1 Bell

"It's another day."

The thought made Slinx sigh, these four years he had once been excited for had turned out to be meaningless as the veil of time slowly revealed day by day. Slinx slowly got out of his seat. His butt was so sore from the sitting it felt like he wouldn't be able to move again. His mind was blank as he seemed to have retained nothing the teacher said. Young as Slinx was, he felt like he was living the life of a dying man, waiting for the day he turned into ash.

Slinx glanced around the lousy classroom to see the usual things happening: Flint was the first one to rush out of the door. Slinx wasn't the only one who found that annoying, and it didn't help that Flint was top of the class and the teacher's pet.

Jason was on his way to his daily after-school routine, he had been Slinx's role model and Mr. Perfect for all these years. At six-foot tall, with the body of a professional bodybuilder and dark blue eyes that glitter when you look at him, as if you were seeing the stars in the night. Jason was every girl's first crush. It had been Slinx's goal to be like Jason until he realized he never stood a chance. Gasping for air just after two short laps, Slinx was the definition of pathetic.

"So yeah, four years in this dump and I haven't done anything! What a..."

His stream of thought was suddenly interrupted by a pat on the back by Charlie. "Hey sorry man! My mom's making me join tutorial classes after school, I can't walk with you home man!" Charlie always had that beaming smile on his face, even when he was going to tutorial classes.

"That's OK! I'm kind of used to it by now." Slinx tried to return the friendly smile, but Charlie's smile was twice as big as his. Nothing feels worse than pretending to be fine when you actually cannot feel any worse. He sighed in despair, headed out of the classroom and blended into the crowd. Under all the cheerful banters and friendly chuckles filling the hallway lay a lonely soul, murmuring a cry for help.