Lost Ones

CHAPTER THREE

  Before leaving for work, her mom woke her so that she would get ready to go to school. Marina hated to start school at 8.30a.m - it was too early to get the neurons to function properly. She stretched and sat up in bed. Fiddlesticks! She had fallen asleep without choosing the clothes she would wear, and also without getting her backpack ready. She used to have everything prepared from one day to another to avoid wasting time, but had forgotten about these details. In a hurry, she opened the wardrobe and chose some light blue jeans and a black cardigan. From the drawer chest, she pulled out a green blouse, tight to the body.

  Dressed and combed, she caught the backpack and threw inside it the manuals and notebooks of the subjects she would study that day. The rucksack was pretty heavy, but it would return lighter in the evening, since she would leave half of the stuff in the locker. Having a locker was great: she could leave there the things of the subjects she had no homework on and she didn’t have to carry them around. The word startled her - ‘homework’! It was Philosophy day and she hadn’t done the assignment; she had totally forgotten about it. No doubt, she would have a bad mark on her evaluation file because of that; Manelito didn’t forgive anything. The only solution would be talking to him at the beginning of class, in hope that he would give her one more day to do it. He couldn’t be that insensible, could he?

  The journey to school took only fifteen minutes and there were no incidents. However, the same didn’t apply to her arrival at the campus. A few seconds after she crossed the gate, the colleagues recognized her, surrounded her and kept on asking her how she was feeling. It was obvious she was fine, otherwise she wouldn’t be there, but that didn’t stop them: they wanted to approach her, to see the girl who had been pushed into the river by accident. Retreating in slow motion, Marina succeeded in entering the school lobby and running to the bathroom. It was no great hideout, nevertheless she could stay there until class started and then rush into the room. Why wouldn’t those people leave her alone? She didn’t know most of them, not even by sight. It was ridiculous.

  After ten minutes, the bell announced the beginning of the first class. When Marina left the cubicle of her hideout, she found four girls talking next to the sinks. Upon seeing her, they looked at her, feeling suspicious. However, they didn’t have time to realize who she was, because Marina burst into a run up to the classroom.

  The Informatics room was near the WC, which prevented her from sprinting; nonetheless, it put her in the main hallway, exposing her to more publicity. Soon a small group of classmates formed around her, wanting to know how she was doing. In fact, she was feeling like a lab rat that just wanted to rest in a quiet place, but couldn’t find such tranquility. She had never been popular, which made this situation even more peculiar and difficult to bare. To make things worse, Ana wasn’t there with her. As the class was too big for the available resources, they were divided in half so that everyone could have a computer. This meant that, while Marina was having Informatics, Ana had French Translation. This happened again in the afternoon: while Marina had English Translation, Ana had Informatics. How she wished her friend was there with her… Moreover, the French Translation lesson took place in the ancient school pavilions they called ‘Bosnia’, due to its degradation state, which reminded them of some kind of war scenario. Without the usual friendly shoulder around, she took a deep breath and replied as kind as possible to all questions.

  At long last, the teacher arrived and they entered the room. Marina sat in front of a computer at the bottom of the class and waited for her colleagues to begin to ignore her. Of course she liked a little attention, but that was ridiculous, like some sort of fanaticism - exaggerations were elevated.

  The call to confirm attendance began then. Before the teacher could finish, a disheveled head appeared at the door and asked permission to come in, just above the tolerance ring. Under the warning that he should worry more about punctuality, the professor authorized his entry. Looking around, the boy saw that there were no more computers available for him, which didn’t go unnoticed by the teacher, who decided he could choose someone to sit with. Marina was totally unaware of what was happening around her, until she saw the chair next to her sliding back for Lucas to sit down. The computer tables were placed in a row and leaning against each other; each one had two chairs for the purpose of someone needing to share a computer. Lucas wouldn’t be her partner, but the colleague's installed at the previous work station, therefore he sat right beside her. Marina felt an impulse to jump to the very next chair, nevertheless she thought that it wouldn’t go unnoticed by the colleagues who were staring at her, so she stayed in the same place. She moved discreetly on the seat and focused her eyes on the computer screen.

  During class, Marina sometimes turned to the board to see what the teacher was writing and to listen to what she was explaining, then turned to the computer to do what had been said. Once in a while, she took note of some of the explanations, so it would be easier to repeat the taught processes. Although she avoided at all costs looking at the boy, her heart was beating so fast that it seemed like it could shoot out from her chest at any moment. Lucas seemed to be able to hear her fast heart beating somehow, and she could almost swear she saw him smile with a nagging irony over the effect he had one her. It couldn’t be, she should be imagining everything. How could he know how he made her feel and still laugh about it? It was her imagination; that was the only explanation.

  When the bell rang, the girl felt a huge relief. Lucas picked up his notebook and ran to the door, allowing her to take a deep breath and to calm the anxiety that had invaded her. While packing her stuff into the backpack, Marina thought to herself that she had just checked that Lucas was fine, therefore he couldn’t have been with her in the river: her mind had made it all up. On a second though, he could have left the water alone, without any problems, and so there he was, safe and sound. What a mess! Part of her tried to make her act on impulse and to ask him, directly but in a disguised way, what he did that afternoon. Would she have the guts to do this?

  Marina took a while to leave the Informatics’ room, as she feared the crowd would be focused on her again. Before leaving, she sneaked a peek through the door. Verifying that almost nobody was in the hallway, she left the room and walked to the school lobby; however, it was overcrowded by people, who didn’t approach her this time, but watched her with intensity, making her feel like digging a hole in the ground where she could hide. With small steps, she began to go back into the corridor and then went through the doors that gave access to the school ‘pseudo-garden’. It was known that way, because of its lack of treatment that made ​​it distant from the ideal concept of a garden. That turned it into a place only visited by students who wanted to smoke without hearing any lectures, and by couples who didn’t want to hear sermons about the proper places for demonstrations of affection. However, that day it seemed that everyone had a sudden and inexplicable desire to smoke or date.

  Determined not to talk to anyone until next lesson, Marina crossed the garden at great speed, passed by the drawing rooms and climbed the ancient stairs that separated the new high school part from the old ‘Bosnia’. Next, she headed to the area behind the canteen. She would be safe there, with no one in sight; unless someone wished to do something in secret because it was unlawful or malevolent, nobody went there.

  Marina sat down, enjoying the warm sun shining in the sky, and listening to the birds’ song. Autumn was near, which meant that the birds’ singing would be less frequent soon, so she decided to enjoy those last melodies. She closed her eyes, leaned her head against the wall and let herself be embraced by good vibrations. Suddenly, the air got heavy and the birds fled from the trees. Intrigued, Marina straightened her head and lifted her eyelids. She looked around and became aware that, at the very bottom of that place, Lucas was sat on the floor too. His arms hugged his knees, and he rested his head on them. When she saw him, her body jumped with shock, as if she had been hit by a bolt of lightning, a
nd a light lit up in her head indicating ‘that’s him’. That was a great opportunity to go and ask what he had done the other afternoon. However, it was as if she was stuck and couldn’t move. What if he thought she was crazy? What a good impression that would make.

  Leaving her fears aside, she got up very slowly and prepared to meet Lucas. Her plans were soon delayed, since, as she took the first step, a strange man showed up next to Lucas, appearing from nowhere. He had long black hair tied in a pony-tail, and wore a dark t-shirt and pants. Yikes! He could be Gothic. Unable to see the stranger's face, Marina kept walking towards them. Perhaps the visitor would disappear when she was closer to Lucas. Maybe the guy would think she was Lucas’ girlfriend and would decide to leave them alone. ‘Lucas’ girlfriend’... The words made ​​her blush to the hair roots just by thinking them, so she shook her head to move them away from her mind. Marina gave up on approaching them when she was startled by the strange man yelling at Lucas, in an unknown language. With the fright, she released an unexpected little squeak, catching the attention of the mysterious man. His relentless gaze was so sharp that it seemed that he had shot her straight in the heart. The girl pressed her chest in result of the pain she felt, and sank against the wall to hold steady, since her legs were weakening. What’s happening? Marina asked herself.

  To her relief, as fast as it started, the pain dispersed. The girl then looked at the bottom of the area, and found out that both Lucas and the man had vanished. It was as if they were never there. However, she knew what she had seen, heard and felt. If his presence in the river was a trick of her mind’s eye, that wasn’t a figment of her imagination for sure.

  Sounding quit distant, the bell rang: it was it time for the second class of the day. Marina composed herself, returned to the garden and headed to room number six. Seeing Ana at the room’s door gave her a great need to hug her and cry. There were so many strange things happening! She had to talk to her, still the fear of being judged as mad seemed to hold her tight by invisible strings.

  “There you are! I looked for you everywhere,” grouched Ana.

  “Huh, I was hiding,” apologized Marina.

  “What? Hiding from whom?” asked Ana, not quite understanding what she meant by that.

  Whispering, Marina tried to justify herself, recalling what Ana had told her the day before. “You were right. As soon as these people saw me entering the school, they wouldn't leave me alone. I had to hide.”

  “That was what I expected. Don’t worry; within two breaks, they’ll forget about you. This is happening now, because you’re a novelty. By the afternoon, things will calm down for sure,” said Ana, reassuring her friend.

  “You’re the genius in this matter,” replied Marina as she forged a smile.

  “You bet, and you'll see I'm right. Are we sticking to the plans for after school?”

  “Yes. I spoke with my mom and it’s alright, as long as I don’t go near the river’s wall. You know… moms…” commented Marina, releasing a sigh.

  “Your mother has her reasons, given what happened.”

  Marina snapped, “Hey! As if it was my fault!”

  “I didn’t say that. I just think she has a point, given the recent events. Try to put yourself in her shoes,” suggested Ana. “I'm sure you’d say the same thing to your own daughter.”

  Marina laughed a bit and retorted, “Maybe. But look at you, trying to put yourself in a mom’s role.”

  Ana blushed. If her mother knew she had said something like that, she would be proud. To tell the truth, she had felt like an ‘old lady’ verbalizing that. The role of responsible one was Marina’s, not hers.

  Before Ana started to criticize her previous comment, Marina looked at her with an awkward and worried look and confessed, “By the way, I must talk to you. I think I'm seeing things. Maybe I’m going nuts or something.”

  “Okay, but you’ll have to wait for the next break, because the French teacher is already here. Did you bring my notebook?”

  Marina nodded. As soon as she sat in place, she pulled out the diary and handed it to her friend.

  The teacher presented herself to class, saying her name was Josefina, and she explained that she would take the first lesson to do a diagnostic test, in order to determine the student’s knowledge point. As if they were twins, Marina and Ana reacted to this news by ogling. If the professor wanted to know how they were in French, she just had to check their last year’s evaluation and would get an idea of how bad they were.

  Before the test, Josefina called the students’ names and the fact that Lucas was absent didn’t pass unnoticed to Marina. “Lucas is not here,” she said to Ana.

  “Who? Ah, the new guy. He’ll probably miss a lot of lessons, as he's a tri-repeat student. He must be tired of learning the same stuff.”

  Ana was right. It was the third time Lucas was in the 11th grade, so he should know the data by heart, which would lead him to skip classes many times.

  Doing a diagnostic test was annoying. Since didn’t matter for an evaluation score, Marina answered the questions without paying proper attention to them. She just wanted to go outside to tell Ana about the strange things she had seen. The clock seemed to hear her plea and made ​​the bell ring at the right time.

  As soon as they returned the tests and packed, Marina dragged her friend out of the room. When they reached the corridor, she found out that people continued to look at her, nonetheless Ana seemed to be right and, little by little, they ceased to be so interested in her. With a bit of luck, by the end of the day they wouldn’t stare at her any more, nor whisper about her. Still, the best place to talk to her friend in peace was behind the canteen, where she had been before. Ana protested when she found herself being dragged, since she wanted to go to the bar to eat something before next class. Marina didn’t flinch and Ana thought she would have to starve until lunchtime. They marched at a fast pace to the back of the canteen and found the place deserted, as usual.

  “It was there! Right there at the bottom,” started Marina as she pointed away.

  Ana looked at her with a bewildered expression, showing she had no idea what she was talking about, and raised her shoulders in a question mark. She felt like telling her friend she was making no sense, but it wasn’t necessary as Marina hurried to complete her reasoning, “There, at the bottom! Do you remember saying you sought me around the whole school in the previous break?”

  “Yes, I looked for you and couldn’t find you anywhere,” answered Ana.

  “You didn’t find me, because I came here.”

  “To Bosnia?” Ana enquired, somehow incredulous.

  “People kept looking at me and asking me questions, so I decided to escape for a while. The important thing is that when I got here, I sat down and thought I was alone, but then something weird happened.”

  Ana shook a little, feeling that there would be fresh explosive news, and encouraged her friend to continue her narrative. “What? Tell me,” she demanded.

  “Do you hear the birds singing like crazy?”

  Ana fell silent to listen better and agreed. Yes, she heard the birds singing as if there was no tomorrow.

  Noticing her nod, Marina went on. “So, here I was listening to it, when suddenly the birds became silent and fled away, as if they were afraid of something. When I opened my eyes, I saw Lucas sitting right there, at the bottom.”

  “Uh, sinister figure,” exclaimed Ana, who felt a shiver dancing on her back. Although Lucas was a funny guy in his own way, there was something about him that made ​​her stand aloof around him and to fear him. To summarize: he was an attractive, though dangerous figure.

  Marina shook her head and hastened to say, “The sinister figure came later! Out of the blue, a man came from nowhere. He was a little older than Lucas, dressed like a Goth, and started yelling at Lucas in a strange language that sounded like gibberish.”

  Ana put on a poker face, as she reflected on what her friend had said. Where was the explosive ne
ws? Marina had seen Lucas with a guy dressed as a Goth. So what? After sighing, she said, “I see nothing abnormal about it. So he hangs out with scum. Big deal. After all…”

  Marina interrupted then, “You’re not understanding. The Gothic guy realized that I was here, and when he looked at me, he did it with an expression so intense that it caused me an excruciating pain in my heart. Then, when I looked back, there was nobody there, and the pain disappeared as if by magic.”

  “Wow,” Ana managed said in the end, half stunned. That last part sounded both quite strange and interesting. The fact that Lucas got along with whom he shouldn’t was something to be expected; bad companions were a plausible answer to why he was repeating the same grade for so long. However, someone able to cause pain to another just by looking at them was awesome, at least. Ana moved from one side to another, while thinking, and frowned as a result of the internal reflection she carried out. Moments later, she turned to Marina and said, “OK, let's be rational. Whatever you think you’ve seen, you might not have actually seen it. I mean, just two days ago you suffered a major trauma and you might be presenting late symptoms or something like that.”

  “Symptoms such as hallucinations?” Marina doubted.

  “Maybe. As you yourself said, you felt a sharp pain in your heart, and when it passed, you noticed that there wasn’t anyone there. It may have been so strong that it caused you hallucinations.”

  “So why did I have the hallucinations before the pain?” insisted Marina.

  “It was a warning, who knows? I’m just trying to find a logical explanation,” replied Ana, somewhat nervous.

  Ana's theory made ​​sense at some level, but Marina knew what she had seen and felt. It was impossible that her spirit kept playing pranks of such bad taste like that. Not even in dreams was her imagination that fertile. Shaking her head, Marina reiterated, “No. I affirm, reaffirm and confirm what I saw. They were there, I’m sure. And it was after the weird man looked at me I felt sick.”

  “Fine, you don’t have to shout. I don’t know! Lucas may hang out with bad people and when they saw you, they ran away. The pain may have been just something resulting from the river’s episode and not even be related to them,” retorted Ana.

  New plausible theory: the chest pain had nothing to do with them and they ran away when they saw her, because they were having a private heated conversation and didn’t want to be interrupted or that she realized what they were talking about. As if she had any idea of what the strange guy had said. Marina thought better about this possibility and recalled that she had released a little squeak when the Goth began to shout at Lucas, so it was possible that she had scared them away. Still, this scene joined something far more bizarre and that had led her to question herself before. “Do you know what really bothers me?”

  “What?” said Ana, not knowing what to expect from her friend at that point.

  “Although everyone contradicts me, I could swear on my soul that Lucas tried to help me when I fell into the river.”

  Ana opened her mouth in amazement and disbelief. Leaving no detail out, Marina told her all she remembered of that authentic Mexican soap opera that she lived two days ago. When she finished, Ana was sitting on the floor with a straight face. Seeing her so transfixed, Marina crouched beside her and said, “You know, I don’t read minds. Do you think I'm crazy?”

  Ana shrugged and replied, “The episode you went through was traumatic, nonetheless I didn’t think... I don’t know. You don’t seem insane, just confused. I mean, for example, you may have felt impressed by Lucas that day, therefore you remembered him. There are several explanations and nobody else saw him at the river, just you.”

  “I know. And don’t you think it makes me even dizzier?” said Marina with a tone of desperation shaking in her voice.

  “I believe so. If it was me, I’d also think I was nuts. You know that supernatural things are not my thing, but combining the two scenes involving Lucas, everything gains quite abnormal contours that deserve to be investigated.”

  The intriguing tone of her friend’s voice led Marina to ask, “How come?”

  “I’m not sure, I have to think about it. Honestly, the best thing to do is what you thought - talk to him. If it doesn’t work and you still have visions about him, we can go to the school counselor or… look, we can do a hypnosis session to get to the bottom of this mystery,” suggested Ana.

  Despite the fact that they were talking about weird stuff, the suggestion of a hypnosis session made them laugh. They were acting like silly Ghost-busters. It was better to stop. Marina would talk to Lucas and, for the rest, she would decide later.

  Still hoping to get to the bar before the bell rang, Ana dragged her friend in a mad rush, which proved fruitful: she still managed to eat a ham sandwich and to drink a carton of chocolate milk. Marina decided to go with it and ate the sandwich she had brought from home.

  “Gosh, we’re having Philosophy next and I haven’t done my homework. Do you believe that I didn’t remember such a thing?” complained Marina when she heard the bell ringing for the following class.

  “Sure! If I was in your situation, I would have forgotten too. It's normal,” devalued Ana.

  “Let’s go then. I have to talk to Manelito to see if he’ll let me do the assignment and deliver it later.”

  “Knowing him as we do, I don’t know… He’s such a strict one, who only looks at things his way. Anyway, he may be in a good mood and give you that opportunity,” answered Ana with some disbelief.

  “I hope so.”

  They rose from the bar table and headed for the classroom. Again, they found half the class already seated, while the teacher whined that they had to be more punctual. "You must be at the door as soon as the bell rings," he shouted while waving his arms in the air, as if showing something that was quite obvious to him, but not for students. Marina protested inside. The ring of the bell indicated it was time to go to class and they didn’t have to be at the room’s door before that, or they wouldn’t even have time to go to the bathroom or to the bar.

  The friends prepared to sit at a desk side by side, but the professor waved them, reminding that Ana had to sit at the front for being number two, and Marina would be sitting in the back rows for being number sixteen in the class list. Marina counted the places to see where she would sit, although she didn’t even have to: Lucas was number fifteen and he was sat in the corresponding place; she just had to take the seat beside him. A tingling of nerves gnawed all of her being for having to sit right next to him. Marina swallowed hard and walked to her place with faltered steps. She tried to ignore him as she sat down and took her things out of the backpack. Then she turned to the front, as if paying a lot of attention to the lesson.

  “According to the room’s layout, numbers seven, thirteen, nineteen and twenty-two are missing, correct? Let’s start the lesson with homework. Who didn’t do the assignment? Put your hands up, please,” demanded the teacher.

  Embarrassed, Marina raised her arm with shyness, along with Lucas and two other colleagues. The professor raised his eyebrows in a criticizing way, especially to the repeater boy, who should show more willingness to step to the 12th grade at last.

  Walking from one side to another, the teacher asked those who didn’t do the work to explain why they hadn’t done it. Two of them said they couldn’t find anything about their origins. When her turn came, Marina tried to explain what had happened. “I’m really sorry, sir, but I didn’t do the task, because... I forgot,” she admitted.

  “You forgot? Wasn’t the assignment minimally important or interesting, hmm? Maybe not, since you forgot to do it...” replied the professor with sarcasm.

  “It’s not like that, sir. It's just that I had an accident and after that I didn’t remember we had homework.”

  “An accident? And it would have given you amnesia, no?”

  Could he be the only person in school who didn’t know she had fallen into the river? It seemed incredible. O
f two sentences, only one was correct: he really didn't know what had happened to her or he thought that, regardless what had occurred, she had to fulfill the designated task, period.

  “It’s true, she fell into the river”, a colleague defended.

  “She even went to the hospital and missed school yesterday,” another one added.

  After thinking for two seconds, the teacher believed in her story. Still, he grouched, “It doesn’t sound like an accident serious enough to make you forget your duties. And if you missed school yesterday, you had plenty of time to do it.”

  “Yeah, but the problem is that I forgot about it. If you allow me to, I can do it today and deliver it tomorrow,” proposed Marina in a shy tone.

  After rubbing his forehead for a while, the professor directed his attentions to her desk classmate, “And you, repeater boy, why didn’t you do your homework?”

  Lucas didn’t answer. At the insistence of the teacher, who still fenced a ‘Are you deaf?’ the boy replied with an air of loathing, “I didn’t do it, because who I am, only concerns me. To you, the grades I get in tests are all you should be interested in.”

  Colleagues turned in desks in disbelief to his response. It was incredible that he spoke that way to a teacher, moreover that teacher being Manelito, the student’s terror. However, if he angered the professor and he discounted his anger on them, he would be everyone’s problem.

  The teacher pointed his finger at Lucas, while a mocking smile stretched across his face. “You are dodgy, aren’t you? If you want to fail this year, I can grant your wish easily, but that’s what you wanted, to do nothing. Since Marina also didn’t do the homework, you’ll both go to the library to do it and I want it delivered to me by the end of this hour. Pay attention, Miss Marina: if your classmate doesn’t have any work done by the end of the stipulated period, his grade will be yours.”

  The girl opened her mouth in amazement. Sure she appreciated the opportunity to do the project, nonetheless his condition was ridiculous, so she protested, “That's not fair, sir. He may not want to do anything, but I want to have a good grade.”

  “So make him work – it’s your duty,” the teacher claimed, ending the conversation

  Marina snorted. As if it wasn’t enough having to do the assignment in haste, she also had to force a troublemaker to do his and her grade depended on it. It would have been better to have stayed in a coma or something like that. Stony head! She took a deep breath and tried to see the bright side: at least, she was being given the opportunity to do homework, and if he didn’t do his, maybe she could write something and hand it over as being his work. She would not fail. Lucas retreated to the library right away, but Marina took a while to gather her material.

  Upon entering the library, the girl found Lucas sitting at a computer and decided to occupy the working station behind him. To write a text about her origins was easy: she had grown up hearing stories of her being a descendant of the former slave colony of São Romão do Sado. Her hair, that she uncurled every six months proved it very well. Since she was at the computer, she decided to make a brief survey to find more data on the subject. After a brief consultation of several pages, she managed to write the following text:

  “My name is Marina and I'm from Alcácer do Sal, as well as my parents. My maternal grandfather was from the northern area of Portugal, but the greatest cultural and genetic heritage comes from my paternal grandfather, who came from the former slave colony of São Romão do Sado.

  Little is known about the establishment of this colony, but most authors relate it with the need for manpower in agriculture and demographic issues. It was said that the valley of Sado was a rice-growing area, where several outbreaks of malaria caused a high mortality rate, so people avoided living there. In the fifteenth century many men had to embark in ships to embrace the Discovery Era, which further reduced the existing manpower. To solve this question, the owners of these lands have chosen to buy black slaves on the markets to populate and work the land.

  Over the years, with the disappearance of slavery, miscegenation has intensified. Nowadays, the ‘heirs’ of the colony still have features that bind them to their past, from curly hair to the broad nose and a skin color sometimes darker.

  I have a skin tone slightly darker than my colleagues and my hair is curly. Although people may tell that to uncurl my hair is to deny my genetic inheritance, it is merely an aesthetic issue that has nothing to do with my origins. I’m very proud to descend from working people, who brought new life to this land."

  For the time she had, that was the text that was possible to write. It didn’t sound that bad – Marina was happy about the result. She printed the work and went to collect the sheet at the machine. After paying for the print-out to the library employee, she returned to her seat, ready to gather her belongings and return to the classroom. She was then haunted by the dilemma: Lucas also had to deliver something or she would be penalized the same way.

  After packing her things, Marina looked at the front computer to check if Lucas had his job almost done. What she saw made ​​her angry: he was playing a computer cards game. How stupid! Irritated, she got up from her seat with fury, went close to his chair and crossed her arms in a defensive posture. Without quite knowing how to start the conversation, she began by saying, “You missed French class.”

  What? You missed French class? As if she had anything to do with it. He did what he wanted without justifying it to anyone, much less to her. If he asked her the same question, she wouldn’t bother to answer him either. Lucas didn’t look away from the screen, completely ignoring her. Her comment had been as important as the buzz of a mosquito in the middle of the rainforest.

  Marina insisted again, “You should have studied the matter several times already and it must become annoying to always hear the same thing, right?”

  He continued not to pay her any attention. It was as if she wasn’t there and that made ​​her even more frustrated. Almost bursting, the girl interrupted one more time, “Besides, you should have more interesting things to do with that Goth friend of yours who screams in Chinese, right?”

  This time she got a reaction. Lucas turned his head sharply toward her, gnashing his teeth. His eyes darted over her, making her feel petrified. With a cavernous voice, he asked, “And what do you know about that?” He threw back his chair and hurried from the library.

  Damn it! That way, she would have a bad grade because of him. No way, she thought. Things couldn’t stay like that.

  She ran after him and caught him near the school lobby. She placed herself in his way and wouldn't let him go. “Not so fast,” she said.

  “What? What do you want with me?” he questioned.

  “I want you to work with me.”

  The boy laughed at her words, which he interpreted in a quite different way from what Marina meant. He approached her unhurriedly, in a super provocative and seductive way that caused her dizziness. Marina stumbled back, hitting the wall with no possible escape. To ensure she didn’t get away, Lucas stuck his palms on the wall to the height of her shoulders, holding her there. Their bodies were dangerously close. Gosh! He would grasp her gasp for sure... Why did she feel like that just by having him around? He didn’t seem to be a good guy and she was sure he was trouble; still, the danger drew her with an irresistible power.

  “What kind of work do you want exactly?” Lucas sensually whispered in her ear.

  Marina trembled with that unchaste insinuation. Would he be suggesting by chance that they...? Part of her shouted ‘yes’ and asked her to play along with his game. But she wasn’t like that, neither could he get away from his responsibilities by using his incredible charm.

  Appealing to all her energies to compose herself, Marina slipped beneath his arm and walked away a few steps, to stop his magnetism from affecting her. In response, Lucas put his hands in his pockets, exhibited a spicy smile that made her think he was mocking her, and prepared to turn his back on her. A spar
k of anger ran through Marina. Who did he think he was? He didn’t do his assignment, put her grade at risk, threw his charm at her and then walk away? No. Fuming, she put her hand on the boy's shoulder, forcing him to face her, and yelled, “Excuse me?! You may not care about school, but I won’t let you ruin my grade. At least tell me where you come from, so that I can write a few lines that will take me from the gallows.”

  When he realized that she wouldn’t let him go, Lucas told her a single word, “Purepecha.” Stunned, Marina let him pass. She remained in the same place for a while, mulling over the word and questioning herself about its meaning. At long last, her feet responded to her request and took her back to the library. She sat in the same place where she had been before, went back into the search engine and wrote the word. Only a few results came up, but she had no time for further searches: she had three minutes before the bell to deliver both assignments.

  Marina wasn’t going to write a text as elaborate as her own; after all, it was Lucas’ assignment, not hers. To hell with him. She’d go for the so-called ‘copy and paste’. Selecting a text, she copied and pasted it into a new page in Word. Then she corrected it, so that the Portuguese didn’t sound so much like Brazilian, and adapted it to Lucas’ case. It came out something like this:

  "My name is Lucas and my family descends from the Purepecha, an indigenous people of Michoacán, Mexico, that speaks only the Purepecha language. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Purepecha Empire prospered a lot, given that they were good copper workers.

  They were among the few people who weren’t mastered by the Aztec's. However, the ‘cazonci’ Tangaxoán II showed no resistance to the Spanish conquistador, Cristobal de Olid. In 1530, Governor Nuno de Guzman plundered the region and destroyed temples in search of precious metals, ordering Tangaxoán II’s death, after accusing him of killing Spaniards. Faced with chaos, many Indians fled to the mountains. There were several episodes of violence, which led the Spanish Crown to send as ombudsman Don Vasco de Quiroga, who later became a bishop. He managed to restore order, which favored the continuation of this culture. It is also attributed to him the teaching of various trades, hand crafted specialization and other traditions that remain until today."

  It wasn’t a great text, but at least it was done and she wouldn’t fail because of Lucas.

  When she was printing the assignment, the bell rang, forcing her to grab her things in a hurry and run to the classroom. She waited till all her colleagues came out before she entered to deliver the two sheets to the teacher. The professor looked at her sternly and inquired, “Where’s your colleague?”

  “Huh, he asked me to deliver his assignment, because he wanted to get to the print shop to get some photocopies before it closed.”

  Suspecting that this was a lie, the teacher raised his eyebrows, yet he took the sheets, put them in his bag and left the room. Phew! When Marina met Lucas again, she would tell him good. Who did he think he was, to leave her in the lurch and face Manelito? Someone had to call him to reason, although no one seemed interested in playing such role. She would have to step up and do it, although she doubted he’d listen to a single word of what she had to tell him. With all that mess, she hadn’t tried to ascertain what he had done the previous day. It would have to wait for another opportunity. Resigned, Marina grabbed her backpack and left the room to join Ana for lunch in the canteen.