Normal, as if

Naomi still didn't the point of going back to school. She would never be able to concentrate and everyone would avoid her as if she had a deadly disease. That was hardly gonna make her feel better, was it? She had never really liked school. She had never really had any good friends there. It wasn't like she had a problem making friends. She had never exactly been popular but she survived. She always had a least a few friends. She had had a lot of friends at the beginning of secondary school. Yeah, but that was different, you were all eleven then. You didn't know.

She laughed bitterly, a girl on her bus who had been a few years younger then her had asked why all her friends had all been depressed or drug addicts? She had laughed but the question still remained in her head unanswered. Why? She never knew. She knew she would properly never know. Knowing this didn't stop her from wondering about it at every time of day. She was weird, she knew that. She always had been. She had just never felt the need to change because other people said or thought so. One result of this had been that she had never been even remotely popular. That word wasn't even used in the same sentence with her name unless in the negative. That was until she had moved to America. Things had begun to change then.

She had skived off school yesterday, the people in charge of her so called 'care home' had agreed that a day visiting the NCIS head quarters would be a good experience for her. It had, she now felt a lot better. But there was one thing they hadn't counted on. And that was the stubbornness of the Todd family. Naomi was no exception. She was as stubborn as could be when she wanted to. She munched at a piece of burnt toast not paying much attention. She was just about to leave and catch the bus when her three-year-old cousin ran into the room.

" Nah-mee! Don't leave. I will miss you. Don't like being on my own." The little girl was in tears. Naomi bent down and hugged her.

"Don't cry Minnie. I am just going to school. I will be back before you know it." She hugged the girl. Miranda, or Minnie as she was more often called, looked up at Naomi with her big blue eyes. Naomi tucked some of Minnie's blonde curls behind her ears and kissed her forehead.

"But why do you have to go to school? Smelly school!" she scowled. Naomi laughed. Minnie was so sweet.

"I don't want to go to school. I would much rather stay here and play with you, but I can't." She answered truthfully. She very much wanted to stay with Minnie and play with her but she couldn't. " Now stay here and I will come back before you know it."

Minnie scowled again but said no more. She was unhappy with the agreement but could do nothing about it. Naomi hugged her one last time and left. It was still dark outside when she catched the bus. She stepped on and found an empty seat. She took out her book and started reading. That is what she did. Not because she particularly enjoyed it but because she had nothing more interesting to do. This had lead to being called bookworm all her life but, hey, it was better then being bored. She kept on reading until they pulled up at her school. From the outside it looked like a prison. Depressing sixties architecture at its worst. The bars on the windows didn't exactly help either.

She stepped off the bus and walked though the mass of people to where she was a meant to be. She walked to the large sports hall. One of the side effects of the school looking like a prison and the students acting like criminals was that the school was run like a prison too. There were no breaks and there wasn't a spare minute when there wasn't a teacher watching you to make sure you didn't kill another student.

Naomi entered the sports hall where they were penned up until school started. She looked around and was flagged down by her friends.

"Where were you yesterday? We were so worried. We heard that you Uncle was shot! I am so sorry, where are you living now?" Her best friend Lilly asked her. She was Chinese and very pretty.

"How did you find that out? Actually forget it, I don't want to know." Naomi replied. She suddenly realised how tired she was. She had barely slept a wink last night. She groaned silently. That was the second night in a row with no sleep. Keep this up and she would become seriously ill.

"So it was true!"

"Oh my god!"

"How are you feeling about it?"

"Are you feeling alright?"

"How is Minnie? Is she taking it okay?" Her friends asked her a million questions. She groaned again. She had expected this but it hadn't made her any more prepared. Why did they have to ask so many questions? She didn't want to have to think about it right now.

"Please, right now I just want to try and forget about it. I'm tired and I really don't want to be here. So please, don't ask me any more questions. I will answer them later, but right now my aim is to get though the day without getting into too much trouble. Okay?" She looked at them. They nodded. The bell then rang for the start of lessons so she left and made her way to her first lesson, maths.


Three hours later she made her way to lunch. She slumped down on a chair and tried to forget about the disaster that had been her day. Her first lesson had gone ok. She was good at maths and now that she had caught up with everyone else she was doing well. Her school in England had been a lot further behind then her new school. The first few weeks of her new school she had hated it as she didn't have a clue about anything they had talked about. But she was sort of intelligent and had caught up pretty quickly.

Her next lesson had been Law, she had forgotten her homework and apparently the fact that her uncle had been shot was not a good enough excuse. Next had been social studies and that didn't bear mentioning. It had been a disaster, of course. She decided to stop thinking about her day, it was too depressing. She strolled towards her friends with her slice of pizza and a fizzy drink. She looked at what her friends were eating, salads and water. She groaned for the third time that day. Why were her friends so perfect? She was about to say make way for the unhealthy English girl when she saw her other two friends a couple of tables behind.

She didn't really hang around with them but they were still her friends. A small smile flickered across her lips. If her English friends thought she was a bookworm they should meet these two. She sat down opposite them.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" she asked. They shook their heads and she sat down. "What book are you reading?" She asked them. She said some strange title that she had never heard of and they had a long discussion about it. Naomi thought it sounded very boring but she didn't say anything. She was glad to get away from any questions about her uncle or any awkward silence when they desperately tried not to ask her any questions. They had not heard about it yet even though the rest of the school had. She was glad to see the unfair hierarchy of high school was still working.

An hour later in Music she was very bored. She played the saxophone as a beginner. She had been forced to learn and was not making any progress. She had so far not been able to make a proper sound out of it. But there was of course one perk to the job. Their were only four people learning the saxophone in her grade and two of them were the best of friends and in pair based activities they always went together. This left her with Scott.

"So how am I doing?" He asked her. She smiled and rolled her eyes at her best friend.

"As rubbish as usual." She answered giving her usual reply. Scott was brilliant at playing the saxophone and practised a lot, well maybe not. He was average height with dark brown hair.

"Oh come on, I'm not that bad." He protested. They had been doing this for the last half a year and she had improved – under his supervision – but not on the saxophone. She now was a lot better at the instrument of her choice, the piano. She had been grade four when she had left the UK but was now going on to grade six. It had been him that had decided that she shouldn't waste the time they had to practise by doing nothing. He didn't play the piano but she practised everyday now when she was a meant to be learning a piece on the saxophone. They often just messes around on the keyboard in the room. She only had to stick it out to the end of this quarter then she could give up the sax for life.

They mucked around for the rest of the time before it was time to go home. She had almost deluded herself into thinking things were going to get back to normal quicker then she had hoped when she got a surprise. She had just got to the care home where they informed her of one of their decisions.

"What! I don't need consoling! I am perfectly okay. There is nothing wrong with me. I am not insane!" She had yelled at the unfortunate care worker. She groaned, yet again. This was going to be a laugh. Yeah right. Life had gone back to normal? As if.


Hi! Look I know it is really bad but I had to write a tiny bit about her schoollife. Don't ask why cos I don't know. Well, I am going away to Germany this week!!!!! So I can't update my story, lol! Thanks for all the reveiws!