12. He isn't alright

During the lunch break, I made a quick trip to the library. I needed some books for the new history assignment. Every student in our class had to write on a different topic from the current chapter and my topic was Industrial expansion. I first thought I'd copy something down from the internet but then Mrs. Cooper said she needed us to use the library and provide the names of the books we used for reference. 

 

On reaching the library, I went to the history section and scanned through the names of the books on the shelves. Finally, when I thought I found a relevant book and was about to pull it out, a hand caught it from the other side and pulled it forcefully to that side. I made my grip tight on the book because I saw the face of the owner of that hand. It was none else than Mr. Grey eyes. 

 

"I was the first one who touched it. So take your hands off," I said. 

 

"Who told you, you were the one who touched it first? It was me. So find some other book cause I'm taking this one," he said blankly. It was clearly evident from his calm expression that he was here to piss me off. He purposefully made his grip on this book after seeing I was about to take it. 

 

"Fucking take your hands off!" I whisper yelled, pulling the book to myself. He pulled it back with more force, maintaining his calm demeanor. "Asshole!" I hissed at him. 

 

He chuckled quietly. "I already told you, you aren't having it. Are you deaf or something?" He muttered. 

 

"No, but my ears just don't listen to crap!" I gritted my teeth. "Now Jerk, give me the book and get lost!" I sneered and swiftly pulled the book, successfully yanking it from his hands. He stared at me hard with those narrow grey eyes while I grinned at him. 

But the next second he started pulling all the books on that shelf down with a straight face. Books hit one after another on the floor near his feet. Excuse me, I just can't understand what the hell is happening. What's wrong with him? 

 

As I stood there astonished, he suddenly stopped throwing the books and grinned at me, crossing his hands across his chest. The next second, the librarian came rushing.

"What is happening here!?" she yelled in panic looking at the innumerable number of books lying around Asher's feet. There was not a single book lying on my side. 

 

"He isn't alright!" I said pointing at Asher, still baffled. 

 

"I wanted that book in her hands. I first took it. But she yanked it from my hands and started throwing books at me," Asher said to the bewildered-looking librarian. 

 

"What! No!" I responded in shock. "He pulled them down himself." 

 

"What? Me? Really?" Asher made his eyes wide, pretending shocked. 

 

"Yes! You! Stop your acting, you brat!" 

 

"Enough! Stop! I'm reporting this to the principal right now!" Miss Bennett sneered. 

 

"Oh my God! No!" I yelped. I remembered what Mr. Morris said last day. Once again inside his office means TC. "Ma'am, please don't report to the principal. I'll place everything back in place. Maybe I can even help you arrange the other shelves. Please..", I pleaded to the librarian who was looking furiously at me. 

 

"No!" She scoffed. 

 

"Please..just this once. If you report this to Mr. Morris, then you won't be able to see me again." 

 

"What? You are gonna die?" Asher mocked. I glared at him and looked back at the librarian.

After pleading a few more times, I successfully convinced her to not report the incident to the principal. But I ended up skipping the next hour, cleaning and arranging the shelves. And I decided I'll make Asher pay for this. 

 

While dusting the shelves, I thought a lot about what to do to Asher. His Featurefolio is in my hands. I first only thought to delete it, but now he is forcing me to do more. Shall I put a highly sexist post from his account calling every girl a bitch? Sorry but I think that’s more or less his attitude towards girls. I mean he humiliated a girl in public. 

 

But that would be a bit toxic. I shouldn't do that. Shall I do a naked edit on one of his pics and post it? No, that's not gonna work. Then shall I send a flirty message to a female staff here, maybe miss Bennett itself? No no..that too doesn't work. He'd say someone hacked his account and did it. And everyone would believe it too. 

Then what shall I do? I found myself struggling and failing to come up with an impressive idea. 

 

Once I finished my task at the library, I quickly got out of there and walked in direction of my last hour, computer science which is my elective subject and it's happening at the computer lab. So it's supposed to be a relaxing hour for me but I'm not sure whether I'll be able to feel relaxed after this worst encounter with Asher Carter and an hour's work at the library. 

 

If Ty wasn't supportive of Asher, I could have told him about this and gotten rid of my frustration. But what to say, Ty is that Jerk's best friend and ultimate supporter. And now he is mad at me for talking to Aaron. 

 

Anyway, Ty isn't there in the computer science class. He has taken visual arts as his elective subject since he is interested in photography and film studies. But Aaron is there. I'll better tell him. I quickly walked in direction of the computer lab. 

 

I suddenly stopped as I reached near the notice board in front of the computer lab. There was a colorful poster pasted on it and it somehow attracted me so much that I stopped and started reading. 

 

It was actually a poster about High school IT fest happening in two months. There were many competitions like IT quizzes, digital painting, Logo designing, web page designing, etc. My eyes suddenly got stuck on the last item on the list which had the biggest prize money $2000. 

It was none else than video game developing contest. I was actually surprised they included video game developing in a high school fest. Do they really expect high school kids to be that skilled? Who other than me knows any programming languages and hardware? Honestly, I don't know anyone my age who can develop a decent video game. 

 

Wait! That means I've got a chance to win, right? Should I try this? There's two months. And I'm already working on a video game. If I try hard, I can finish it by then. But the thing is, my designing skill sucks. The cars I already designed looks weird. Moreover, my whole setting is dull. But it's okay, I still can win with complex programming. 

 

I quickly started reading the details about the competition and my whole excitement died down. Because It is a group item, which means I cannot participate alone. Students can only participate in teams of 2-5 members. 

 

Should I participate in team along with Ty? He has an artistic sense and maybe he can help me with designing. But he hasn't even taken Computer Science. Even if that's not a problem, if we work together, my parents would know about it and then they won't let us participate. They had even forced me to choose some other elective than computer science when I took admission here. 

 

Okay, now even if Ty agrees to work on the game secretly with me and we successfully manage to hide it from our parents, there still arises a problem. That is, I might get overwhelmed and end up telling my secrets to him when he finds out I'm too good at this. He thinks I abandoned the technology field two years ago. So, I can't let him know the truth. 

 

This is not meant for me. I sighed looking at the poster and then walked into the lab. 

 

I stepped inside, pulling open the glass doors to find Aaron sitting in front of a computer, his eyes practically glued to the screen in front of him as his palm moved delicately over the mouse ever so carefully. He looked like he was doing something with utmost concentration that his eyebrows were scrunched up together and his lips were pressed tightly. 

 

The computer next to him was free. So I decided to sit near him. Actually, he was the only person inside the lab except me, cause the bell had not rung yet. So he probably skipped the last hour. But what is he doing here bunking class? I slowly walked toward him without making any sound. 

 

I was awe-struck on seeing the computer screen. Aaron was carefully drawing the portrait of a girl's face. Not just a portrait but a very beautiful, an outstanding one that looked really professional. I was totally mesmerized by the color mixing and the lines. Oh my gosh! I didn't know he was an artist. 

 

I stood there watching him draw for a minute, totally surprised and amused. Aaron still didn't realize my presence even while I was standing just behind him. He was so immersed in his drawing.