All in

It's morning. I'm on my way to school. Unfortunately, I end up having to walk every single morning. My parents has a car, but due to my little brother's primary school and their job being in the same direction, I drew the short stick. When I finally get there, I see my best-friend Taliah, greeting me with her adorable smile. Waiting for me by the entrance as she usual does. She told me that she walks too, but I never seem to beat her there.

I do my best to keep a straight face and to greet her back as I'm walk towards her. Concealing my emotions has as always been my forte. I've been training to do it for a long time. I use to want to be a ninja, so I would practice every aspect I thought one would have. Now I'm perfectly calm 24/7, never fall or trip down and have great reactions. All pretty handy in specific instances, but ultimately useless in a private school setting. Taliah however, for some reason seems to like to mess me up, in any way possible. She has this special way of using her sass and sarcasm to twist my words around. Naturally, over time I would've adapted by not only matching her sarcasm, but countering her sass with my "devil may care" attitude. She stills manages to catch me slipping sometimes.

We go to get breakfast from the food truck that's just a corner from the school before school starts. I make an attempt at a joke about her eggs. I thought it was pretty funny, but I guess she thought not. She gave me this menacing glare. it was like she was trying to say "shut up or I'm going kill you" with her face. It was suppose to put me off, but it ended up having the opposite effect. I thought it was cute, funny and sort of sexy. I smiled on reflex trying to hold back my laughter. Only Taliah could make me fear for my life and enjoy it at the same time.

I've always had feelings for her and always wanted to be with her. unfortunately, I didn't always know how to go about it. I think about certain situational moments, like right now for example. Had it been any other girl making that face, I would have been actually been put off, immediately. This isn't even the first time this kind of thing would've happened to us. Yet It's these little moments we share that make me feel as if I really am in love with her.

Due to the school system being the complete shit-stain that it is, we ended up having separate homerooms since junior high. Just a little sign of the kind of luck that i usually have. Over time we adapted and made our special schedule as a compromise to the schools awful timing. Each week, we would switch whose homeroom obtains "priority". This week was hers, so we headed over to her homeroom after we got our breakfast.

She eats so gracefully, despite her having only messy, greasy, finger food. Not having a stain anywhere on her person. Meanwhile, I'm having a granola bar, a peach and a special smoothie I made from home that only I know how to make. It's a little light, but isn't all that bad. I tend not to eat much anyways. The bell rings for first period. interrupting our conversation, or rather argument on the Z-station vs the Play-Box. I end up having to rush to get to my homeroom in time for registration. As I reach the door, I turned to say goodbye to her, peach still in my mouth. I shoved down the rest of my fruit while running to class. I had just barely made it in time.

First period class comes around, I have math while Taliah goes to English. I walk in, take a seat, and have to ask to be excused. As it would turn out, whilst rushing for registration, I forgot my bag in Taliah's homeroom. On the way back to math, bag in hand, I was stopped by a hall monitor. As it would also turn out, In rushing to get my forgotten bag, I forgot to get a hall-pass whilst leaving. So he gives me a demerit slip and sends me all the way to the principle's office to get it stamped. This would make my second demerit for the year. One more and that's a detention. Three detentions is an suspension. Three suspensions is an expulsion. It's a very dumb system.

I was about to knock on the principle's door, but then I hear this slight moan. I put my ear to the door and there was definitely a constant repetitive moaning sound, continuously followed a repeating slapping sound. The moment I realized the situation, I had to summon all my might to hold back my laughter. I stood there, by the door planning my next, then, I put on my poker face. I knocked on the door, no responses to me specifically, but the noises did stop. I waited a few seconds then knocked again, this time he told me to come inside. I waited an extra few second to get this second burst of laughter under control. I walked in and nobody else was in the room, or at least in sight. However, I did noticed that the door bounced back ever so slightly, even though there was no wall contact. I knew exactly what his play was.

He asks "Jermaine for what do I owe the pleasure", and I could barely keep my poker face on with my dying of laughter hidden behind it. When I could finally contain myself enough to speak, I asked for him to stamp my slip and so he did with no questions asked. I thanked him and as I was midway in the door, I paused. I turned my head towards him and gave him my unrestrained smile. So wide there was no need for laughter. Then I just told him, "tell Mrs. Baker (the already married secretary) I said to keep up the good work". The pale look on face should have been humorous, but it did not make me laugh. Instead it had brought me a sense of contempt, for the first time in a while now. It was as if I was completely satisfied with life and all was good in the world. I made sure to close the door extra slowly just to savor the moment.

I'm on my way back to math, picturing each and every scenario to milk this cow dry. I'm halfway there and there is no monitor in sight. I guess I just went through all of that for nothing. Who am I kidding? I would've paid good money to experience that if I knew a situation that glorious would've happened. I'm Just a corner away from class, however I stopped at a black window for a class room I didn't recognize. Something had just so happened to have caught my eye before i could walked past it. It was my reflection and I still had that unrestrained smirk on my face from the principle's office. That's when and it hits me. I've never actually seen myself with an genuine smile before, only the fake ones I learned to put on for pictures.

It caught me a little bit of guard. But then I realized, this was a window and it's suppose to be see through. All I saw was black, as if someone covered the windows with construction paper from the inside. While the question why someone would do this would crossed my mind, at the moment I was currently more fascinated by how perfectly it was done. Not a single bend or wrinkle in sight. I get closer in an attempt to spot any deformities when I hear voices emanating from within the classroom. I put my ear against the wooden door and hear what sounds like the monitor's voice. He was talking with someone, a student whose voice I didn't recognized. I couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but they sounded like they were in an argument. They were definitely planning something based on the tone the conversation. Assuming it was some kind of prank, initiation, or an attack on the school, I decided to record it as evidence. I suppose one can't have to much blackmail. I took out some paper, rolled it into a cone and put the small end under door to amplify the sound. Then came my phone, the recording device. As I listened, I couldn't believed what I was hearing.

They were talking in pure Latin. I was Interested in it in my ninja days, so I studied it in my spare time at home. That's how I could easily recognize it, but my understanding is still at a novice level. These guys however, they sound completely fluent, if I didn't know better, I'd say they even had an accent. I've gotten a few random words they said like him, us, school, and black. Naturally, I was freaking the fuck out, I contemplated whether I should just leave the school now or remain listening for more. After I recognized the word door however, I decide to burst in and confront them with the evidence. Only, when I do, nobody is even in the room.

All I see is weird graffiti all over the desks and walls. It may be some kind of language or some kind message, I kept recording nonetheless. I walked around analyzing everything until I went to open the closet. I hear the same people casually continuing their conversation, as if I weren't even there. I thought about what to do next. There is no where for them to escape too and no way they can fit any weapons in there with them. It's now or never. So I take pictures of all the markings and hit record to catch them as soon as I open the closet door. Except when I do open it, they're not there. All that is there is a large round wooden mirror reflecting myself as the hall monitor.