Chapter 1
It was fifth period. I sat at my desk, reading the fifth book of my all-time favorite series Night World. This book was called The Chosen. It was about a girl, Rashel, who was a vampire hunter but realizes she loves a vampire named Quinn. They are soul mates and even though they come from two different worlds, they have much in common. How I loved these romance-filled books. If only these types of romances would happen in real life. I was just about to read the intense fighting scene between Rashel and Quinn when I noticed someone's presence in front of me. I looked up slowly to find an old, dark-skinned man with graying hair looking down at me. My teacher, Mr. Johnson, was standing there with a stern look upon his face. Now, Mr. Johnson wasn't really the strict type, especially with me since I was his favorite student if I do say so myself, but right now he seemed pretty upset. I closed my book and gave him a weak smile which was returned with nothing but a scowl. He put his hand out, and it took everything in me not to slap his hand back and give him a high-five…or should I say low-five. I handed him my book, and he walked back to the front of the class, setting my book on his desk. He went on to talk about energy and momentum.
I slowly slouched down in my seat since I just realized everyone's eyes were on me. Couldn't people just mind their own business? Their stares made me feel so uncomfortable that I could feel my cheeks start to burn up. I was relieved to finally hear the ding of the bell.
"Chloe James," said Mr. Johnson. I groaned inwardly. "I'd like to have a word with you."
I walked towards his desk. After the class emptied out and basically everyone left, he began to speak. "I know you're grades are very important to you and your parents."
"Mhm," I replied, while adjusting my glasses. I knew where this was going.
"But if you want to see yourself being valedictorian this year, you're going to have to put in a lot of effort." I'd heard this speech tons of times from all of my teachers. Everyone expected me to be valedictorian which was a lot of pressure. I wanted to enjoy life, not be stuck studying all the time. "You can't be distracted with silly books," he said, while pointing to my Night World book. "If this happens again, I will make sure to dock off points from your participation. I know you wouldn't want to see your GPA go down a decimal point because of that." Well, I wouldn't mind, I thought. But my parents definitely would.
"Yup. You are totally right Mr. Johnson. I'll try to control myself next time." I gave a fake smile. He gave me back my book which signaled that I could leave.
It bothered me how everyone expected so much from me. I was only one person. My parents brought me up by introducing only intelligent things to my childish brain. Instead of TV, I had the joy of learning how to read. Once I learned to work a computer, I got to play games online. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing games, but what child would want to play Math and Science games when they could be playing video games? Because of my parents, I grew up to be an immensely smart, talented girl which was good but also unfair. I became smart by having to be mature early on and not having many friends. I also hadn't enjoyed any of what life has to offer. Everyone at school just knew me as "That smart girl."
However, my older sister, Britney, was never treated this way. She didn't have my parents on her case at all times or anything like that. She was naturally smart but also beautiful at the same time. She had thin brown hair with blonde highlights and silver-grey eyes. Because she was beautiful, instead of being nerdy, she was classified as popular in high school. Right now, she was in college at Northwestern.
I was walking to my locker, lost in my angry thoughts of how I wished to be normal when I bumped into something hard. I slipped and fell onto the ground. Hard. "Ow," I groaned. I probably had a bruise on my butt because I couldn't even stand up properly. As if my day couldn't get any worse.
"Watch where you're go-" I looked at the imbecile I bumped in to and stopped short.