Keep a Spare Seat

Ryan spots Goldie, walking into the class late and instantly recognises her as 'the "bird girl" from this morning!'

And for some reason, he is instantly elated. This certainly, was a pleasant surprise. He wasn't expecting it at all. 

Suddenly, Leroy's words pop right into his head;

"...you'll be seeing her sooner than you think!"

Yes, Leroy had said that about Goldie, just moments earlier. As it turns out, this was what he meant.

'Dxrn Leroy… so this is what he meant…', mumbles Ryan to himself, genuinely surprised.

'He must have noticed her name on the Class 12A List…', reasons Ryan, thrilled by Leroy's practical joke.

Leroy never played around when he spoke in parables. And this time, he got Ryan good. 

'Hah…', Ryan chuckles within himself.

'So the beauty is in my class…

This would be an interesting year.', muses Ryan, interested.

Just looking at her, standing there in front of the class, Ryan found himself rather attracted by her looks. 

'So beautiful…'

Goldie really was beautiful.

And she seemed so different. Different from all the other girls. 

'Although, that doesn't matter to me. I'm not superficial, or anything…'

Ryan tries hard to convince himself that he didn't care that Goldie was so beautiful.

Probably the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on.

'Although, somehow, she seemed to be running away from me…', he muses, thinking back on the time when she ran off after the bird call.

She had run off after screeching like a bird in the morning before he could even ask her any questions.

'But then, come to think of it, who wouldn't run off in that situation?', reasons Ryan.

Of all things, perhaps, it was the birdcall that left Ryan most curious about Goldie.

Reasonably speaking, that weird sound would probably be the reason she ran off. It wasn't necessarily because of Ryan.

'Maybe I'm just mistaken.', says Ryan to himself, reconsidering.

There was no way Goldie could have been running say from him in that situation.

Perhaps, it was a good thing that she was in his class this year, just for the purpose of satisfying his curiosity. Above all things, he wanted to know why she responded like that.

___

"Take a seat."

Just then, the teacher's kind voice speaking to Goldie awakens Ryan from his brief reverie, as he comes to notice that the teacher was directing Goldie to the empty seat next to him!

Ryan suddenly realises something important. 

Looking about the class, he knew already that there was only one empty seat left in the class before the teacher walked in.

The spare seat he had reserved for Leroy.

Up till now, Leroy had not shown up yet, and now, Goldie, the 'bird girl', was now walking into the class late, in need of a seat.

Usually, the classes were organised to accommodate the number of students assigned to each class, with the appropriate number of seats.

So, the seats were supposed to be the right number in accordance with the number of students on the class list.

Ryan's brain begins to tick.

"If she's in this class, then does that mean that Leroy?…"

"Dxmm!"

Ryan was almost sure that Leroy had set him up!

How, you ask?

Well… remember when Leroy said, "Keep a Spare Seat?"

Ryan, sweet, gullible Ryan, had thought that his friend, Leroy, had meant for him to save him a seat, as they were both in CLASS 12B.

So he had taken out his precious time and energy to save his friend the perfect seat. The seat next to his window seat.

And Indeed, Ryan had reserved the seat beside him, just as Leroy asked him to. 

It wasn't easy to reserve the seat as everyone for some reason wanted the seat by him once he had chosen to sit quietly by the window.

But now, seeing as his reserved seat was the only empty seat in the entire class, and Goldie was the only one without a seat, he was having second thoughts.

Could it be that the reserved seat was not for Leroy?

It was becoming more and more apparent that he was set up!

Because the 'spare seat' he had reserved for Leroy had turned out to be the only empty seat in class. And guess who didn't have a seat…

The 'bird girl' from this morning!

As it seemed, he had been duped into reserving a seat for the bird girl!

Ryan usually never really cared who sat by him as it hardly made a difference. He wouldn't really talk with them anyway, except they were Leroy. But somehow, he had not been lucky enough to be placed in the same class as Leroy ever since he transferred to Hugher High.

He had assumed that he and Leroy were finally placed in the same class as they had walked down to Class 12A together. 

And when Leroy told him to keep a spare seat, he had thought that perhaps, Leroy had some urgent things to do (as usual) before class started. 

So, of course, he had saved Leroy a seat without thinking about it.

But now…

Taking out his phone, Ryan goes to ascertain his suspicion by texting Leroy. Just to be sure.

"You're not in class 12A, are you?", Ryan's text to Leroy reads.

Almost immediately, he receives a reply.

"Nope. Enjoy!", responds Leroy.

He should have known… Leroy set him up!

'Hah…', sighs Ryan exhausted, giving himself a facepalm.

How troublesome. Leroy had successfully conned him into sitting next to the girl, Goldie.

Having her sit beside him… was rather burdensome, but perhaps, it would not be so terrible.

In his own opinion, he would rather have the seat empty the entire year.

'She didn't even say thank you after I saved her. Running off like that…', reasons Ryan begrudgingly as he watches Goldie.

Indeed, Goldie never said thank you after he saved her from a brutal death on the stone stairs. But that was only because she was too shocked, and then she suddenly screeched in 'scaredy bird!'

'How could I blame her though? She even screeched… like a bird!', thinks Ryan, reasonably giving Goldie concessions.

____

Goldie stands frozen in place, staring back at Ryan and the empty seat beside him.

'Oh no!... Tell me this isn't happening!', she starts to panic again, her heart rate rapidly increasing.

And with the steady increase of her heart rate, the noise in the classroom builds up as hushed whispers become full-on side-talks and discussions amongst her new classmates…

…especially the jealous girls who had witnessed the embarrassing incident from this morning, and whom Ryan had turned down when they tried to take his reserved seat with ulterior motives of gradually seducing him during the school year with the advantage of sitting by his side.

As if that would have worked…

"Sit by Ryan? After this morning? You gotta be kidding me.", comments one girl.

"Yeah… there is no way Ryan would let her sit there, for sure.", says another.

"Did you hear, she screeched like a total bird… so crazy! Haha…", laughs a guy in the back.

"Jeez, I wonder what that was about…", says another classmate.

"I wonder where she'll sit when Ryan sends her away…", says yet another jealous girl.

"Quiet everyone.", The teacher shushes the noisy class when he notices that Goldie is feeling a little bit intimidated by the noise.

Turning to her, he speaks in a very kind tone.

"Go on…", urges the teacher, gesturing to Goldie to go take the empty seat.

Swallowing, Goldie brings her breathing under control, in order not to let herself panic further and have a repeat of the sudden embarrassing occurrence of this morning.

Taking a step forward, she starts to walk through the aisle headed for the empty seat with her heart in her throat…

___

____

_____