Valerie

"Valerie!" mum calls softly, tapping my shoulder. "You're gonna be late for school."

Crap! I've overslept. Again.

Muttering a hasty greeting to mum, I rush off into the bathroom, accidentally scalding myself with hot water.

It's finally Friday and I personally think it's safe to say that I survived the last few days of the week without too many incidences.

By the time I get downstairs, a bowl of frosties is waiting for me.

"Thanks mum." I call while spooning some into my mouth as fast as possible.

Man, I love frosties.

It takes me only five minutes to polish off the bowl and get my bag.

"Bye mum." I say. She's in the living room, getting her bag sorted for work. Dad already left.

"Bye honey." She calls swiftly.

Honey? Well that's a first.

The ride to school is short and when I get there, they're having an assembly because we had been unable to have one on Monday due to inexplicable reasons.

As discreetly as possible I navigate through the crowd of students until I spot my favorite twins. Dropping into the empty seat I knew would be beside them, I let out a sigh.

School drains the life out of you.

"Good morning everyone." Principal Woodley's voice booms strong and clear throughout the hall. "I don't want to keep you here too long because I know you have a great many things to do in preparation for the day but although we couldn't assemble on the first day of the semester, I did want to be sure to share what's on my mind."

"I'm guessing you woke up late again." Jessi whispers.

"You know it." I reply.

"Shhh." That was Elliot. "You two will get me in trouble."

Elliot Alexander Moore, get in trouble? Unheard of!

Jessi and I quieten down after that because we don't want him nagging us anymore.

"I hope you had a relaxing and restful holidays because you deserve it."

Yeah, right.

"However" he continues. "The period of rest is over and time is indeed of essence this semester."

"I want to congratulate everyone who has made progress so far and I trust that you will all work harder this term. Get along better with your teachers and fellow students, stay disciplined and most of all, put in your best."

"Do we promise to make it a better term?"

The mass of students erupts into a cacophony of yeahs and yeses

I think it's mostly the freshmen though.

Much to my relief, principal Woodley releases us after a few more pointers on this and that. Now all I have to do is face my first few classes and count down until lunch time.

"Morning class." Mrs. Kipling greets, waltzing over to the front. "This morning we'll be looking at emotions and acting."

Great.

"When we act," She begins. "We need to go beyond showing a sad face or an excited child. We need to know the context in which to show the sad face or any other emotion."

"Why don't we start by putting up a list of emotions?" she asks and immediately several students start mouthing off, mentioning different emotions.

It takes a while but our final list consists of such emotions as sad, terrified, sly, cold, cheerful, energetic, bored, jaded, angry, disgusted, sulky, friendly, anxious, relieved and mischievous.

Mrs. Kipling then divides us into groups with each group getting assigned a particular emotion. Then she makes us clear a space for acting.

"Now students you have ten minutes to come up with a short pantomime that portrays your given emotion."

My group consists of Tawny, Adam, Miller and I. Our emotion is disgust and so we try to get something running but its difficult with all the conflicting ideas.

In the end though, the boys win with their stupidly boring idea. The only reason why Tawny and I agreed to it is because we want peace of mind and also because this doesn't affect our grades.

When it's our turn, Tawny, Miller and I take center stage and pantomime fishing. Adam, who is portraying a young boy, enters a few seconds later, throws his line and immediately catches a fish.

The three of us feign surprise through our gestures and body language at his luck when he casts his line twice more and gets some fish.

We pantomime asking ourselves how he's doing it seeing as we haven't got any luck before deciding to ask him.

Tapping him on the shoulder, I point to his line, pantomime drawing in fish and asking how. Adam gets it immediately and points to his mouth but the three of us are lost. He point again but we shake our heads; still lost.

Then, Adam pantomimes, opening his mouth and pulling out a wad of worms (strips of paper) which he then attaches to his imaginary line before casting it out and pulling out another fish. "You have to keep the worms warm." He says before stuffing his mouth with a bunch of them.

All three of us share disgusted looks on our faces and I even pantomime puking my guts out.

A few chuckles escape my classmates and I sigh in relief.

"Well done all of you." Mrs. Kipling beams when the next group completes their skit on anger which involved a lot of trashing. "But in the future Mr. Westfield." She gestures at Adam. "Please refrain from speaking during pantomiming activities."

Adam nods his head to show he understands and Mrs. Kipling goes ahead to explain about acting out emotions. By the time the class is over, I'm already feeling quite exhausted.

When lunch rolls by, I rush off to my locker without waiting for Elliot or Jessi who had the exact same class with me. Switching out my books, I get my lunch and head to our usual table, awaiting their arrival.

"You ran off like some starved savage." Elliot quirks his eyebrows. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah." I chuckle, reaching for the apple on his tray. "I just couldn't take any more talk about life in colonial America."

"Thanks for asking if was gonna eat that."

"You're welcome." I shrug just as Jessi plops down lazily next to me. "God, I hate history." She complains.

"Not as much as I do."

"Definitely not." She laughs. "You zoomed off like your hair was on fire."

"Yeah, yeah." I reply and she laughs even harder which makes me laugh because her statement wasn't even that funny to begin with.

We sit there making small talk when I notice someone sauntering over in my peripheral vision.

You've got to be kidding me!

So the new girl; the same one who talked to Sebastian, saw me crying and had lunch with my ex friends, the same one who Elliot finds beautiful and Jessi thinks is smart comes to a stop at our table.

She looks admittedly shy but not so much that you'd develop empathy for her.

"Mind if I sit here?" she asks.

"Sure." Elliot replies, already moving a ways off for her.

I shake my head. "Of course." I reply, smiling innocently. "Not."

"Oh." She says, looking downcast. "Is there a particular reason?"

Elliot scowls at me and his eyes tell me to give it up. Jessi nudges my foot under the table but I ignore them both.

"You don't get it Genesis." I sneer. "Eagles and pigs do not sit together.'

The flabbergasted looks on the twins' faces would be enough to win them both Grammy awards.

"What the hell Val?" Elliot hisses. He looks about ready to strangle me.

Genesis taps his shoulder to hold him in place. "It's okay." She replies.

Then she turns to address me. "You do not worry." She smirks. "I'll fly away."

And with that, she struts off, leaving me feeling even more irritated than before.

Once she leaves, both Elliot and Jess rise to their feet like they had planned it earlier or something.

"You know Val?" Jessi begins. "We didn't want to say anything but keep up with this and you'll soon turn into a weird version of Kourtney and her friends."

That said, they both stomp of.

What have I done now?