Lacuna

Chapter 3 - Lively First Impression

I followed Sir Dranc to the classroom that the student mentioned the fight took place. Slowly, the sounds of desks rattling and grunting resonate into my ears, 'we're close.'

          We reached the said classroom to see two students fighting. The rest of the classmates are outside the room, watching the two students fight in the classroom by themselves, seems like they are still in their own world.

          I closely inspect their features and come to a conclusion; a crow and a fox. I suddenly hear the crow shout "Just admit that you stole my lunch, you sly-" The crow suddenly throws a fist in the fox's direction before he could finish his sentence.

          I look up to face Sir Dranc, he has his eyebrows furrowed and his gaze turns sharp. 'Yikes,' I thought to myself. I turn to the other classmates outside, seems like they have turned their attention to me, whispering to each other. 'Are they talking about me?'

          "Quiet down you two!" Sir Dranc shouted. I quickly turn my head towards Sir Dranc and look at the two students inside the classroom. It seems like they had frozen in place realizing the headmaster's presence in the room.

          "How many times will you fight until I suspend you both for the hundredth time? Be grateful that I haven't expelled you two."  Sir Dranc rests his hands on his hips and sighs.

          "Corvin, Ben. You two will have to clean up your mess and the rest of you..." Sir Dranc turns his head towards the other students outside. Sir Dranc halts mid-sentence, creating suspension in the room.

          "As you can see beside me, a new student has been enrolled in the school. I will give all of you free time for as long as they finish cleaning up their mess." Sir Dranc shoots a glare onto one of the boys who are now arranging the desks and the other sweeping the floor.

           "In the meantime, you guys should get to know him. He'll be in your class, take care of him well, will you?" Sir Dranc pushes me softly towards the crowd of students. I can feel my anxiety spike, 'oh god oh no'.

          "I'll tell the next teacher on teaching duty about what happened, you guys be kind to him, okay?" Sir Dranc smiles and turns back, hands in his pockets.

          'Sir! Please don't leave me with them!' I thought to myself, crying inside.

          And as Sir Dranc leaves our view, I am suddenly bombarded with questions. Overwhelmed, I haven't gotten to answer them all, only gibberish has escaped my mouth.

          "Give him some time to breathe, you're suffocating him!" a voice comes out from a distance from the crowd. The students suddenly turn their heads to the location of the voice. The students slowly separate from each other, letting the figure come into my vision. 'Is he in our class too?' I wondered.

          "Oh! Santori! Our class has a new student! Isn't that exciting?" a classmate spoke towards the figure. 'Santori?' I look closely and it's...

          "Shopkeeper guy!" I shout in relief to see a familiar face. "It's Flavio, Flavio Santori." He smiles.

          "Say, I haven't heard you introducing yourself, what's your name again?" He steps forward, leaning close to me.

          "Cole Celestin." Without myself realizing, I've put on a small relieved smile on my face.

          "Santori, you've met him?" a student asked from the crowd. "Earlier, yes. I brought him to Sir Dranc with Xue." He answers with a soft smile. Flavio gently steps away from me and faces the crowd around me.

          "Ah, right. How are you guys outside class right now? Don't you still have lectures?" Flavio asks around. Immediately, the students simultaneously turn their heads and jerk their chin into the classroom, showing the two boys that were fighting, currently tidying the classroom. Flavio turns his head in the given direction and looks unfazed.

          "Understandable," Flavio spoke with a pause. "Oi, Corvin! Having fun?" Flavio teased one of the boys. The crow twists his head in Flavio's direction as he is pushing a desk. "Oh, fuck off now, Flavio." The crow pouts and continues to push the desk. 'They seem close.' I pondered.

          Flavio chuckles and suddenly, the sound of a bell goes off. "Ah, I must go, my class is starting, see you later!" and just like that, Flavio dashes through the hallways, and my eyes follow him as he and his footsteps slowly fade out. A student suddenly nudges my shoulder and I turn my head to see the student.

           "He's a senior, so their schedules are different than ours. This bell indicates our lunchtime but it indicates their next class." The student spoke. I look around me and the crowd is gone. "It's weird how he's roaming here since his homeroom class is on the other building across ours." The student pauses while he faces the direction where Flavio ran to. The student shrugs after a few seconds and turns to me.

          "Wanna have lunch with me?" The student offers while I'm still trying to process what just happened. After a few moments, I nod.

          "Great! I have a cool spot for us." The student smiles and invites me to come with him to the cafeteria. After we got our food, he leads me into the courtyard near the headmaster's building.

          Suddenly, out of nowhere, I accidentally bump into a student, knocking off what it seems to be a book. I immediately apologize and grab the book from the floor. I look up to return the book but as the student's eyes meet mine, he looked familiar. I take a few seconds before handing over the book onto the student's outstretched hand.

          'It's the snake student!' I widen my eyes in realization and quickly returned the book to him. "Thank you." He says in a stern voice as he walks away with the book. Caught in the moment, I've subconsciously been paralyzed.

          "Hey, you okay?" The student snaps me back into reality. I jolt a little and turn back to face the student.

          "Y-yeah! I just kinda zoned out back there." I spoke as I continue to follow the student. We soon arrive at a huge tree looming over us.

          "Well, here it is!" The student plops down under the shade, leaning onto the tree with his lunch. I soon imitate his movements and sit beside him unwrapping the lunch that he bought me.

          "So, I didn't quite get your name back there, mind repeating it again for me?" He tilts his head to face me.

          "It's Cole Celestin..." I softly spoke as I bite down on my lunch. But the student seems surprised at my response.

          "No way! My name is Rey Celestin! What are the odds, are you my long-lost brother or something?" The student jumps in front of me with a huge smile on his face.

Wait- Did I hear him correctly?