Jay(1):

Mrs. Campbell's voice is booming through the classroom. She's talking about the book “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur miller. Or at least I think she is. I have not paid attention to one word she has said for the past 53 minutes. I’ve been writing away in my notebook trying to think of a new story to write. The classroom is filled with whispers and chuckles and I think I hear someone snoring. My brain is in the zone. 

The door slams shut and I don’t bother to look up. “Oops, that shut louder than I expected.” a girl said from the direction of the door. I roll my eyes and keep on jotting down ideas and plot ideas as well characters. 

“You’re extremely late ms… I'm sorry, what's your name again.” Mrs. Campbell said sternly and then seemed embarrassed she couldn’t remember the poor girls name. I looked up expecting someone I knew. But when I saw her standing there my breath got caught in my chest. 

She was gorgeous. Her blue eyes were intoxicating. She looked like something I wanted to get addicted to. She looked me dead in the eye and I rolled my eyes, then looked back down to my notebook and started writing about those bright blue addicting eyes.

“Lake, Lake watson.” She smiled a “fuck you” smile. I chuckled a little bit. Of course she has a name like that. 

“Well Miss.Watson, take a seat in that empty chair back there.” I looked up slightly to see she was pointing at my table. “Great.” I mumbled. Lake walked towards me smiling at my classmates. The soccer guys were drooling like dogs just looking at her. She was a beautiful girl. I won’t lie about that. But I wasn’t about to look at her like dogs look at meat. 

When she got to me she threw her bag down and asked, “Whatcha writing hobo.” She tried to peek at my notebook and I glared at her and covered it with my arm. She rolled her eyes,

“You are kind of an asshole. I heard that eye roll dude.” She sat back in her seat and dug through her backpack. She grabbed a pen then began to draw on her arms. I looked up to see what she was drawing. “Nuh-uh if I can’t see what you’re writing you can’t see what I'm drawing. See it's only fair.” She said behind a smile. I groaned and looked back to my notebook. Turning the page I wrote in big font Now let me see what you’re drawing. Lake peaked over and giggled as she showed me her arm where she was drawing. in big blocky letters it said, I can’t draw. I snorted 

“Is there a problem Mr. Markson?” Mrs.Campbell shouted. 

“No’m, just what you said was funny.” I said through gritted teeth. Everyone chuckled around me. “The death of Willy Loman was not funny.” She said angrily. 

I felt my face get red and my knuckles made a fist. Lake must’ve noticed because she then said,

“Honestly it’s a good play, don't get me wrong the man was crazy but his death was humorous. How could his family possibly not hear him start to leave as he was talking to himself? I think his death was tragic yes, but expected.” Lake had that same “fuck you” smile as she said this. Everyone looked back in shock. If you Knew Mrs.Campbell you knew not to go against her idea of the book. Mrs. Campbell looked at her in shock,

“You wouldn’t know a tragic play if it hit you in the face, Miss. Watson.” Everyone snickered. “And you couldn’t have original ideas if they slapped you in the face.” Lake shot back. 

This caused an uproar. The whole class was laughing their asses off and applauded. It wasn’t that good of a comeback but no one would ever dare to talk to Mrs. Campbell like that. 

“You can leave if you’d like miss.watson.” She said through gritted teeth. Lake smiled at me, grabbed her bag and stood up. “Actually yeah I don’t feel like being here right now.” She bowed to me and said “Good day Mr.Markson.” Then strutted out of the classroom with her head held high. 

I shook my head, still angry from my encounter with the teacher. I looked down to write in my notebook and that’s when I saw. In swirly letters just kidding I can draw, here’s a jellyfish. I looked at the stunning jellyfish drawing wondering when she did that and how I didn’t notice. 

The bell finally rang after a long one hour and twenty two minutes. I packed all my stuff, avoided eye contact with the teacher and ran straight out of the classroom. As soon as I had gotten out the door I ran right into someone. My backpack halfway unzipped and spilled everywhere.

“Are you fucking kidding me. You fucking prick watch where yo-“ I stopped mid sentence. “Wow, I didn’t even hear your accent before.” It was Lake. She seemed unphased by what had just happened. “I never got your first name Mr.Markson.” She tilted  her head and waited for a response. I glared at her and replied through my teeth still angry that she just was there “Jaymeson.” 

“Um too long and sounds to english, I’m gonna call you Jay. So where to now buddy?” I looked at her as if she was some sort of out of this world creature. 

“We aren’t going anywhere. I am going to my car to sleep.” I said snarkily. Before she could reply, I felt my head start getting fuzzy and my ears started ringing violently. I shook my head and started to speed walk away from her. I kept my head down. “Not right now wyatt please not right now.” As I was about to reach the exit doors I tripped on the rug and face planted right into the lockers.

Everyone started laughing around me, making my face hot. I clenched my fists and grabbed the closest guy to me. 

“Do you have a problem?” I yelled as I held a fist full of his shirt.  “Dude what the hell are you insane?”  That phrase was the last straw. The next thing I know I'm throwing him into the lockers. my eyes started going blurry and all I remember was pushing him into the lockers and that was it. 

Next thing I know I am sitting in the principal's office waiting for my mom to show up. 

The only sound in the room was the tapping of my foot and the clock ticking on the wall. Tick Tok tick tok tick tok tick tok. It was too quiet. I needed her to say something, or for my mom to walk into the room. Literally anything. tik tok tik tok tik tok tik tok tik tok tik tok tik tok TIK TOK TIK TOK. 

The door opened and there was my mom. In her workout clothes all sweaty and had a worried look on her face. I’m afraid if she worried anymore those worry lines would crack her face open to expose her soul.

“What happened, is Evan okay?” My mom asked frantically. She walked over to me. She grabbed my hand and examined it. I noticed it was all wrapped in white tape. My blood was seeping through. How hard did I wail on this kid? My mom dropped my hand gently and just looked at me. Not a worried look but a sad look. 

“It happened again didn’t it?” my mom asked the principal. The principal nodded and looked sharply at me. “Evan, we gave you guidelines, maintain a 3.4 GPA, don’t skip class, and NO more fighting. This is the third time this has happened this week.” The principal said with a serious tone. It annoyed me. She annoyed me. I felt my face growing hot and I clenched my fists. “Have you been taking your meds bubbas?” My mom asked while maintaining eye contact with the principal. I nodded slowly. My mom and I both knew it was a lie. 

I don’t remember what happened after that. Everything from that sentence on is just a blur. Next thing I knew I saw Lake sitting on a chair outside the office. When did we leave? I mumbled to myself. I saw Lake looking at me confused. “Are you following me?” I smiled at her. Karter lurched forward with no warning. She looked taken back. “You’d like it if I was that invested in you!” She shot back. I almost let out a laugh and went to say something. But my mom whispered “Evan come on, not right now.” I let my mind take over and soon everything went black.

Next thing i knew I was sitting in my room writing again. Explaining what I remember from the day and keeping notes on how many times I felt my head get fuzzy. As I was writing I remembered the jellyfish.

I flipped to that page and there it was. It was rushed but it was still very cool.  There wasn’t a lot of detail but I could tell that she put effort into it. I was staring so intently at the jellyfish that I noticed some numbers etched into the body of it.

Nice try. I thought to myself. I closed my notebook and closed my eyes to escape to my little world. I relaxed my entire body and let myself lose control.