Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Are you ready?” my mom asks “Yes” “Good, I’ll go over everything” I sigh, other than everything Greek, my mom LOVES to have everything in order, “Lunch box?” “Yep” Water bottle?” “Mhm” “Phone?” I nod “Contact?” “I don't know why you don't look at my eyes before asking that!” “Good, now the most important thing is, do you want to ride the bus?” Knowing my mom, she WANTS me to say no, “Yes, I wanna ride the bus” My mom’s face falls a little, I know she likes driving me, but, I REALLY want to ride the bus! “Mom, I know you love driving me, but, I want to ride the bus and you can't change my mind” “And I know how stubborn you are, of course, you can ride the bus, but I’m coming with you!” “Ugh, fine,” I groan. As my mom and I walk to the bus stop my mom starts trying to start up a conversation, I ignore her, I’m trying to look as cool as possible, but I mean, it’s kinda hard, my mom is wearing a hoodie that reads ‘I was born for coffee’ with a coffee mug in a diaper. When we get to the bus stop I see two people standing at the bus stop arguing, It's the girl from the mall and someone who looks like he could be her older brother “Nyah!” I say so loud it shocks mom, I run ahead to the stop, “Who this be?” I say fake confused, “Your dad?” he scoffs, “Excuse me, I’m 14 thank you very much,” he says in an annoyed tone. “Whatever you say ‘old man’” I say teasingly. “I have a name you know!” He says as the bus comes up to the stop. “It’s--” I never heard the rest of his sentence because the bus brakes squeak loudly we board the bus, her brother trailing behind. “You’re so brave!” Nyah says in a surprised voice “How did you do that!? I have never stood up to him!” “Eh, he just looked like someone who would be annoyed by being called ‘old man’ and I was right!” I say, we both laugh, for the rest of the ride we talk about ourselves, I tell her what the name is for people with eyes like mine, we talk about siblings, favorite things, stuff like that when we pull up to the school…. “Hey, can I trust you?” Nyah says, she clearly has something important to say, “Yeah sure, what’s up?” I answer as we pull up to the school. “Follow me,” Nyah says as she grabs my hand and drags me off the bus, “I can walk ya know,” I snap. “Oh, yeah, sorry,” I follow Nyah into the girl’s bathroom and she locks the door, “Don’t people need to come in here?” I ask “No, no one rarely comes in here in the morning” Nyah leans against the wall, “I’m l-” she starts to blurt out, but just then the bell rings “Oh god! Let’s go!” I grab her hand and together we run to class, As soon as we enter the classroom, the late bell rings, “Ahh, ladies! Just in time!” our teacher says, he is tall, young, blonde, and in jeans and a white button-up shirt. “Please, find your seats” we both find seats near the back and sit, The teacher introduces himself as Mr. Lewis but to call him Jack, then tells us that we will be going around the room and saying our names, “Harpy” “I’m Alex if you must know.” a girl says, rolling her eyes. “Matteo” “Ryan” “Adrian” some girl close to the middle sighs. “James” “Cleo” “Charley” “Jemma, and BTW, my mom is the headmistress, so I basically run this school” I roll my eyes at her, “Nela” “Anthony” “Gwen.” a girl says, then pops a gum bubble. “Nyah” Several seconds pass before I realize it's my turn, “Oh! Sorry, Athene” The last like 8 people went, but I stopped listening after “Hi! My name is Lily! And Jemma and I are BESTIES!” bleh, “Alrighty! I will now pass out the uniforms” Jack said, then he passed out grey bags, and when he was done he said “Go to the locker rooms and change, put your clothes in your backpack and then come back,” We all left the classroom and the girls and boys split at the doors to the locker rooms, Nyah changed as fast as lightning and left really quickly to wait for me, When I opened the bag I saw: White knee-high socks, a royal blue thigh-high skirt, a white button-up shirt, a royal blue tie with the school crest on the bottom, a grey jacket with the school crest on the back, and a pair of black heels labeled “Optional” ‘YAY! I don’t have to kill my feet!’ I change into the uniform and leave half of my shirt tucked in and my tie messy, also I don’t know how to tie a tie, so it being messy isn’t entirely my fault. ‘There, at least I don’t look TOOO girly’ I think as I tie my black High Tops I walk out of the locker room and see Nyah, she did the same thing, except she tucked in her shirt, “Why did you change so fast?” I ask “Well, I don't like changing in public,” Nyah seemed embarrassed. “Anyway, what took you so long?” “I’m lazy,” I say, “and annoyed that we have to wear a uniform. Oh well, we better go or we’ll be late! We rush back to class and took our seats, the rest of the lesson was a “Field trip around the school” and Jemma and Lily literally took over the tour, Jack didn’t do anything, he just followed, probably because if he did something, he might have been fired, “She’s soooooooooo loud!” Nyah whispered in my ear, we both laughed, Then the bell rang, “Remember! This is your group until lunch! Stay with it until then,” Jack said as we left the classroom. I stopped at my locker to grab my journal for English, we walk the rest of the way and then the group came to a stop, and was moving extremely slow, “Why are we going so slow?” I ask Nyah “I don’t know,” she whispered back. When we got to the door we saw why, “Single-file ladies, single file,” Says a stern old woman wearing all pale pink, Nyah moves behind me (read cowers) ‘Why me?????’ I think sadly as I walk into the classroom. It smelled like a mix of old cabbage and a hospital, which I know the smell of very well because: a) I freakin have two younger (annoying) little sisters and b) over the summer I stay at my aunt's house and she takes me to the hospital where she works, for “Educational purposes” whatever that means. “Sit down,” the old lady says and I look around the room. “Uhhhh Ms?” I say VERY confusedly. “Yes, Miss Bayliie?” The old lady said “Why is there tape on the floor? And why are there buckets with the same exact stuff in it on each side?” I say as I glance around, the room is perfectly symmetrical, two rows of desks on each side of tape bins lining the counters, and the teacher’s desk is right in the middle with a whiteboard behind on the wall. “The tape,” the old lady said matter-of-factly “Is to separate boys from the girls. Now sit, I will pass out nameplates for your desks” She picked up a stack from her desk, all of the girl nameplates are hot pink, and all the boy’s name tags were white. “Boys! Feel free to decorate your nameplates!” “Uhhh what about us girls!?” I snap. “Whatever do you mean? You girls have your pink ones! No need to decorate!” “But I don’t like pink!” I say sassing her and putting my hands on my hips. “Men should be free to dominate whilst women sit still and look pretty!” she replied “Interrupt my class again and I will have you stay after school,” “You mean like detention?” my eyes widen, cause, I’ve never been before “Oh heavens no! You will stay after and I will make you a proper young lady- what have you done with that uniform? It is a disgrace! And you spoke out of turn again, so you will stay after for a week,” the old teacher lady said sternly UHHG! HOW AM I GONNA SURVIVE THIS YEAR WITH HER!? I sigh. “Class dismissed!” The old lady said “Boys go first, and girls, stay here,” “No,” I say “bye weird old teacher lady” and with that, I get up and leave as the teacher yells at me to stay. “MISS ATHENE BAYLIIE! COME HERE RIGHT NOW!” The old teacher lady yelled “COME BACK RIGHT NOW OR YOU WILL STAY AFTER FOR TWO WEEKS!!” “Uhhhhhh no thanks! I’m going to just do the detentions instead, and plus, you can’t make me “stay after”. Teachers aren’t allowed to touch students” I say proud of myself, and I walk out of there. “Get out of my sight! All of you!” I hear the old teacher lady shout “HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?!?!? THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!” Nyah said breathlessly “Well, it's a little thing called, “sass” ok? Try it sometime! It's fun!” I say. “No, I’m not as brave as you! I could never!” Nyah defends. “Whatever” I roll my eyes.