The clap startled the entire class. Everyone including Mrs. Thompson who was seriously writing on the board turned to the direction where it emerged. Adrian tried to turn the fly around on his palm examining it carefully unaware of the numerous eyeballs now fixated on him. He kept looking at the dead fly on his palm with its insides smashed releasing fluid on his palms.
“Adrian” Mrs. Thompson called, the entire class giggled as Adrian was deaf to the calls sucked into whatever realm the dead fly was. Mrs. Thompson started walking to his desk as the giggles in the class increased and turned into a burst of full-blown laughter when Adrian raised his head looking surprised at the amount of attention he had gathered and why everyone was beaming with a smile which he knew he hadn’t earned
“Adrian” Mrs. Thompson called again this time getting a slow “Yes ma’am” from Adrian.
“Why are you distracting my class,” she asked and continued before Adrian could defend himself.
“If I hear as much as a sigh from you again it's detention,” she said and walked away to the board where she had been writing as the entire class slowly went back to their work each taking turns to look in Adrian’s direction for any other nuisance.
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After school, Adrian went straight to the hospital with his school bag and all. He didn’t need to show any identification as Sharon the receptionist welcomed him, smiling with that thick blond hair of hers. Adrian simply waved at her and made his way to Fred’s room as he expected Fred was in his basketball jersey watching some movie on the tiny hospital television. He looked fully recovered and Adrian wanting to test his thoughts threw a basketball at him, the basketball was brought in as a gift when Adrian was still in surgery a few weeks back by some of their teammates.
“Wow,” Fred said, his eyes alert as he caught the ball and turned it on his palm.
“How was school today, I hope you didn’t miss me much,” Fred said trying to poke Adrian with his left hand.
“I got everyone laughing today in biology class, as I was carried away by something,” Adrian said picking up a book from the desk near Fred’s bed.
“You’ve always been carried away bro ever since Allison paused from whatever you guys were doing,” Fred said smiling, and then winked at Adrian who was starting to get suspicious of him.
“She came to see you right?” Adrian said as he came closer to Fred waiting for the big reveal.
“No she didn’t,” Fred said, and then continued.
“Jessica from music class came, I think I’m having a crush on her,” he said smiling.
“Fred, be serious,” Adrian said feeling played.
“I’m serious,” Fred said, “She didn’t come but she did call”.
“And we talked a lot about you,” Fred said as he kept the basketball and reached for the remote.
Adrian feeling unease dropped the book and sat down on the couch as they both wait for Fred’s mom and the doctor to come and discharge Fred.
The sun was still one-sided as Adrian was washing his dad's car. The cool morning breeze made its way across the yard picking up dry leaves that fell from the orange tree just before their pool. Adrian again was lost in thoughts and the music from his music player took him farther. So he didn’t hear when his mom called or when Allison’s footsteps as she walked toward him squashing dried leaves along the way. He was brought back to reality by the tap on the back by Allison.
“We need to talk,” she said and walked to the safety of the orange tree away from the flashing rays of the early morning sun. Adrian looked around to see if there were any prying eyes before dumping the towel in his hands and headed in the same direction as Allison.
“If this is going to work we should have some ground rules that we must keep,” Allison said and looked up at Adrian. who started speaking first.
“Rule number one, no ditching after basketball matches,” Adrian said to which Allison giggled and shoved a first into his ribs as they both laughed.