9:47 AM.
All the classes would be dismissed at 10:00. A certain class had already finished their introduction lesson and stayed in the class, getting to know each other. The class was lively, but some students were happier than others for one particular reason.
"This seating plan sucks", Lucas moaned with his head resting on the desk.
"Look on the bright side, it could be worse. We could be Ray", David replied, using his time looking through the academy app.
Lucas lifted his head and turned around in his seat to look at Ray. Ray was seated among people he didn't know. Ray caught Lucas's eyes and met them. He lightly smiled, clearly showing his discomfort. Lucas could see how awkward the vibe was around that area.
"Yeah, you're right", Lucas said, turning back to David. "Tch, I'm happy I'm sitting next to someone I know, but I don't like being at the front. It's too close. We're legit in front of the teacher's desk".
"It could be a good thing", David tried to cheer Lucas up. "We can pay attention to the teacher, and if we slack off, we will be caught".
"David, I want to slack off", Lucas replied.
David took his eyes off his phone and looked at Lucas.
"Not always, but sometimes, you know", Lucas said, after getting a look from David.
David smiled, "Yeah, I get it. I was just trying to make the best of the situation".
Lucas sighed and slumped into his seat, "It's fine. It's just that it doesn't help that they get good seats at the back, they are all together. It's unfair".
"HAHAHAHAHA"
Laughter haunted Lucas's ears, "Bro, you can even hear them from here", he whined.
The back of the class was the liveliest because the corner of the room now inhabited William, Benjamin and Malakai.
Malakai was in the back row with William and Benjamin sitting ahead of him. They were all getting looks from everyone in the class because they had been laughing nonstop since their teacher had finished her speech.
"Hahahaha, I'm dying". Benjamin laughed, holding his stomach.
"Hehehe, look at Ray. He said, 'It was going to be fun, we're all in the same class'. Look at his seat", Malakai laughed, pointing at Ray.
"Hahaha, David and Lucas are also having a great time. Front-row seats, William laughed, wiping tears from his eyes.
The three continued to laugh, and there was no stopping them. The other three could hear their insults. David took the joke well and smiled through it. Lucas's head was hot, and he put his head back on the desk, attempting to ignore the laughter. Ray awkwardly smiled and avoided the people around him, who were glancing at him as his friends were making a scene.
"Aryt, aryt. Let's calm down, let's calm down", Malakai said, putting a hand over his smile to contain himself.
"Okay, okay", William said, slowing down his laughter.
The three of them gradually stopped laughing, and each took a deep breath to regain their composure. This was the start of many memories they would gather this year in this classroom.
"Do all of you always cause a scene wherever you go?".
The boys turned to the voice and saw a girl with warm brown skin, dark brown hair hanging just above her shoulders, and golden amber-coloured eyes glaring at them.
"Do you love attention or something?".
The boys looked at each other to see who would answer.
"If it's from you, yes", Malakai jokingly flirted with a grin.
The girl's eyelids raised. She was caught off guard by that response.
"Ignore him. He likes to joke around", Benjamin quickly assured her after seeing her face.
"Yeah, I'm joking", Malakai said. "But naah, we don't like attention. It's just fun being around each other".
"When we're together, we make a lot of noise. We don't mean to be annoying. I think it's a guy thing just being loud", William added.
"I wasn't annoyed or complaining. I was just curious", she said, waving her hands in front of her to clear up any misunderstanding. "I'm sorry. My face looks serious and unapproachable, so that's probably why you got the wrong impression".
"It's fine, don't worry about it", William replied. "What's your name?".
"My name's Delilah. What about you guys?"
"I'm William".
"Benjamin".
"Malakai".
They all answered one after another.
"Cool, I'm happy I'm sitting next to people who want to talk, I guess". Delilah happily said. She turned her attention to Malakai, "Malakai, you're not American, right? You've got a different accent".
"Yeah, I'm from the UK. London".
"Guess his ethnicity, I guarantee you won't get it", William eagerly said, wanting to test her.
"You get three attempts", Benjamin jumped in, holding up three fingers.
Malakai smiled, "Why do you lot do this every time?".
"It's fun to see what people say", Benjamin replied.
Delilah took a couple of seconds to look at Malakai's face.
"You're skin tones kinda light and you look South Asian. You wouldn't ask me that question if he was indian because that would be too obvious. Sooo, imma say Bangladesh".
"Nah".
"Sri Lanka?"
"Nah".
"Pakistan?".
"Nah"
"India?"
"That's more than three", Benjamin said, stopping her from spamming guesses.
Delilah had a confused look as she looked at Malakai with curiosity.
"You're South Asian, right?" she asked.
"Nah, I'm African", Malakai grinned.
"What?!" Delilah reacted, even more confused.
"I'm Mauritian", Malakai proudly said. "Mauritius is in Africa".
"You're from Mauritius? Wow, that's different", Delilah replied, pleasantly surprised, recognising his country. "It's my first time meeting someone from Mauritius. It looks beautiful, from what I've seen", she excitedly said.
"Yeah, it is. I'm surprised you know about Mauritius, most people don't", Malakai replied.
"I've seen videos about it", Delilah said. "Have you ever been there?".
"Yeah, when I was little. Can't remember much, though, just got family pictures".
"Can I see?" Delilah was bombarding Malakai with questions.
"I don't have them on my phone. They're all at home in a folder my mom keeps", Malakai smiled.
"awe", Delilah disappointedly said.
"What about you? Where are you from?" Malakai returned the question.
"I was born here, but my parents are from Brazil", Delilah said, looking proud of her heritage.
"That's sick", Malakai replied, looking interested.
It looked like Benjamin and William were third-wheeling right now, so Malakai decided to save them and include them in the conversation.
"It's mad that there's 150 people in our year".
"30 people in each class. I'm glad we aren't in 1-E. Imagine being the bottom class", William replied.
"We're not much better, bro. We're 1-C. I thought I would've got class B at least", Benjamin said, a little disappointed..
"It's the first year. We can always move up", Delilah replied, looking at Benjamin. "I think it's better being here than in a higher class because there would be more pressure to maintain your place".
"True", the three boys said in synchrony.
"Our class looks calm (fine). I can't lie, I'm glad there's no one like Dillon here", Malakai said, glancing at his classmates.
"Dillon?" Delilah questioned.
"Just some idiot", Malakai replied with a full smile, reminiscing about what had happened earlier.
After seeing his smile, Delilah caught on, "Oh, that guy who grabbed you in the assembly".
"You saw?".
"Who didn't?".
"Fairs", Malakai smiled.
"I'm happy she's in our class", Benjamin said with his head turned, looking ahead. "I might shoot my shot".
"Who?" Malakai asked, moving around in his seat to see who Benjamin was looking at.
Malakai scanned the room until his eyes locked with a girl. A beautiful, short, light-skinned girl with perfect, clear skin, healthy, long, wavy black hair, and emerald green eyes. Her appearance was flawless. As soon as their eyes locked, time froze... for about three seconds before the girl quickly broke eye contact and turned around to look down at her desk.
Malakai kept looking at her, wondering if she was the one they were talking about. "You talking about her?" he asked, pointing with his eyes.
"You don't know her?" Delilah sounded shocked.
Malakai turned his head to Delilah and looked at her with oblivious eyes, "Is she a celebrity or something?".
Delilah looked at him, stunned, unsure if he was being serious or not. "She's Havana Rodriguez's daughter".
Malakai gave a blank look to Delilah, then turned towards William and Benjamin and gave them the same look, "And who's that?".
William and Benjamin laughed, knowing he wouldn't know who she was.
"She's a famous actor, she's been in a lot of movies and shows. A lot of people know her for being beautiful", Benjamin said.
"And she's got a kinda famous daughter. That daughter is that girl over there", William added, subtly pointing to her.
Malakai was the type who didn't care about social status. He treated everyone equally. He also didn't follow or care about celebrities. He wasn't much of a movie person either. So, hearing this didn't impact him in any way or change his opinion of her. It clearly showed on his face that he didn't care.
"So what's she done to be famous?" Malakai asked, with an eyebrow raised.
"She's pretty like her mom", Delilah answered.
Malakai sat silent with a perplexed look.
"You don't care, right?" Benjamin asked a question he knew the answer to. Malakai didn't even answer. He just gave a look that said it all. The two boys started laughing again.
"She's looking over here again", Delilah quietly reported, with her hand covering her mouth.
The boys didn't look up to make it obvious. They just played it cool and acted like normal.
"I think she's looking at you, Mally", Benjamin informed him.
"Why me? Is it because of what I did earlier?".
"Probably. That girl has been living in a fairy tale her whole life. Seeing you act like that was maybe something new to her", Delilah said.
"Something new? You're taking the piss", Malakai replied. "All I did was typical school shit".
"Mally, you're forgetting that more than half of the people at this academy are higher-class people", Benjamin said. "They probably had strict rules and standards".
"Maybe it's not because of how you acted, but because of your...", Delilah didn't finish her sentence and just pointed to her nose.
"My scar?" Malakai said, touching his scar.
"She probably thinks you don't deserve to be in this school, Mally", William mocked. "I'm sure she thinks you're a delinquent".
"Delinquent? Hehe", Malakai grinned at the word delinquent being used. He never would've thought he'd hear that word being used in real life. "You know what, I don't think she's looking at me. I think she's looking at the alien in front of me", Malakai snapped back.
William looked up at a smiling Malakai. "I uuh… uhh". William was lost for words. "I got nothing to say to that", he accepted defeat.
Benjamin started laughing. William expected that, but Delilah joined in and started laughing.
"Mally's good at coming back from insults. What can I do?" William whined.
"Don't chat shit about me", Malakai giggled while the other two kept laughing.
The three at the back of the class became four. Delilah's unexpected addition and contribution added a different dynamic that would only make the class more fun. The corner that started loud was only getting louder.
"Mariaaa… Maria!"
"Huh, yeah?".
"Are you okay? You're looking at him again. Has he done something to you?".
"I'm fine, Tanisha. He hasn't done anything to me, you don't have to worry", Maria reassured her.
Tanisha snuck a glance at Malakai.
"Then why do you keep looking at him? Is it because of what he did at the assembly? Or is it because of his scar? Do you like it?" Tanisha quietly asked, trying to piece it together.
Tanisha was Maria's best friend. A dark-skinned girl with brown curly hair styled with two buns on the right and left and dark brown eyes.
"No, it's nothing like that", Maria replied, shaking her head and looking down at her desk.
"I'm not convinced. I've never seen you look at a boy like you've looked at him".
Maria looked deep into Tanisha's eyes, trying to do everything she could to tell her it was not what she thought, "Believe me, I don't like him. I don't even know him".
"Why do you keep looking at him then?".
"Because… whenever I look at him, he's always smiling", Maria replied, leaning back in her chair. "Even when he was getting told off in the assembly, he looked like he was having fun".
"That's every boy ever. They laugh and don't take serious situations seriously. They laugh and smile at anything".
"You sound like a parent right now", Maria said in a quieter voice, tilting her head away from Tanisha..
Tanisha realised she may have pushed a bit too far. She let out a sigh.
"Listen, I'm trying to protect you. You can't trust a guy because you see him smiling. You don't know his intentions".
Maria understood her reasoning and realised she may have acted like a spoilt teen just then. She let out a little smile before tilting her head back to Tanisha.
"Yeah, I understand. I'm not stupid, you know", Maria said. "I won't let a guy play me. I'm an adult now".
Tanisha smiled, "Barely", she joked, pinching Maria's left cheek.
Maria pouted at her but couldn't hold it. She cracked a smile and laughed, leading Tanisha to join her.
Meanwhile, in class 1-E.
A boy was sitting at the middle desk of the class. Slyly observing his surroundings, using his peripheral vision. He ignored the noise around him and only conversed with himself in his thoughts.
"I don't need you. I'll prove it to you. I don't need your help. I'll live how I want. I'll become number one and show you how capable I am. I'll do whatever it takes. Don't underestimate me".