Chapter 2: "New Year, New me.."
In class I noticed a lot about the boy I was paying attention to over the lesson I was supposed to be learning.
His hair seemed longer in the back. And even though his left side had hair pulled back, he kept pushing back the right side whenever a lock would fall over his shoulder. He wrote with his left hand and had really good English handwriting. I don't know why I'm focusing on him. Maybe in learning about him now I'll feel better that I didn't know anything about him before he died in my .... previous life..?
I guess I could call it that for sake of convenience.
His hair is the most alluring thing about him in my vision.
I wanted to touch it so badly. But I wondered what tedious hair care regimen I'd be fucking up if I did that.
Not to mention the last time I saw this boy he was a corpse. That beautiful hair matted with pebbles, dirt, and blood. Of course the last one was a bit hard to tell because of the color his hair already was.
Admiring from a distance was safest for me, wouldn't trigger too many flashbacks.
When class ended he went to the restroom.
I stared at the floor or looked anywhere to avoid eye contact. I wasn't really sure why I followed him to the bathroom. In the mirror I looked at my reflection and tried to smooth out my raven hair.
Ruffling it and running my hand through it wasn't actually doing anything because it was obvious I looked like I just woke up. I wish I brought a comb.
"Your tie is poorly done too," Jang said.
I looked down and saw he was right. I reached for it but I was stopped by Jang.
"let me, if you don't mind," he said smoothly.
"Thanks for fixing it for me,"
Jang was such a weird first name. Must be a Korean thing. Maybe I could look it up in the school library.
"I uh--," I started, hoping to make conversation.
His eyes flitted towards me showing I had his attention.
I couldn't tell him he was gonna die, or that I was a failure of a city hero who... died and got sent back to my teenage self. I also couldn't tell him I thought he was beautiful and that being so close was unusual for me. That would be true but weird and sudden.
To be fair so were all of those things but I digress.
"do you want a tour around the school?" I asked, desperate not to make it awkward. His eyes widened.
"you do that here?" he asked. He finished my tie and lowered his hands.
"Well normally teachers do it but it's easy to get lost in this place and I think it's a good return favor for helping with my tie." I smiled.
His surprised expression softened and he agreed to the tour.
"So what's your next class?" I asked.
"science, one of my weakest subjects," he unfolded a paper that apparently had al the same classes as me. Weird. I would have remembered if that was the case before.
"great! We can flunk it together" I said to avoid being caught staring.
"Surely we won't do that bad,"
"bet." I replied remembering how popular that was to say.
I turned around and the bathroom door opened showing a bunch of jerks I sadly recognized.
Morrell and his pack of idiots.
I deadpanned as one of them .. Eddie is his name I guess, spat on the floor. Morrell was the leader and the other three circled us.
"Oh we were just leaving. You can have the entire bathroom if you want it so badly," if we didn't leave we'd be late for our next class. I really didn't want to get on the teacher's bad side before I started scoring D's on every test
"But out" he shoved me so I slammed against a stall door.
"ugh!" I groaned mostly because the impact had surprised me. Doors hurt.
"our business is with the gay thing," he said getting a bit too close to Jang than I gathered he liked.
He reached up a hand and pulled on Jang's hair. Jang grabbed his arm in an attempt to pull him off while he whined in pain. Oh hell no.
In frustration Jang kicked Morrell in the shin which told me something about his reflexes.
I stood up.
Looked at what each of Morrell's sandy blonde idiot friends were doing, which was nothing. Then I tackled him. We crashed into the soap dispenser and then the sink. The soap had exploded from impact as the bag was crushed from Morrell's head slamming into it.
"what the fuck I told you to stay out of it?!" Morrell yelled as he tried to wipe the soap out of his eyes. I stood up dodged the attack of his goons and kicked each of them in the stomach. High kicks were one of my favorite things to do.
Jang had moved out the way at some point so he was miraculously not covered in soapsuds. I cringed. It was not how I planned on going to my next class. My bag was still on the floor next to Jang's which is where I put it when I came in. I grabbed both and Jang followed me out since I had his schoolbag.
"We'll be waiting after school for you punks!" Morrell called out as the door slammed and about a dozen students looked at us curiously.
Great I just put a target on both our backs.
Jang was done for.
For all I know I just unintentionally sped up his death date. Bullying could get really bad. If he was bullied into suicide.. no problem all I had to do was introduce him to someone really nice. Probably not a girl, they might get jealous. Maybe one of the anime or MCU fanatics.
Still it bothered me.
What Morrell said before.. he called him gay.
That's making a lot of assumptions but it also could start other problems. We shouldn't have problems with gays, a lot of them are more respectful and considerate than 'straight' people are. But high schoolers are still kids and kids are horrible. At least the racist ones hadn't reared their heads yet.
Fuck I just jinxed it.
Mr. Watson rolled his eyes and muttered "boys please wash your hair at home in the future,"
I flinched. "Yessir,"
A girl whispered something and her friend giggled.
I ignored it and sat next to Jang, ironically. Jang opened his bag then he handed it to me.
oops. Must have mixed them up. I handed him his. And grabbed a pencil, the textbook and a new notebook for science.
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"Shit" I cursed. Rushing to school means no prepared lunch. I didn't have any money so I couldn't buy a makeshift one from the school vending machine.
A click and the most amazing smell wafted by me. Jang had a box with two layers and both had pizza.
Jang had paradise in a box.
"I don't suppose it would be fair to ask you for a slice.."
"Absolutely not." Jang said
I deflated a little. But this was good. He knew food was an expensive currency and should not be exchanged like popular trading cards. He had my respect.
"I'm willing to give two slices for two favors. I'm allowed to ask for them whenever I want." He said breaking off a slice of his small pepperoni pizza.
"... sounds sketchy but it's a Deal," I decided and I realized something.
"wait here," I remarked and went to the lunch line. It was mostly empty now but I was focused on getting a few napkins and some juice. The Juice boxes weren't great, there was apple, fruit punch and passion fruit. But at least they were free.
I grabbed two of apple and passion fruit. Mostly because another guy was getting one from the fruit punch section and there was no way to grab it without making a scene.
When I came back Jang was already eating a slice. He had headphones on but the volume wasn't currently loud enough for me to hear.
"Thanks for sharing with me," I laughed holding up the juice boxes. He grabbed the passion fruit ones and smiled.
He placed one pepperoni slice and one veggie pizza slice on the napkin I reserved as a plate and I opened a juice box.
I ate and stared out the window as I tried to focus on my goal. I didn't want to be a hero in this life so I needed to pull off some actions that would cause me not to be selected and scouted by that organization. I furrowed my eyebrows, there were some things I couldn't prevent but I could change how I reacted to them.
While I was thinking I realized I could hear a song.
"So give me reason
To prove me wrong
I was trying to eat and listen since it was a song I liked.
"To wash this memory clean
Let the floods cross
The distance in your eyes
Across this new divide"
Jang was looking at his iPod and it was playing New Divide by Linkin Park.
Basically, lunch I learned something new about Jang.
He had amazing music tastes.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone