Knox's Highschool Life

A loud knocking on my door causes me to jump. I walk over and open it to see Alina waiting outside joyful and bursting with energy despite it only being 7:30 in the morning. "Morning," I greet her, pulling her into a quick hug.

"Goodmorning," Alina responds, beaming with joy.

"Why are you in such a good mood?" I ask her, confused. "Did your mom let you sign up Cerberus for that purebred breeding group?"

"I wish," She slumps down then perks back up, "But no."

"Then what has you in such a good mood?" I ask her again. She's radiating with her energy, her smile brighter than any sun.

"I have a group presentation today!" She shouts, Keita appears from the corner of my eye, rolling his eyes and laughing silently.

"You're so happy because of that?" I grin and give her a judging glance.

"Of course!" She jumps up. Keita throws his backpack over his shoulder and walks to my side. "You know I love presenting! It's the best part of group projects!"

"Nerd," Keita snickers and walks past us.

"At least I do my work," Alina fires back. Keita turns and raises an eyebrow at her with a subtle smirk on his face. "Instead of just making my group mates do it all."

"Want a ride to school or not?" Keita asks, jingling his keys in front of her.

Alina grabs the keys and sprints towards his car yelling, "I'll drive."

Keita and I run after her, Ketia's yelling, "No you're not! You're fifteen!"

Keita manages to catch up to her just outside of the car, he wraps his arms around her and yanks the keys out of her hands, then lets her go. Alina mopes, "Aw man, please."

"No," Keita denies her again then gestures towards the car, "Get in." Alina rolls her eyes while laughing then hops into the backseat, I sit in the front.

Keita turns the car on and we start making our way to school, it's normally a ten-minute ride if Alina doesn't attempt to convince Ketia into stopping for breakfast. Things have been going so well since January 7th, after the stream. I've been gaining followers like crazy and I'm pretty sure that I'm also starting to become a meme. Alina and I decided to wait until I reach 500 followers for us to do the next celebration. With how fast things have been going I'm going to assume it will take me about a month or two. It would be amazing if I achieved it on my birthday, February 3rd, which is also Alina's birthday.

"I don't have anything to do after school today so I'll be driving you guys home," Keita speaks over the radio and over my thoughts.

"I have band after school today," Alina mentions, scrolling through her phone.

"What time do you finish?" He asks her.

"Around four," She answers.

"I can wait till then, it's only an hour and a half," He shrugs, not taking his eyes off of the road. "Do you have a concert coming up?"

"Yeah, I have a Valentines' day concert," She brings ups.

"They're making you perform a concert on Valentines' day?" He mentions. "Are they aware that a majority of the students may have dates?"

"The band teacher threatened a few students that said they couldn't go because they have dates," Alina mentions, still not looking away from her phone.

"Seriously?" Keita asks, amazement in his voice. "What do they say?"

"They'll fail if they don't go to the concerts," Alina utters.

"How much of a bitch is your teacher?" Keita asks with a freaked out voice.

"She's only like this around concert time," Alina excuses her. We pull into the school's parking lot, and we all get out. "Thanks for the ride, see you after school." Alina ruffles Keita's hair and we walk to our first class together.

"Everything okay?" I ask her. "You seemed a little off today, not as connected and energetic as usual."

"Yeah, everything's fine," She mutters, still going through her phone. "My group mates are just being annoying is all."

"They���re being all nervous and doubtful," I assume.

"Exactly that," She adds. "Two of them are also planning on skipping today so they don't have to present."

"What class is it for?" I ask her.

"Drama," She mumbles, I notice her twitch slightly. "We were supposed to make a ten-minute play then present it in front of the class."

"I can see why they're nervous," I take their side.

"Yeah, but I worked so hard on it as well!" She shouts, clearly irritated. "I spent entire days working on it, and I had to change so much of my original idea just to make them happy, and now they're not even going to show up!" She takes a deep breath and I place my hand on her shoulder, "This was going to be an A for sure as well."

"I'm sure that everything will be fine," I attempt to comfort her. "Just wait and see if they show up, and if they don't then show the teacher the messages."

"I ain't no snitch!" She yells then laughs. "I guess I'll just wait and if they don't show up then they don't show up." Her smile turns mischievous and in an evil whisper she says, "And if they don't show up, then they'll never be seen again." She laughs maniacally.

I laugh quietly under her maniacal laughter, "What are you going to do to them?"

She smirks at me with malicious intent riddling her face, "If I tell you then I'll have to kill you." She smiles broadly and places her hand on my shoulder excitedly, "Can I tell you?"

I beam, "Don't worry, I won't tell anybody."

She cocks her head with a confused look on her face, "Not going to tell anybody that you're dead?"

I laugh through my words, "Well I mean, obviously."

The bell rings loudly, half of the freshmen start to sprint to their classes and the other half act like they never heard anything. Some of the freshmen are even crowded in a small circle with their vapes and talking about how much they hate their teachers.

Alina pulls me into a hug and says, "See you after first period."

"See ya," I respond as we break the hug. She waves goodbye and we split ways.

I keep my head down, avoiding anyone's eyes. I swear, it's like whenever Alina leaves so does my confidence. I guess that I'll just have to stick with her, she is my best friend after all. I wonder if she ever faces any setbacks the second we part ways. Probably not, after all, she's nothing like me. If anything I bet she's even happier without me. Wait, What am I saying? We're best friends of course she enjoys being around me, I shouldn't be doubting myself like this.

I got to my locker without looking up once, I also heard some whispering as I walked past some girls. I'm not sure if they were talking about me or not and I don't really care. I reach for my math textbook and nearly drop it on the ground, luckily I caught it. Although I'm pretty sure that still made a huge scene since a lot of people turned their heads to look at me. I wish Alina was with me, she'd probably say something like, 'Sick catch, bro!' or 'Nice ninja quick reflexes!' I shove my books into my backpack and head straight to class, ignoring any looks anyone may be giving me.

I'm the third one to class. The first being some girl that seems to always show up first and rush out of the class first. The second being a guy sitting on his desk tossing a small stress ball around, he's usually blasting music from his phone. Ms. Ridge doesn't look away from her computer as I take my seat. There's a math equation written on the board, I could easily solve it but I won't bother. The daily equation is optional anyway, I'll just let the nerdy kids do it.

Kids start to pile in and take their seats. A group of girls gossiping over something that I don't care about enough to listen to, a group of guys talking about a party or something, and a few individuals minding their own business.

"Alright, class," Ms. Ridge begins, her voice still high and annoying as ever. Her voice always sounds like she just inhaled a tankful of helium, the first time I heard it I literally jumped in my seat and so did everyone else. "Who can answer this equation for me?"

A guy, that never does well in any of his classes, raises his hand, the teacher signals him to speak, "X over T23." Wrong. The answer is X over T62, how did he get 23?

"Not quite," Ms. Ridge responds. "Anyone else."

The girl that always shows up first raises her hand, the teacher signals her to speak, "X over T26." Correct. Obviously she gets it right, she's one of the nerds, despite always being the first to leave.

"That is correct," Ms. Ridge says cheerfully. "Alright, class, I will be handing out some worksheets with similar questions on them. Take your time and have fun."

As the sheets are handed out I hear a majority of the class groan, once I get mine I realize why. It's a pop quiz, I'm not worried or anything, I know I'll do well but it's still annoying. I go straight to work on the questions, they're all pretty easy, basic stuff we've reviewed several times during class. Granted, I never actually pay attention during class. Alina tutors me, she uses stuff from my life to help me figure it out like when you need to find X, X would be my Twitch subscribers or X would be the amount of ammo I'd need to get a full clip for my gun in a video game. If it weren't for her then I'd probably be dreading every moment of school, but I don't, I look forward to my classes with her.

"Knox," A girl next to me whispers, snapping me out of my daydream. "What's the answer to number 15?"

I blink wildly, remembering where I was and what I was doing, "Oh, um."

"Knox, don't help her cheat," Ms. Ridge called from the front of the class. The girl rolls her eyes and goes back to her paper. I exhale deeply in relief after realizing that I haven't gotten to that question yet. Wait, then how is she already there? There's no way she's ahead of me, even if she got a head start. I glance over to her paper and notice that she's been skipping questions. She only answered five questions and three of them are wrong.

I promptly finish the quiz and hand it in, there are a few questions that I wasn't sure about, but altogether I'm pretty confident with how that turned out. I know for a fact that I'll definitely pass, that's for sure. Just like with the regular order of when everyone arrives, I was the third one to finish. The first being one of the nerd girls, the second, not being the boy with the stress ball, but the smartest guy in class.

I head back to my seat and lay my head on my desk, going back to my daydreams. I think about Alina in her band uniform, her bright smile, us grabbing ice cream at ten at night after her concert, and the conversation we had. We talked about what we wanted to do after high school, I wanted to get a job and eventually, hopefully, start making enough money from streaming to quit my job and live in a nice house. She wanted to go to university, McGill University to be specific. I told her that we could probably rent an apartment together, and I'll be the one to worry about the money since she'll be the one going to school. Just imagining living with her makes me excited, movie nights almost every night, playing video games all the time, laughing and being happy together the entire time. My ideal future has her in it, I know that for a fact.

Ms. Ridge taps my desk, "Wake up, Knox, we're starting the lesson now." I perk my head up and act like I'm actually interested in what she's teaching me and not like I'm just going to give the lesson outlines to Alina to teach me later. The teacher starts talking and I manage to keep an interested look on my face as I daydream about playing video games and watching anime after school today.

The class passes by quickly, before I hear the bell ring I tune in to hear Ms. Ridge say something about a test next week and that our quiz results will be emailed to us. The bell rings and the girl rushes out of the classroom same as literally every day.

I pack up my bag and hear the girl that was asking for answers bragging to her friends. "Yeah, I purposely get the questions wrong, that way I won't be moved up a grade and have to leave my friends." You may try to make people believe that, but you're definitely failing that quiz.

"Oh my god, yes girl," another girl responds energetically, actually believing that shit. "You are so smart, seriously, even that boy was asking you for answers." Are you kidding me? I finished my test before her! So how could I have been asking her for help? She was the second last to finish, the last being that guy with the stress ball who always refuses to do his work. I bet she didn't even answer half of those questions!

"I know right?" The girl continues to brag. "I should become a tutor!" I almost make it out of the class before the girls tap me on the shoulder. "Hey!"

I force on a smile and act like she's not full of shit, "What's up?"

"If you ever need help studying, feel free to message me on Instagram," She smiles. I just want to meet up with Alina, why is the girl talking to me anyway? "It's-"

"Not interested," I interrupt her and attempt to leave the classroom but she stops me.

"Well, you're the one asking for help on the quiz," She lies. I twitch at how annoying she's being, why isn't the teacher telling her to back off? "So you clearly do need help." No, I don't! She's probably trying to signal me to help her with studying but I even don't want to do that. She's not real at all, not with her friends, or herself.

I choose to not respond and walk away, I have to tug my bag loose from their grip. Damn, teenage girls are pushy, luckily I have Alina and she knows when to back off. I hear the girls whispering about something behind me as I walk away and I choose to not react. I have the rest of my classes with Alina, so I won't have to worry about being alone any longer.

I see Alina waiting outside of the locker rooms, we have gym together, "Everything okay?" She asks me.

I nod, "Yeah, girls in my math class are just crazy."

"Yeah, I can see that," Alina responds, staring at my hair.

"What are you looking at?" I ask her, confused.

She reaches up and pulls about 20 pencils out of my afro, "I think they may not know what a pencil case looks like." She looks at me with confusion, "How did you not notice?"

I roll my eyes and take half, "Well, at least we won't have to worry about running out of pencils." I shrug my shoulders, "I honestly have no clue."

Alina laughs and puts her half in her bag, "See you in a few minutes."

"See ya," I respond and head into the boys locker room. I keep my head down, this is my second least favourite part about gym class, dealing with all of the hyped and annoying guys. My first least favourite would be the exercise part.

��Hey, Knox!" One of the guys shouts when I enter the locker room. "What are you hoping we do today?"

"Hey," I respond, trying to not be rude. "I don't know, get dismissed early, I guess." A few of the other guys break into laughter. I quickly put my bag into a locker and take out my clothes, rushing into one of the stalls. I change as fast as the Flash, then I lock my locker, head into the gym and sit on the ground, waiting for Alina.

She comes out a few minutes later, laughing and chatting with some of the girls. Her hair is in a high and tight ponytail, and she only changed her shoes. Everybody always tells her how much better she looks in a ponytail, and she knows that she looks better as well. Except it hurts her to have her hair like that and she only likes her hair in a ponytail if it's high and tight, any loose strands will piss her off.

She leaves her friends and takes a seat next to me, "Any other pencils?"

"No," I respond, slowly matching her energy. "But I think I found your knife." She places her finger to her lips for a few seconds then laughs, I follow suit.

Everyone else comes into the gym and the teacher starts the class. Nothing that special happened for the rest of the day. Alina and I played badminton together, one of the sports that I'm actually pretty good at due to my reflexes. Then we had lunch, except Alina had another band practice so I ate in one of the practice rooms, listening to her play and watching anime. Then we had science together, the girl who put the pencils in my hair was snickering and gossiping in the corner the entire time Alina and I worked together. Well, she worked and I watched anime. Lastly, we had history together. I daydreamed about what it would be like to fight in the war while Alina actually did the work and participated in the class. She helped keep me up with the reading just in case the teacher calls on me to go next.

The final bell rings and I walk with Alina to the band room. Keita's waiting outside all happy, I didn't even know he knew where the band room was.

"See you at four?" Keita asks her as she stops outside the band room.

She smiles and nods, "Yeah, try not to kill each other."

"No promises," We both say in unison. She laughs and turns into the band room, about six people cheer when she walks into the room.

Keita taps me, I turn to face him, he gestures to the exit, "Let's go."

We walk to his car and I toss my bag into his car, "Where are we going?"

"We have till four, so dropping off our stuff back at home, you coming?" He asks me as he starts the car. "We can also grab some donuts or something to give her after her practice."

I hop in the car and shake my head, "A salad."

Keita slowly turns his head towards me with one eyebrow raised like I just said some sort of forbidden word, "Excuse me?"

"She can't stand sweets after band practice," I answer. "She'll be craving something healthy, like a salad."

He pulls out of the parking lot, chuckling and shaking his head, "You guys are weird."

We stop at home for a minute to drop off our bags and head straight back to the car. We stopped at Alina's favorite place to eat called Freshii, we got her the green eggs and kale, and the green smoothie her favorite. Then we headed back to the school, and we're now both sitting in the hallway, waiting for her to finish, I'm holding her salad and drink in my lap. Keita is drinking iced tea from the place and I'm having a wrap.

Alina comes out shortly after with her bag hanging off of her shoulder, and we jump to our feet, "Nice to see you guys lived." She notices the food in my hands, "Damn, is it my birthday now or something? Over twenty days too early."

Keita snickers, "Come on, let's go home." Alina grabs the food from me and starts inhaling it. Keita looks back, hiding his smile, "Try not to destroy my car."

Alina and I look at each other then back at him. In unison we both say, "No promises."