Walking back to class was torture. My ribs were killing , and I couldn’t stop thinking about what just happened in the nurse’s office. I had tried to talk to Nina, to maybe get this stupid mission over with, but she just kept telling to rest.
"You don’t need to talk right now," she had said, looking all worried. "Just focus on feeling better."
I sighed as I limped down the hallway. ’This mission is too much,’ I thought. ’How am I supposed to have a conversation with soone who won’t let talk?’
I finally made it to my classroom and knocked on the door. The teacher looked up from whatever he was writing on the board.
"Co in, Kofi," he said.
I opened the door and started making my way to my seat. That’s when Ronnie decided to open his big mouth.
"Look who’s back," he said loud enough for everyone to hear. "Walking like a grandpa now."
The whole class started laughing. Soone else chid in with "Hey, at least he didn’t puke on anyone." More laughter.
’Great,’ I thought, feeling my face get hot. ’This is exactly what I needed.’
I accidentally made eye contact with Nina for a split second. She was looking at with this expression I couldn’t read, but I looked away real quick. I didn’t want her pity or whatever that was.
’Fuck this,’ I thought as I slowly made my way to my desk. ’I tried to change, tried to not be alone, and look what it brought . Nothing but pain and embarrassnt.’
I was done. Done trying to make friends, done caring about missions, done pretending like I could be anything other than the weird loner kid. It was safer that way. Less humiliating.
"Alright, settle down," the teacher said, shooting everyone a look. "Welco back, Kofi. Glad to see you’re feeling better."
I just nodded and didn’t say anything. I could feel Nina staring at from across the room, but I wasn’t gonna look her way. Whatever she was thinking, I didn’t want to know.
’Fuck the missions,’ I decided. ’I’ll deal with whatever stupid penalty they throw at . At least puking is temporary.’
I sat down at my desk and imdiately noticed sothing was off. It was spotless. Like, completely clean. There wasn’t even a trace of where I had puked all over it earlier.
’Soone cleaned this up?’ I thought, running my hand over the surface. ’The janitor must’ve done a hell of a job.’
Then I caught a whiff of sothing. A nice sll, kind of fruity. Did soone spray perfu or air freshener on my desk?
I took another breath and froze. ’Hold on,’ I thought. ’That sll... it’s like...’
It was the sa scent I rembered from the hospital. The one that had been lingering around Nina when she sat next to my bed. Light and clean, nothing overpowering, just... nice.
I glanced over at her without thinking, and she was definitely staring at . The second our eyes t, she looked away quick, like she had been caught doing sothing she shouldn’t.
’Did she clean my desk?’ I wondered. ’When the hell did she have ti to do that?’
I looked away from Nina pretty fast. ’Okay, maybe she did clean my desk,’ I thought. That was... nice of her. Really nice. But it didn’t change anything. I still felt like an idiot after that whole puking ss and getting laughed at.
’Yeah, she’s great, but I’m still gonna keep my distance.’ It was just easier that way. Less chance of more embarrassnt.
I felt eyes on , and it wasn’t Nina this ti. I looked around the classroom a bit. Ronnie was giving this seriously pissed-off look. Like I’d personally offended him by existing or sothing. I had no idea what his problem was.
’What does this dude want?’ I wondered. ’Why’s he looking so angry?’ I just looked away. That probably made him even angrier, but I didn’t care. I had enough on my plate without worrying about so random guy’s bad mood.
The rest of the class before break ti dragged on forever. I mostly just stared at my textbook, not really taking anything in. I was still kind of replaying the whole morning in my head. The puking, the laughter, Nina cleaning my desk, Ronnie’s death stare. It was a lot.
Finally, the bell rang for break. I didn’t really feel like moving. My ribs ached, and I just wanted to be invisible. I figured everyone would just ignore like usual, which was fine by at this point.
But then, a couple of girls walked over to my desk. I recognized them, but I didn’t know their nas. They were usually part of the quieter crowd.
"Um, Kofi?" one of them said. She was holding a small paper bag.
’Oh great, what now?’ I thought. ’Are they here to make fun of too?’
"Yeah?" I said, probably sounding more annoyed than I ant to.
"We, uh, we brought you sothing," the other girl said, nudging her friend. The first girl held out the bag. "It’s just so cookies. We heard you hadn’t eaten much."
I just stared at the bag. ’What the hell? Cookies?’ I was so confused. "Why?" I asked.
"Well," the first girl said, looking a bit shy. "What you did for Nina... that was really brave. We just wanted to say we thought it was cool."
The second girl nodded. "Yeah, not many people would do that."
I took the bag. Inside were a few chocolate chip cookies. "Oh. Uh, thanks," I said. I was genuinely surprised. ’Why are they being so nice all of a sudden? So of these guys were laughing at earlier.’ I rembered the whispers and the giggles when I walked in all ssed up.
"It really ant a lot to us that you helped her," the first girl added. "Nina’s a good person."
’So they weren’t all laughing,’ I realized. ’So of them actually... admired what I did?’ That was a new feeling. A good one. It actually ant a lot to hear that. More than I expected.
"Thanks," I said again, feeling a little less like the world’s biggest loser. "The cookies look good."
They smiled and then went back to their friends. I looked down at the cookies. It was weird. One minute I was the puke kid, the next I was getting sympathy cookies and complints. This whole day was a rollercoaster. But that little bit of kindness... yeah, that felt pretty good. Maybe not everyone thought I was a total joke.
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