Chapter Text
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In all the history of the world, there had never been a kind of love more fleeting, intense, and frivolous than highschool romance.
That’s what Gale del Arosa believed, anyhow. Seeing couples walk among the halls of her highschool filled her with a sense of uneasiness like no other. It wasn’t for certain judgement, but Gale knew that she didn’t enjoy it. It wasn’t for certain jealousy, because Gale figured that she ought to have her priorities in check and that finding some kind of boyfriend wasn’t on top of her list.
This list of priorities was rather simple: Graduate and go to a university far away from Yoylen Rivers.
Once that was achieved, she could work on love. It’s not like she despised it. Most, if not all, boys at school seemed immature, just in their own world. She respected her peers if they respected her. Gale was a perfectly rational person, but somehow…couldn’t grasp how to fit herself into the social workings of highschool. She felt invisible, and although it was nice most of the time, she wasn’t known for anything significant or noteworthy.
She wasn’t envious of other people her age. That’s the best she could tell herself, anyway.
There was a thick fog in her head, not unlike the humid haze in Yoylen Rivers. For a while, when she was younger, it had seemed like the world was a lot less monotonous and dull. Now, it seemed as if the fog had left her head and infiltrated the outside world as well.
For Gale, it was a pleasantly quiet world but not an exciting one. Despite the peacefulness of flying under the radar, there had to be something out there to give her more meaning. She needed to find something to do, but most days she stayed inside to do schoolwork, or worked six or five hour shifts at the cinema.
The cinema was actually the one entertaining thing they had in Yoylen Rivers. It was a hassle to clean up after moviegoers, but working the concessions was fine and Gale needed the money. There were only a few employees, though, and as the town grew, the cinema drew in more customers. A big, bright NOW HIRING sign had been posted on the window for a couple of weeks.
It had been quite a long time since she felt like she had any real, consistent friends. Quite a long time since she felt like she was a kind person. But she refused to sort these things out, even if they would clear a whole lot of trouble later. It was just in her nature to be stubborn. She’d be perfectly fine.
The corridors of Yoylen High were rather wide but students still flooded them all the same. The tiled floor was an off-white that was tarnished and worn from the foot traffic over the long, interminable years of school. Gale didn’t enjoy walking these halls and she was sure most people would agree with her. Her body was being shoved around without a care in the world, but she obstinately pushed through the crowd.
Gale stumbled into her homeroom, arm resting on the doorframe. There weren’t many people in the room yet, but the people inside still chattered loudly about nothing of importance. She wasn’t so irritated by this as much as she was irritated about the broken furnace. It was now the fall, and in Yoylen Rivers, the fall was cold and wet. There was no heating inside the school anymore, in spite of the many posters around the school swearing up and down that they had been Working On The Issue.
The calendar hung over the teacher’s desk said that the date was October 1st.
Gale squinted at it with scrutiny. Could it really have been October already? She was usually more attentive to the passage of time. Maybe she’d been too preoccupied with work at the cinema. Or maybe her sanity was starting to slip. More than anything, she liked to believe the former over the latter.
Gale looked over her shoulder and saw Brooke Binnings, sitting all by herself in the corner of the room. She was right next to the vent as if she was hoping the furnace would work today, but it was broken and that was that. Her blunt bangs hung in front of her face, green eyes fixed on nothing in particular.
Brooke must have had a lot on her mind. Gale had to stop herself from walking over and asking what was wrong. Ever since their falling out, Gale hadn’t felt completely secure in her righteousness like usual. Every time she looked anywhere, it was like Brooke was right there with a profoundly guilty expression. It was going to drive Gale crazy one of these days.
She refused to think about Brooke for now.
The bell abruptly rang, loud and shrill. Gale was snapped out of her reflective state and thrown back into the horribly boring reality of school. The sound of chairs scraping the floor as students left the room filled her ears in quick succession.
Gale set back into the hallways, trying her best not to get caught behind slow walkers. As much as she disliked her Algebra 2 teacher, she disliked being late even more and didn’t want to risk missing the bell.
There were a couple reasons she didn’t like being late. One was being written up for tardiness, but that didn’t bother her as much as other things did. It was more the brief glances everybody would give her, and the gently-furrowed, disappointed brow of the teacher. This was a little pathetic, but Gale couldn’t stand it when an authority figure was upset with her. Even though she feared it, she found that she was late more often than she would’ve liked.
It was all because of some boy who loitered directly in front of her locker in the morning. Ben Caneta.
Ben was tall, lean, dark-haired, and brown-eyed. He was decently handsome but Gale never harbored any attraction towards him other than acknowledging that, yes, he was conventionally good-looking. He was just one of those popular, immature types who seemed to have no thought behind his eyes.
Ben particularly enjoyed hanging around her locker with his friend, Erik, who Gale did not know well. She knew Ben better since they had been in many classes together all throughout school.
Of course, she didn’t really know him. Just observed him from afar and occasionally shared a word or two. The only time she remembered an exciting experience with him was when she was invited to his bar mitzvah and there was some kind of disorienting party afterward. Gale had trouble remembering much of elementary and junior high, but she remembered that Ben practically vanished near the end of the night. It was an odd ordeal.
But besides, she didn’t want to know him, really. Seeing him obstruct her locker door every morning was more than enough for her.
Gale marched up to Ben per their usual routine. He was speaking with Erik about some sort of Halloween party at the end of the month.
“Excuse me,” She interrupted in a clear voice, hoping that she didn’t sound as uptight or annoying as she thought.
Ben blinked and looked down at Gale. He looked a bit surprised as if these exact events hadn’t played out only yesterday.
“Sorry, what?” He spoke and lifted up the brim of his blue baseball cap. He always wore that cap, no matter the occasion. Gale liked to take every opportunity she had to be irritated by Ben, but she found it in her to understand this quirk. He liked the straight forward routine of the blue baseball cap. Gale liked to wear two yellow barrettes in her own hair most of the time, so criticizing the constant wearing of an accessory would be hypocritical.
”That’s my locker,” Gale gestured to the metal chamber he was leaning against. His eyes flitted back and forth until it seemed that his singular brain cell came to a reasonable conclusion.
”Oh, um—“ He stepped to the side, turning his head to the end of the hallway, realizing Erik had already left without him for the first period. Gale opened the locker to grab her things. She felt a little bad, but mostly happy that she could reach her textbook.
Gale felt his presence linger a little more, sensing his eyes on her for just a moment. It seemed that his guard was thrown off by her. He eventually left to his own classes, murmuring what sounded like, “Sorry.” Gale paid him no mind at all.
She hauled all of her books to the second floor and rushed the whole way to Algebra 2. The bell rung just seconds after she came through the door and took her place. Gale’s assigned seat was in a small cluster of desks near a large window. It wasn’t an ideal spot there since the window had an inability to close, but Gale liked how most desks in the cluster were vacant.
She had her peace and quiet. She could actually concentrate (if she ignored the drafty temperature). Her teacher was dull and the world was turning grey with boredom, but she was able to ignore it.
Nothing was going to change that.
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