Painful Smiles

Angry wasn’t the right word to describe Claudia’s face. Disgusted was.

“We’ll meet in school” she shoved a paper into his hand and left. Wright saw it was a paper for directions and his transport fare. He wanted to call her back to return the money but she just disappeared.

“What, wasn’t the idea good?” he muttered to himself.

Low key, Claudia was conscious of the news Wright had given her. She didn’t even know why she let the news get into her brain.

Maybe it was because it was sad. He had his mother assassinated and now he was next. She somehow wanted to be someone’s savior, again. But not really to that guy.

Still her brain was conscious. She didn’t even know whether it would be a member of her class but she was conscious.

“Hey, hey, Mark is glaring at Michael in a wicked way. Suspect found” Wright whispered to her.

She pushed his head away, “Mark? Suspect? Mark couldn’t even kill a cockroach. And I’ve known him for long, he can’t be”.

Wright wanted to say something else but she shut him up by raising her hand in the air.

She knew Mark was just being jealous because Clara was acting around the new guy as she had shouted a “hello, Michael” to him at the hallway In front of everyone.

The guy was surprised by the outburst but had smiled and waved back. It was so dramatic, any boyfriend would feel weird.

“Ignore Mark in your search, okay?” she added to Wright.

Wright pouted and continued his hunt for a potential danger to Michael.

They were at the cafeteria. Michael was the only one sitting alone in the middle. Lots of eyes were watching him.

“I think he’s an attention seeker though. New students try to hide from public as good as they can. But he’s sitting right in the middle” Wright whispered again.

Claudia pushed his head again also. Was her day going to be filled with monitoring the guys movements? She stood up and left for the library. She’ll be back whenever she felt like.

Michael gaped at the malnourished sandwich in front of him. He began missing his old school. Students are fed properly and need not buy plain snacks from anywhere.

They were fed by the school itself. With maids serving as you sit comfortable on your seat.

Well, it was the difference between school for millionaires and a public school. He sent the snack quickly to his mouth and began munching it hurriedly.

It tasted better than he thought. He smiled. His father would surely go mad if he found him eating junk, and ignoring his diet timetable.

Michael looked around to find the eyes boring holes in his body. He knew almost everyone in the room was looking at him once in a while, he was perfectly used to that.

But someone was drilling holes in him with bare eyes. From his corner, he saw the so called most popular boy in school glaring at him. Mark Callaway was what he was called.

“What’s his deal?” Michael wondered to himself.

He tried not to look at the boy. He felt familiar. Then, one of the girls he had been seeing with Clara walked seducingly to the Mark and shoved a piece of paper into his hand. She walked back the same way she came and joined Clara and another girl.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Clara smiled brightly to Mark when he looked at her.

Michael felt jealous, somehow. He dragged his eyes away. He hadn’t even checked if Clara had a boyfriend or something. He noticed she was popular among the students.

Though, he didn’t blame himself much. He sent one of the best men his father had to search for Clara at an address close to the hospital they met the first time.

A random nurse had said she was born in that hospital and lived nearby. Still, the so called best man couldn’t find her and came back saying her street was full of rude girls.

Even though, the man had added that a little boy had said Clara was his sister. It could have just been a lie or another Clara.

Michael then saw Mark walk to Clara and plant a kiss on her lips. The whole students in the cafeteria went “Aww”. The juniors quickly covered their eyes and side talks began.

Michael eyes nearly popped off. That was him then, Clara’s boyfriend.

Clara didn’t really look surprised so he must have been her boyfriend. Michael gulped down saliva and began giving full concentration on his remaining sandwich.

Then someone made a vomit sound behind him. He turned to see the most annoying girl he had met so far since his arrival.

“There are juniors here. Must you embarrass yourself like this?” Claudia asked, annoyed. Wright stood beside her with a disgusted face. The whole crowd turned to Claudia, including Michael.

“Jealous? Do you want Mark to kiss you?” Belle asked back.

Wright acted like he was choking from a disgusting smell. Claudia patted his back. “Sorry bro, Belle disgusted you right?”. Wright nodded his head.

She turned menacingly to Belle, “What? Kiss me? Then I’ll suffer long years of a stomach ache? No way” she sighed and looked back at the disgusting love birds.

“Next time you act so indecently in front of juniors, I’ll bang you both heads together. I hope it glues” she pointed.

Clara got up and Mega smirked. Was a twin fight about to happen?

“And when did you become the hall monitor or cafeteria monitor or whatever?” she barked.

Claudia mimicked her then kept a straight face. “You’ve been warned, Barbie. Next time, you and your boyfriend would go for detention. Have enough time to kiss everywhere. And you’ll be charged with sexual provocation” she walked out dragging Wright along.

Everyone was quiet. The only people who dared talk back at Clara or Mark was Claudia, and some other girl who was currently on suspension because of Clara.

Belle stood up and banged at the table, “What you staring at? Eat your food now”. All eyes flew to their snacks and away from the embarrassed couple. Mark just crawled out, he was too overwhelmed to speak.

Somehow, Michael was glad the annoying girl shunned them. It was disgusting and offensive. But he wasn’t still glad that the annoying girl was always mean to Clara. Always.