3 Fire Orange

I slowly tugged open the locker door, and yet, a creak resounded through the hushed hallway, every single student's eyes on me as they waited with bated breath. Waited for what, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe they were expecting to see me put on a show, start yelling and throwing things about, but I wasn't the scared little girl I'd been two years ago. I'd dealt with much worse, a simple word was nowhere near enough to break me.

The dust collected at the bottom rose as I placed my books in the locker, and I scrunched up my face at the musty smell. I made a mental note to clean the damn thing later this week, and decided to carry with me my books for the first half of the day. Somehow, I didn't think I'd want to drop by here too often.

"You won't have to look at it again, I promise," Scarlet spoke from beside me, and I turned to look at her. Her words had an unusual weight to them. I didn't doubt her, but I felt the sudden guilt slowly creeping up on me. She always ends up cleaning all my messes, doesn't she?

"Thanks," I said softly, attempting a smile. I felt a lot better knowing I could at least count on her.

It gave me enough courage to get through the first half of the day, even through all the bitch talk and rumours going around about me. People had been staring and pointing, speaking louder than normal and pretending it wasn't just so I could hear the lies they spewed about me. 

I couldn't thank God enough when lunch finally rolled around. The shit they masked as cafeteria food couldn't even compare to the shitfest my classes had been. I could barely concentrate on anything the teachers were saying because some fucking chick named Rebecca who was in every class of mine, didn't know how to shut the fuck up. 

Yeah, I wasn't particularly stoked about being here anymore.

Maybe being homeschooled was a better option for me. It had only been a few hours and I was about ready to pull my hair out, running for the hills as I did. 

With a huge frown stuck to my forehead, and probably a murderous vibe surrounding me, I was fully expecting to spend lunch alone. At least, until I saw two pairs of hands manically waving me over. It was the corner-most table of the cafeteria, the one we would always sat at. Walking to the spot with my cafeteria tray and that familiar slop of something, oddly felt comforting after the morning I'd had. Anything even close to routine was going to be welcomed with open arms. 

Honestly, if my friends hadn't been by my side when all that shit went down, I would've been completely broken. Maybe to the point of no return. I was lucky that all my friends were a bunch of rebels who couldn't care less about anyone else's opinion but mine.

That being said, they were still pretty damn annoying sometimes.

"Damn, Vi. You look fire," was the greeting I received, followed by Dan and Ruth cacking to themselves like 12 year old boys making fart jokes. 

"I swear to God, I'm leaving if y'all are gonna do this shit again," I warned, but despite my words, I pulled out a chair beside Ruth. I was used to all their arson puns anyway. Pro tip; they don't get any funnier. 

"Wow, you're real fiery today, huh?" Dan settled me with a teasing smile, his green eyes shining with humor. He couldn't look more cat-like if he wanted to. 

"Daniel, fuck off," I used my standard reply to anything he says. Ever. It's effective about 0% of the time, and he never really does fuck off, but saying it to his face gives me enough mental satisfaction to bear with him a few minutes longer. 

"What's got you all grumpy?" He complained, sad that I wouldn't entertain his 'banter' today. Unfortunately, I didn't entertain him most days either. 

"Someone spray painted 'Arsonist' across her locker," Ruth filled him in for me, bless the girl. "You didn't know?" 

"Fuck, seriously?" He seemed genuinely surprised, which was odd because what else would you expect from a bunch of teenagers who have no life. "Are you alright?" He asked seriously, his eyes on me.

"Yeah, doesn't bother me." I only replied because he sounded genuinely concerned. "I just really wanted to catch the son of a bitch who did it though." 

"We can look at the cameras, right?" 

"That corner of the hallway is conveniently a blind spot, whoever did it must've known that." I told them what Scarlet had mentioned when we briefly met between classes. 

"But you know there are other ways I can find out..." Ruth trailed off, a suggestion lingering in her tone. She looked at me for permission. 

You wouldn't expect it at first glance, given her soft brown eyes and small stature, but Ruth could be, I hate myself for saying this too but, pretty Ruthless sometimes. She had connections just about everywhere and a sharp eye for details, a dangerous duo at its best. Nothing could really escape her. 

"I say let it be," I said after silently contemplating it for a couple seconds. "Never know how it might backfire." I'd been framed once, who's to say it won't happen again? It's too easy to blame someone with a bad track record, and I wasn't going to be bait for a second time. 

"BackFIRE?" Dan popped back into the conversation. 

"Daniel, fuck off."

I smiled proudly at seeing Ruth follow in my footsteps. There's a charm in being a role model, I see it now.

Dan scowled like a little kid, completely going against the sophisticated Brit front he likes to pull, "I'm outnumbered, this is unfair. Fyn's not here to back me up today."

"Oh right," I said, only now realising that there's two missing from the group. "Where's Fyn and Zoe?" 

The two of them gave me a slightly disturbed look, as if to say I shouldn't ask. Immediately, it struck me. "Ah..." 

"Yup." 

"Don't think I'll ever get used to them dating," I confessed, and by the shared look of understanding, I believe we all felt the same. 

I was looking at the food on my tray, wondering whether the slop was supposed to be mashed potato, when Dan spoke again, "I didn't think they would skip your first day back though, it's like the rest of us don't exist anymore." 

"I saw Fyn yesterday. He's probably tired of me," I said, although I was sure that wasn't true. Fyn had dealt with my shit almost everyday for about 12 years now, and our friendship was still going strong. "Besides, we had Chem together with Zoe." I didn't see much of them because I was seated right in the front -teacher's orders-, but we talked for a bit outside class and Zoe almost couldn't contain her excitement.

"Still," Dan pouted, and I proceeded to stick my spoon into the slop, now sure it couldn't be mashed potato. 

"What, are you jealous of Zoe? Upset that Fyn doesn't give you as much attention anymore?" Ruth was grinning like she'd figured it all out, poking his arm across the table with the fork she had in her hand. 

Dan batted her away with a frown and she laughed to herself, "I knew it!"

I wasn't much interested in their back and forth, so I tuned them out completely until Ruth turned to me, "hey, give me your timetable, I wanna see if we have any classes together." 

I pointed to the pile of books I carried around with me all day. I knew I'd soon have to go get new ones from my locker for the second half of the day and I wasn't looking forward to it. 

Ruth set down the apple she'd been eating and picked up the prospectus, which I'd haphazardly stuck the timetable back into. I let her look through it, going back to fiddling a fork around my sorry excuse for a lunch. 

I looked up when Dan pushed his hand towards me. He was offering me the half-eaten sub he bought before school today. "Watching you struggle with that's making me sad."

I puckered my lips at the sub with probably about two bites taken out of it. "But it has your saliva on it."

"My apologies for trying to be nice," he narrowed his eyes at me, slowly retracting his hand, but I quickly caught it midway. 

"I'll take it. Wouldn't want you to look stupid," I said with an exaggerated smile. 

He gave me a dry look, but exchanged lunch with me anyway. Aside from the bad puns, exaggerated accent and his unhealthy obsession with Redbull, Dan was a pretty nice guy, or rather a nice 'lad' as he would say.

I had barely taken a bite of my new and improved lunch, when Ruth called, "Vi... what's this?" 

She was holding up a small piece of paper that I didn't recognize. On closer inspection, it was rather queer, with a bunch of numbers written vertically in some semblance of an order. 

"The fuck?" I took it from her and turned it around, but there was nothing on the back of it. The front had a list of 6 numbers scribbled in ascending order. 

550

735

748

855

917

1005

"Dude, is Gayle into some black magic shit?" Was Daniel's brilliant question. 

"What's that got to do with numbers?" Ruth looked just about done with him. I would've shared her sentiment had he not sacrificed his lunch for me. I could spare him once in exchange. 

"I don't know, this feels cursed or whatever," he explained in his defense, but none of that worked as a defense to be honest. He just looked like more of an idiot if anything. 

"No, it's probably Ian's," I thought out loud. Gayle wasn't very likely to be the owner. Ian was holding my stuff along with his, he might've slipped the paper into the wrong book. 

"Ian?" Ruth looked confused. 

"Oh right, you don't know," I realised I hadn't shared with them really crucial piece of information. "Ian Park is supposed to be my monitor of sorts through the year." 

"What?" 

I proceeded to explain Gayle's terms to the two, and they simultaneously rolled their eyes at the end of it. I guess it was pretty typical of Gayle to blow things way out of proportion. 

"But to think you'd be stuck with Ian Park of all people..." Ruth muttered to herself, her eyes glued to the piece of paper. 

"Why?" The way she said it had made me curious.

"He's not an easy person, that's all. Real bitchy sometimes." I could tell she spoke from first-hand experience. 

"He thinks he's all that because he's smart, basically," Dan helped clarify, all previous laughter gone from his eyes. 

Ian hadn't seemed like it this morning, and Scarlet warned me that people disliked him, but I kept that to myself, not wanting to rile them up about it. He'd definitely done something to make them feel this way, that was for sure. Ruth didn't hold meaningless grudges, and it was rare seeing Dan this serious. 

"Just," Ruth started, and I could see her struggle with what she wanted to say. "He's tough to handle so don't get involved." 

I wanted to ask her if there was something she knew, something she wasn't willing to tell me. Looking at her face though, I knew she wouldn't if I asked now. I'd have to wait for her to tell me herself.

"Alright, I won't."