The only people she knew to have taken Algebra Two as sophomores were Joanne and Collins and everyone knew that they were brilliant as it was.
Trying to act as though she were in complete control of the situation April scanned the room for a friendly face until she saw a girl who might have been another sophomore. Luckily there was an empty seat next to her.
"Hi, do you mind if I sit here?" April asked, trying not to sound nervous.
"Not at all," the girl replied. She was tall with long, wavy, slightly frizzy blond hair and light, luminous blue eyes. Her clothes and makeup marked her as one of 'those' (popular) people, but she seemed just as relieved and glad as April to have found someone friendly and her own age. "By the way I'm Allison Grey. Call me Alli."
"My name's April. April Ericson," April responded.
"Oh, April's such a pretty name!" squealed Allison.
"Thanks. My boyfriend always says it's lucky I was born in the spring or my parents would've named me October," April laughed.
"Well October might be a unique name, but I like April better," said Alli.
"Me too."
They grinned at each other and despite the fact that they belonged to totally different groups April felt that they could become friends. "Who's your boyfriend anyway?" asked Alli.
"Roger Davis," April responded proudly.
"The senior?" Alli squealed. "Ooo, he's hot. Not that I would ever cheat on my Benny."
"Benny as in Benjamin Coffin?" asked April with some trepidation.
"Yes, but why…" something dawned on Alli and she nodded. "Right we won't tell them we like each other."
It was common
knowledge that until the beginning of last year Benny had been one
of the Boho boys. Then the captain of the football team (Alli's
older brother as it happened) had asked Benny and Collins to play
football. Collins had refused point blank, but Benny had agreed to
play.
As if this betrayal
wasn't bad enough Benny had further given in to peer pressure by
going to the popular kids parties, hanging out with them, and,
eventually, sitting with them at lunch. Who you sat with at lunch
was everything and so this was the ultimate betrayal to the rest of
the Bohos. To rub salt in already sore wounds there were rumors that
Benny had even been bad mouthing his old friends behind their backs.
"Not a word,"
agreed April.
Just then the bell
rang. Shortly thereafter the teacher, a batty middle age woman with
a feather in her hair for unknown reasons, entered the room. "Does
everyone have their homework?" she asked.
There were quite a few
mumbles of 'yes' from not quite awake students and April's
panic (temporarily abated by Alli's kindness) returned with
vengeance. What had they learned so far? Would she be able to catch
up?
"When I ask a
question I want a complete response," the teacher was saying. "I
want you all to respond either 'Yes, Ms. Earmuff" or 'No Ms.
Earmuff.' And smile when you speak. Is that clear?"
There were a few
mumbled 'yeah right's, but no other response.
"What was that?"
she asked.
"Yes, Miss Earmuff,"
they all replied, wearing large, fake smiles.
"Very good," she
praised with an equally large smile. "Now let's try this again.
Does everyone have their homework?"
"Yes, Ms. Earmuff,"
chorused the class except for April who muttered, "No Ms.
Earmuff."
"What was that?"
Ms. Earmuff asked, descending on April like a large bird of prey.
"I said 'No Ms.
Earmuff,'" replied April, trying to keep her patience.
"You mean to say you
don't have your homework?" she asked.
"Yes, replied April
through gritted teeth. Every eye in the classroom was fixed on her,
and quite a few people were sniggering. This was just a great
introduction to the class, she thought sarcastically.
"Why?" asked Ms.
Earmuff.
"Well, I just
switched over from geometry today, so I didn't know about the
assignment…" April trailed off. Surely any reasonable teacher
would let her off there.
Sadly Ms. Earmuff was
far from reasonable. "That is no excuse. Now get up."
"What?" asked
April.
"Get up,"
repeated Ms. Earmuff.
"But why?" April
asked, completely befuddled by the proceedings. If the old bat was
going to give her a detention why didn't she do just that?
"Just do," hissed
Alli from her seat, sounding sympathetic. "She's crazy, but if
you do what she says more quickly it'll be less painfully
embarrassing over all."
"Miss Grey, we do
not speak out of turn in this class," Ms. Earmuff said,
temporarily diverting her laser gaze (and therefore the rest of the
class's attention) to Alli and way from April who took advantage
of their lack of attention to rise from her seat.
"Now cover your
mouth with your hand," Ms. Earmuff was saying to Alli, "and
don't uncover it until you go to history."
Alli nodded mutely,
looking completely weirded out.
Ms. Earmuff turned
back to April. "And just who gave you permission to stand up?"
"Uhhh…you told me
to," said April feeling as though the narrator from the twilight
zone would step out at any minute and begin to explain the
proceedings as spooky theme music played.
"In that case, go
and stand behind the chalkboard. The rolling one, not the one
attached to the wall," Ms. Earmuff said.
"Umm…okay,"
April compiled, wondering if any of this would lead to learning any
math at all, let alone more advanced math.
"Now stay there as
we go over homework. You'll be completing the assignment tonight
and I don't want you to cheat and hear the answers now." April
wanted to point out that she could here the answers perfectly well
from hear, but decided not to. After all class was crazy enough and
if she was lucky she could slide under the radar for the rest of the
year.
…Of course things
never work out that well! Please note that some of the things
happening to the Bohos (Who I don't own!) will be lightly based on
my real life, so I take complete creative license. Anyway here's
Allison. She and Benny (who's actually nice) will play a bigger
role in the rest of the story. Thank you all so much for the reviews
I love you all, please keep them coming!
Speaking of which,
iloveelphie is coorect the title of chapter two
is for Hairspray!
Now click the
little blue button and review!