Chapter 1

            No matter what he did, he couldn't get rid of it. He supposed it was her doing. A bandage ripped away before a wound could heal leaves a scar, after all. Terrence glanced at the computer on the corner of the room. The desk was still messy with carelessly placed headphones, keyboard tilted to the right. He sighed. Well, it doesn't compare to the rest of the room.

   The room was a disaster already happened. Clothes strewn on the bed were neglected.  The bed itself was unmade, notebooks scattered on them. Terrence grabbed them and stacked them on the floor. A mess like this won't do.

   It wasn't like no one cared to clean the room. Their"his mother firmly believed in order and thus liked to keep everything in their place. Terrence supposed it was because she couldn't bear the thought of erasing her daughter's presence from the house. He picked up a shirt and threw it into the basket. Maybe it was okay. It had been only sixty days since it happened, after all.

   The clothes brought down to be washed and the items scattered already put in place, Terrence stared at the room. It felt rather strange to see the room so bare. The walls were eggshell"Judy never cared enough to ask for a change. There was only the bed, a small board plastered with post-its, a few shelves and the desk. He frowned. That was the only place he didn't dare to touch.

   Judy spent nearly all her free time on the computer, playing whatever game she had. Most of the time he saw her playing MMORPG games. He used to play with her when they were in seventh grade but lost interest. Maybe he could check and see what pulled her in for so long.

   'I'm not sure what's going inside that head of yours, but staring at something for twenty minutes is not healthy.' Terrence jerked away to look at the door, a smirking Winona leaning on the door frame.

   'If you know how long I've been standing, then you must be staring at me for twenty minutes too,' he muttered. 'You're even creepier than I.' She laughed.

   'Like I'd ever be, compared to you. Come on, I thought we're supposed to go to Macho Picho? If we're following your time schedule, we'd be late by two hours.'

   He glanced back at the computer. What made him lost track of time staring at it anyway? Expecting something to come out of it? Waiting for a portal to open? That was stupid. He turned to Winona, nodding and walking out of the room.

   'You go first, I'm going to grab my bag first.' She shrugged but nodded, walking toward the stairs. Terrence gave one last glance toward the computer before closing the door. He could ponder about that later.

 

   The table burst into an applaud as Terrence and Winona sat down. Mattea and Cassandra clapped while Leo looked up and returned to his Nintendo DS.

   'Am I hallucinating? Because I see Terry here.' Cassandra said, a grin on her face. Terrence rolled his eyes, pulling out a notebook from his bag. Mattea patted a big stack of book on the table.

   'This is called the new classics,' Mattea said, holding up Norwegian Wood, 'and each of you need to read one of what I brought.'

   'New classics, really?' Cassandra said, raising an eyebrow, 'and why must we?'

   'Teachers are not supposed to make sense,' Winona said, 'but still, we have to get that report down. Not sure why we must make a group though. I mean, why can't we do it ourselves?' Mattea shrugged.

   'We're supposed to compare the writer's different works. We got Haruki Murakami so just deal with it.' She handed the books out"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle to Leo, After Dark and The Elephant Vanishes to Terrence, Cassandra got A Wild Sheep Chase, Winona the Norwegian Wood and herself Kafka on the Shore.

   'This will be a pretty heavy read,' said Winona, eyeing the thick book, 'and doesn't Murakami include some of the explicit stuffs?' Mattea shrugged.

   'We have one month to write and compile the reports and write a conclusion. And yeah, he does. That's why I gave you that one.' She smirked. 'Have fun reading it.'

   Leo said nothing, already proceeding to read his book. Terrence wasn't sure when the Pokemon theme music stopped, but that wasn't unusual for any of them to not notice. Leo was 'the ninja' of the class, known for doing things so silently.

   'So I get two books?' Terrence said.

   'After Dark is only 200 pages,' Cassandra said, 'everyone else gets 400 up. Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are 600 pages.'

   'And it's not like you can't finish a mere 500 pages in a month,' Winona said. Terrence held his hands up, backing away as far as he could without getting off his seat. The girls grinned at each other and high-fived.

   Putting the thicker book into his bag, Terrence opened After Dark. He heard plenty of positive reviews and recommendations, but these kind of books weren't really what he usually heard. Eh, whatever. Expanding his horizons won't hurt.

 

   '--Terrence?' He looked up, feeling rather jarred off. Everyone on the table was looking at him. Even Leo had closed his book and said something to the waiter. He grinned sheepishly before ordering sandwich and fries. Mattea clicked her tongue and shook her head. Winona muttered, 'lost cause.'

   'It's a good book, no?' Leo said, a small smile on his face. Terrence nodded. 'It doesn't have too much actions that makes you focus on what's happening. You don't see a movie, or a picture, you just observe. The pace allows you to think about what's happening.'

   'It does. Surreal, but believable.'

   'Much like life,' Leo said. Terrence blinked, but before he could reply, the waiter came with the foods and the table lit up with chatters. He awkwardly smiled as Cassandra cracked a joke he didn't quite listen to. His eyes wandered to Leo but he did not return the gaze, submerged in his own world. Eventually it was all forgotten.