Chapter 18

"Lindsay?" my homeroom teacher called out.

"Here." she replied rudely.

Mr Golby looked up from where he was perched at his desk at his computer, and raised an expectant eyebrow up at her.

After waiting for a minute too long, he resumed taking the register, leaving a satisfied smirk upon Lindsay's face.

Lindsay Tucker was the definition of a 'wannabe bad girl'. She thought that swearing, and bullying others - not to mention being completely disrespectful to all teachers- was the cause of her status. In actual fact, people steered away from her because they simply didn't want to associate themselves with such a person. If you even attempted to set her straight, she would set your car on fire.

#NoJoke

Tommy sat beside me, seemingly absorbed in the intricate design of the plain, old, mundane wooden desk.

"Hey, what are you looking at Tommy Boy?" I whispered to him.

However, my attempt at making conversation seemed to be in vain, as he continued to stare into space.

So, I pinched him.

"Hey!" he cried out in surprise, making a few heads turn our way.

What can I say? Sometimes even I forgot the strength of my thumb and index finger.

"Please refrain from making uncalled for outbursts Mr. Cornwall." Mr Golby warned, throwing a subtle glare in his direction.

"Yes, sir." Tommy obediently replied, throwing a not-so-subtle glare in my direction.

"Oops?" I defended weakly.

"Yeah, oops." He replied, turning back to face Mr Golby as he instructed us on what to do for the next 10 minutes.

"Alrighty class, reading books out." He told us.

Yes, he was the kind of teacher that added extra syllables onto the end of words to make himself sound 'cooler'.

For example: Coolio, Goodey and Rightio

The majority of people sighed in frustration whilst a minority cheered in happiness, me being part of the minority. If you didn't bring a reading book to school, you would get a 10 minute detention after school, so people tended to bring one every day. However, reading day was normally on Mondays anyways so-

"I know that lots of you are in my English class and we are currently reading Wuthering Heights, that is not acceptable as a reading book. So nice try those of you, you still have a 10 minute detention in the library." Mr Golby warned.

A series of protests followed this such as:

'But Mr. Teathcliff is the best character ever!'

'I totally read this for fun, it's like my fourth time reading this masterpiece. Cathy and Mr. Lockwood's romance is just to die for!'

Our homeroom teacher only rolled his eyes in response, clearly done with his class' stupidity.

Through the chaos, I pulled out a book from my bag and began to read- Tommy did the same.

"So why did you pinch me Tam?" he asked once the class' noise had died down.

"Because you were daydreamin'," I told him frankly.

"Oh." He said shortly.

"Yes, 'oh', care to tell me what you were thinking about? Was it the oh-so-perfect me?" I teased, still whispering.

"Did you know that curiosity killed the cat?" He said back in the same manner.

Our conversation was briefly halted as Mr Golby spoke again,

"Miss Tucker, please leave the classroom."

"With pleasure, bro." she said, putting away her nail varnishes and nail file before getting up and slamming the door of the classroom.

"I'm not your-" Mr Golby started, but the remains of his sentence were drowned out by the loud 'slam'.

"--well curiosity brought it back." Was my snarky reply.

A nerdy boy turned around to 'shush' me, his pimples falling off his face.

"Would you shut- up? Some people are trying to read."

"Well some people enjoy not having their eyes blinded by a person's ugliness." I retorted, smiling a sickly sweet smile and then proceeding to brush invisible dust off my shoulders.

"Girls." He muttered, turning back around to read his law book.

#NoJoke

The ring of the school bell interrupted anything that I would have said back. I was no feminist, but he didn't have to make a comment like that.

Even though I kind of had it coming with the comeback I made.

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"Why did you have to be so rude to that guy?" Tommy asked me.

We remained in the same seats as we had English with our homeroom teacher, as this is where he taught.

"He was rude first! A simple 'shut-up' look would have sufficed instead of him actually talking. Or nothing at all, nobody else commented on us talking."

You know, even though we weren't supposed to be...

"Nobody else cared, that's why."

I stubbornly refused to reply and he continued to talk.

"I bet it took him a lot of courage to even open his mouth and turn around."

"Now who's being rude?" I scoffed.

"And that guy has hated me since the day I stepped into this damn school." Now it was my turn to continue talking.

"He probably has a crush on you." He suggested with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, and I have a crush on that spider that lives in Darren's room." I retorted.

"Oh Tammy, you've finally come out of the closet. I've always known you were a formicophilia."

"Huh?"

"A person who has a fetish for bugs." He supplied.

"How the heck did you know that?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"The word, not my supposed 'fetish'. I was being sarcastic by the way." I clarified.

"Because Miss. I-Like-To-Always-Under-Estimate-Tommy's-Smartness, I am, as you always like to say, Mr. I-Think-I-Know-Everything." He smirked, finishing off the conversation in time for class to commence.

That smug little piece of cheese.

"Today we will be-can anybody please tell me where Miss Tucker is?" Mr Golby asked, changing the subject of his speech as he peered at the empty seat in the back of the room.

I honestly had no idea how Lindsay managed to end up in an AP class, she had a report card full of straight D's last semester

A series of mumbles began before a red haired girl raised her hand and Mr Golby nodded at her to speak.

"Er, Sir- I think I saw her opening the door of your car." Again "Either that or you know another green-haired lady?" she said cautiously.

"No Elle, no I do not." Our teacher said in a forced calm voice.

"Oh." She replied awkwardly.

"Sorry class, I have a pressing matter to deal with." He said, he face turning even darker by the second.

"Please read chapter 5 of your novels. Thank you."

And with that he left, the force of the slam of the door resounding through the silent classroom.

What a great way to start a Monday morning.

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Short chapter, I know. Hope you enjoy it anyways- apologies for the wait.

-Kisses x