Chapter 1


I desperately wanted the clock to move faster. Every second seemed to last a millennium, every minute an eternity. “Can’t you just let us out of class two minutes early for once?” I was tempted to scream at my teacher, Miss. Rose, who still stood at her podium, lecturing. Don’t even ask me what she was lecturing about. She lost me ten minutes ago. Scratch that-she never had me. Does she know how boring she is? I looked to see if anyone was still listening. Nope, no one looked even remotely interested. Well that is, if you don’t count Stephanie, but then again, she’s always paying attention. Sometimes I worry about her, but then again, that’s what makes her the genius, and I do mean genius.

Her binder was open, and she was taking notes. I could hear her pencil writing vigorously all the way across the room. She was a small girl with olive colored skin. The kind that looked like you had just come back from a moth long vacation at the beach. Her black hair was pulled back into a pony tail at the nape of her heck. It was long enough to make Rapunzle jealous. Okay, it wasn’t that long, but you get the picture. I sighed. One minute until the bell rang and she was still at it.

My leg began to bop up and down like Thumper’s, the hyperactive rabbit from Bambi. I glanced out into the now crowed and noisy hallway and watched the other students, backpacks already packed, jackets already on, race their way out for a long awaited weekend. They were already out; they were already free! Not fair!

It’s okay. I thought to myself. In a couple of seconds you’ll be out there too. The thought just made things worse. It didn’t stop my leg from bopping, or my heart from dying to get out. My leg bopped faster. I closed my eyes and tried to picture my self battling down the narrow hallway to my locker.

RRIIINNGGG!! The pressure released from me like soda from a freshly shaken can. I stood, threw my things into my poka-dot backpack, and flew over to Stephanie’s desk. She was still writing.

“Oh, come on!” I wined

“Just another minute, I want to finish writing this sentence.”

“Fine. Just make it quick.”

Her pencil went into turbo speed. I swear I saw little sparks fly from the point. She closed her binder and neatly placed it into her solid blue bag, and put her pencil in a case along with five other pencils, sharpened to perfect points. She put that into a special pouch in the bag. Her neatness was making me sick, but hey, she was one of my best friends. I’d just have to deal with it.

“Bye Miss. Rose, have a nice weekend!” I said as I walked out of the room.

“Bye!” said Stephanie.

Besides a couple of teachers going to and from the office, with stacks of papers for God knows what, the hallway had cleared out pretty quickly. I glanced into the classrooms whose doors were still open. Mr. Sickels was still in his room, probably grading the Geometry tests we took today. Mr. Rispoli’s science lab was closed, the lights off. I could barely see the plastic yellow chairs through the little window.

We finally arrived at our tiny little lockers, where a skinny blonde girl stood, chomping on bubble gum, and checking her bright pink nails.

“Geeze! What took yah so long?” said the girl, Amy.

“Stephanie had to copy down every word Miss. Rose said! Every word!”

“I want an A on her test!” she defended.

“Yah so do I, but that’s not what I do!”

“Me either, but then again, unlike you two smarty pants, a B’s fine with me.”

I opened my locker and grabbed all my books that were shoved into it. I was always forgetting my books. Come to mention it, I was always forgetting everything. From forgetting to turn off the bathroom light, to forgetting to bring a toothbrush on vacation, it seemed I just had more important things on my mind lately. For a while, I would forget my books in my locker and have to run all the way back so I could finis my homework. If I grabbed them all….I couldn’t forget anything. I also grabbed my jacket and my lunch bag. (My mom had a thing with keeping cold cuts cold – to my dismay. I felt like a 2nd grader carrying it around; No brown bag lunch for me.)

My locker was decorated with pink and blue striped wall paper, and had pictures of all my friends and family.

“Wow. That looks awesome, can you do mine? You’re such a great artist!” said Amy, and I felt heat rush into my face. I was turning pink. I knew it. I hated when that happened. My face always turned bright pink when I was embarrassed. I did’t even know what was so embarrassing about a compliment from my best friend.

Sarah started to giggle.

“What?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“You’re pink!”

“Yah, what else is new.” I grumbled as I closed my locker and locked it.

Suddenly, Stephanie’s cell began to ring. It sounded funny hearing the ringtone bounce off the school’s walls; it sounded out of place.

“Hello...Yes…..Alright, on my way,” she said to who we knew was her mom. “Well, I’ve got to go. Mom’s waiting. I’ll talk to you guys later. Maybe we could hang tonight.”

“Totally, and yea, I’ve got to go too. Mike said he’d meet me outside” said Amy

“You’re ditching me, your best friend, for your boyfriend? How dare you?” I said sarcastically, making both Amy and Stephanie giggle.


We all went our separate ways, thoughts of the weekend filling our heads. Little did I know, that was my last normal moment with them for a long time. I walked back down the deserted hallway, to room 404. Little did I know, my life was about to change.