m just a little nervous about my next class.”
I can’t risk telling her the truth. If she knew the reason behind the scar on my cheek, she would most likely flee. No one wants to befriend a girl who caused the accident wherein her boyfriend died. No one wants to befriend a murderer.
“What class do you have next?” She asks, briefly looking at Mr Yuri before she looks at me again. I don’t think she wants to be caught talking to me when we’re supposed to work on the equations he has written on the whiteboard.
“I think I have Biology next,” I jut out my chin, fishing my subject list from my bag and scanning the page to see where my next class is, and sure enough, it was Biology with Mr Ryan. “With Mr Ryan.” I tell her, handing her the sheet.
Ana releases a harsh breath as she scans the page with widened eyes.
Is it because she has Biology with me next? Is that why she seems so horrified?
I shake the invasive thoughts from my mind and decide to ask instead of assuming the worst. “Is something wrong? Why do you look so horrified?”
She hands me back my subject list and sighs, heavily. “You have Biology with him.” She says, jerking her chin to the rude boy sitting at the back of the class.
He didn’t notice our stares like he did earlier. He was too busy scribbling something in his notebook to even care about anything in his surroundings.
“You’re kidding, right?” I give her a horrified look, matching her own.
“I wish I was,” Ana says, “but unfortunately he has Biology second period with Mr Ryan too.”
I blow a sharp breath through my cheeks. “This is just great,” I mutter, “The universe is playing some kind of sick joke on me. I don’t have one, but two classes with the devil incarnate now.”
I hope it’s only two. I think to myself.
I don’t think I would survive if there were more subjects with him.
“Sorry, Sophia.” Ana apologizes. “I wish I could’ve helped you with that one, but I’m afraid my hands are tied.”
I lift my shoulders in a shrug. “It’s okay. I’ll just avoid him as best I can then.”
The bell rings, signalling the end of the period.
I start to pack my things up before propping them into my bag.
I leave the classroom with Ana by my side.
With all the students around me, I felt someone’s eyes on me as I walked. It could have been anyone—the students standing close to their lockers or people passing us in the hallways—but when I looked over my shoulder to know for sure who it was, it was the devil incarnate who had his eyes on me.
That explained why the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and why my heartbeat started to palpitate heavily inside my chest.
He had his hoody over his head just like earlier, covering most of his hair and face, and his hands were propped deeply into the pockets of his pair of jeans.
I turn my head around, not wanting to look at him longer than necessary.
Ana hooks her arm through mine. “You’ll be okay.” She says as we pass walls of old and dented lockers. “He is an asshole,” she jerks her chin over her shoulder in the direction of the devil incarnate, “but if you avoid and ignore him, he won’t try and talk to you. So my only advice to you is to avoid him.”
I nod.
That is exactly what I’m going to do: avoid the devil incarnate at all costs.
Ana and I managed to make it back to the first floor where Mr Ryan’s Biology class was located.
Ana lets go of my arm, but she gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “Meet me by locker a45 at lunch time.” She says, flashing me a dimpled smile. “You’re going to be okay.”
“I hope so.” I tell her and watch her walk away with her books tucked in her arm and her bag over her shoulder.
As I stared at her retreating back, I already felt myself become vulnerable without her by my side, but I guess I had to pull up my big girl panties. If I don’t, I won’t be able to get through the day in one piece and it would be my fault for not sticking up for myself.
I need to stop worrying about what people think about me and I need to start focusing on myself and making my grandmother proud. If I had to endure some rude gossip and stares, then so be it. I would endure it, then.
I chant the words ‘in and out’ inside my mind a couple of times, take in a deep breath, and enter Mr Ryan’s class. I was surprised to see that there was no one inside, except for Mr Ryan.
Other than him, his class was empty.
It made me wonder if I was at the right class and that Ana set me up, but Mr Ryan smiled when he noticed me standing by the doorway and he beckoned me inside. I knew I was at the right class and that my thoughts were just being unnecessary.
“You must be Miss Crawford.” Mr Ryan says, plucking a piece of lint from his sleeve.
I nod and start to fidget with my bag’s strap. I am not ready to have my second class with the devil incarnate, but I would use Ana’s advice and stay far away from him and avoid him at all costs. “That’s right, yes.”
Mr Ryan smiles politely and runs his fingers through his dark hair. “I’m afraid you’d have to stand there for a little while until everyone has made their way inside. My class has a strict seating plan. It’s easy to control the class that way, and now that you’re new, we have to fit you in somewhere.”
An uneasy chuckle escapes my lips. I swear if I’m going to sit next to the devil incarnate himself, I will jump out of the window and into the thorny rose bushes outside just to get away from him. No, I will actually die.
“Is everything okay, Miss Crawford?” Mr Ryan asks, looking at me with concern etched onto his sculpted face. “You seem a little… pale.”
I dismiss him with the wave of my hand and start to tug and twist my hoody sleeve between my fingers nervously. “I’m fine.” I manage a fake smile. “Just excited.” I lie.
Mr Ryan nods right when the first of the students started to enter his class.
Just like me, the students were standing at the front of the classroom, waiting for the rest of the class to arrive so that Mr Ryan can assign us to our seats.
As the class started to fill up immediately, especially after the second bell rang, I couldn’t help but notice that the devil incarnate was nowhere to be seen yet, but right when I got my hopes up, he enters the room and stands behind all of the other students with his school bag over his shoulder and his hoody over his head. He had his hand propped into the pocket of his jeans.
My mood immediately falters and it faltered even more when Mr Ryan started to read the names off the clipboard he now had clutched in his hands. “Next, we have Bianca and Annie.” Mr Ryan says, smiling when two girls, one with short brown hair and one with straightened blonde hair made their way to their seats—and by seats I mean long wooden countertops with metal sinks.
As more names were being read from the clipboard, the more I started to panic. Actually panic. I don’t think I had a fingernail left anymore because I kept chewing it as I waited for my name to be called out.
Mr Ryan reads another pair’s names and I visibly started to shake, I actually had to ball my hands into tight fists just so that no one would notice my panic. “Next we have Simon and River.” Mr Ryan says, looking over to the last of the students standing in front of the class—me, the devil incarnate, and two others.
But I was surprised to see that the devil incarnate made his way to the wooden countertop at the back of the class.
He plops down and lets his hoody down.
Please, universe, don’t let me be paired with him.
The girl with short brown hair, I assume her name is Bianca, raises her hand. “Mr Ryan… Simon has changed schools.”
Please… Please… Universe… Please don’t let me be paired with him.
Mr Ryan pats the clipboard against his forehead, shaking his head. “You’re right, Bianca. He did. I completely forgot,” he looks at me and I felt my heart beating against my ribcage, “that means that you will be paired with River.”
You have to be kidding me.
“In and out.” I chant inside my head as I made my way to my assigned seat.
There’s no avoiding him now, I guess.
I plop down into my seat, making sure that there was enough distance between the two of us, and take out my books. I was surprised that he didn’t have a sarcastic remark about being paired with me, but when I stole a glance his way, I noticed that he was busy scribbling something in his notebook, the same one he used in Math class earlier.
This is just perfect.
Not only am I paired with an asshole, but I’m also paired with someone who looks like the type who leaves all the work for their partners to do.
“Before I forget,” Mr Ryan says after all the names off his clipboard were read, “there will be an experiment being handed out on the tenth so don’t be absent please. You cannot expect your partner to be the one to do all the work.”
I look at River sitting beside me and shoot him a knowing look.
He doesn’t notice, though, he was too busy writing in his notebook to care.
I steal a glance at the notebook, trying to figure out what has him so engrossed and writing in it every chance that he gets, and notice that there were only two letters being written over and over again on the top of the notebook page.
It didn’t look like an ordinary notebook seeing that the pages didn’t have any lines to write in. And the binding of the notebook was loose. I could tell that much because when he opened the notebook, it remained that way on the desk and it didn’t close itself like many new books would.
This one was well-used and well cared for as well.
“You heard what Mr Ryan said, your partner isn’t going to do all the work for you. You have to pay attention in class and look to the front, not focus on me.”
I scoff where I was sitting, looking at him with a frown settled between my brows. “Excuse me?” I scoff at him again. “If you didn’t keep doodling in your notebook, I wouldn’t be looking at you and wondering if you are paying attention in class. It seems that your focus is on something else and not on the class. I should be the one to worry, not you. I bet you didn’t even listen to what Mr Ryan said a few minutes ago.”
River looks at me with a hint of amusement on his face. “Something about an experiment being handed out on the tenth. Blah, blah, blah…He didn’t say anything that piqued my interest, really.”
River’s blond hair was dishevelled like a strong wind blew outside and he didn’t make a move to make it look neat again. He left it looking untidy and I had this feeling that he didn’t really care about how he looked.
“You should get interested really quickly because I will not do this by myself.” I warn him. “I am not going to do all the work for you.” I fold my arms across my chest, feeling my blood starting to boil the more I interacted with him, so I turned away from him and focused my attention on Mr Ryan.
River didn’t talk to me again after our encounter but I still felt myself releasing a relieved breath when the bell rang for the third class of the day even though he didn’t talk to me again.
I barely zipped my bag up when I felt someone tugging my arm. Suspecting it was River, I tug my arm away furiously, but immediately apologize when it wasn’t even him who had tugged my arm to get my attention, but a boy with short and tidy, unlike River’s usual dishevelled hair, light brown hair.
He had cinnamon coloured eyes and he was a few inches taller than me.
“I’m sorry.” I apologize to him again. “I just had a rough morning.”
The boy dismisses me with the wave of his hand and flashes me a kind smile. “It’s okay. My girlfriend actually sent me. She wants me to take you to your next class. This building is quite huge and you can easily get lost inside, so…”
“Ana, right?” I ask him and he nods.
I didn’t miss the way his cheeks turned pink at the mention of Ana’s name. “That’s right.”
“I’d love that.” I tell him, grabbing my zipped up bag from the floor and slinging it over my shoulder. “I would appreciate it a lot, thank you, though.”
“I’m Cole, by the way.” He extends his hand for me to take, and I do.
“Sophia.” I smile, feeling better than I did a few minutes ago when I interacted with River. “It’s nice to meet you, Cole.”
“Likewise.” Cole smiles.
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