The school was practically empty when Matt arrived. He had made it a habit of arriving at least fifteen minutes early as he enjoyed sitting alone in the hallways. He found it very peaceful to be able to get ready for class before the hallways were crammed full of students. Once he arrived at the hallway where his locker was, he sat with his back against one of the walls. His grey pants and white shirt seemed to blend with the grey-white walls of the school. The fluorescent lights in the hallways lit up the entire hall, ridding it of shadows.
He sat across from his locker, staring at it. He had another ten minutes before the first class started and, still, the hallways were close to empty, except for the occasional student walking past him in the wide hall. He slowly got to his feet and made his way over to his locker. He took the combination lock in his left hand and turned the dial with his right. 00 - 25 - 17. The lock clicked and Matt pulled it open. As usual, his locker was neatly organized. The textbooks and notebooks were all lined up according to subject, and a shelf Matt had installed in the beginning of the year separated them from his coat, lunch, PE tracksuit and sneakers.
He took out his Physics textbook. He looked forward to having Physics in the morning. Along with Math and Chemistry, it was one of his favorite subjects. He closed his locker, locked it and then set off for class. He took the long way, going in the opposite direction of the entrance and at the fork in the hallway, taking the left route. He walked past rows and rows of identical lockers and past a couple people, avoiding eye contact with them. He took another left, then another, bringing him in almost a full circle.
The Physics classroom was still locked when Matt arrived at the door. The doors to the classroom was made of translucent glass, allowing the light from the hallway to stream in and vice versa, but not to allow the students in the classroom to be distracted by what was happening in the hall. A small, plain, silver handle was situated on the left side of the door, under a small and discreet lock. Almost everything in the city was like this. Grand and imposing, yet so simple and practical.
Matt stood there for a moment, staring down at his feet. His off-white shoes tapped the polished grey tiles that made up this section of the floor. Tap, tap, tap. He wasn’t quite sure why he was tapping his shoes on the floor. The sound his shoes were making resonated down the hallway, echoing on the walls. Disturbing the peaceful silence. It irritated him, he wanted nothing more than to stop, yet he couldn’t. He stood there tapping and tapping, until his Physics teacher came around the corner.
She was a tall, thin, but healthy woman. She wore perfectly ironed blue grey pants, and a matching blazer over a white dress shirt. Her dirty blond hair was tied back into a neat bun, except for two perfectly straight strands that framed her narrow face. Not only was her face narrow, but her facial features were very sharp. Her nose was not particularly long, but it was sharp and thin. Her cheekbones were high and defined. Long, thin eyebrows were perched above almond shaped eyes. She was the sort of woman that never wore makeup, not because she did want to, but because she didn’t need to. Her skin was shockingly pale, but not unhealthy. But it was those eyes, those almond shaped eyes, that were the most intriguing. They were the same colour as a stormy sky. Patches of grey, in varying shades. To most people, they were at the same time oddly beautiful and unnerving. But not to Matt.
She walked in front of him, uttering a greeting as she went by, “Good Morning, Matt.”
“Morning, Ms. Evans.”
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