The look on Miss Edal’s face as Avery slunk into religion five minutes after the bell had rung was one of disappointment and exhaustion. Avery was ready for her to say something but the teacher simply sighed and continued on with her lesson.

“Can someone please tell me whether the archangel Michael plays a role in the process of passing from this world to the next?” She asks as Avery takes a seat at an empty desk towards the front of the class. “Anyone?” The teacher loudly asserts, leaning against her desk with an inquisitive expression.

“No”, She answers, “The bible says nothing about his involvement with this kind of ‘Grim Reaper’ role. However...” she begins, strolling across the front of the classroom, “Other religions such as Judaism suggests that there is a specific entity that plays this role. The ‘Angel of Death’ - Azrael. Although, this name cannot be found in the bible, and there is no mention of any other entity with a similar role”.

This information isn’t received with much interest from the class. Regardless, Miss Edal continues on her rant about the various roles that Michael was written to have been apart of, including the names of numerous spiritual battles and commandments of God.

Avery was never really one to believe in God, angels or anything else spiritual. Although, she enjoyed reading about their existence and had an expansive knowledge of the bible and its teachings. If God really existed she wondered why he would put her through this pain, why he wouldn’t stop it. She would believe then.

______

When the bell sounded two hours later, Avery was ready to follow her usual lunchtime routine - hiding in some crevice of the school hoping that she can at least eat in peace. “Avery,” Miss Edal called as class ended. She already knew what this would be about.

The assignment she had turned in before she went on her week-long hiatus was subpar at best. Miss Edal gives Avery a concerned look as the blonde approached her desk, dropping a sloppily stapled together assignment with the disappointing result of 38/100 in front of her.

Avery’s eyes drop to the floor and she muttered a half-hearted apology. “I know that you have been away due to illness for the past week but is there any particular reason that your work has been at this level?” She asks, tilting her head to attempt to glance at Avery’s eyes. Avery had no answer for her.

“I am very concerned about this. On the quiz I handed out at the start of the year you scored the highest in class - I was expecting great things from you?” She continues. With a guilty twist of her hands, Avery gave a small nod. She was always at the top of her class in freshman and sophomore, she did well in a majority of subjects and would often earn praise from her teachers.

Ms. Edal’s small boney fingers rose to gently twist around Avery’s wrist, a pleading look in her expression. “You know you can tell me anything right, Avery?”. Avery could do nothing but give another small nod, refusing to meet the teacher's eyes.

Avery didn’t feel like she could talk to anybody about her issues with bullying. Not because she didn’t think that it would stop, no, but because she didn’t want to cause her mother trouble. It had been a stressful month post-move. While her work paid well, her mum put in long stressful hours to provide for her daughters as their only guardian. It was the first time in a few years that her family had financial stability. She didn’t want to complain, especially when her mum was going through so much more.

“I’m sorry Miss, It’s just been...a difficult adjustment here” A half-lie that Avery knew wouldn’t be questioned. With a frown Miss Edal removes her hands, bringing them down to sit in her lap, and turning back to face her computer, “Well then, you know where to find me”.

____

There were two places Avery would never visit during lunchtime. The first was the cafeteria. Each table was claimed by a specific clique - the jocks, popular girls, punks, stoners. None of which she could, or ever will belong to. Not to mention, wanting to avoid being anywhere near Paige and her posse.

The second was the toilets. The toilets were a lawless territory. No teacher ever entered the student toilets and so they were the perfect place for illegal activity and rule-breaking. Avery knew this first hand and had vowed to only enter the toilets during class time when she absolutely had to.

Her go-to spot was the grassy area near the basketball court and sports oval. There was always a teacher patrolling there, so even if she was harassed it would never be that bad. She sat down, pulling out a small sketchbook she kept in her bag most of the time. She hadn’t brought any food, making lunch was the last thing on her mind this morning. Though, it wasn’t like she hadn’t gone all day without eating before.

She flicked through the first few pages of her book. She enjoyed realism and tended to sketch the faces of the people around her for practice. Not so surprisingly, a recurring face sketched in messy pencil was Ethan Wilson. She smiled at the image, flipping to a fresh page before looking up to decide what she wanted to sketch.

She scanned the school grounds before her eyes settled on a peculiar looking guy that she had never seen before. She could only just make him out, leaning against the wall of one of the buildings. Her first thought was how strange he looked in a high-school setting.

He was tall and looked toned. He had a head of messy black curls. He wore a plain black shirt and a pair of dark jeans that seemed to cling to his body before vanishing into his boots. She noted the dark tattoos that curled up from his wrists and disappeared beneath the sleeves of his tight shirt. She wondered what kind of family he must have to have that many tattoos at this age, what kind of person he would be.

As she stared at him he slowly glanced up, his eyes settling on her. Avery's body clenched as his hands slipped into his pockets. For a moment she had forgotten to breathe and let out a long slow breath as the pair locked eyes. Quickly she looked away, reaching to brush a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she calmed her breathing. What was that feeling? It felt like a pressure had formed in her stomach. Like a feeling of both panic and intimidation mixed together. A few moments passed and Avery looked back but was surprised to find that he had disappeared.

For the rest of lunch, she couldn’t get the image of him out of her head. She hadn’t seen anyone like that in school for the few weeks she had been there. She would have noticed if he had passed her in the halls, it would have been impossible for her not to. It wasn’t until the end of lunch that she realized that she had scribbled his face into her sketchbook, leaning against the wall with messy curls covering his eyes.