Chapter Four: Murphy’s Law strike’s again

I knew that guy was a prick. I knew it.

I am not that short!

I guess I'm shorter than all my friends but they're really really tall...

Well not really, really tall.

Okay so I'm not the tallest person ever but that doesn't give that arrogant son of a bitch the right to tell me so does it?

I was still fuming Wednesday morning as I lay in bed. Mum poked her head round my bedroom door at about seven-ish.

"Come on Jen, time to get up. There's plenty of hot water left. You've got no excuse to dawdle"

"Mum, do you think I'm short?"

"No"

"You answered too fast."

"So?"

"That means you didn't think. You just answered automatically. You just said what you thought I wanted to hear". I pulled my Hello Kitty pillow over my head in mock despair.

"I answered fast because I knew the answer straight away" I heard Mum's muffled reply. I pulled the pillow off my head and eyed her suspiciously.

"Good grief Jen. Ask me again and I'll answer more slowly"

"That's cheating. You know the answer already"

"What's this about?"

"Nothing"

"Is it about a boy?"

"No"

"'Cause if it's about a boy you can tell me"

"It's not about a boy"

"And any boy that won't go out with you because of your height isn't worth the hassle Jen"

"It's nothing really" My Mum stared at me a few moments and then stood up, "Okay then. The bathroom's free and don't dawdle. You don't want to get into trouble". Mum left to go have breakfast while I (still fuming) went into the bathroom. I'm one of those people who don't tend to take long getting ready. A five minute shower at the most, ten minutes to put on my school uniform, two minutes to brush my hair and another minute to actually make an effort.

I slumped down at the kitchen table and poured myself a glass of apple juice while I waited or my chocomallow poptart. I know what your thinking. Poptarts? What kind of balanced breakfast is that? I only have poptarts for breakfast when I'm in a bad mood or a fantastic mood. It wasn't hard for my attentive mother to guess which.

"Babysitting that bad?"

"I guess not. Except..."

"Except what?" asked my Mum eagerly. I debated for a moment whether to tell Mum about everything. I was all ready for some solid maternal advice.

"They're so rich. I feel really out of place in that house" On the other hand, it wasn't that much of a problem and I could get over that insensitive git's comments quickly enough. I sipped my apple juice why I listen to my Mum going on about how there should be no class boundaries and I couldn't let these people treat me like dirt and if they ever did or said anything to me, she, Mitch and Suzy would be round there with flaming torches and a host of Mum's work mates in their own little mob.

Cheered up my the thought of my mother and our closest family friends rounding up a mob to lynch anybody who hurt me, I arrived at school feeling ten times better. Gemma was in our tutor room when I got there, her nose stuck in Little Women . We're pretty lucky, seeing as our Tutor is an art teacher which means we have an art room as our tutor room. To top it all off Ms Ferrin was probably the most laid back teacher in the entire school. It was a common opinion (Okay, it was my opinion) that it would be of an educational use to clone her and replace teachers like The Dragon with Ms Ferrin clones.

"Hey Gem" I grinned as I plonked down in the seat beside her.

"Hiya" she said not taking her eyes off of the pages of her book " I presume from you euphoric mood this morning that your new occupation as Au Pair is working to your satisfaction"

"It was Okay" I shrugged. I didn't want to go into huge detail about it. Actually I wanted to avoid the whole subject altogether. Gemma simply nodded and carried on reading. There are times when you just can't disturb her. The door opened and Ms Ferrin walked in. I was about to say hi when I saw who was following her.

Murphey's Law strikes again.

"I'm sure I left that leaflet in here somewhere Calvin" said Ms Ferrin as she sorted through the pile of papers on her desk "Good morning girls".

"Morning Miss" smiled Gemma as she looked up from her book. I grunted a hello, my sour mood coming back all too quickly as I scowled at Calvin. Eventually, Ms Ferrin produced a bright green leaflet triumphantly.

"Ah ha!" she exclaimed "Here we go. The Berkshire Secondary Schools annual art competition. The challenge this year to create a piece of artwork that represents who or what inspires you. With your talent I'm sure you'll do well."

"Thanks Miss" Calvin grinned (I still had to admit that was a pretty fine pair of lips he had on him). Then he turned to me "Hey Jess".

"It's Jen" I hissed as he was walking out "Jen". He turned round and flashed me a smile.

"See you later Jen".

"Talented artist there" said Ms Ferrin in a dreamlike voice "And such a nice boy". I could of killed her. The nicest teacher at our school and I could of killed her right then and there. But instead I gritted my teeth and pulled out some half finished homework, my pen scouring deep into the pages.

It seemed like Murphey's law wasn't done screwing me around. First lesson of the day was Physics. I usually sit at the back with Peter and Gemma and we always stick together. Mostly because no one wants to sit near us but that's irrelevant. Today for some bizarre reason, we were put into groups.

I will give you three guesses who were the two other people in my group.

The first two don't count.

How a complete moron like Sasha Leland and a complete prick like Calvin Marsden got to be in the top set would baffle even the most intellectual of minds. I mean, Sasha may be able to put mascara on and bitch about some poor unfortunate soul at the same time while using her free hand to flick through the pages of Cosmopolitan but ask her to balance out an equation and all you'll get is a confused zombie stare. Each group was given a planet in the solar system and they had to compile an information booklet about it. We were given Saturn. I began writing down everything I could remember from the last couple of lessons while Sasha simpered over a bored looking Calvin. Not that I cared. It was when he leaned over to examine what I'd written that I got mad.

"You know that's wrong don't you?"

"Excuse me?" I said indignantly.

"Saturn has seventeen moons" he grinned at me. I stared at my paper in disbelief.

"That's shit!"

"No it's true. You missed out Iapetus." he was practically laughing now.

"Aptus?" Sasha had stopped chomping her gum long enough to have an input in a conversation that was way out of her league.

"Iapetus" corrected Calvin "One of the seventeen moons of Saturn". I looked at my piece of paper again. No, it was impossible. Iapetus was probably the moon of a different planet. There was no chance in hell I'd got this wrong. I always payed attention in Physics.

"Hey" Peter had come over "Jen, I need to borrow your gluestick. I think Bobby stole mine". Bobby is Pete's brother. A complete Kleptomaniac, Pete usually has to hide his stuff to prevent Bobby from taking it.

Yeah sure" I said distractedly rummaging through my pencil case.

"You've done tonnes" remarked Pete as he glanced through my sheet " But you missed out Iapetus when you were listing the moons". He said it in such a friendly way that it felt mean flinging my science textbook at him. I didn't have any qualms about smacking a cackling Sasha round the head with it. Calvin just grinned smugly. Git. Sasha kept reminding me the entire lesson that Calvin was right and I was wrong.

"Oh my god!" she cackled wiping tears (yes, tears) from her eyes "I can't believe Cal is smarter than a complete geek like you. You're not just a social reject. You're a moron too". She giggled insanely as I carried on scribbling down all my notes ignoring the fact that my cheeks were burning. When class ended Sasha rushed off straight away with her cronies but I took my time stuffing my books and stuff into my bag. Pete and Gemma had different lessons so they left before as well. I was about to charge off to Media studies when the zip on my pencil case came undone and the entire contents spilled over the floor. I inwardly cringed at my bad luck and began shoving my highlighters and pencils and felt tips back in. Someone else bent down and helped me.

"Thanks" I muttered gratefully. But when I looked up it was Calvin. And he was holding my pen with Trisha on. And for a moment I paused just looking at him and he was looking right back at me.

"Here" he said, handing me the pen with a troll pen topper wearing a lime green dress and which had short green hair. I'd hacked half the hair of when I was about ten because Mum had taken me to the hairdressers to get a new haircut and it seemed appropriate that Trisha should have one too.

"Thanks" I said again, awkwardly this time, shoving my lucky charm into my pencil case and in turn shoving that into my bag.

"She's cute" said Calvin, indicating Trisha. I was taken aback. Most people thought I was a complete freak with my obssesion with trolls. Trisha wasn't my only one. My shelves were covered in them.

"It was a present" I explained "From my Dad". Calvin opened his mouth to say something else but I had already bolted out of the door and was on my way to my second lesson.

The day carried on the same as always. I'd sit at the back of every lesson, not talking to anybody unless Millie, Sam, Peter or Gemma were there. I'd be twirling my pen in my hands and never putting my hand up. I preferred being invisible to everyone. Teacher and students alike. At lunch, the five of us hung out at our regular table chatting about the random crap we usually chatted about. Then when home time came, I said goodbye to the others and made my way home. Just like every other single day since I'd first joined Haven's Mill. It's not such a bad school I guess. We haven't a reputation like Brookfield on the other side of town. It's just school. I have to go everyday so I do. It's just a building. A dark red brick building with grey iron gates and old wooden doors. It's about fifty years old and loads of the parents went there when they were kids and some of their parents too.

Since it was Wednesday I didn't have to work and Mum wasn't going to be home till about seven 'o clock. I had the whole house to myself as usual. I dumped my bag in my room and changed out of my uniform and threw on a pair of jeans and a top. I sat at my desk and tried to get on with some maths homework but Sasha's moron comment was still bugging me. Finally I gave up. I flopped down on my room is quite small and longer than it is wide but I don't care. Last year Mum let me paint it electric pink. We tye-dyed some old white sheets so I hade a rainbow duvet and we dyed two pilliow cases to match(I still couldn't bear to get rid of my old 'Hello Kitty' ones though). My desk it at the diagonal corner and above are my shelves covered with various ornaments, my stereo, CDs and of course, Trolls. Between my bed and the wall is a tall book case that Mum and I spray painted white and then we painted on swirls with metallic paint. Mum found and old armchair from a second hand furniture shop and covered it with a rich wine coloured matierial so I had somewhere to sit and read. We brought other scraps of matierial and made patchwork covers for the cushions. I used my pocket money to buy three packets of glow in the dark stars and I stuck them on my dark blue (almost black) ceiling and it looks just like the night sky. I had been over the moon when it was done.

I stared up at the ceiling feeling depressed. What had I done to deserve such a sucky day. No, scrap that, what had I done to deserve such a sucky school life. I rolled over and stared at the photo on my bedside table.

"No point feling sorry for yourself" I sighed and got to start my dinner. My own, special recipe risotto. The phone rang just as I was waiting for it to cook.

"Hello" I sighed into the phone.

"Well it's nice to hear from you too. And after I went to all the trouble of ringing you up"

"Suzy!" I suddenly felt ten times better and all the day's problems vanished from my mind.

"The one and only. I was just calling to tell you that me and Mitch will be over Saturday and I'm bringing my famous chocolate cake too"

"Fantastic" Mitch and Suzy have been friends of the family since before I was born. Mitch and my Dad knew each other at university. Then they both got married and they were still phernominally close. Mum and Dad even mde Mitch and Suzy my God-parents. They were fantastic when...when it happened.

"Only the best for my favourite goddaughter" assured Suzy "Good Lord Mitch, turn the bloody stove down. I'm sorry love, Mitch is trying to be the first person ever to burn soup. I'll talk to you later. Bye"

"Bye Suzy. Say hi to Mitch for me"

"I will. And Jenny..." Suzy is one of a select group of people who can call me that without worrying about the consequences.

"Yeah?"

"You're doing okay aren't you?"

"Yeah" I said in my smiliest voice "Bye Suzy" The phone went dead.

But I lied. I hadn't been doing fine for quite a while now.

Ta-Da! Here we are. Chapter Four. Chapter five should be up soon...I need to write it first :) I hope it will be more than Jen's second day at work.

And thanks to my reviewers!

Cath2356
Miss K Ree
Lilybet Edyvean
Iced-Faerie

And of course my proof reader Catherine! Till next time!