You know what the worst part of the day is? Waking up to that annoying buzz of your alarm clock telling you that even though you’re tired and didn’t get enough sleep last night, it’s time to get your lazy ass out of bed anyways.

You know what’s even worse? Falling back asleep but dreaming that you’ve gotten up and are getting ready for school. You know that dream right? You shower, you dress, and you even eat breakfast. You make it to school and then you wake up and realize that it was a dream you get to spend the next half hour frantically trying to do all the things you thought were already done.

Mornings suck.

Chapter 1: Someday My Prince Will Come

Every day that involves school is less than exciting, but today was particularly bad. After running around my house like a mad woman, shoving burnt toast in my mouth while changing and putting my stuff in my bag, I finally left only to watch in horror as my bus took off without me… for the second time this week. If it wasn’t so depressing I’d really get a kick out of it. I mean here I am going at break-neck speed to catch the bus and then I miss it and am left doing nothing waiting for the next one.

So there I stood, freezing my ass off, watching as I became a human snowman when a car sped by splashing me with slushy grit from the road. I cursed loudly and shook my fist but it didn’t have any affect. I was still wet and dirty and they were still dry in their warm car.

Bastards.

Whenever things like this happen I just go to my happy place. That’s right, I said it, my happy place. It’s the daydream I have when things suck, like today for instance. I imagine this tall, dark, and handsome guy walking up to me and offering to rescue me from whatever distress I am in. So today my prince charming would pull up in his black stretch limo and offer me a ride to school. I eagerly get in, and then he surprises me with an amazing selection of dry clothes – all in my size of course. He then moves up to the front to give me privacy while I change – my prince is a gentleman naturally. I get to school and he escorts me to my class. All the girls stare with jealousy and all the guys wonder why they didn’t ask me out when they had the chance. We arrive at my class and he leans over and kisses me on the cheek. I just smile sweetly and enter the classroom knowing that it won’t be the last time I see him.

Ya right.

Daydreams are nice but then when you’re forced back to reality you’re reminded of just how much your life actually sucks. The screeching brakes of the bus reminded me that I wasn’t being rescued, I was going numb from the cold and I needed to save up and buy a car so that I could be the one to splash people as I happily sped away.

So I stepped on and paid my $2.50 – can you believe that? Do they think I’m made of money? No wonder people don’t take transit. It saves money my ass – anyways I got on and sat down in an empty seat.

“Excuse me, could you not sit there please?”

Are you kidding me? After the morning I had someone actually had the nerve to speak to me? And I hate people who think they own public transportation and try to tell you what to do. It was the only empty seat; did he want me to stand?

“Why?”

“I do not enjoy people I am unfamiliar with sitting in close proximity to me.”

“Uh huh…” I think this guy took English class a little too seriously. “This is PUBLIC transportation pal, I can sit wherever I want, but just so you know, it isn’t really a bed of roses sitting next to you either.”

“A bed of roses?”

“Ya, a bed of roses, you know, nice and pretty and smells good. You smell like you took a shower in cologne.” It was nice cologne, it smelled expensive and I kind of like how it smelled like pine trees and fresh snow, but that was beside the point.

“I am afraid that I really must ask you to change seats.”

“You’re joking right?”

“I am not.”

“This is unbelievable!” Why does God have to piss on my life? “Alright, fine, you win, I’ll go stand… at the back… for the rest of the trip.”

“I appreciate your cooperativeness.”

“I bet you do.” I grabbed my bag and moved to the back grumbling to myself the whole time.

When I finally got off of that miserable bus I had to run the rest of the distance so I wouldn’t be late. It’s a good thing I only bring the minimal amount of stuff required with me, or running with that backpack would be a real bitch.

Once inside I located the nearest washroom and attempted to fix myself up. My short brown, pixie cut hair was a mess but it wasn’t anything running my fingers through it couldn’t fix. My hazel brown eyes looked tired, and my makeup would have been running everywhere… had I been wearing any. The bottom half of my jeans were drenched and had bits of grit and dirt plastered to it, but other than that I didn’t look too bad.

I still had a few minutes before I had to go to class so I decided to drop off my coat in my locker. I strolled the halls wishing the day was over but that dream would have to go into the same place as my prince dream for now.

I finally made it to the miniscule metal box they call a locker and the really amazing thing about it is that no matter how well you know your combination, or how many times you try to open it, it just never works until you’ve ripped the hair out of your head and hit it so many times with your fists that people have started looking. It’s like it knows you’re in a hurry and is slowing you down on purpose. I should probably feel embarrassed over causing a scene every morning.

But I don’t.

“Hey! Banana, don’t close the locker yet!”

Banana was my retarded nickname from elementary school. Everyone loved calling me ‘Ana Banana’ and for some ridiculous reason it stuck. No matter how hard I tried to rid myself of that name it never worked.

“For God’s sake Hannah, the name is Staci, or can’t your small brain grasp that?”

“Oh, so it’s Staci now huh? Last month it was Ann, the month before that it was Stasia and now just Staci. Why don’t you just stick with Banana and save us all the misery?” She flipped her light brown shoulder length curls past her shoulders and reached for a book in the locker.

“It’s not my fault my name sucks, I’m just trying to find a version that works okay?” My full name – Anastasia Whitmore – was far too long to ever use. When I was younger I went by Ana but since that was how the whole Banana thing started I figured I was due for a name update.

“Well, if it makes you less grumpy, then I say go for it.” She looked at her watch. “I gotta go, see you later Banana!” She bounded off down the hall waving a hand in the air.

Hannah had been my best friend since we were 3. We’ve lived on the same street our whole lives, and even though we have nothing in common our friendship seems to survive it all. I remember this one time that Hannah’s parents decided to send her away to a school in another country. We cried so much over being separated but her parents were firm in their discussion. She was gone for a full year and I really thought she was never coming back. But then she did and it was as though she had never left. After that we figured our friendship could probably outlast anything.

Realizing I had just been reminiscing I turned back to my locker, shoved my stuff in, grabbed some paper, stuck a pen behind my ear and slammed it shut wondering how many hours I would spend after school trying to get it open again.

The bell rang and I rushed off. I think that possibly my favourite part of high school is manoeuvring through the halls. It’s like a game – how many people can you bump into, or how many people can hit you with their arm, bag, foot, before you make it to class.

I never said it was a fun game.

I had almost won – being hit less than 5 times is a win – when #5 slammed right into, full force, causing me to actually fall backwards and hit the ground. It really hurt and I was pissed – real pain was not part of the game. I was about to give him a piece of my mind when I realized who it was.

What is this, asshole day?

He offered a hand to help me up but I swatted it away.

“I apologize for rushing into you. I was in a hurry and was not paying proper attention to where I was heading.”

“Goody for you. Meanwhile I’m in pain and you’re a jerk.” It was that moron from the bus. “You have some real social issues, has anyone ever told you that?”

“I have always been told that my social etiquette is unmatched.”

“Unmatched? Well I’ll give you that one, you are definitely in a league of your own.” Seriously, who is this guy?

“I apologize profusely for causing you harm. Is there perhaps a way I might remedy this folly?”

Folly? I’ll have to look that up when I get home.

“How about this, you leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone and the world will be a better place.”

“If that is your preference, I will abide.”

“Great, so that’s settled then. Now if you don’t mind… whoa… oh my God, who the hell is that?” A tall man dressed like a butler appeared behind the annoying guy. He seemed to just materialize out of thin air. Freaky.

The annoying guy pointed to the tall guy. “This is Jeeves, my butler.”

Well at least that explained why he was dressed like a butler… wait a minute… that guy was his butler? He has a butler?

Could it be anymore stereotypical for his name to be Jeeves?

“Who the hell are you freaks?” I was shocked. Maybe when I fell I hit my head and this was just a dream.

“Young lady, you will not address us as ‘freaks’”. Jeeves replied. He actually did that air quote sign thing with his fingers when he said freaks. I would have laughed but the situation was just too much for me. “My name is Jeeves and you may address me as such. This fine young man standing before me-.”

Fine young man? He was young, and I guess if you looked really hard and squinted a little he was fine, but fine young man? Who says that?

“- is Prince Michael Andrew Renaldo Stephen Masterson the Third and you will present yourself in a respectable manner in his presence and…”

Blah blah blah.

“… is that understood?”

“Ya sure, whatever, uh Michael and Steve such and such.”

“Prince Michael Andrew Renaldo Stephen Masterson the Third.”

“Ya, that’s the one. This has been lovely, really, but I have to go now.” I shuffled off to class shaking my head at the weirdness that just occurred. Why couldn’t I have a normal day like everyone else? Why did I get bombarded by weirdo’s with ridiculously long names? Why did I… wait a second…

Did he say Prince?

This is my second attempt at this story. I wrote about 7 chapters last time and then got stuck so I decided to do a rewrite to fix up some things I didn’t like. This chapter stayed the same except for the addition of a character. Hannah was not in the original version and I had to add her because it was just depressing that Staci had no friends before (that were in the story at least)

If you’ve read this story before, drop a line and let me know what you think about the changes.

If you’re a new reader (yay!) please review as your thoughts and opinions can only make the story better, plus I just really like reviews )

See you next chapter

.:Katie:.