Eyes On You

Nick's POV

I wished I was the Hulk, maybe four arms from Ben10 or at least had some insanely muscular superpower to punch the living daylights out of this stupid teenager standing right next to me who was not ready to shut his mouth at seven in the morning. And I like every other average teenager was not a morning person.

"You can totally audition for a role of zombie you know, I've heard there's a new upcoming apocalypse movie they are shooting in the studio outside the town," he then hunched his spine and made some weird noises which were supposed to sound like a zombie.

Is this what I was witnessing on the first day of reopening?

I was so done with him.

"It's seven in the morning for heaven's sake and it's the first day of school. Do you really want to mess with me Philip? You are literally begging for a punch,"

To be very honest, I was ready to beat him into pulp. But, he was already slightlly ugly and beating him would make the situation even worse since I have to see his face everyday and he also whined like a toddler at every opportunity possible.

"You have gained weight over vacation," he commented looking at me from head to toe.

"You have a death wish, don't you?" I growled.

Philip clenched his stomach as he laughed at my face. Why did I even become friends with this idiot? Why was he still around me? Why couldn't I just sell his body to some underground mafia in exchange of some salted potato chips?

I had been an introvert all my life and I preferred it that way. I get annoyed when people surround me and make unnecessary conversations, it always made me uncomfortable. I avoided a lot of my classmates because they would often just talk to me when they needed help with studies as I was amongst the toppers and teachers' favourite. Philip would often shoo them away. He knew I hated talking and these type of people who were only nice to me when I could benefit them so he always acted like my unpaid personal assistant and body guard. Yes, that's why I kept him around me. But on days like these I just wished I could flush him in the toilet to the other part of universe and never see his face again.

"Nick, is that blood?" Philip pointed.

That took me by surprise.

"Where?" I asked curiously.

"To your right, on Aiden's face," he squinted his eyes.

I instantly moved my neck to where he pointed, fixing my glasses to have a better look at his face. It was blood indeed. Although our school wasn't divided by the well knowns, nerds, jocks and people like that, Aiden was still somehow the bad boy of the school, he would always get in trouble and was involved in a lot of fights. He had more enemies than friends for sure. He must have gotten himself in another fist fight, it was nothing new.

He had a black eye and blood was dripping from his mouth. As usual he was not wearing tie. Not surprised. He never wore school uniform properly. Teachers didn't even bother him, they had all given up. I held Philip's hand and quickly rushed towards the classroom, I didn't want lecture on punctuality from professor on the first day and Philip had a very bad habit of enjoying fights and dramas. Especially when he was not involved.

I tried to concentrate on the board and the professor but, I was too sleepy. Did I mention that I was not a morning person? I probably did. We were in the second semester so the professors were teaching with the speed of light. In few months, there would be a lot of festivals and events, everyone just wanted to get done with studies including our professors, students and janitors.

The day went by rather slow but now it was finally time to leave. Usually I would go to a library to read novels or comics but, today was the first day of the semester and I was very sleepy. So I just thought I'd go home and sleep but fate of course had different uncomfortable plans for me.

"Nick, Mr. Joshua has called you in his office," a classmate whose name I couldn't remember informed me. I just gave them a nod in response.

I grabbed my bag and walked to Mr. Joshua's office, he was our Geography teacher. He was quite tall and skinny, his grey hair and beard covered most of his face. And I was not very fond of him, he barely taught us anything.

"May I come in sir?"

"Yes, of course. Have a seat," he chirped.

He was suspiciously happy today.

"Thank you."

"Nick, do you remember in last semester, your class had to make a report on different types of rocks in a given locality?" he raised his eyebrows.

"Yes,"

"So do you also remember that you could not submit it because a dog ate it?"

How could I not remember? This was the dumbest thing that has ever happened to me. No, this was the dumbest thing that has ever happened to any human on this planet earth. I worked fifteen days on that report only for the neighbour's dog to chew it like a ham burger. I wanted to slap that brainless dog right there but, it was too cute. The cuteness costed me lot of embarrassment.

"The marks of the report are important and  now doing it all over again can mess with this semester's studies. Since you are a very good student I can let this report pass but, you'll have to do something for me in return." he ordered.

This sly fox. He didn't say anything about it in last semester and today he suddenly remembered my report? Of course he wants me to do his work. But swear to God if he makes me grade assignment sheets I'll lose my shit.

"What is it, sir?" I asked politely, at least as politely as I could in this situation which looked like blackmail to me.

"You will have to supervise the old detention room,"

"The old detention room?" confusion was evident on my face.

"There's barely anyone in the old room, all you have to do is sit there and keep your eyes open. It's quite so you can easily study there if you want to or do any other work you have on your hand. No one will disturb you and I have some other things to take care of, so you will be the perfect substitute,"

Perfect substitute? More like the perfect scapegoat. The other things he had to take care of were probably sleeping and slacking off. But, I had no option except accepting his orders. He could easily fail me and I didn't want that at any cost. That damn dog who chewed on my homework.

"I would do as you asked sir, should I leave now?"

"Leave for your home?"

I nodded my head in agreement. Where else would I go and why did he care?

"You need to start supervising today,"

What the hell.

On the first day of semester?

"For how many days?"

"I think two weeks, I will update you."

"Okay,"

"You can leave now, if there is any problem you can contact the student council head if I'm not available."

"Got it."

I left his office with a nonchalant expression but, inside I was fuming. He was taking advantage of my situation. Did this qualify as harassment? I should have complained to the school principal maybe. But, my grades. Guess I was stuck. If there were any annoying juniors or any delinquents in the detention room, I was going to beat them if they messed with me.

I opened the door and swept my eyes across the room. There was no human in sight. Was I supposed to supervise desks and chairs? Stupid Joshua. I didn't even have Philip with me for entertainment. Only at these moments, I missed my cute and annoying friend. I took seat on the supervisor's chair and unzipped my bag. Since there was no one and I couldn't sleep here in uncomfortable position, I decided it was best to start studying.

Studying the latest chapter of the comic I had been reading.

I opened my book and started reading attentively. The semester had just started so there was not much to study in terms of academics. I wanted to indulge this time in reading novels and comics. I loved reading books. I read every genre. I also loved educational and non fictional books. I had not seen anyone around the school reading these types of books, if I did then I would ask them for recommendations myself. I flipped another page of the book and raised my eyebrows when the story took an unexpected turn. I was deep diving in the plot when suddenly a sound fell over my ears. It was the sound of a book closing. I moved my head towards the right where the sound came from. There were bookshelves in the right corner of the room and a boy, who looked about 3 inches shorter than me, was standing there, putting a book back on the shelf.

Was he here when I came? He might be, I didn't pay attention to the bookshelves. He looked familiar but, I couldn't remember who he was. Probably a classmate. He turned towards me and without even sparing a glance he sat on one of the desks and started reading.

He was Aiden.

And he was reading advanced literature.

The bad boy who failed classes, read advanced literature?

What in this world?