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August 18
Monday
5:00 A.M.
The alarm rang bright and early in the bright early pink room of Grace Lucille Carpenter. It was the first day of school, unfortunately. Not only was it the first day of school, but it was also the first day of going to high school. She was a mature sophomore now. No more Jr. High, no more immaturity, and definitely no more slap bracelets and clip on earrings. This was the big time, and she was prepared like none other. Complete with a make over, highlights, and the removal of those hideous braces. She was beautiful now and thinking about making it big with the popular crowd. All she needed was three hours to get ready.
6:00 A.M.
Karen woke up and checked the binary clock sitting on her dresser. All 4 of her other clocks, including her watch, read the same time. They were all perfectly synchronized with the government, so she would never be late for any of her classes. Today was the big day, and she had been worrying about it all summer long. What if everyone at the new High school was smarter than she was. What if the Jr. High that she had been going to was behind everyone else. What if she failed this grade? What if her teachers didn’t like her? She had gotten up a couple hours early just to make sure that she looked presentable for the faculty.
Meow! Tallypole, Eliza’s cat, jumped on top of her face to wake her up in the morning. “Holy Crap!!!!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “I’m going to be so late for school!!!” She actually sounded more excited than worried. It had always been her dream to show up late and have to get a tardy on the first day of school. After pulling Tallypole off of her face, she ran into the kitchen to look at the clock on the microwave. It said 6:30. A look of sheer disappointment swept over her face.
Misty woke up at the normal time of 6:45. After laying there for a few minutes, she got up and put on the clothes that she had picked out the night before. Her breakfast was like any normal girl. Absolutely nothing. She told herself that she wasn’t hungry and went into the bathroom to do her hair like a normal girl. Once her hair reached the point of acceptability, she went into her bedroom and did her makeup. Nobody can’t get any more normal than Misty.
The darkness of her dreams were disrupted by the soulful seventies on the radio. Sydney woke up at seven and slammed her fist down on the wretched device. School, already? How can it be? Why did it have to happen to her? She got up and threw some clothes on. A black shirt with some blue plaid pants. For a girl that claimed that she had absolute originality, she sure owned a lot of clothes that looked the same. Most people were afraid to point out this minor hypocrisy, though. A swift Doc Marten to the head would surely follow.
Abbey woke up sprawled out on the floor of her bathroom. She had no recollection of going to sleep there last night. Could it be that she was sleepwalking again? Or maybe the aliens had come back? There were a number of possibilities going through her mind when she remembered that there was something important today. What could it be though? After a few minutes, the first day of high school popped into her head. It was already 7:55. She was on schedule to be late as always.
“Is your locker not opening for you?” asked a short girl with short brown hair that flipped out at the ends.
“No, I thought that I would just admire the front of it before I open it,” Grace told the girl as she gave her the “what do you think?” look.
“It’s really not that hard,” the girl went on ignoring Grace’s comment. “All you have to do is hit it with you fist with as much force as possible. See, watch this.”
With a loud yell and a loud bang as her fist made contact with the cheap metal, the locker door popped open.
“Geez, that was pretty amazing. Who are you, Lance Burton or something?” Grace asked the girl.
“My name is Elizabeth, but most people call me Eliza! I came from Turner Jr. High. Where do you hail from?” she said adding great emphasis on her name.
“I’m Grace Lucille Carpenter from Townsend Jr. High. I don’t know many of the people here, so I’m a bit nervous, you could say. My homeroom is Pre-AP English, and I have no idea where it is,” she said hoping that Eliza could help her out.
“Pre-AP English! First hour! Me too! This is so great!” Eliza yelled at the top of her lungs.
“Could you calm down, Eliza? People are beginning to stare.” Grace pulled up the collar of her jacket, hiding her face and hoping that no one cool was staring at her.
“It will defiantly be the end of the world when this girl calms down,” said a tall girl with long strawberry-blonde hair.
“Holy crap! Misty! I haven’t seen you all summer! Where have you been!” Eliza yelled, pulling the girl into a huge bear hug.
“Well…to be perfectly honest…”Misty managed to gasp out, trying to breathe. “Hiding from you.”
Eliza laughed out loud. “Oh, I forgot to introduce you to Grace. She’s from Townsend. This is Misty, who went to Turner with me. We’ve known each other since kindergarten ,”she said slapping her friend on the back really hard.
Just then the bell rang signaling the start of first hour. Grace, Eliza, and Misty headed down the hallway to their English class. They arrived at the door of Miss Swanson’s room and walked inside. There was a small girl with pigtails sitting at the front of the room, visibly shaking. At the back of the room was another girl with long bleached bright red hair looking like that she wished she was still asleep in bed. Misty started to take a seat at the front of the room, but Eliza stopped her.
“Do we look like teacher’s pets? Sitting at the back of the room is our only option,” she said as she jumped in a seat at the very back. The others followed suit but simply just sat in their seats.
The bell rang at precisely 8:05, but there was no teacher in their class yet. Silence filled the room as everyone gave questioning looks to their classmates. Suddenly, the classroom door burst open and a very flustered twenty-something woman came rushing into the room. She threw her books down on her desk and let out a loud yell.
“Gosh! That is the absolute last time that I take the back roads to work. I was planning to get here early, too. So much for that freaking great idea! This is so perfect. It figures that something like this would happen to me of all people!” She continued to ramble on for a good time before she noticed that the entire class was staring at her with mouths agape.
In a flash of a second, her entire demeanor changed, and a huge fake smile appeared on her face. “Hello class! My name is Miss Swanson, but you can just call me Miss Rachel. I hate being so formal. Just make sure that you don’t let the principal catch you calling me that or you could get in big trouble. Or on second thought, I would like to see what the punishment is for calling a teacher by their first name is, so go ahead and have fun. Anyways, I guess I can tell you a little about myself. I’m cute, smart, and currently available, so to all the girls out there, “Hold onto your guys because Rachel Swanson is back on the market!!!!” With that last sentence she fell into the chair behind her desk and began to sob.
“Excuse me, Miss. Swanson, I mean Miss. Rachel, are you going to be all right?” asked Karen, who was still hoping to make a good impression on her English teacher.
“Oh, who am I kidding?! I should have never ever broke up with him. It was so perfect, and I ruined it all! Now, the rest of my life is just going to be a swift ride down the toilet!” She yelled between fits of tears.
“A swift ride down a toilet sounds kind of fun to me,” came a voice from the doorway.
Everyone, including Miss. Rachel, turned their attention to the girl in the doorway. She had shoulder length straight dark brown hair and was rather tall and thin. She looked as though she had thrown on some clothes for her first day of school possibly because she had woke up rather late.
“She’s late on the first day. That takes some nerve,” Karen thought to herself.
“I’m sorry that I’m so late Miss Swanson, but I woke up late and then I had to walk to school,” said the girl to her wailing teacher.
“Don’t worry,” said Miss Rachel, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “I haven’t even taken roll yet so just take a seat anywhere you would like.”
Abbey surveyed the classroom in front of her. It was basically divided into three groups: brainiacs in front, pretty popular in the middle, and hodgepodge in the back. There was one girl at the back, who was waving her arm madly in the air as if motioning for Abbey to go sit in the back with her and some of the other girls. She walked to the back of the room and sat in a seat in front of the girl.
“Hi there. My name is Elizabeth, but I go by Eliza,” said the girl who was doing the mad arm waving.
“Hey. Some people call me Abbey.” She then paused as if in thought. “Well, actually, everyone calls me that. I don‘t have a nickname.”
“Trust me, you’ll get one in time if you hang around with her,” Misty said sarcastically, pointing her thumb at Eliza.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!” the offended girl screamed at her friend.
Abbey turned and looked at the girl sitting next to her. She was busy smacking gum and writing what Abbey deduced was lyrics to her favorite songs on a black spiral notebook. Abbey practically gasped when she saw what her neighbor had written in the top right hand corner. It said in crude block letters: ‘All the lonely people. Where do they all belong?’
“Hey!” Abbey exclaimed. “I didn’t know that you liked The Beatles.”
Sydney looked up at her with a puzzled look on her face, “I hope that you didn’t because I don’t even know you.”
“My name is Abbey Road. What’s yours?” Abbey said.
“Sydney Carter. Most people just call me Syd. That’s weird. Your name, I mean. No offense though,” she said to her still with the puzzled look on her face.
“None taken. Everyone tells me that, so I’m used to it. My parents were crazy Beatles fans so that’s how I ended up like this,” Abbey said smiling at her new found friend.
“So, you are the crazy girl that I heard about,” said a snotty voice sitting a couple of seats in front of Sydney.
Abbey looked around her before saying, “Are you talking about me?”
“Yeah, who else would I be talking about? They say you are crazy,” she said repeating her last statement.
“Who’s they? I don’t know anyone here,” she said look back at the tall blonde sneering at her with her perfect white teeth.
“You were home schooled, right? People say you are a little out of touch. I think you are a lot out of touch. You’re name proves all,” said the blonde and her group of friends cackled.
“Shut up, Lindsey. You’re an idiot. You don’t even know her,” Syd shot back.
“Yeah, well, I know you, Syd. We’re in high school now, and I say who’s cool and who’s not. Right now, you and Ms. Road here are not,” Lindsey said as her group of carbon copy friends laughed with her.
“Why don’t you go make out with one of your friend’s boyfriends and leave us alone,” Syd said to her with narrow eyes and a hateful look.
“What was that all about?” Eliza asked the two who were involved in the fight with the pop heads.
“Just another fine example of the little man being oppressed by the self-proclaimed royalty of this ridiculous establishment,” Sydney said with a sigh.
“Who’s the little man?” Abbey asked her. “Like some midget or something? I knew a midget once. His name was Archie, and he drove around in a golf cart.”
Misty cut her off before she got too into detail, “I don’t think that was her point, Abbey.”
“I agree with you totally, Sydney. Those empty headed bimbos won’t be able to push me around!” Eliza screamed at the top of her lungs. No one paid attention to what she said.
“The real test is going to come around lunch time. Jocking for tables is the worst sport of all. I have a plan, though. We must stick together no matter what happens,” Sydney told Misty, looking very serious.
The four girls each exchanged the obligatory pinky shake with each other to seal their deal of camaraderie. They turned towards the front of the room as Miss. Rachel began to officially take roll and began to mentally prepare for the big test that would commence at lunch.
