Ch 1

It was another unnecessarily long day at school. The students of class 3-C all sat in the classroom praying for something, anything to get them out of this boring lesson. Even their teacher, Ms Livia appeared to be exhausted of her own lesson as she no longer even bothered to wake up the students who had fallen asleep sometime during the course of the class.

17 year old Noah Carter sat absentmindedly at his desk somewhere near the middle of the class, not too close to the front where he'd be the teacher's center of attention, but not too far back either where he'd be too distracted by the things that usually went on back there. He was currently chewing on the end of his pen and trying but miserably failing to pay attention to the seemingly endless drawl of words that spewed from his teacher's mouth, and then it happened.

The interruption the whole class so desperately prayed for, and it had come in the form of the principal as he walked into the classroom and whispered something into the the ear of the teacher, Ms Livia, whose facial expression went from calm to absolutely shocked and then somewhat confused in a matter of seconds as she scanned the classroom with her eyes.

Ms Livia struggled to keep her compusure as she quickly followed the principal out of the classroom, leaving the students, quite confused.

The students chattered amongst themselves, wondering what could possibly have happened, a few showing concern, while others couldn't be bothered, and most were just overall relieved that they had finally been saved from what seemed to be the most uninteresting lesson of all time.

"Good morning everyone,"the principal began. "As I presume most of you have noticed, your classmate and fellow student Jason Williams, has been absent for the past few days and will not be returning to school for a while either as he has fallen seriously ill. You're all welcome to visit him in the hospital to convey your best wishes and encouragement in groups of three at most, so as not to overwhelm him."

Noah paused for one, two, three seconds before it clicked in his brain. Jason...Jace - the somewhat strange kid who usually sat behind him. He looked around and noticed for the first time the currently empty desk behind his and that truthfully, Jace wasn't in class. In fact, it had only just then occurred to him that he really hadn't seen Jace in class all week and it was already Thursday. Noah felt bad but tried to brush it off. It wasn't his fault he didn't notice Jace's absence, they weren't exactly close friends and it wasn't like he was obligated to look after Jace anyways.

A few others looked around and had also just noticed the vacant desk while the rest were confused, murmuring something about having no idea that there was even a Jason Williams in their class.

Noah looked around and observed his classmates' reactions. Everyone's attention in class was grabbed by the announcement but nobody appeared to be particularly shaken up. Honestly speaking, Ms Livia seemed to be the person showing even the slightest bit of emotion other than curiosity and confusion. What kind of sickness would require Jace to be out of school for days and possibly even weeks? Was he terminally ill? Was it contagious? What if he has infected the class with whatever mysterious ailment had plagued him as well?

And soon, the chatter had changed course, from slight worry about Jace to full concern about their own health. Selfish brats, Noah thought to himself but he couldn't figure out why he cared in the first place.

The rest of the school day had passed by in a blur for Noah who's mind kept drifting to Jace throughout and eventually, it was time to go home. Noah headed towards his locker to pack his things in preparation to leave for the day. As he stood there in the hallway, he could hear the murmuring of students again.

"My cousin says her friend lives next door to Jace, I heard he attempted suicide."

"Whatttt??? No way."

"Then again, who can blame him? It's not like anyone really liked him to begin with."

"You're right though, and I've always thought he was quite a wierdo anyways."

Noah ignored the two girls and tried not to be bothered by their words, settling to brush it off and nonsensical and baseless teenage gossip. He didn't even have a reason to be bothered, he told himself as he exited the school premises.

^^^\~Kyra^^^

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***