The shortcut to school was always an easy trip. It was near the end of summer, so it was fairly warm still. I always walked quickly, up at the front with Dad, but that day, Tristan came up to me with a paper in his hand.

"A new one?" I asked. "Let's see."

"Keep it down," he whispered. "And get in front of me, and walk backwards. That way, nobody can see."

"That won't look conspicuous at all," I replied.

"Do you want to see it or not?" he asked. I sighed, quickened my pace so I could get in front of him, and turned around.

"That's awesome, Tristan," I said, trying not to sound too excited. If I did, the younger kids would come running, wanting to see it.

"You don't know what it is?" he asked, sounding a little disappointed.

"I never said that," I replied. "Don't just assume things. You know what Grandpa Kyle says: 'Don't assume. It'll make-'"

"I know, I know," Tristan replied. "'Don't assume. It'll make an ass out of you and me'. I know the drill. But you didn't answer the question."

"It's our house," I said. "And it's really good. Why don't you show this stuff to anyone?"

"Because I don't want people to think I'm a pansy," he replied.

"You are a pansy," I replied, turning around.

"Julian!" I heard Flora shout from behind me. "Quit picking flowers! You're slowing us down."

"They're for Mommy," Julian protested. "She likes it when I give her flowers. She says I'm a gentleman."

"Whatever," Flora replied. "You're just a wimpy little mama's boy."

"They're my flowers now," Zoe declared.

"Give those back!" Julian cried. "I already said they're for my mom!"

Of course Lily's not doing shit, I thought.

"Hey, kids," Dad finally said, turning his head around. "Zoe, give the flowers back to Julian."

"No!" Zoe replied. "Finders keepers!"

"You didn't find them," Gerard pointed out. "You stole them."

"Yeah!" Julian added.

"You guys are all stupid!" Zoe shouted. At that point, Dad turned around, probably to give Zoe a lecture on why you shouldn't call people stupid.

"You go ahead with your grandmother," Dad said. "I'll stay behind with Zoe and Julian."

"Okay," Tristan replied. I just nodded, and went ahead.

In a short amount of time, we reached school.

"I guess I'm just going to have Mikey for class right now," Grandma Mana said with a laugh. "Hopefully Julian and Zoe will quit fighting soon." We went inside the school building.

I went into the main classroom, where my teacher and paternal grandfather, Grandpa Barrett, was waiting, with the one other kid in our class, Alex. He was the oldest of the three other kids at school, being fourteen years old. His thirteen-year-old sister Sammy was in the section Dad taught, and their younger brother Mikey was in Zoe and Julian's class with Grandma Mana.

"Late again?" Grandpa Barrett asked.

"Sorry, Barrett," Grandma Mana replied. "We had a little spat between Zoe and Julian along the way. Leonel might be in a little late, since he's dealing with them."

"All right," Grandpa Barrett said. "Tristan, Arianna, Lily, and Flora, you can take your seats."

"Let's go on to class now," Grandma Mana said to Gerard. They walked toward the library, where the youngest group and the middle group had class.

The four of us sat down, and I sat in the back, knowing Grandpa Barrett and I were going to go through the usual drill. But it was worth a try.

Maybe he won't notice today, I thought.

"Arianna," he said. "There's an empty close to the front, you know."

"I know," I replied.

"Would you mind moving up there?" he asked. I could tell he was already getting annoyed.

"Would I mind?" I repeated.

"Move up there," he said sternly. "I don't want to have to have to talk to your parents again."

"You already talk to them," I replied.

"Arianna, I'm not going to ask you again," he said, this time even more stern. I thought for a second.

"Fine," I muttered, picking up my backpack, and moving to the front of the room.

"Thank you," Grandpa Barrett said. "Now we can begin." He paused, and took out a stack of papers. Everybody groaned, knowing exactly what was going on. "That's right. We're having a pop quiz today. Everyone, take out a pencil and put your books on the floor." I contributed to the sudden sound of books being dropped on the floor, and rummaged through my backpack for a pencil. Luckily, I was able to find one.

Grandpa Barrett started to pass out the small sheets of paper. I was one of the first people to get one, since I had been forced to move to the front.

"You may start," he said finally.

It was a three-question quiz, with two multiple choice and one blank space, which I thought was a recipe for failing, especially since I hadn't actually studied the night before. I looked at the first question: "Name the third ingredient used in making a poison spear."

What the hell? I wondered. Does it even matter what order you put the ingredients in? I filled in the circle next to "gunpowder", and looked at the next question: "From what monster can you find a proof of warrior?"

That's not even relevant to what we've been doing in class, I thought. I filled in the circle for "goblin pirate", and moved on. The next question was one I thought I knew: "What tool in the workshop would you use to make a recovery potion?" I wrote down "the kitchen". I waited at my desk for a while.

"Time's up," Barrett said. "Each of you, pass your quiz to the person next to you." There was an odd number, so Tristan, Alex, and I ended up passing three ways. I got Tristan's, and unfortunately, Alex got mine. I had a huge problem with Alex; he annoyed the crap out of me, and liked to make fun of my bad grades. But I knew I was way smarter than him, so I tried not to let him bother me, "tried" being the key word.

As Grandpa Barrett read off the answers, I realized I had gotten nothing right on the quiz, and to make things worse, Alex had to raise his hand.

"Excuse me, Barrett," he said, once he was called on. "How do you mark a paper with all wrong answers?"

"You mark them wrong," Grandpa Barrett replied, starting to look irritated.

"I know," Alex replied. "But I can't figure out whether to write 'dumbass' or 'screwup'." I felt embarrassed, even though I shouldn't have. Lily laughed, and Tristan made fists.

"Your face is going to be screwed up if you don't stop it," he said to Alex. As if the whole thing wasn't embarrassing enough, Tristan's overprotection made me want to crawl under my desk.

"That's enough," Grandpa Barrett stated. "Alex, you need to stop harassing other people, and Tristan, you need to control your anger. Now, can we move on with class?"

We moved on with class, even though he got no response out of us on that subject. When it was finally time for lunch, I tried my best to hurry out the door as quickly as I could, but my plan to escape was thwarted.

"Arianna," Grandpa Barrett said. "You can stay here for now." I stopped dead in my tracks, and turned on my heels without a word. I started to walk toward his desk, and we waited until the last person was out of the room.

"What is it this time?" I asked, sitting down.

"Don't give me that," Grandpa Barrett said. "You were incredibly disrespectful, and you failed a basic quiz. All in one class." He sighed. "Arianna, I've known you for quite some time, which I'm sure you're aware of, and I know you're sma-"

"Don't say that word," I said, crossing my arms. "I'm sick of hearing people say that about me. It's not true."

"You learned how to spell when you were four," he said.

"What's your point?" I asked.

"That's another thing," he said. "Every word that comes out of your mouth is disrespectful or insulting. Your parents raised you better than that. I'm sure of it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"Look, Arianna," he said, sighing. "I may be your grandfather, and I'd love to spend time with you any other way, but I don't have time for this. If you keep this up, you're going to have to spend extra time outside of school making up homework and retaking quizzes. And that's final." He paused. "You may go out to lunch now." Without a word, I picked up my backpack and went outside.

Tristan, as usual, was fighting off Sammy. She was thirteen, annoying, and a total dork.

"I'm not going out with you!" he was saying. "Why don't you chase after someone your own age?"

"Because I love you!" she replied. "Besides, what's three years?"

"Hey," I said. "Sammy, why don't you leave my brother alone and go do some math problems or something?" She frowned.

"Why don't you go check the weather, overcoat girl?" she replied. She was referring to the long jacket I almost always wore. I had started wearing it about a year before, when I started wanting to dress the way I wanted, which Mom said was "too revealing". As a result, I started wearing the jacket, so I could mock Mom and dress the way I wanted underneath. Surprisingly enough, she didn't make fun of the hat I always wore. I had formed an attachment to an old hat of Dad's when I was little, so my Grandma Dorothy made me a similar one later on, after the original became worn and unsightly.

"I don't think I'll ever recover from that," I said. "Seriously, leave my brother alone, or I'll tell my dad you're acting like an idiot. Maybe he'll give you a detention, if you're lucky." Sammy let out a little "hmph!" and walked off to join her brothers.

"Thanks for that," Tristan said.

"Yeah," I replied. "And thanks for making me look like a defenseless little wimp."

"You needed that!" he protested.

"No, I didn't," I replied.

"Well, you are asthmatic," he pointed out.

"What?" I asked. "Do you think I'm going to stop breathing because I'm being humiliated?"

"It could make you hyperventilate," he said, shrugging.

"God," I muttered. "Let's just drop it."

"All right," he said. "I'm hungry anyway." We sat down under one of the cherry trees in front of school, joining Flora and Lily.

"What did you get in trouble for?" Lily asked me, taking a bite of one of her perfectly cut cucumber sandwiches.

"First of all," I said, opening up my lunch. "Shut up and leave me alone. Second of all, shut the hell up and leave me alone. Third of all, S-H-U-T T-H-E H-"

"All right!" Lily cried. "I was just asking. You don't have to be so rude!"

"It's in my nature," I muttered.

Zoe came skipping up to us with her backpack.

"Arianna got in trouble!" she announced in a sing-song voice.

"How'd you even find that out?" I asked.

"I was listening outside the door," she replied. "You're going to have to spend extra time at school! And you're rude!" She stuck out her tongue, turned around, and skipped away.

"Thanks, Zoe," I muttered.

"Is that true?" Flora asked. I sighed, and gave in.

"Grandpa Barrett says," I began. I took a bite from my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "That if I fail any more assignments, I'll have to start spending extra time at school doing work. He also claims that I'm rude."

"Well," Lily said. "You are rude."

"Didn't I ask you to shut up?" I asked.

"I agree with Lily," Tristan said. "I don't know where you got this 'I'm a jerk' thing."

"I need a drink right now," I muttered. "But I don't drink, so don't jump all over me." That last statement was a total lie.

I spent the rest of lunch listening to conversations, but not participating. When we had to go back to class, I felt miserable. When Grandpa Barrett asked us to open up our books, I interrupted him before he could even get to the page number.

"Can I go see Ray?" I asked, holding my stomach. "I have a really bad stomachache." He looked suspiciously at me, but I was a great actor, and I hadn't used the upset stomach thing in a long time.

"Fine," he said. I got up from my desk, grabbed my backpack, and ran, while faking a limp.

Obviously, I didn't feel sick at all, but the truth was, I had an addiction that required my attention. I had been cranky all day due to it, and I was starting to get restless. I ran behind school where the outhouses were.

I started immediately looking for my stash, but I was having trouble.

"Dammit," I muttered, sorting through the bush where I normally hid everything. "Where the hell are they?" I heard something crunch beneath my feet, and realized that in my state of frenzy, I had knocked my cigarette case on the ground, and stepped on it. I sighed, picked it up, and started looking for my other stash, which I hid in a hole that I had placed a rock over. Luckily, the quarter-full bottle of whiskey was still there. I smiled, and snatched up the bottle, then rummaged through my backpack to find my matches, which I was also successful in finding. I took a swig of the whiskey, and relaxed. But what I really needed were the cigarettes. I lit up, and started smoking. I had started when I was thirteen, and I had no intention of quitting. The drinking had started even younger, when I started to become more than a little fond of church wine. I had managed to get the stronger stuff and the cigarettes from my great grandpa Douglas' store, claiming they were for Mom. Of course, he was so old then that he didn't ask any questions, and I figured he never bugged Mom about it.

I stood outside there for what seemed like an eternity, until I had smoked almost every cigarette in my case and I only had a little whiskey left. Eventually, I figured it would be about time to go home, so I went out to the front of the school.

Bad Arianna! *Sprays with spray bottle*

Well, I'm not having trouble writing. The issue is that I'm kind of writing indefinitely and I'm having trouble dividing up the chapters.

Oh, and I can has baby sister now. As of today. But I'm not dedicating this chapter to her, because she's a cute little baby and this chapter's about an angsty teenager. Maybe I'll write a oneshot or something. Actually, I probably will. But don't fear! I'll update this chapter soon!