• An Afternoon Break


    Setsuna started a bit when a slip of paper found its way onto the desk in front of his eyes. He glanced over and saw Rio, sitting as always just one seat forward to his right, looking down at his notebook as though he were doing something other than doodling in it. Setsuna glanced up at the teacher; Mr. Bates was droning on as usual, scrawling formulas on the chalkboard and talking towards the wall. Most of the students in the class were yawning, texting, discreetly throwing paper wads at each other, or playing the "so keep that in mind" game, where they counted the number of times the teacher said the phrase and hoped they'd placed a winning bet that morning. Setsuna turned the paper over quietly and read the phrase, "Wanna ditch?"

    He looked up at Rio in disbelief. They were already in class; it was a little too late to think about skipping now. The other boy winked at him, but Setsuna shook his head and shot back an incredulous look. Rio's shoulders heaved a silent but melodramatic sigh, and he went back to doodling skulls and electric guitars all over his notebook paper.

    Setsuna returned his gaze to the teacher and tried to pay attention to the fifteenth reiteration of the quadratic formula, but he couldn't keep it up for long. He soon resorted to his usual method of staying awake in Bates's class, which was diagramming every sentence that followed the phrase "so keep that in mind." He was getting behind again, as he always did, when he heard a thud and a groan.

    The noise startled him and everyone else in the class, so much so that even die-hard chalkboard-stare-master Bates turned around. Rio had collapsed off his chair, and was awkwardly half-sitting, half-lying down on the floor, breathing hard.

    "Blackwell!" Mr. Bates scolded. "You're disturbing the class."

    "Mr. Bates, sir," Rio began, in a sickly, wheedling tone, "I don't feel so good." He certainly did look pale.

    Bates blanched at Rio's countenance. "Then go to the nurse's office. Go! There'll be no puking in my class."

    "O… okay," Rio murmured, latching onto his desk to pull himself up. He didn't quite succeed; he ended up staggering backwards and landing on a startled Setsuna.

    Bates was starting to get pissed. "Tamazaki, take Blackwell to the infirmary and make sure he doesn't die on school property without his parents signing a waiver. Go on, get out!"

    "Um, yes, sir," Setsuna mumbled confusedly as he lifted Rio's arm around his shoulder and started dragging his friend's listless body towards the door. Behind him, he heard Bates continue, "Now I don't want any more interruptions unless you're coughing blood, so keep that in mind," followed by the sound of twenty pencils scratching another mark into their tallies.

    Rio's behaviour didn't change once Setsuna closed the door behind them. His face had turned an alarming color and he couldn't seem to pull any life into his limbs. Setsuna was getting very concerned, but just as he started turning Rio towards the nurse's office, he felt Rio throw his weight into his shoulder and push him towards one of the outside doors. Skeptical, Setsuna followed Rio's lead until they were almost outside, at which point Rio suddenly regained his energy, grabbed Setsuna's arm, and dragged him out the door.

    As soon as freedom was attained, Rio, whose color had returned to his face with admirable swiftness, laughed out loud and slapped the astonished Setsuna on the back. "Dude, Mr. B totally fell for it!" he announced, holding his gut and letting his pent-up laughter out.

    "Geez, Rio," Setsuna chided. "You'd scare everybody that much just to get out of class?"

    "Got you out with me, didn't I?" Rio shot back with a wink. "'Sides, whaddaya mean 'everybody'? The whole class knew I was faking. Unless…" He walked around to stand in front of Setsuna, bent over, and looked up into Setsuna's slightly pink face with a teasing expression. "Don't tell me, you fell for it too, Setsu?"

    "T-That wasn't something people normally do!"

    "Man, Setsu, I know you're a transfer but--dude, what kind of uptight hole in a rock do you come from? The pretend-to-be-sick maneuver is practically in the student handbook."

    "Only for bad students," Setsuna murmured in reply.

    Rio chose not to hear it. "Come on, enjoy the breeze! There's no point ditching class if we stand right next to the school the whole period." He grabbed Setsuna by the arm again and ran some yards away from the building. He plopped down on a grassy knoll beneath a big maple tree, crunching some of the first fallen leaves of the season beneath him as he did. Setsuna sat down next to him and breathed in the cool, windy air gratefully.

    "Mr. B is, like, the most clueless teacher in this whole school," Rio started. "Last year, I had him for Algebra I, and I shot spitballs into his hair without him ever noticing. The class was barely holding back from busting a gut when he turned around and said, 'Polynomials aren't to be taken lightly, keep that in mind!'"

    Rio finally got a laugh out of Setsuna, who was envisioning the scene and imagining the all-too-serious tone of Mr. Bates's voice. Pleased with his success, Rio kept going.

    "Speaking of hair, have you seen the principal's toupee?"

    "It's pretty obvious--who hasn't?"

    "Well, with the way he prances around looking all important wearing that ridiculous thing, you'd think he doesn't realize how fake it looks. Anyway, there's an even better story going with that. During the graduation ceremony this summer, you know, when everybody throws their caps in the air? A bunch of the guys aimed for Principal Matthews' toupee. One of them--Dave claims it was him, but no one was watching him--yeah, one of them hit, and sent the toupee flying straight into the candles on the table behind him!"

    Setsuna laughed heartily at this new story, and Rio, hardly keeping sober himself, added, "Man, you should've seen the look on his face. There was this pause, like everyone was stunned, and then whole hall just busted up laughing. And best of all, he got a new one just like the old one and he's still wearing it all over school! Like even the freshmen here don't know what happened! The guy is such a dork."

    Setsuna was still laughing as Rio talked, but he stopped short. "What's up?" Rio called, noticing Setsuna's abrupt silence and sitting up. That's when he saw the stern figure of one not-too-pleased principal standing in front of them.

    Rio's face contorted into his "I'm in deep s**t and I know it" grin. "P-Principal Matthews, sir! What are you doing out here?"

    "Fetching two irresponsible students ripe for detention," came the humorless reply. "Mr. Blackwell, I almost expect as much from you, but to drag an honors student like Mr. Tamazaki down to your level--I'm this close to suspending you. Get your rear ends back in school and into my office; I'm calling your parents, both of you." He grabbed Rio by the ear and began dragging him back toward the school. Setsuna followed sheepishly behind them, hanging his head in shame. But out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rio grinning back at him…

    And then a gust of wind came and blew away the principal's toupee.