Louisa has (reluctantly) started school. This is her first day- please tell me what you think :D
Oh, and cos I'm in England, I'm not too sure how American schools are run, but I'll see what I can do.
The receptionist showed Louisa to her new homeroom. Louisa's form teacher was a science teacher. He seemed nice though, introducing a few of the students and generally being kind. His name was Mr. Blurr. His name fitted well with his personality and energy- he was darting about and seemed he had trouble sitting still, as if he had had coffee and sugar for breakfast. If he had, Louisa envied him- all she had this morning was strawberry jam on toast.
Mr. Blurr had to be in his late twenties, early thirties. His thick, brown-auburn-blonde hair was gelled up in 'spikes' and his blue eyes shone with energy. He was casually dressed in jeans, blue T-shirt with a cartoon scientist having deep purple chemicals explode in his face. His white trainers seemed almost new.
"Just call me Blurr. Everyone does. The 'Mister' part of it makes me feel old."
"OK… Blurr." This was going to take some getting used to. Blurr beamed at her.
"You learn quickly, kid." He clapped his hands together, almost excitedly. "Which reminds me! Your timetable."
"Err… OK." Blurr bounded to his cluttered desk and rummaged about for a short while, before grabbing a sheet of paper and holding it up proudly. Why can't all teachers be this enthusiastic? School wouldn't be so bad then.
Blurr bounced back to Louisa, handing her the timetable with a flourish. "Thanks." Louisa smiled, looking down at her lessons. Damn her dyslexia.
"You've got me for science! That'll be fun, won't it?" This guy was nuts, but in a good way. Louisa didn't want to hurt his feelings.
"Yeah, that'd be cool." She noticed someone snickering at her from the back of the class. "Will ya be mixin' chemicals that blow up in peoples' faces?"
"Unfortunately, no. Why? You're not a bit of a pyromaniac, are you?"
"Fire's fun. More fun around flammable things like hairspray 'n' what not."
"We'll get along just fine." Blurr beamed at her.
"Ya pyromaniac too then?"
"Duh." Since when did teachers say 'duh'? "No, are you a leftie?" Louisa nodded. "We'll get along even better then. We'll get-"
"There eventually." Louisa finished. "The lefties apocalypse will come about at some time." Blurr laughed and told her to take a seat. Louisa picked a seat at the back, near the window. She looked down the aisle, noticing a blonde girl about her age was glaring at her. Louisa smirked back, unnerved. She mimed spraying her hair with hairspray shortly followed by lighting a lighter. The girl paled. Louisa cheekily saluted her, before slouching in her seat and studying her timetable, trying to figure out what dofo cehtongylo was.
Her frustration in her dyslexia grew, but she was going to wait until the bell rang.
"Louisa, are you OK?" Louisa looked up, noticing the other kids had filed out. Blurr was watching her worriedly.
"Uh… yeah. But I don't know what I've got first." Blurr jumped up from his desk and practically skipped over. He took the seat next to her and peered at the timetable.
"Food technology."
"Oh. Sounds fun."
"You were looking at today's schedule, weren't you?"
"Duh." Blurr grinned at her. "I was, honest. I'm just… dyslexic."
"Really?" Louisa nodded. "I don't think I've taught a dyslexic kid before," Louisa didn't look happy. "But we'll see what we can do, OK?"
"Thanks, sir."
"Just Blurr."
"Err… where's food tech at then?"
"I'll show you. Come on." He jumped to his feet, his natural buoyancy and friendly smile encouraging Louisa to do the same. "It's not that bad, to be honest."
"I can't cook." That's a lie- you've shot down deer and rabbits for years and cooked them on a wildfire.
Not helping, Dad.
Sorry. I felt like pointing it out.
Thanks for that. She seemed to hear Poseidon laughing in her mind as she followed Blurr down the corridor, down three flights of stairs, across the school grounds to a white, low down building with large windows and red doors.
"That's food tech. If you get lost, ask a classmate."
"OK, thanks si- Blurr." He punched her arm playfully before jogging off, back to his classroom.
Louisa was five minutes late, but she got away with it when she said she didn't know where to go.
"Newbies… honestly, they're so thick."
"Well done, bobble head." Louisa retorted, turning round and locking eyes with the blonde girl from her homeroom. "Oh, it's you. Should've known."
Their teacher, Ms. Fricker, cleared her throat. She was a woman in her fifties, five foot eight with silver hair pulled back into a bun. She wore a navy blue blouse tucked into a grey, just-below-the-knees length skirt. On her feet she had those funny, old granny tap dancing shoes.
Ms. Fricker's dull, brown eyes bore into Louisa. Louisa held the teacher's gaze briefly, before grinning cheekily. "Lighten up a bit, Miss." And Louisa went to a nearby counter. Ms. Fricker stared at the new girl, not sure what to say.
"Anyway, in today's lesson, we have decided for you to show us your talents. The stock cupboard is open, but only take what you need. Keep the mess and noise minimal, please. Connor's corner, you five in the stock cupboard."
"That's you as well, kid." Louisa looked up into the eyes of a strawberry blonde boy with grey eyes. He was pale and his hair stuck up in all directions as if he had styled it by rolling out of bed. "I'm Connor." He stuck his hand out. Louisa studied him for a second before shaking his hand.
"Louisa. Where's the stock cupboard?"
"I'll show you, c'mon." Louisa followed him to the end of the classroom. The stock cupboard was a giant cellar, half the size of the classroom. It was seriously clean, bright and incredibly organized- meats in the fridges and freezers in one corner, fruits and vegetables in fridges and on shelves in another corner and so on. "Any idea what you're cooking?"
"Nope. Ya know what ya cookin'?"
"I was gonna try a stir fry, but I don't know what goes into it." Louisa shrugged. He laughed and mimicked. Louisa looked around the store cupboard.
"Ya know, I'm gonna do a cake."
"I like cakes. Hint hint." Louisa chuckled.
"Ya can have the crumbs."
"Oh, gee, thanks." Connor shook his head at her. "I might try some biscuits or something."
"Trade?"
"Yeah, OK then." The two got what they needed and returned to the classroom. Louisa dumped everything on the counter, trying to remember the recipe Jessica had taught her. Well, she had two hours to kill, so remembering it wouldn't be a hassle.
Ten minutes later, Ms. Fricker stopped by Connor's corner and watched the students at work. Connor was doing his best to mix a thick mixture while Amelia and Sheena were attempting pancakes. Tom was making a traffic light jelly, which looked nice to eat. The new girl, Louisa seemed to have two cakes on the go. The one she was mixing had all the ingredients thrown together and was near enough ready to be poured into a cake tin and put in the oven. The other was flour, sugar and baking powder.
"Louisa?" Louisa looked up, still stirring. "Two cakes?"
"That's OK, ain't it?" Ms. Fricker gave a curt nod and moved on.
Nearing the end of the lesson, Louisa had two, perfect round golden brown cakes. She was mixing up three different colours of icing (frosting?)- Sea green-blue, red and a pure white. She looked at the cake on the left, thinking how to ice it.
"Want some help?" Connor asked.
"What about ya biscuits?"
"They've still got ten minutes." Louisa nodded. "That a 'yes' to me helping?" She nodded again. Connor walked round to her side of the counter and started to mix up the green-blue icing. "You could always do the edges white and the top red."
"Yeah, but I wanted some sorta deco."
"Flowers?"
"Ugh, no." Louisa thought for a minute before a symbol flashed across her mind: Ω - a Greek omega. She told Connor what she was going to do, but he wasn't sure what an omega was. Louisa drew it on the counter with excess icing.
This cake was for Jessica. Louisa had gone with Connor's idea but had added her own. In white on the red surface, Louisa had iced a large omega. The side of the cake was white with small, red omegas carefully drawn on at various angles.
"That looks cool. What're you gonna do with this one?"
"I'm gonna shape it."
"Into what?"
"A trident." And Louisa got to work, giving Connor some of the cake she had cut away.
"Can I have one?"
"No."
"Ah, why not?"
"It's for ma dad."
"That's a very nice thought, Louisa." Louisa looked round and saw Ms. Fricker. "May I try a bit?" Louisa nodded and held up the plate with the extra cake on.
Sorry it's drabbley, but I wanted Louisa cooking cakes for Jessica and her dad. Just so that this isn't a hugely long chapter, I'm gonna try and get Louisa's first day over a few chapters. What lessons should she have next? First three suggestions I'm gonna take.