That night I dreamt that I had the ability to fly. It was one of those dreams where everything felt real, even though it might seem impossible. I extended my arms out and let them cut through the white fluffy clouds and I just flew higher and higher, experiencing the adrenaline rush of elevation. Suddenly, everything stopped and I started falling. I fell, faster and faster until I hit the ground.
I woke up with my face planted into the cold floor, tangled up in my sky blue blankets. Light seeped through my white curtains and I knew the sun had just risen. I rubbed my eyes to get the sleepiness out of them, but it failed to work. I was still tired.
"Good morning, Pan," Cece greeted. If it weren't for me being so drowsy, I would've launched myself 6 feet up in the air and go right through the ceiling.
"Cece, don't scare me like that!" I shouted as I gripped my white oversized t-shirt. I was wide-awake now.
"Sorry, but you must attend to your first day of school," she said.
"No way, Jose!"
"My name is not Jose, but call me as you like. You must go to school," Cece replied. The agreeableness that Cece had was really getting on my nerve. No wonder the world isn't run by robots.
"No."
Cece was silent. I thought I had so won this battle, except with one quick, swift movement, the chair was pushed in, my bed was made, my dirty laundry was off the floor and into my laundry basket, and the curtains opened. Everything was back to the way it was when I first saw the room.
"Uh. . ."
"Your turn," Cece the monotone voice said. This wasn't going to be good.
The green beam that scanned me yesterday was scanning me again, just transforming my outfit to a different one. I watched as the beam started at my head and noticed that my hair was turning brown. Brown, I tell you! Not the pretty, chocolaty brown, but the ugly kind! As the transformation progressed, my eyes changed to green and I wore a white long-sleeve shirt tucked in a mid-thigh black skirt with black and white high-top converse. A black Jansport backpack appeared at my feet. I looked disturbingly weird. I'd never dress like this ever.
Too bad I had to wear it on the first day of school.
"Pan, we're leaving, hurry up or we'll all be late!" Marron shouted from what seemed like the front steps of our capsule home. It was too late to change the outfit Cece had given me to wear, which sucked.
"I'm coming!" I shouted back and scooped up my backpack, swung it over a shoulder and walked out of my room to meet up with Bulla and Marron. To my surprise, they looked totally different too.
"Finally," Marron said, but I couldn't take her seriously when she had a rainbow beret, rainbow fingerless gloves that went to the elbow, a rainbow shirt with overalls that were also shorts over it, knee-length rainbow socks, and black Mary Jane shoes. Her hair was in a long black braid, which was weird since she is a natural blond. Honestly, she looked like a walking, talking My Little Pony.
I couldn't help but point and laugh.
"Why are you laughing? I actually like this outfit," she said, glaring at me, but that only made me laugh harder.
Bulla, on the other hand, took the pink hair thing really seriously. Her hair was wavy and long and cotton candy PINK. It was hysterical. I was glad I was wearing something . . . normalER than Bulla and Marron combined. Bulla had colored contacts, like me, but they were violet. She had a hot pink shirt with black lettering that spelt 'Love Me' in cursive. She wore denim skinny jeans and black flats which didn't look too comfortable for walking long distances.
"Oh boy, I can't wait to go to school!" Bulla squealed as we walked on the sidewalk to this so called 'Orange Star High School'. I have no idea what she sees in education. It's useless. If everyone was stupid, no one will be smarter than another, making bullying practically impossible.
"What do you guys see in school anyway?" I asked.
Marron looked up from her map and set her index finger on her chin –her thinking pose.
"Well, I want to graduate college and get a very good job! I'm aiming to be a pediatrician, actually," Marron said.
"Isn't a pediatrician someone who is a foot doctor since 'ped' means feet?" I said, pretty confident of my answer/question. I am smart. Sort of.
Marron made an 'are-you-really-that-stupid?' face. And yes, I am and proud!
"No," she said.
Right when those words escaped her mouth, we were already on the front steps of Orange Star High. It was huge –bigger than I thought! It was smack in the middle of Satan City, which was nice, and it was pretty close too. It took us a moment to take it all in before we actually went inside to receive our schedules.
"Wow," Bulla said breath-takingly. I can compare. "I wonder if they're any cute boys here!" I cannot compare.
Finally, we walked up the steps and entered the school building where I will spend the next 9 months studying and murdering my brain. Obviously, Marron did the talking to the lady because . . . you know . . . just because!
"Hi, I'm Marron and these are my friends Celeste and Pan," Marron said to the person at the front desk whose name plate read 'Ms. Sushilady'. I snorted. "We are new students."
"Oh!" Ms. Sushilady said in a high-pitched voice that rang through my ears. "I have your schedules right here!" She gathered some papers and placed them in a pile neatly with two light taps on the table. "Here you go! Enjoy your stay here at Orange Star High!" Ms. Sushilady said. It sounded like we were checking in at a hotel.
We walked into the school hallways and that was when Marron passed out our schedules.
"Okay, here's the deal, you both are freshman and I am a sophomore since I'm a year older than you are," Marron spoke. I thought I was older than fourteen.
"I thought –" I began, but was cut off by another voice that didn't belong to any of us.
"Hey."
I looked over my shoulder and saw the boy with jet-black hair and dark, but gentle eyes. He was smiling brightly.
I blinked several times. Why was Goten here?
"Goten?" Bulla asked, the only one who had enough courage to cough something up.
"Yes?"
"Uh . . ." said Bulla.
"Welcome to Orange Star High. I didn't know you guys were going to transfer here," he said.
"I'll be going to the sophomore floor, see you guys later," Marron said slowly as she snuck away and left the pack. She was shuffling to the staircase, her heels clicking off the hard floor.
I watched her until she disappeared from sight.
"What year are you guys in?" Goten asked as we turned our attention back to him.
"We're freshman," Bulla said sweetly or should I say flirtatiously.
"Yeah . . ." I said, but my words drifted off.
"Great, I am too!" Goten said.
A jolt of surprise shot through me. Goten was tall, lean, mature-looking, but he's a freshman? That was utterly impossible.
"You are?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said.
"Oh."
"So what's your first class?" Goten asked as he peered over my shoulder to see what was on my schedule. "Math?"
Math. That's the class where there are pop quizzes, mean teachers, lots of homework, numbers, lots of numbers, and more numbers! That's the class where people's brains explode!
Goten's voice pulled me back to reality.
"Seems like you guys have the exact same classes at the same times."
I quickly looked at Bulla's schedule, and sure enough, we had the same classes.
"Yes!" we both said as we high-fived, swung our hands over and high-fived from the bottom. Then we fist-bumped and made a sizzle sound as we wiggled our fingers.
"Nice handshake," Goten commented, which infuriated me because I couldn't tell whether it was an insult or comment, but I took it the bad way. What can I say? I expect the worst.
A chime went off, and I only assumed it was the bell because students started to flood the hallways and rushing to class.
Goten looked around and said, "Follow me. I have math with Mr. King too."
It was funny because Goten grabbed Bulla's hand and navigated her through the ocean of bodies as I, Pan got bumped into and trying to keep up with the muscular teenage boy to math class. The amount of students subsided as we headed over to a quieter hallway and through an open door.
I walked up with Bulla and Goten to the teacher.
"Hey, Mr. King, these are the new students," Goten said as he gestured to us.
"Okay, thank you, Mr. Son. Please have a seat," Mr. King said.
Goten nodded and walked over to his desk.
Was it me or was practically everyone in the classroom looked tired and drowsy? Maybe Cece can give them a little kick . . .
"Hello, I am Mr. King, nice to meet you both," Mr. King said as he held his hand out for a handshake. He wore thick lensed glasses and his balding was pretty obvious. He wore a brown suit and red tie and had a tiny dirty blond mustache below his nose which moved every time he talked. "Welcome to SCMN."
SCMN?
"Excuse me, but what does that stand for?" I asked and the class burst out laughing.
"It stands for Special Class for Math Needs."
Oh great, I'm in a 'special' class. Oh my, I feel so special.
"Please have a seat anywhere you'd like. I don't really care," Mr. King said.
I've never heard of a teacher who said they didn't care, but hey, I don't care either! I get to sit where I want!
Of course, I sat next to Bulla and of course Bulla sat next to Goten, but I didn't really mind at all. We took a seat and Mr. King instructed us to take out our composition notebooks to take notes, but I realized I hadn't packed anything. All the students shuffled around in their backpacks as I sat there awkwardly doing nothing. Even Bulla brought her own notebook.
To blend in, I unzipped my backpack. To my surprise, there was a 2 inch binder with tabs, a pencil box filled with pencils, Sharpies, pens, binder paper, a notebook, and all the other school necessities. With relief, I took out a pencil and the composition notebook and set them on my desk. Mr. King seemed to look impressed that I had my supplies ready on the first day of school.
Cece had really come through for me.
