8:30am
"Bradie, would you hurry up! We gotta leave in five minutes!" I yelled, standing at the bottom of the staircase. I'd woken him up ages ago and he hadn't even left his bedroom yet. I don't know what he was doing in there, getting ready for school or doing homework or what. But today I had to get to school on time. If I was late once more I'd be given an after school detention. Usually I wouldn't mind if I got a detention, it was usually worth it. But it was Winter now and too cold to stay back after school.
"He's not going to school," mum told me, walking across the landing and coming downstairs. I stared at her, annoyed. If he was going to pretend to be sick and have the day off then I was too. I followed mum as she walked to the front door, dressed and ready for work.
"Then I get to stay home too," I said to her as she rummaged through her handbag for something or other. This usually didn't work, but I hoped it did today. As much as I wanted to go to Study Period this morning, the only class I have with Shaun, Jade and Laura, I also wanted to stay home.
"No you don't. Bradie isn't well, he's going to stay in bed all day and you're going to go to school. You should be leaving now, shouldn't you?" she asked, pulling her car keys out of her bag and slipping it on to her arm. I sighed.
"Fine I'll go to school. But if I die or freeze to death or something on the way then it will be your fault!" I said to her. I decided to give this a try a few years ago when Bradie had a day off school, and it worked. I now try it almost every time I want to stay home from school but it hasn't worked since.
"It certainly will," she said, turning to open the front door, "Now get to school." And with that she walked out the front door and slammed it behind her. I scoffed. No goodbye. No have a nice day. Just go to school. Fuck it, I won't bother anymore. I'll go to school I decided, turning around to go upstairs. As if Bradie was sick. He barely missed a day of school. He never complained about having to go to school, our parents thought he was a perfect student. No, he definetly wasn't perfect. I ran up the stairs, making a lot of noise since we were now the only two home. As I reached the landing at the top of the stairs I saw Bradie's bedroom door open. I watched as he walked out of the hallway and noticed I was standing there.
"You're sick, go back to bed," I said to him, trying to be smart. He rolled his eyes and pushed past me. He looked fine to me. He was only wearing yesterdays jeans and his hair was a mess but he was fine. I turned around and followed him back downstairs to the kitchen.
"I'm just getting a drink," he told me. His voice was all funny, I could tell he had a cold. But that's no reason to stay home from school.
"Nuh uh, go back to bed. You're sick!" I told him. He ignored me and went to the fridge just as there was a knock at the front door. We stared at each other for a second, waiting for the other to go answer the door. He sighed.
"Fine, I'll get it," he shut the fridge door and walked off to answer the door. I heard the door open and a loud girls voice rang through the house. I knew who that was.
"Hey Bradie!" Laura said to him. Laura's Bradie's girlfriend. Laura is Bailey's stepsister, that's how they met. Plus we go to the same high school.
"Hey," he said. I had an idea, I was still annoyed about not also getting the day off. So off I walked to the front door, where they were standing just inside the door, the door still wide open.
"Hey, Bradie you have to go back to bed. You're sick," I told him. He scoffed and ignored me.
"Yeah, I'm not coming to school today. I'm really not feeling good. But come by after school," he said to her. I took a good look at Laura. She was a cute girl. Not in a pretty way, but in a weird way. Her chest-length dirty blonde hair was knotty and her light green eyes were too big and perfect that they just didn't look nice. Even though it was probably only ten degrees outside she was wearing denim shorts, these weird pink ballet like shoes and a white top. It was the middle of Winter, yet she chose fashion over life.
"Aw, poor kitten," she said to him, grabbing his hand. He smiled at her and gave me a look. Go away.
"Alright Bradie, we'll see you after school," I told him. He turned back to Laura and smiled at her again.
"Okay, you'll come by after school?" he asked her. She nodded.
"Me 'nd Andy will walk together," she told him.
"Yeah, well I'll see you after school," he said, leaning forward to kiss her on the forehead. She let go of his hand and he left us alone.
"I just gotta get my bag," I told her and turned on my heel to go to the lounge room. I picked up my backpack from where I'd dumped it on the couch and slung it over my shoulders. Then I noticed my phone on the coffee table, the screen flashing. New message? I picked it up and realized what it said. Low battery, low battery. Over and over again. I sighed and put it back on the table. I headed back to the front door and the two of us left for school.
8:50am
It wasn't too cold out. But I hoped it would get a little bit warmer. I liked the cold, but not when it's freezing and I'm scared to take a step in case I slip on the wet streets. We arrived at the front gates of the school with enough time to go by our lockers, get our things and make it to class on time. We arrived at our lockers, they were both in the same hallway. Only a few kids were left wandering around the hallways, already skipping class or passing time before the bell went. I put my bag in my locker and grabbed my English books. I had Study Period and then English so I always did my English homework first period. I slammed the door to my locker shut and turned around to find Laura already walking to me. She grinned at me as she got closer and I couldn't help but grin back. She had this huge grin about her, one side of her mouth opened wider than the other, making her look crazy. Every time I saw it it made me grin back.
"Jade and Shaun here today? Study isn't fun without them," she said. I pretended to be hurt by that as we slowly started making our way to classroom E4.
"Aren't I fun?" I asked her. She shook her head, shaking her hair everywhere.
"No, you're always doing homework," she said. I chuckled, that was true. We walked on to the classroom, going inside just as the bell rang for the start of the class. Our teacher Lisa wasn't even in yet so we walked to our usual seats at the back of the class without getting yelled at. Shaun and Jade were already sitting down, slumped down in their seats almost asleep.
"Hey," Laura and I said at the same time as I sat next to Shaun and Laura sat on my other side. They both just nodded at us as the door flew open and Lisa came rushing in. She set her laptop and books down on the desk at the front of the room and scanned the class, trying to find out if anyone was missing. She didn't notice anyone missing and sat down to take roll. When that was done she told us the same thing she did every Thursday morning, "You can study quietly and you may talk but do that quietly too and don't distract anyone." Nobody followed these rules but she never noticed, she was too wrapped up in doing whatever it was on her laptop.
I opened my English notebook. It wouldn't take me the whole class to finish this, I only had to answer a few questions. Shaun and Jade looked dead, they sat there limply for the whole class doing nothing. Laura on the otherhand was talking, loudly as usual, to this blonde haired kid Jeremy at the table beside her. Every now and again she'd include me in the conversation and I'd forget about the homework for a few minutes. Then I'd look down at my desk to my notebook and I'd remember what I was doing. The same thing happened over and over, soon the class was over. And I was dissapointed. Sure I'd gotten to talk to Laura, but this was the only class I had with her and I barely got to speak to her alone. I liked it better when it was just a conversation between us.
There was only a minute or two until the bell would ring for the next class and we'd all rush out into the hallway. I finished my homework, shutting my notebook and shoving my pen into my pocket. I sat back in my chair, my back a little stiff from sitting still.
"Watcha got next?" Laura asked, tapping my on the arm.
"English, just like last week and the week before," I told her, a teasing smile on my face. She smiled back.
"I remember now," she said, playing with the end of her hair, "I just wanted to know if you were gonna go?" I nodded.
"Yeah I'm going, why aren't you?" She sighed and shrugged.
"I really don't like Maths. It's just so. . . Make's me feel dead. It drags on and I hate that," I agreed. I didn't like much of the classes I had to take but if they went by quickly it wasn't so bad.
I jumped and looked up as one of the English teachers walked in. She looked worried and scanned her eyes over the kids in the class before she walked up to Lisa who had been typing away on her laptop since she came in. Lisa looked up at her from her seat and they exchanged a few words. Then the English teacher left just as quickly as she came in and Lisa scanned her eyes over the class, looking worried. She stood up and walked around the desk so she was standing in front of the first row of kids.
"Class!" she yelled. All of us stopped and looked up at her. She barely spoke when we were in this class so when she did we all listened, "Mrs. Richard has just told me that our class is to stay in here, even after the bell has rang," she said in a stern voice. She still looked worried or nervous as she watched our reaction. The class started talking to each other, the whole room filled with voices taking over each other. Some complaining, others glad they wouldn't have to go to their next class.
"I don't care if we have a whole school assembly or what, it'll be worth it," Laura said to no one in particular.
"What do you mean?" I asked. I was sort of glad about this but annoyed that I'd wasted my time doing homework.
"Well whatver we do now can't be as bad as Maths class. I'm glad to be missing out on it," she said, looking at me. She looked a little nervous too.
"I guess so." I looked to my right at Shaun and Jade who were now suddenly awake and wondering out loud why we were staying back. Then the bell rang, making me almost jump out of my seat. Even though half the class was glad to be staying back most of us still got up to leave, out of habit. Lisa ran to the door and stood in front of it. Calls of complaint covered up her voice as she tried to tell us something.
"Sit down!" she yelled as loud as I'd ever heard her say anything. Everyone stopped talking and listened as she continued, "You need to sit down and stay in here. I'm not kidding, this is serious," she told us. A nervous knot tugged in my stomach and I knew this wasn't some practise fire drill or anything. There was really something going on in here.