The Tapping Pencil: Fern's Adventures: Seven

A paper hits the back of Ferns head, and he stops tapping his apple pen.

What are we, in middle school? He thinks, annoyed as he turns around to see the culprit.

The boy behind him (who doesn’t even have a laptop out to pretend to be taking notes) glares at him. He mouths something and Fern, unable to read lips and now hyper aware that this guy also isn’t wearing a mask, continues to stare at him, dumbfounded. The boy rolls his eyes and points to the wadded-up paper that had been thrown at Fern.

Where the hell did he get paper, let alone something to write on it with? Fern thought as he picked up the paper and uncrumpled it.

“Stop tapping your pencil, freak” was scrawled out across the page in chicken scratch. The note made Fern laugh, and he tossed it over his shoulder back at the kid who was now scrolling through Instagram and still not taking notes.

Fern started tapping his pencil again as he waited for the professor to say something worthwhile to write down. He gets hit in the back of the head again. He doesn’t turn around this time, pretending he didn’t feel it.

“Hey.” The guy hisses onto Fern’s neck, warm breath hitting Fern’s neck and making his hair stand up. Fern shivers and turns around to see the guy leaning over his entire desk to talk to Fern. “What did I just say?” He growled. Fern thought this was pathetic for someone in a junior level class.

“Pay attention.” was all Fern replied with in a low whisper, before turning back to the front and writing down what was on the slide. He could hear the guy mumbling and grumbling behind him but he didn’t care. There wasn’t much the guy could do during the lecture anyway, and he obviously didn’t even know Fern’s name.

Fern continued to tap his Apple Pen as he waited for important things to be said and wrote down those important thigs. The cycle was boring, but that was just how class was.

When class ended, he had packed up his iPad and Apple Pen into his tote with dance skeletons. He pulled out his plant air pods and popped one in. Before he could his play on his playlist and pick back up where he left off in “Living Dead Girl” by Rob Zombie, the guy behind him was basically in his face.

“Why didn’t you stop tapping?” He asked in a cool tone. Other were already starting to pile out of the classroom as Fern laughed at his statement.

“Because this isn’t high school? You can’t just demand that I do something,” Fern almost ended there but decided to keep going. “And you were on Instagram liking bikini pics of other girls while simultaneously texting your girlfriend how much you love her.” Fern cross his arms.

The guy turned bright red, but instead of replying just walked away.

Fern grinned, pleased with himself, and started “Living Dead Girl” for his walk to his next class.

Who said introverts can’t stand up for themselves?