The familiar ring of Shelagh's alarm clock filled her bedroom that morning as she felt for her glasses on the nightstand and put them on. She got out of bed and went over to her closet door to grab her uniform that hung on the knob, ready to be worn for this first day of her last term of secondary school. It had been nice to have time off over Christmas break, but she missed school and the routine that came with it. She then went downstairs to the bathroom so she could start getting ready.

Once she had finished getting ready, she went over to the kitchen and started getting the supplies she needed to make breakfast. She then started to make eggs, bacon and toast for her and her Da that morning. She did the cooking except when the housekeeper, Marjorie, would come on Thursdays to do the cleaning and she would make dinner before she left. When her mother died, Shelagh was eight and far too young to keep up with a house so her Da had no other option except to hire a housekeeper. Marjorie, who also happened to be her great aunt, came six days a week for the first couple of years, until Shelagh was thirteen and able to cook and keep up with laundry along with dishes without help. Then, her father was able to save some money by having her come only one day a week to do the rest of the cleaning. When she got older she even offered to take on all of the housework, but her Da told her that he wanted her to focus on her studies and not worry about keeping up with their whole flat. They did make a compromise that she would do all of the housework on her times off from school to give Marjorie a break and so her Da can save money.

She snapped out her thoughts when she heard her Da come downstairs and say "Good morning"

"Good morning Da, did you sleep well?" she asked

"Yes dear, how about you?" he replied as he sat down at the kitchen table.

"I did too" she answered

"Are you excited to get back to school?" he questioned

"Yes I am" she stated

She put the scrambled eggs on two plates along with the toast that was already sitting on their plates.

"All we have to wait on is the bacon to finish frying and then it will be ready to eat" she told him

"Sounds good" he replied

Moments later, the bacon was ready and she put it on the plates and served breakfast on the table. They ate in a comfortable silence and when Shelagh finished her breakfast, she cleaned the kitchen counter and put the dishes in the sink that she would wash when she got home from school.

She grabbed her backpack from the kitchen chair and said "Bye Da, love you"

"Bye Shelagh, love you too" he replied

She walked out of the kitchen, though the main hallway of the flat and out the door to catch the bus.

The bus ride to school went by uneventful and she walked though the cold January air along with flurries up to the side door of Inverurie Academy. She entered the building and started walking down the hallway towards her homeroom class when she heard some say "Shelagh!"

She looked up to see her best friend, Ella standing in the hallway, her brown curls bouncing up and down along with her brown eyes full of excitement as she walked up to her and hugged her.

"Hello Ella" she replied

"Did you have a good New Year's?" asked Ella

"You know that I was in bed before midnight" she answered laughing

"How about you" she added

"Yes it was good, my parents had a party with some family friends that night at our coffee shop, it was fun" she replied

"That's good" Shelagh said

The warning bell rang, indicating there was only five minutes left until homeroom started, which prompted Shelagh to tell her "Goodbye Ella, see you at lunch"

"Sounds good, bye Shelagh" she replied and they went their separate ways in the hall.

She went to homeroom and they received their schedules for their classes for the last term. At their school, you took 4 classes one term and then the next term you took four different classes that lasted for an hour and a half each with thirty minute study hall and a thirty minute lunch break in between the second and third class. This semester she had English first, Domestic Science second, Geography third and Health Science fourth. Her first day in her classes were pretty uneventful and she learned that she has Domestic Science with Ella, which would keep her entertained in a class she would breeze through. After lunch, she went by the library during study hall to check out a new book to read.

She had gotten to her health science early and decided to read her book while she waited for class to start. The next thing she knew she heard someone sit in the desk beside her and say "Hello there"

She looked around to see if this guy was speaking to someone else, but he was looking at her so she replied hesitantly replied "Hello"

"What is your name?" the young man asked

"My name is Shelagh. What about you?" she answered

"I'm Henry, it's nice to meet you" he told her. She observed the lanky guy in front of her with blonde hair and blue eyes and wondered why he would be speaking to her with her light brown hair and her owlish glasses.

"It's nice to meet you too. Are you in your last year too?" she asked him. She had never seen him before and you had to do a term of biology and a term of chemistry before you got to choose another science, so she knew he had to be either in S5 or S6.

"Yes I graduate at the end of this school year" he answered

"Me too, why haven't I seen you around?" she questioned

"I just started going to school here at the beginning of fall term of S6. We moved from Westhill because of my father's work" he explained

"Where does your father work?" she asked him

He opened his mouth to reply but he was interrupted when Miss Langham started speaking to the class. He smiled apologetically and turned around to face the front of the classroom. She focused her attention on the class, almost one day closer to finishing towards finishing school.