Fall Back

I stood in front of the class looking at Victoria who was staring at me with her trademark mischievous smirk that made my eyebrows twitch in annoyance. She was surrounded by three girls who were looking at me with a knowing look as if they knew something that I didn't.

"Go ahead and introduce yourself." 

Mr. Thomas said to me which led me to regain my focus and stop observing Victoria and what seemed to be her clique.

"My name is Jonathan Tier, nice to meet you all."

I said lethargically which made Mr, Thomas sigh due to my lack of enthusiasm. I didn't care about all that though however my future classmates didn't seem to like it either since they started to whisper among themselves.

"You can sit at that empty seat close to the back of the class."

My homeroom teacher said as he pointed at a seat towards the back of the class, it was the third to last row of desks in the class, and besides that empty seat someone was sitting at the desk to my left beside a glass window you could look out from and see the sports fields that was behind the gymnasium. The person who was sitting behind them seemed to be asleep since he had his head resting on his arms that he placed on his desk.

'The teacher entered the class and he didn't sit up? Could he really be sleeping or he just doesn't care?' I thought to myself while ignoring the stares and whispers of my classmates and started walking towards my seat.

As I got closer to my desk I paid close attention to my sleeping neighbor, I observed his breathing pattern, and when I arrived at my desk I noticed his breathing slowed down considerably until it eventually stopped.

'I guess he wasn't sleeping after all.' I thought to myself as I pulled back the chair that was under the desk and placed my bag on the bag hook that was at the side of my desk and sat down.

Once I sat down I noticed my neighbor started to breathe normally again at a slow and steady pace. During the small commotion of me sitting down, I noticed he didn't even try to open his eyes even once.

'This guy could it be that he just doesn't care?' I thought myself for a second then shrugged it off, after all not everyone is enthusiastic about school so I just marked it off as that.

'Still-' Before I could continue with my trail of thought I heard a voice in my head again.

'This guy has good instincts.' 

The voice of my alter ego echoed in my head. Even though his voice irritated me I couldn't disagree with him because not everyone could suppress their natural curiosity, and since he wasn't sleeping I know he heard when the teacher entered the room and when I was asked to introduce myself.

'So he's disciplined huh?' I thought to myself because the majority of teenagers lack this necessary trait.

'Still though isn't he a bit too cocky? If I were to attack him there's no way he could stop me or even attempt to dodge in time.' I thought to myself observing my neighbor with a mischievous smirk on my face, however, just as I came to that conclusion eyes snapped open and he sat up and stared at me with a cautious look in his eyes. 

'Oh?' Seeing this the smirk left my face and my usual apathetic look returned to my face however a look of curiosity and interest could be seen in my eyes, then all of a sudden I heard a loud laughter in my head.

'Hahahaha! See? I told you this guy has good instincts.' My alter said to me as I blinked and turned my attention towards the whiteboard ignoring both my neighbour and the voice I heard in my head. Although I could still feel the intense stare of my neighbor at the side of my head.

Looking in front of the class I saw Mr. Thomas taking something from the drawer from the teacher's desk that was to the left of the whiteboard, it appeared to be the book he tracks attendance with. He took it and proceeded to stand directly in front of the whiteboard it seemed he was about to mark the attendance of the students.

Seeing this the students began to return to their respective seats and then the class got silent once our teacher realized that he began calling the names for attendance.

"Emilia Anderson."

"Here." 

Mr. Thomas began rollcall and one of the girls that were surrounding Victoria's desk answered him since her name was the first name that was called. She was the same height as Victoria she had a light complexion with brunette hair and she seemed well-endowed for her age as well. This seemed to be a common thing for her since she answered him immediately after she heard her name.

And so the teacher marked something in his book with his pen and continued with the attendance repeating this process. There were about twenty-nine students in my class including myself. There were about thirteen boys including myself and sixteen girls, the attendance was taken in alphabetical order starting with the girls and then followed by them is the boys.

After a few minutes, the teacher was coming to the end with the attendance and I sat there listening and matching the faces of those who responded to the name our teacher called until I heard my name.

"Jonathan Tier" Mr. Thomas called out, I questioned myself if it was necessary since he already knew I was here, but I did it anyway out of courtesy.

"Here," I said and he looked at me with a curious look due to him already marking my name as present. It seemed like he didn't expect me to answer, nevertheless, he continued the attendance.

"Richard Williams."

"Here" 

I heard a deep voice reply that caught my curiosity.

"Haoyu Yang." 

Mr. Thomas continued but the voice that replied caught my attention since it came from beside me.

"Here."

At the sound of my neighbor's voice, I turned to look at him, and sensing that look he also turned to look at me. He was fairly tall for his age he was about 180cm tall. He was of mixed descent scent because he seemed to be half-Asian and half-African, he had pitch-black eyes that looked at me with weariness.

"Your first-period teacher is absent today due to some personal problems. Use this time to get to know your new classmate."

 The sound of the teacher's voice pulled our attention to him and I couldn't help but notice the subtle smile on his face as he looked at me from the front. I tsk at his senseless meddling, resting my face on my left palm I shift my gaze to Victoria and our eyes make four she then shows a little smirk, I say smirk but my classmates don't see it that way apparently since they were looking at the both of us with a look portraying as if they understood something.

'That little stunt she pulled at the gate has already spread to the entire class." I sighed thinking about all the unnecessary drama before Mr. Thomas's voice resounded in the room again.

"I'll be back to check on you Mr. Tier," he said before turning to leave with the book in his hand. 

The moment he left and closed the door Victoria sprang out of her seat and started walking toward me and that seemed like a signal for other classmates to do the same they started following behind her, however, she turned to look back at then tilted it to the side and they all stopped in their tracks.

I looked at this comedic scene with raised eyebrows until Victoria turned around and continued walking towards me. When she arrived in front of me I heard the behind sliding back and looked at my neighbor Haoyu getting up and walking towards the front of the class.

"Bathroom," he said as he walked past Victoria she turned to look at him and waited until he exited the class before she turned her gaze back to me then she stretched out her right hand in front of me and began.

"My name is Victoria Reed, It's nice to meet you, Jonathan." She said while looking me in the eye, I turned my gaze to her outstretched hand and stared at it.

"Oh? No handshake? That's fine." She said and took back her arm.

"You lied to me." 

"I don't know what you're talking about Jonathan. Hey, do you mind if I called you Jonny? No better yet Jon?" She asked diverting the conversation from the initial question.

"I rather you n-" Before I got the chance to respond properly, I was cut off.

"Jon it is then," she said with a smile on her face and I stared at her with a deadpan expression and let out a sight

"Could you give us some room to talk privately? Please," she said to the girl who was sitting to my right. I turned to see a small petite girl to my right getting and heading towards another classmate.

When the girl left, Victoria sat on her desk and began talking.

"You're, quite antisocial aren't you Jon?"

"Why did you lie to me? And don't give that bullshit as if you don't know what I'm talking about. From the moment you approached me at the gate you had some sort of plan in motion."

"As I thought you're also quite sharp as well." She said playfully while looking at me with a small smile."

"Quit joking around. From the moment you grabbed my tie and pulled my face close to yours and the other students around started to gossip I figured that you were up to something and for you to single me out of all those people was unnatural after all someone like you seemed to be very popular. You wouldn't do that to any random, and how quickly the gossip spread around was unexpected from you also, which leads me to believe you already knew about me." 

I said looking at h that smiling face of hers then narrowed my eyes with a serious look on my face and then continued.

"So let me rephrase my earlier question. What do you want from me?" I asked as I glared at her.

"You sure love to hear yourself talk, don't you? Anyways, to answer your question yes I had prior knowledge of your arrival. I read your file, Jon." she said while smiling at me with a knowing look in her eyes.

"I want you to help me out something. We'll discuss it after school." She said it as if it was a fact letting me know that refusal wasn't an option.

"How were you able to get access to my file? No regular student should be able to access that."

"Of course not, however, I'm not just your average student though." She said with a smirk then continued.

" I just so happened to be the head of the student body here. In other words, I'm the student council president." 

"A second-year student as president of the student body?" I looked at her with a surprised expression on my face and I saw that she was looking at me smiling. She seemed to be enjoying the small shock that I experienced.

"I know it should be impossible since we still have third and fourth-year students still attending here but let's just say I'm not your average student," She said as she proceeded to stand. 

"There's also the case that this school isn't exactly normal either. I'm sure you've had your suspicions right? Well if you want to know more all you have to do is meet with me after school." She turned around to leave after she said that. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't curious about what she had to say.

"Wait." Before she could walk off I called out to her and she turned around to look at me with a smirk as if I had just taken the bait she left out.

"What is it, Jon? I told you if you want to know more you'll-"

" Can you give me directions to the bathroom?" I ask cutting her off. She looked at me with a deadpan expression for a few seconds before she eventually answered. 

"Straight down the hall then make left turn continue walking until you see the sign." She said as she watched me stand up from my seat and walk past her.

"Thanks," I said as I walked by her and exited the class.

***

Heading towards the bathroom I walked past a familiar face and that person seemed to recognize me as well. The person turned out to be Haoyu who sat beside me in class, He gave me a side eye as we walked past each other. I paid him no mind as I continued heading towards the restroom.

After about 10 minutes when I exited the male student's restroom, I saw a kick coming toward my head unexpectedly. My reflexes kicked in and I took a quick step back to avoid the incoming attack. 

"Nice reflexes, too bad you'll need more than that to avoid me rearranging that arrogant face of yours." I heard a voice that led me to look up and see the face of my mystery attacker.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" I asked once I recognized that my attacker was Haoyu who I passed earlier. 

"Nothing much, just teaching a self-absorbed obnoxious annoying prick a lesson." He said while cracking his knuckle with a grin on his face.

"Is that so? Too bad I have no interest in fighting you-" I was cut off before I could finish talking due to Haoyu dashing toward me with a flurry of jabs that I had no choice but to start dodging as quickly.

'That roundhouse kick from earlier and now jabs? His form isn't sloppy either this guy knows martial arts' I thought to myself as I avoided his punches.

'What do I do? If I get into a fight on my first day at school sis will be pissed.' I thought as I narrowly avoided Haoyu's punches but the look on my face hadn't changed much which led him to believe I wasn't under any pressure which seemed to piss him off a little.

His vibe changed a little which made me focus on his actions a bit more closely. He suddenly stopped his flurry of jabs and then did a low kick sweeping at my legs too bad for him I noticed this and jumped to avoid his kick but he seemed to be expecting my actions also as he quickly regained his footing and center of gravity and proceeded with another kick aimed towards my right side.

'This guy is good. But why aren't you fighting back?' I heard the voice of my so-called alter ego in my head and once again decided to ignore him since he knew why I couldn't fight back. Ignoring him and focusing on the incoming kick which I prepared to block raising my arms in a defensive position towards my right side.

Haoyu saw what I was doing and a grin appeared on his face he suddenly stopped his kick mid-action turning it into a stomp and dashed forward, my eyes widened at his action. He dashed forward with a left straight that connected with my jaw pushing me back a few steps with my head turned to the right.

"I've dealt with a lot of arrogant motherfuckers like you that think they know how to fight. You're nothing special." Haoyu spoke with an arrogant grin on his face while staring at me.

'That's what you get for not taking your opponents seriously. Hahahaha, huh?' I heard my speak and started to laugh but he stopped when he saw me raising my hand and touched my lip When I moved my hand from my lips and looked down at it I could see the blood from my busted lip on my fingers.

I looked back at Haoyu and saw that he was looking at me with a wide arrogant grin on his face. An arrogant grin that pissed me off and not just me, I glance to my right and saw my alter with a wide grin on his face but the look in his eyes wasn't anything close to the normal mischievous and cocky look he normally had. 

'Hey, Jon, forget about what Natasha said.' He turned to me and I could see his eyes they were dark, no, pitch black, they reminded me of a spiral abyss of darkness that no light will ever escape from.

'Yes fuck all of that.' I replied to him, agreeing with him for the first time in forever. A wide grin appeared on my face as my eyes slowly darkened and turn my gaze back to Haoyu. I slowly got up while looking him in the eye. I dashed towards him with a wide grin on my face as my alter's thoughts resonated together with mine loudly.

'I'M GONNA FUCKING MURDER THIS GUY!'