short story

It was a typical morning in Ms. Rune’s math class, everyone struggling to take notes due to lack of sleep. Trying to stay awake, I tune the teacher out as I stair blankly out the window. It’s a dreary morning, light rain and no sun at all. “Joseph.... Kyle.....Bert....” I hear Ms. Rune say until I hear my name. “Yasmin”. I respond, “here” still focusing on the window and without moving. She continues to announce names, her droning voice putting everyone to sleep, until she calls his name. “Adam”. I look around the room, no surprise he isn’t here. 

“Why bother even saying his name” says Demi. “He’s never here, your just wasting time” 

Everyone gives a light snicker, trying to fight off sleep. Ms Rune ignores Demi and continues to call Adam’s name. “Adam...does anyone see Adam.”. As soon as she is about to give up and call another name, everyone is awoken by a loud thud at the door. Everyone turns sharply at the door to see it has been flung open by none other then Adam. Everyone turns back around towards their desks groaning. 

“why the fuck does he even bother going to school” whispers someone in the back of the room. 

Adam can’t hear them over the ridiculously loud rock music coming from his large headphones, originally designed for DJ’s. I watch him walk towards me, my heart still pounding form the loud booming from the door. The rain outside had made the scent of the leather on his jacket more pungent then normal, but It didn’t really bother me. I move my feet off his chair as he take his set. He immediately puts his feet up on the empty chair infront of our table, his black sneakers drip onto the wooden chair and onto the bottom of his faded denim skinny jeans. 

“Are you just getting here Adam?” Says Ms. Rune looking angrily at him.

He doesn’t respond.

“Adam?” She repeats, her tone sharper then the last time.

He just sits there bobbing his head, headphones still blasting. By this time Ms. Rune has lost her patience and gets up to approach him.  By the time she gets to our table, he still hasn’t moved or noticed her. She reaches down and rips his headphones from his ears.

“Adam Garets, where have you been for the last hour!” 

“Can you mind your business and let go of my shit?” He slaps her hand off his headphones, Ms Rune  tries to contain her anger. 

“It is my business as a teacher to know why you are late for my class, now tell me where you've been or I’ll send you to the principles office!”

“Ohhhhhh I’m so scared. Go ahead the sooner you do, the sooner I go back home.”

“May I remind you the next time you get sent to the principles office gets you a 3 day suspension...again?”

Adam’s smug expression is immediately wiped off his face. He gives Ms. Rune a frown and can only respond her threat with “pshhhh”. He takes he takes his headphones off and says “Happy now?”. Ms. Rune continues to stare at him angrily until he removes his hat. His messy black curly hair falls over his face, blocking most of his eyes. He opens his bag and looks through a mess of papers and junk for a notebook. Out drops a pack of cigarettes from his bag, leaving it there until someone notices. 

“Uh hello?” I say “You obviously dropped those”

“Oh really? My bad” He pics them up and opens then, trying to show them off. I roll my eyes and he drops them back in his mess of a backpack. He finally finds a notebook and begins to take notes for a few moments. When the teacher turns her back, he rips a piece of paper out of his notebook and tosses a paper ball at Arin. The paper ball flys through the air, hitting Arin in the back of te head. Arin turns around, frowning at Adam who is pretending to write. His notebook is brand new, nothing ever written in it except a sentence on a few pages.

“Why don’t you actually use that paper for notes?” I say, looking blankly at his weak attempt at entertainment

“Why dont you mind your business?”

“Is that your only come back? Get some new material”

“Pshhhh” He says...again. “What a small vocabulary” I say in my mind “Watching the window is more entertaining then arguing with him”. Arin continues to be pummeled with paper balls, hitting her head and arms several times. She just ignores him. 

“Adam! Cut it out!” Says Mr. Rune “I won’t tell you again”.

“I wasn’t doing anything!” says Adam. Mr. Rune roles her eyes and ignores him.

“Pshhhh, stupid bitch” he whispers under his breath. Mr. Rune turns around immediately, her face is scrunching angrily at him.

“What did you say young man!” she screeched.

“I didn’t say anything”.

“Get up”

“What the hell I didn’t.....”

“GET UP”

He got up and yelled “WHAT!?”

“Pack up your things and go to the principles office, I wont’ let him go easy on you this time ether.”

“I’m not going” laughed Adam, dropping himself back into his chair. “You can’t make me”. The class was awake now, watching the show. Ms. Rune’s pale face was bright as a tomato now, she walked slowly towards his desk clenching her fists. She got to his desk and he looked up at her with a smug look on his face. She snatched up his bag from under his chair. 

“HEY!” he yelled. 

She opened the door, everyone got up from their chairs and ran to the door including Adam, as they watched Ms. Rune take the bag to the front of the downstairs stairs.  She looked down the stairs and dropped the bag, everyone gasping and shouting as the bag went tumbling from the eight floor to the first. 

She walked over to Adam, who was giving her the most disgusting face I had ever seem.

“Why don’t you stop trying to act tuff and actually do something with your life. How many years have you been in the 11th grade. Stop trying to be col and wake up!”

Adam tried to respond, but instead his face when from angry to saddened. So did hers after releasing what she had just done. Everyone watched silently at Adam expecting some outrageous response, but instead Adam slowly walked down the stairs after his bag, with the sound of tearful sniffling of his crushed ego echoing down the corridors.