Chapter Four

The Boy with The Blue Eyes

Savannah is lost on her way to Ecology class.

The old science building where ecology classes were usually held is now the new Food Technology room and the new science labs are located behind the year 12 block;

On the other side of the school.

She wishes she had paid attention to what Mr Jones was saying in assembly.

Savannah speed walks as fast as she could, carrying her textbooks in her arms as the humid air tested her frizzy hair for the hundredth time.

She's running 5 minutes late to class. There were very few things that triggered Savannah's anxiety, but being late to class was certainly one of them.

She finally found the room, she takes deep breaths and opens the door.

As expected, every head turns to watch her as she tries to look for an empty seat.

Savannah tries to subtly pat her flyaway hairs down as she passes the table Heather and Natalie are seated in.

She could feel their eyes gazing at her as she passed.

Savannah continues walking and trying not to draw attention to herself when she comes across a row of empty seats right in front of Heather and Natalie.

Realising that these are the only seats available, in front of the she-devils, Savannah reluctantly sits down and settles herself.

She's glad to see that her Ecology teacher for the sixth year in a row, is Mrs Bennet, an amiable, middle aged-woman with beautiful green eyes and chocolate-brown curls that fell to her shoulders, smiling at her.

Savannah unclenches her jaw when she realises that class hasn't began yet as Mrs Bennet sets up her notes.

Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, Savannah hears Heather whisper, "can't even see the whiteboard with Mount 'hairverest' over here," as she and her surrounding friends giggled maniacally.

Savannah pretends not hear and continues to organise her things, her heart thumping in her chest.

The class room door swings open.

Thankfully the late arrival of Mitchell gives Savannah something else to think about.

He walks into class ruffling his windswept hair, making it look even messier.

He walks over to the only row of empty seats and takes a seat right beside Savannah.

'There are four spare seats on this row and he decides to sit on the one right next to me?'

Savannah thinks to herself briefly before realising that she was misdirecting her anger for Heather towards Mitchell for no good reason.

Mitchell leans into Savannah and whispers "I didn't notice that Ecol' got moved to an entirely different freakin' building," he smirks, chewing his gum that emphasised his chiselled jaw and annoyingly gorgeous smile.

"I didn't get the memo either... well I did but... Mr Jones can be hard to listen to sometimes," she whispers back.

Savannah instantly regrets speaking, realising that she'd just insulted Mitchell's father.

She wishes she had bitten her tongue before speaking ill about the principal to his son.

"I'm his son, so amen to that, sister," he says, flashing Savannah a decent smile, looking at her with his cobalt blue eyes.

Feeling relieved that Mitchell took no offense, Savannah wonders if he was showing off his amazing rack of perfect teeth or if the guy was just a genuinely happy person.

Before she could smile back, Natalie speaks in a voice that is loud enough for a majority of the students to hear, but quiet enough to be outside the teacher's earshot.

"You would think she'd own a comb with hair like that," she says in a vindictively sweet tone.

Savannah does her best to pretend she is unaware that they are talking about her, she notices Mitchell glare briefly behind them towards Heather and Natalie.

"Nat, don't be silly, apes don't own combs," says Heather in a voice that was viciously delicate.

Savannah bites hard on her pen to stop herself from screaming out loud, how could someone be so nasty?

Mitchell glares at Natalie and her group of cackling imbeciles and glares back Savannah as she tried with all her might to suppress the tears of frustration building up in her eyes and the lump growing in her throat.

Savannah is unsure if she was capable of suppressing her hurt for much longer as her classmates watched on.

She is no stranger to being on the receiving end of insults thrown at her by Heather and Natalie.

But she had forgotten how nasty they were and couldn't work out why they where this vile all of a sudden, the only thing she knew was that she didn't miss it, miss them.

"Alright settle down, I'm nearly there, just adding a few more notes," says Mrs Bennet, clearly misunderstanding the sudden uproar.

Heather gives a breathy giggle, something about that made Savannah feel as if they weren't done scrutinizing her.

"I know, because there's an ape sitting right in front of us," smiles Heather with pride as she crosses her arms.

Enough. Is. Enough.

Savannah is shaking with rage and heartache, her vision becomes bleary, she can't pretend it doesn't bother her anymore, she is in physical pain from bottling it all up, she doesn't know what to do, or what not to do, all she knows is she had to do something.

"SHUT YOUR FILTY MOUTH HEATHER!" roared Mitchell, startling everyone in the class including Savannah.

He gets up from his seat and looks down at Heather, Natalie and their friends that Savannah could never remember the names of.

"You know, it doesn't take much to be foul-mouthed vultures like yourselves, trying with every ounce of your might to drag other people, people who are far better than you are, to the deepest depths of hell which your superficial, weak, bloodsucking, truly horrendous souls lie.

"But the only people I truly feel sorry for, are all of you; because you can't escape your own pathetic presence," he picks up his bag and swings it over his shoulder, "but everyone else can."

He glares at Savannah then leaves the room.

Silence fills the classroom as everyone tries to process what had just happened.

Heather's face is flushed with colour and Natalie stares at the ceiling, Savannah does her best not to make eye-contact with anyone.

"I-It doesn't look like we'll be having class today due to technical difficulties and um... that," breathed Mrs Bennet, clearly confused. "Class dismissed, terribly sorry about that, I'll see you all tomorrow."

Savannah packs up her books and left the room as fast as she could, still processing the events that took place less than 10 minutes ago.

Savannah couldn't concentrate on what Mr Wilson was saying in English the following period, trying to make sense of what had happened and how she should feel and why Mitchell stood up for her when they weren't exactly the greatest of friends.

Savannah had always thought Mitchell expressed his loyalty to Heather and Natalie.

'I mean, they're in the same friendship group for crying-out-loud,' thought Savannah before realising how wrong she was.

She couldn't help but see Mitchell in a different light, she couldn't express how thankful she was for his arrival and even more, his decision to sit right beside her, but above all, his courage.

The home bell rang and for the second time this day, Savannah was the first to leave the class, she was at her locker and out of the school on her way to work in a matter of minutes.

She didn't know why she was in a hurry; she just knew she had to get out of that place.

Her shift at the library, though only 3 hours, gave her time to gather her thoughts.

'Okay, I can be upset, first day back was a hot freakin' mess, but that doesn't mean all year is going to be like that... at least I hope not.'

'It's just a bad day, it doesn't mean it'll be a terrible year.' She told herself over and over.

Miss Mewdan is terrible, but she doesn't bother with students who don't draw attention to themselves.

Savannah makes a mental note to sit as far away from her as possible every school morning and to keep herself to herself.

Savannah hopes now that Leon knows where her locker is, after today, he knows better than to ambush her with the people that make her want to claw at her own skin.

The best thing to do was to avoid and make as little contact with them as possible.

As she thought about Leon she wondered why he got so heated in their lunchtime discussions about their pathways next year.

'Sure, Leon wants the best for me, but he wouldn't have gotten so defensive if I wasn't doing something wrong... I don't want to be another case of wasted youth... but maybe I am... or will be, that's probably why he wants me to go out and experience things...'

The more she thought about it, the more she realised the little she knew about Leon's plans after graduation except that university was a no-go for him; that much was obvious.

"Savannah dear, your shift ended sixteen minutes ago, you better get on home," said the voice Savannah recognised as Mrs Bernard, the head librarian.

"Sorry Mrs. B, I hadn't realised I was too-"

"Caught up in your thoughts?" she askes smiling up at Savannah.

"Yeah," breathes Savannah.

"You don't have to explain yourself to me darl, I've known you long enough to know you've got the mind of a dreamer."

That was the second time somebody had called her a 'dreamer' today, she didn't know how to feel but she gave Mrs Bernard a tired smile and went to collect her things to head home.

She waited outside the library for ten minutes waiting for a parent to pick her up before realising she hadn't told either of them she was working today.

'For goodness sake Savannah, you idiot!' howled the voice inside her head.

She takes out her phone, but to her disappointment the battery is at 2%, 'a phone call would be pushing it,' she thought.

Her heart leaps when she sees her older brother Mike emerge from the smoothie bar across the street with a couple of friends as he approached his car.

"Mike, Michael!... MIKE!" Savannah yelled as she waved and walked towards him, desperately trying to get his attention.

It was as if Savannah was invisible only to Mike, a friend of his tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at Savannah and he didn't flinch or lift his head up to acknowledge his sister across the road.

To Savannah's utter disbelief, Mike had completely refused to acknowledge her existence, or even look at her as he and his friends drove away.

Savannah cursed under her breath and made her way home, if it weren't for the beautiful setting sun, Savannah would have had a breakdown.

The walk to her house from the library was just a little over a half-hour, she walked into the kitchen as her family were having dinner.

"There you are! Your father and I were worried sick!" screamed Savannah's mother Anita, "where were you?!" she asked in a quieter yet more aggressive tone.

"I had work... I forgot I had work," said Savannah

"Savannah, honey, you've got to let us know where you are, if not at least pick up your phone when we try to call you," said her father Anthony as he tried to calm down his wife.

"But dad, my phone was-"

"-dead?" cut in Ben as he scratched his head with his drumstick,

"it was dying" corrected Savannah.

"That's not good enough, Savannah" said Anthony with a sorrow look on his face,

"and you walked home?" asks Anita calmly.

"Yes," said Savannah as her mother looks at her and slowly shakes her head.

"But Mum, Michael saw me outside the library at the end of my shift and he didn't bother picking me up," said Savannah while eying Mike with fury.

"I didn't see you," said Mike simply, not bothering to look up from his dinner plate.

Savannah is baffled, she balls her hands into fists and looked up to the heavens.

"Don't you dare try to pin this on your brother Savannah Marie, I'm sure if he had seen you, he would've picked you up."

How was she so sure?

Savannah lets out a defeated sigh, "I'm sorry," she said, unable to meet anybody's eyes.

She turns and makes her way upstairs to her room.

"You're not hungry?" asked Anita as Savannah stopped in her tracks, "No," lies Savannah in what was barely a whisper.

Savannah gets into her room and shuts the door with her back against it.

She wondered what she did to deserve such bad luck, 'why do bad things happen to good people?' she asked herself as hot tears welled up in her eyes.

She was so emotionally exhausted she was unable to bottle it up anymore. She slid her body down the door until she was sitting on her room floor silently crying, trying so desperately to silence her howls of misery.

She envied the person she was twenty-four hours ago.

Her phone rang in her pocket, it was Leon, 'how is the battery not flat yet?' she thought.

She stared at her phone, watching it ring in her hands until the screen went black. She didn't know why, but Leon was the last person she wanted to speak to.

Savannah changed out of her uniform and laid in bed waiting for this dreadful day to come to an end and hoping for a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

Savannah hoped for a better day tomorrow, goodness knows, it couldn't be any worst than today.