A/N : Well, here's the next chapter! Sorry it took so long! I'm not the
most consistent writer.but I'm dedicated I promise! Latina009 This is most
definitely for you.
Chapter 11: Excuses
The weekend went by a little too quickly for my liking, I slept in till about noon on Saturday and spent the rest of the day watching T.V which was about as interesting as watching a puddle evaporate on a rainy day. Sunday I got stuck babysitting and so the day flew me by before I could taste anything but the milk that the baby happily spilled over my head as I unsuccessfully tried to feed it soggy cereal-not that I blame it or anything-I wouldn't eat that gunk either. To make a point: nothing worth mentioning happened.
My alarm rang in a sickeningly sweet song early Monday morning. I don't know what on earth possessed me into buying that alarm clock, with the music being this sweet every morning I think I'll eventually end up having diabetes from it. I whacked it off and groaned as I pushed myself off the pillow and bashed my head on the small drawer that I had installed over my bed to keep reading material on; that was a quarter watt idea. After a quick shower and a poptart I finally made my way to my closet. I had avoided thinking about the clothes I'd bought all weekend; I just really wanted to pretend I wasn't doing this. I sighed and began sorting through the clothes; nope, nope, nope, definitely not. I went through the pile within ten minutes and hated every piece of fashionable crap there.
I sighed deeply for what seemed like the millionth time since the beginning of the school year and decided that at this rate I'd have premature wrinkles by Christmas. After a few more frustrated looks over the new clothes I finally chose a jeans skirt and a green spaghetti strap tank top, it seemed like something most girls would wear and were I anyone else, it would be a nice outfit. After combing my hair I debated checking myself in the mirror but finally decided against it. Do I really want to see this? NO.
With this, I grabbed my bag and left for school. I was about half way there when I suddenly heard the bell go off.
"What the hell?" I yelled to myself out loud. The bell was like a "go" as I set off on a mad sprint towards the school. Huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf I finally arrived in front of the secretary's office. It was then that it struck me how stupid it had been for me to run. I was going to be late anyway; why had I put so much effort into making myself look like a hobo? Our secretary, Mrs. Seton looked up at me from her desk. She knew me very well, I had been late tons of times over the years and she knew me as "the original excuses" girl. Usually, I was shy around well.everyone, but Mrs. Seton was just such a bubbly individual that I couldn't help triggering her booming laugh every chance I got, which didn't stop her from giving me detention for being late so often.
But on this particular morning, Mrs. Seton looked me up and down almost reproachfully.
" Melissa. You look.different today", She informed me.
I nodded, resisting the temptation to look down at myself. I suddenly felt as if I had walked into school wearing a Halloween costume and the last thing I needed was to glance down and confirm it. Mrs Seton tapped her pen over my tarde slip expectantly.
"-Well? Where's my excuse?" she demanded. I smiled and cleared my throat. My excuse, I suddenly felt so appreciated.
-Well you see I was just about to leave the house when the phone rang and since I was early, I went to pick it up." I paused for dramatic effect, "It was the hospital informing me with their most sincere condolences that my dad's brother's only brother's daughter had suddenly died of bovine spongiform encephalopathy." I faked a sniffle, trying very hard to keep my face straight. " So, Mrs. Seton, I'm sure you understand that I was mourning my tragic death this morning until I realised who my dad's brother's only brother's daughter was and ran to school." By then my brain ached, that had been hard to come up with.
Mrs Seton took a minute to count the family tree problem on a piece of paper before bursting into her booming un-feminine laughter, which echoed down the hallway and scared a few seventh graders.
" -Ok, ok Melissa" she put down my name on the green slip and I was sure she had given me the strike one just as she had every other year. Strike three meant detention. I took the slip and turned to walk to class.
"-Oh and Melissa?, she called after me, What is spongiform en---something?
- Mad cow disease, Mrs. Seton." I heard her laughter all the way to the door of my Math class.
Math class passed without incident, we got a ton of homework, more algebra and the teacher let it slip that only one student had failed last class's quiz. I knew it was I. Second period I had art. I gathered my art supplies and doing a balancing act with my binders and art things I made my way to the stairs. I had just turned a corner when someone suddenly collided with me and sent me sprawling backwards down the stairs and my stuff soaring and rolling all over the staircase. My butt hurt and so did my back. People from underneath me were laughing and I heard a few "Are you ok?" 's tossed in my general direction. I got up off the floor and tried to brush the dirt off my new clothes.
"Watch where you're going loser." Someone said from above. I looked up. It was JR. He had just gotten up off the floor too, except he hadn't slid a few stairs as he was on flat ground. He had been carrying a binder full of papers and with our collision they had scattered all around us. After tossing me his half-wit comment he bent down to pick them up. I followed suit. I piled everything next to the side of the stairs, trying to stop people kicking any of it around as they went up and down the staircase to their respective classes, not caring one bit that they were making my life very difficult at that moment. A few stopped to help JR gather his papers but no one did likewise for me. The hallways began to clear up and when the bell sounded, we were suddenly alone. I had gotten everything except my small Chinese ink pot. I had brought it to do the contours of my bird and it had cost me a small fortune.
"Where is it?" I mumbled to myself.
JR got up off the floor with a piece of torn and dirty paper. He glared at me and I looked up, feeling the evil vibes pulsating.
"-Look what you did with my essay you idiot! It's due third period! He yelled.
-I-I'm sorry. I stuttered, feeling genuinely sorry, as it really had been my fault. I was now at the bottom of the stairs looking for my inkpot and he was at the top. His height advantage made me feel small and weak. He looked down at something beneath his feet and I spotted my ink there.
-Oh that's mine! Thanks!" I called, relieved to see it. JR looked from his homework to my ink pot and my eyes went wide as I realised what he was about to do.
"Don't!" I let out just as he kicked the pot hard towards me. I shut my eyes quickly and covered my face with my hands. The inkbottle barely missed my head but it smashed against the door behind me and the top of the bottle popped off, thick droplets of ink went flying all over the place. JR gaped for a few seconds then turned and rushed upstairs; I could hear his hurried retreating footsteps. I opened my eyes, grateful that it hadn't hit me and then I felt a cold substance slide down my neck. I put my hand back and felt ink all over my shirt and in my hair, I was sure there were also drops on my pants.
I sighed and turned to the ink bottle that was bleeding its last on the ground behind me. I wasn't sure which I was more upset about; my clothes which had cost me all my savings, my ink bottle which would have made my bird so beautiful or how absolutely malicious that had been of him. I had said I was sorry! The ink was now all over the bottom of my shoes and I was sure that if I didn't move it would find a way to seep into my socks through the soles. I sighed deeply, so deeply that I thought I might implode and then walked upstairs with my head bowed low.
Seeing my "condition" (yes ink is a deadly disease) Mme Pizza immediately sent me back to Mrs Seton who shook her head at me, handed me a slip without even asking for an excuse and sent me back to class. Instead of going to art, I hid in the washroom and tried to drown myself in the sink with dirty inky water. Needless to say: it didn't work.
Chapter 11: Excuses
The weekend went by a little too quickly for my liking, I slept in till about noon on Saturday and spent the rest of the day watching T.V which was about as interesting as watching a puddle evaporate on a rainy day. Sunday I got stuck babysitting and so the day flew me by before I could taste anything but the milk that the baby happily spilled over my head as I unsuccessfully tried to feed it soggy cereal-not that I blame it or anything-I wouldn't eat that gunk either. To make a point: nothing worth mentioning happened.
My alarm rang in a sickeningly sweet song early Monday morning. I don't know what on earth possessed me into buying that alarm clock, with the music being this sweet every morning I think I'll eventually end up having diabetes from it. I whacked it off and groaned as I pushed myself off the pillow and bashed my head on the small drawer that I had installed over my bed to keep reading material on; that was a quarter watt idea. After a quick shower and a poptart I finally made my way to my closet. I had avoided thinking about the clothes I'd bought all weekend; I just really wanted to pretend I wasn't doing this. I sighed and began sorting through the clothes; nope, nope, nope, definitely not. I went through the pile within ten minutes and hated every piece of fashionable crap there.
I sighed deeply for what seemed like the millionth time since the beginning of the school year and decided that at this rate I'd have premature wrinkles by Christmas. After a few more frustrated looks over the new clothes I finally chose a jeans skirt and a green spaghetti strap tank top, it seemed like something most girls would wear and were I anyone else, it would be a nice outfit. After combing my hair I debated checking myself in the mirror but finally decided against it. Do I really want to see this? NO.
With this, I grabbed my bag and left for school. I was about half way there when I suddenly heard the bell go off.
"What the hell?" I yelled to myself out loud. The bell was like a "go" as I set off on a mad sprint towards the school. Huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf I finally arrived in front of the secretary's office. It was then that it struck me how stupid it had been for me to run. I was going to be late anyway; why had I put so much effort into making myself look like a hobo? Our secretary, Mrs. Seton looked up at me from her desk. She knew me very well, I had been late tons of times over the years and she knew me as "the original excuses" girl. Usually, I was shy around well.everyone, but Mrs. Seton was just such a bubbly individual that I couldn't help triggering her booming laugh every chance I got, which didn't stop her from giving me detention for being late so often.
But on this particular morning, Mrs. Seton looked me up and down almost reproachfully.
" Melissa. You look.different today", She informed me.
I nodded, resisting the temptation to look down at myself. I suddenly felt as if I had walked into school wearing a Halloween costume and the last thing I needed was to glance down and confirm it. Mrs Seton tapped her pen over my tarde slip expectantly.
"-Well? Where's my excuse?" she demanded. I smiled and cleared my throat. My excuse, I suddenly felt so appreciated.
-Well you see I was just about to leave the house when the phone rang and since I was early, I went to pick it up." I paused for dramatic effect, "It was the hospital informing me with their most sincere condolences that my dad's brother's only brother's daughter had suddenly died of bovine spongiform encephalopathy." I faked a sniffle, trying very hard to keep my face straight. " So, Mrs. Seton, I'm sure you understand that I was mourning my tragic death this morning until I realised who my dad's brother's only brother's daughter was and ran to school." By then my brain ached, that had been hard to come up with.
Mrs Seton took a minute to count the family tree problem on a piece of paper before bursting into her booming un-feminine laughter, which echoed down the hallway and scared a few seventh graders.
" -Ok, ok Melissa" she put down my name on the green slip and I was sure she had given me the strike one just as she had every other year. Strike three meant detention. I took the slip and turned to walk to class.
"-Oh and Melissa?, she called after me, What is spongiform en---something?
- Mad cow disease, Mrs. Seton." I heard her laughter all the way to the door of my Math class.
Math class passed without incident, we got a ton of homework, more algebra and the teacher let it slip that only one student had failed last class's quiz. I knew it was I. Second period I had art. I gathered my art supplies and doing a balancing act with my binders and art things I made my way to the stairs. I had just turned a corner when someone suddenly collided with me and sent me sprawling backwards down the stairs and my stuff soaring and rolling all over the staircase. My butt hurt and so did my back. People from underneath me were laughing and I heard a few "Are you ok?" 's tossed in my general direction. I got up off the floor and tried to brush the dirt off my new clothes.
"Watch where you're going loser." Someone said from above. I looked up. It was JR. He had just gotten up off the floor too, except he hadn't slid a few stairs as he was on flat ground. He had been carrying a binder full of papers and with our collision they had scattered all around us. After tossing me his half-wit comment he bent down to pick them up. I followed suit. I piled everything next to the side of the stairs, trying to stop people kicking any of it around as they went up and down the staircase to their respective classes, not caring one bit that they were making my life very difficult at that moment. A few stopped to help JR gather his papers but no one did likewise for me. The hallways began to clear up and when the bell sounded, we were suddenly alone. I had gotten everything except my small Chinese ink pot. I had brought it to do the contours of my bird and it had cost me a small fortune.
"Where is it?" I mumbled to myself.
JR got up off the floor with a piece of torn and dirty paper. He glared at me and I looked up, feeling the evil vibes pulsating.
"-Look what you did with my essay you idiot! It's due third period! He yelled.
-I-I'm sorry. I stuttered, feeling genuinely sorry, as it really had been my fault. I was now at the bottom of the stairs looking for my inkpot and he was at the top. His height advantage made me feel small and weak. He looked down at something beneath his feet and I spotted my ink there.
-Oh that's mine! Thanks!" I called, relieved to see it. JR looked from his homework to my ink pot and my eyes went wide as I realised what he was about to do.
"Don't!" I let out just as he kicked the pot hard towards me. I shut my eyes quickly and covered my face with my hands. The inkbottle barely missed my head but it smashed against the door behind me and the top of the bottle popped off, thick droplets of ink went flying all over the place. JR gaped for a few seconds then turned and rushed upstairs; I could hear his hurried retreating footsteps. I opened my eyes, grateful that it hadn't hit me and then I felt a cold substance slide down my neck. I put my hand back and felt ink all over my shirt and in my hair, I was sure there were also drops on my pants.
I sighed and turned to the ink bottle that was bleeding its last on the ground behind me. I wasn't sure which I was more upset about; my clothes which had cost me all my savings, my ink bottle which would have made my bird so beautiful or how absolutely malicious that had been of him. I had said I was sorry! The ink was now all over the bottom of my shoes and I was sure that if I didn't move it would find a way to seep into my socks through the soles. I sighed deeply, so deeply that I thought I might implode and then walked upstairs with my head bowed low.
Seeing my "condition" (yes ink is a deadly disease) Mme Pizza immediately sent me back to Mrs Seton who shook her head at me, handed me a slip without even asking for an excuse and sent me back to class. Instead of going to art, I hid in the washroom and tried to drown myself in the sink with dirty inky water. Needless to say: it didn't work.