"This is unacceptable," the culinary arts teacher, Mrs. Johansen, said. She was fuming and it was making me uncomfortable. "Getting into a food fight? The two of you are in the eleventh grade, meaning you're seventeen. You're supposed to be part of the mature grade!"
Seb and I looked at each other, then our teacher before we both started saying our versions of the story at the same time.
My story was the right one. Seb decided to flick flour at me while we were baking, on purpose, and when I ignored him, he 'accidentally' cracked an egg on my head. I tried my best to keep my calm, but he was so... so infuriating.
Needless to say, the classroom wasn't so clean anymore.
Why couldn't Seb just get over the fact that I left without telling him?
Mrs. Johansen held up her hand, stopping us from talking. "I don't want to hear any of it. I don't care who's fault you think it was; you were both involved. I want the both of you to clean this mess and if the bell rings, well, you're going to be late to your next class."
Great. It was only my second day here and I was already getting into trouble. Stupid Seb.
I huffed and made my way to the sink, grabbing a cloth and wetting it before I began wiping down the counters. Why did Seb have to be such a jerk? I was actually tempted to stop trying to get him to forgive me, but... But I did miss him. I regretted not keeping contact with him, a whole lot. He was my best friend and I did cut him off.
However, it still didn't give him the right to treat me like this.
The bell did in fact ring while Seb and I were still cleaning. And Mrs. Johansen wasn't joking when she said we were going to be late to class. I half-expected her to just let us go to our next class, but she didn't. She kept staring at as intensely, silently telling us to keep cleaning.
We ended up finishing ten minutes after the tardy bell rang, and I blamed Seb. He barely did anything to clean.
When our teacher told us we could leave, I picked up my bag before heading off to my history class, thankful that I already had my textbook and notebook in my bag.
I walked in and my teacher, Mr. Shay, eyed me, seeing the cracked eggs in my hair, as well as other food. I was so happy this was the last class of the day. He sighed and shook his head. "I'm not even going to ask," he said. "The class is doing a project in partners and yours is...” He looked at the sheet of paper in his hand. "Ty."
I nodded. "Ty... Who's that?"
"Right, it's your second day," Mr. Shay said, mostly to himself. He looked towards the class. "Ty is the one in the back, sitting by himself."
"The one in the red shirt?" I asked.
"That's him," Mr. Shay said. "I handed out the outline to him, so I'll get him to explain the project to you."
"Got it," I said before walking to the back of the class where this Ty person was.
He looked up when he saw me, looking curiously at the dried food on me. "Artemis, I'm guessing?"
"Yeah," I said. He pulled open the chair beside him for me to sit down. "Don't mind how I look. My ex-best friend and I kind of got into a fight."
Ty raised an eyebrow. "Really? That must have been some fight."
"It was," I said with a sigh. "So, what's the project?"
"We were assigned a battle in World War II and we have to research it," Ty explained. "It's simple enough."
"What battle did we get?"
Ty looked at the slip of paper sitting on his desk. "Battle of the Atlantic," he said, then sighed. "Great, we got the long one."
"Well, how long do we have for this project?" I asked.
"A week."
Great. On top of trying to get Seb to forgive me, I had a week to complete a project about the longest battles in World War II. Now I was starting to wish I never moved back here...
"So," Ty said. "About this fight between you and your ex-best friend...”
I scoffed. "Don't bring it up."
"I'm just curious about it," Ty said. "Who started it? You or her?"
"He," I corrected. "He started it because he's being a big baby about something and won't grow up. He thought it would be funny to crack an egg on my head when I didn't respond to him flicking flour at me."
Ty snorted. "No offense to whoever your ex-best friend is, but he does sound like a big baby. What's his name? Maybe I know him."
"His name is Seb, er Sebastian," I said. I was the only one to call Sebastian Seb.
"Sebastian Smyhte?" Ty asked. "He was your best friend." There was a bit of venom in his voice when he said Seb's name.
I nodded. "Yup. We were best friends when we were five all the way up until I moved when I was twelve without telling him."
"Ouch."
"I know, it was stupid," I said. "But he could at least stop acting like a jerk about it."
"That's Sebastian for you," Ty said, his voice turning cold. "Being a jerk about everything." There was probably some conflict between the two of them, but I didn't bother asking about it.
We started working on the project, using the textbook to find out information about the battle. The next day, we were going to the computer lab so we could actually use a computer to research, which was much more convenient in my opinion.
Someone knocked on the door of the classroom and I got a good view of Dax before Mr. Shay walked over to him to talk to him. He then called me over. Confused, I stood up and walked over to them. Dax led me outside, away from the classroom. "Do you have a pair of earphones I can borrow?" Dax asked.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "You got out of class and came to mine just so you can borrow a pair of earphones?" I asked.
"Please?"
I sighed, pulling my earphones out of my pocket and handing it to him. With shaky hands, he plugged it into his phone before putting both of them in his ear. I frowned, wondering why he was acting so... different.
He looked at me, noticing my frown. "It's a long story," he said with a sigh. "Sorry about interrupting you in class. Normally, Seb has an extra pair for me just in case I forget mine, but, surprise surprise, he's skipping class."
"Is Seb really mad at me?" I asked.
Reluctantly, Dax nodded. "Yeah, he is. I tried talking to him about you last night after your family left, but he told me he refuses to talk about you because you ruined his life. His words, not mine."
"That's... fair."
"No, it really isn't," Dax objected. "He missed you a whole lot when you left, and acting this way isn't fair."
"But him acting this way, is it really because I left?" I said. "I mean, wouldn't most people be happy that their friend is back, even if they left without telling?"
"Possibly," Dax said. "I don't know, maybe there is something else going on with him, but it's nothing that I know of."
I nodded. I didn't know why, but I had a feeling there was something else that caused Seb to act this way. It could have fully been because of me leaving, but I was hoping there was a chance it was something else and not just me.
"I should be going back to class," I said.
"Right," Dax said. "Thanks for letting me borrow the earphones. I promise I'll return them after school."
I went back in the class and sat down, but I couldn't help but think about both Dax and Seb. Dax got me out of the class just to ask for a pair of earphones. Then there was Seb. I understood why he would be mad at me, but I didn't understand why he was acting out so much. I mean, cracking an egg on my head was a bit childish.
I wanted to know what was up with Dax, but my main focus was Seb. I had to get him to forgive me, and I had to find out if there was something else going on with him. I had to.