I woke up early the next day at around 7 in the morning.

I got dressed in my uniform: a navy blazer with golden buttons, a red and black plaid skirt, and a plain white collared shirt. I added a pair of navy blue knee high socks and put a pair of Converse on my feet. Then I walked out the door and made my way to Rosestone Elementary.

I got an extra key to my brother's room from Janet, who greeted me cheerily despite the early hours. I made my way up to his floor and then went to his door. I leaned my ear against the door to listen if the boys were awake yet. It was almost 8 and classes started in a half hour, so they had to be awake now. I could hear rustling and some chatter behind the door, so I stuck my key in and opened up the door.

Sure enough, Nick and Garrett were scrambling around, pulling on their uniforms. They were both dressed and pulling their shoes on when I walked in.

"Renee! Hi!" Nick cried, running his hand through his shiny red hair. I smiled softly at him.

"Hi, Nick," I replied. "Where's Mikey?" I asked, looking around the room for my brother.

"He locked himself in the bathroom," Garret replied, pointing at the door with his thumb. My mouth opened slightly and I went to the bathroom door.

"Mikey! It's me! Renee!" I called.

"Go away!" he yelled back. I furrowed my brow worriedly. He sounded like he was crying.

"Mikey! Please! Open the door! It's Ren!" I called back, jiggling the door handle a bit. Garret was right; he had locked the door.

"What happened?" I asked, turning towards the other boys, my hand still on the handle of the bathroom door.

"Well, we woke him up so that he could get dressed and then he tried to button up his shirt and couldn't do it so he got upset and locked himself in the bathroom," Nick explained casually, the same goofy expression on his face. I frowned and knocked on the door again.

"Mikey! Please open the door! I'm here now! I can help you!" I called.

"Go away!" he yelled again.

"Mikey! You're going to be late for school!" I said.

"I don't care!" he whimpered. I was beginning to get frustrated.

"Mikey, if you don't open the door right now, I'm going to start crying and you don't want to upset me, do you?" I fake-threatened.

There was silence from the other side and I knew I had broken him. He hated it when I cried. Whenever he wasn't cooperating, I would always pretend to get upset and bury my face in my hands. Then he would stop doing whatever he was doing and hug me and apologize. I guess he just cared about me, just like I cared for him.

The door opened to reveal a half-dressed Mike with a blotchy face. I pulled a pity smile and squatted in front of him.

"I thought we were going to be brave?" I asked him. He sniffled and wiped his nose with his hand.

"I don't want to go to this school," he whimpered. I bit my lip and pulled him into a hug. He broke into great, heaving sobs against me and I felt myself start to lose control myself. I took a few deep breaths to steady my emotions before pulling him away. I wiped the tears off his face with my fingers and gave him a stern look.

"Mikey. You told me you were a big boy," I said to him.

"I am," he croaked, still sniffling.

"Really?" I asked. He nodded vigorously. "Hey Nick! Do big boys cry?" I asked, still looking at Mike.

"Last time I checked, they didn't," Nick said, coming up behind me.

"Hear that? Big boys don't cry," I said.

"I'm not crying," Mike defended, trying to muster up the strength to show a determined face.

"Really? I see tears, though..." I said, leaning in closer to his face. He pushed away and wiped his face with his hands.

"No! There aren't any tears!" I cried. I smiled at him.

"Good. And I better not see any, either," I said to him. He looked at me sheepishly. "Go wash your face and I'll help you get dressed," I said.

He nodded and retreated back into the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. When he came back out, I helped button up his shirt and fix his hair and clip-on tie.

"Well, look how handsome you look!" I exclaimed, pulling up the strongest smile I could muster. Mike shifted uncomfortably on his feet, his cheeks pink. "All the girls are going to be all over you. You're going to steal their hearts," I said to him, winking.

"Ewww! Girls are gross!" Mike said. I forced a laugh.

"Hey! I'm a girl!" I said.

"You're my sister," he pointed out. I pinched his cheek and then kissed it.

"Class is going to start in 15 minutes," Garret announced. He and Nick walked out the door with their backpacks.

"Ready to go?" I asked him. He nodded. I took his hand and we walked out of the dorm behind the other boys. I pulled out a bag of Cheerios from my bag and handed it to him. He munched on it as I walked him to class.

"Tomorrow you're going to have to get dressed by yourself, ok?" I told him.

"All right," he said in a sad voice.

"Promise?" I asked him. He nodded slowly. "Hey bud. I told you. We're in this together. We're both going to have to make some changes. It won't be easy, but we have to try, right?" I told him.

"I know," he said. I ruffled his silky hair and we walked inside the school building. I led him to his first class and stood outside as he took his seat.

"This is Michael Dubois?" the teacher asked. I nodded. She was young. She had wavy blonde hair and a nice smile.

"I'm Miss Claire," she told me.

"Nice to meet you," I said, shaking her hand.

"You must be his sister, then?" she questioned. I nodded and we looked back at him. He was pulling out his Cars pencil case and matching notebook from his Batman bookbag.

"Will you help his adjust to class?" I asked her.

"Of course! You have nothing to worry about. He'll make friends in no time. This is a friendly group of kids," she assured me. I smiled weakly at her. I knew I had about three minutes to get to my own class and I would obviously be late since it was a ten minute walk to the high school.

"Thanks," I told her. She smiled sincerely at me and I waved good-bye to Mikey, who looked unsure when he saw that I was leaving. I pointed at him mouthing the word 'you'. He pointed at me, mouthing the same thing. Then I pointed my thumb at myself, mouthing the word, 'me'. He did the same. And then we linked our two hands together saying the word, 'together' at the same time. I gave him an encouraging smile before walking swiftly out the door. I knew my mind would be preoccupied with thoughts of him all day. I was worried about him. He had never been on his own before.

                                                       ~~~~~~~~~

"Ah, you must be Renee Dubois," I heard the sharp sound of a woman's voice say as I walked in ten minutes late. I felt twenty one pairs of eyes on me and swallowed, feeling color rise to my cheeks.

I turned to face Ms. Beck, the Advanced Literature teacher, feeling dread creep in over me.

"You want to know how I know who you are?" she asked. I swallowed again, feeling extremely nervous. She didn't wait for me to answer. "I know who you are because you have to be a new student here to not know that you aren't supposed to arrive late to my class," she said.

She had sharp features, just like her voice. She had a pointed chin, arched eyebrows, and deep green eyes that contrasted with the dark brown of her hair. She may be considered pretty by some people. To me, she was just plain scary.

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again," I said in a quiet voice.

"It better not. I'm only letting you off with a warning because you obviously didn't know any better. But if it happens again, you can consider taking a different course," she said. "Take your seat," she said.

I breathed a sigh of relief and kept my gaze down as I made my way to the back of the room to the only seat open. I felt the eyes of the students watching me and felt my cheeks burning with embarrassment.  How was it that I had gotten so unlucky? Was this punishment for me for all the mistakes I had made in the past?

I sat in my seat and pulled out my notebook. As I looked up to the front of the room, I could feel all twenty one pairs of eyes snap away from my face. I looked forward, trying to avoid the glances I kept receiving.

"We're reading King Lear. Do you have it?" Ms. Beck asked, directing the question at me. I nodded and pulled the book out. "We're on Act 3, so you'll have to catch up reading--" she started saying, but I politely cut her off.

"I've already read it," I said. She raised her eyebrows at me.

"What?" she asked.

"I've read King Lear before. I've read almost all of Shakespeare's plays. He's my favorite playwright," I told her, feeling the eyes of the students on me again.  She gazed back at me and I saw her expression soften slightly. I kept a straight face, trying to show no emotion.

"Well all right then. I'd like for you to participate in discussion, then," she said. I nodded and she began teaching the class.

"What, then, is your opinion of the storm?" she asked, looking at me with her green, green eyes. I thought back to the story.

"I think the storm is reflective of the state of mind that Lear is in. He is tormented by his daughters' cruelty towards him and the storm mimics this torrential state of his mind. Shakespeare is using what's called a pathetic fallacy, which is when an inanimate object, such as the storm, takes on an almost human character," I replied. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. I fought back a smirk. I had clearly just impressed her.

"Good, very good," she said slowly, her eyes scrutinizing me. "Does anyone have anything to add to that?" she asked the rest of the class.

The rest of class went by similar to this. She would ask a question and the discussion would go back and forth, but it seemed as if I was the only one who managed to impress Ms. Beck. After the bell rang and I began walking out the door, Ms. Beck stopped me.

"Stay back for a minute, Miss Dubois," she said, taking her glasses off. I walked back up to her desk and stood facing her, afraid that I might have done something wrong again. She examined me quietly, a painted fingertip pressed against her lips.

"You seem to know quite a bit about this play," she said finally. I shrugged.

"Like I said, Shakespeare is my favorite playwright," I said. She nodded.

"As he is of many others," she said. "I'm impressed with your knowledge, though. And your ability to read between the lines of the text. It's something I try very hard to teach my students," she told me.

"There's so much in Shakespeare's plays. I find it impossible to read it without finding a double meaning in it," I said. She nodded.

"Yes. Same here," she said slowly. "Well, you may go to your next class, Miss Dubois," she said, dismissing me. I nodded. "And Renee?" she called. I turned as I got to the door.

"Yes?" I asked.

"It's certainly nice to have a student who knows what she's talking about," she said to me, a slight smile on her lips. I managed to give a shaky smile in return before walking out the door to get to my next class. I felt my lips turn up slightly. I had managed to make what could have been the strictest teacher I'd ever had, like me. I thought this was a great success on my part.

The rest of my day fared pretty well. I had three more classes: Calculus, Art History and Computer Media. They were all pretty uneventful. I was told that I had a lot to catch up on and that I had a lot of make-up work to do. I knew I would be busy these next few days trying to get all my work done. It had only been a month of school, but I had a lot to catch up on.

I was glad when it was the end of the day. I had managed to avoid most people, as I had eaten outside under a tree alone. Now I was making my way to the library to get started on my workload. I had been sitting at a desk in the corner for about 45 minutes, when I heard someone say my name.

"Renee?" I heard. I looked up to see a handsome guy that had a boyish face, deep blue-green eyes, and dark hair.

"Ben?" I replied, confused.

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A/N: There is a picture of Nick in the sidebar. I think you guys may have already guessed it, but he has a HUGE crush on Renee. =)

Poor Mikey! Nervous for his first day of school. My heart goes out for the kid.

Who do you think Ben is and how do you think Renee and him know each other?

Leave me a comment! Don't forget to vote!

XOXO