"Now, darling. I know that this will be your first day at Horace Green, so I want you on your best behavior and I hope that you'll do well. I know that this is a big change for you. We just moved here just three days ago. Are you sure you want to go to school now?"
The Maxwell Mansion has been busy preparing Daphne's first day at school, which would be now, since last night. She really insisted to go to school now. It was just three days ago when they arrived from London and they're going to live in her grandfather and grandmother's mansion. He made all the arrangements for them to live here when they were still in London, Daphne's enrollment in Horace Green Prep included. Her parents just came to the school yesterday to check it out and to make sure that it was perfect for her.
"Yes, mother. I'll be good, I promise." Daphne said to her mother, who was looking very worried.
"Are you sure? Because you can just go tomorrow." Her mother said.
"No. I want to go now."
Daphne's grandfather knocked at the door and came in.
"Is that my little girl? That tall, gangly thing?" her grandfather said affectionately.
"Yes, it's me. Good morning, Grandfather." Daphne said, beaming at the old man. She ran to him and gave him a hug.
"Now, isn't it your first day at school?" Grandfather Maxwell asked. "Why aren't you dressed in your uniform?"
"Oh, I decided not to. I want to make an impression." Daphne said proudly. Instead of the Horace Green uniform, she was going to wear an above-the-knee lavender coat over a sleeveless magenta knit dress with (of course) matching headband, with pink go-go boots as her footwear.
"I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't listen. She said she's going to wear her uniform tomorrow. And that outfit suggests that you are not ten at all!" Mrs. Blake said, crossing her arms.
"But that's what I want them to think, Mom." Daphne said back, blinking like an innocent little five-year old.
"Daphne, why are you in such a hurry to grow up? You act like a sixteen-year old girl! Please, just act like your age." Mrs. Jones said, aggravated.
"Oh, don't be such a prune, Annie! Let her wear what she wants, as long as she promises to be good. Right, Daph?" Grandfather Maxwell winked at Daphne, who, in turn, gave him also a wink.
"Oh, I'll be prim as a dish. Don't worry, Mom, I won't cause any trouble at all. I'll swear to that." Daphne said, smiling sweetly at her mother and blinking her eyes innocently.
"Please don't, Daphne. Swearing is not a nice thing to do." Mrs. Blake said.
"Come on, then. Breakfast, anyone?" Grandfather Maxwell said.
"Okay."
They exited the room and went downstairs to the dining room to eat breakfast. At the Jones residence, they are having breakfast as well. Freddy sat on the table and ate his breakfast, which was bacon and eggs.
"Mom, when will I be allowed to be near the T.V again?" Freddy asked in a sweet tone.
"Until the time when you are old and stiff and needed a crutch." Mrs. Jones replied sarcastically.
"Oh, come on! I'll never do it again, I promise." Freddy blurted.
"I've heard that from you for so many times that I can't even count it on my own hands. You are not going near that T.V until I say so." Mrs. Jones said with a straight face. Freddy frowned and growled like a dog.
"Don't you growl at me, Frederick!" Mrs. Jones scolded.
"…grrr…"
After he finished breakfast, Freddy rushed upstairs and grabbed his bag. He rushed down and waited for the school bus to arrive. Just a few minutes later, the bus arrived and sounded the honk. Freddy rushed outside the door and did not kiss his mom goodbye.
"Bye honey! Make good choices." Mrs. Jones didn't mind at all that her son didn't kiss her goodbye. She was used to it. Whenever Freddy does something bad, and she scolds him and he gets mad at her, he doesn't give any affection to her. Usually, it's Freddy who apologizes to her. She's just going to wait until a few days and they're back to normal. Then Freddy does something bad again, she scolds, he gets mad, it's a never-ending cycle between mother and child.
"Bummer. Total bummer." Freddy said.
"Why? What's wrong?" Frankie asked.
"Mom banned me from the T.V."
"Why?"
"She caught me watching 'South Park'."
Summer heard about this and took the liberty of scolding him like his mother does.
"What!? Freddy, 'South Park' is not for kids. Of course your mom would get mad. I would've done the same thing if I was your mom."
"Yeah, and you're doing it right now! You're ten years old and you act like you're thirty. Stop it. You're making me sick." Freddy said, putting on a disgusted expression.
"Why you little…! At least I'm not like you, completely immature and always get himself into trouble!" Summer shouted back, her hands clasped on her waist.
"And I'm glad I'm not like you! I don't want to be a precocious and bossy control freak!" Freddy shouted at her.
"What?!? I'm not a control freak! How dare you call me a control freak?!?"
Katie can't stand them throwing insults at each other, and in deafening volume, so she butted in and stopped them from fighting.
"STOP!!! Come on, for God's sake, just stop! Other people here care about their eardrums, you know. If you two don't care about yours, then leave us all out of it."
Freddy and Summer shut their mouths and just sat quietly on their seats, grumbling. The bus just passed by a large mansion, where a silver Mercedes Benz just left. Freddy remembered he saw this large house yesterday, and the silver Mercedes Benz just passing him by while waiting for his ride. Just a few moments later, they arrived at school. They got out of the bus, walked inside the school, and into their classroom, where most of their classmates are already in. It was already eight in the morning. Fifteen minutes more and classes will start. Ms. Dunham hasn't arrived yet, so they took their fifteen minutes to do stuff like talking, playing around and doing their homework that was unfinished. Freddy prodded Zack in the shoulder, who was writing a new song for them to play.
"Zack, can I borrow your notebooks?" Freddy asked him.
"Why?"
"Actually, it's more like this: Can I copy your homework?"
"You didn't do yours?"
"I forgot."
"Man, not again! You always keep forgetting to do your homework!" Zack frowned at his friend.
"Well, it's not my fault my brain doesn't function properly that it didn't remind me of homework! Come on, please! Just this once." Freddy pleaded.
"You said that for about a million times, Freddy." Zack said, crossing his arms.
"Okay, this'll be the last time. Please!" Freddy pleaded again. Katie walked by and heard their conversation. Seeing Freddy kneeling down with his hands clasped and looking pathetic gave the impression that he did not do his homework again.
"Let me take a wild guess. You didn't do your homework again." Katie said, her arms crossed.
"Bingo." Zack said. He ignored Freddy and went back to his songwriting process.
"Katie, you know what? You're really good." Freddy said and got up from his feet.
"Good at what?" Katie asked, her arms still crossed.
"You're really good at playing bass. I mean, you really play hard and you kick ass, girl!" Freddy said, smiling at her.
"Let me take another wild guess. You want to borrow my notebooks and copy my assignments." Katie said, raising an eyebrow.
"Bingo again." Zack said, halfway too far finished with the song. He mumbled some things to himself and wrote it down; other lines he wrote earlier were discarded and erased illegibly.
"Shut up, Zack!" Freddy said. Zack just snorted.
"Hmmm….I don't-"
"Know? I'll finish that sentence for you. Come on, Katie! Please?"
"Want to. You didn't let me finish the sentence on my own, Freddy. That's what I'm going to say." Katie said, giving him a mischievous grin. Freddy frowned but kept on pleading.
"Katie, come on! Haven't I told you that you're the prettiest girl I've ever seen?"
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Freddy Jones. And you have told me that before." Katie said, walking back to her seat.
"Yeah, you told me that one, too." Marta said.
"Me too." Alicia said.
"And me." Eleni said.
"And possibly, to every girl at school." Tomika added.
Freddy grumbled and slumped on his seat. He slammed his head on his desk and kept quiet. Then, seconds later, he lifted his head and rubbed it, his face contorted with pain.
"Oww!"
"Freddy, that's quite a late reaction." Katie said, then let out a huge guffaw.
Fifteen minutes have passed, Ms. Dunham entered the classroom and Freddy's still miserable. It's his fault he didn't do his homework. And it's his fault that his head hurts. Slamming your head hard into the desk is not the smartest thing to do in the world.
"Good morning, children."
"Good morning, Ms. Dunham."
"Alright, before we start, I have an announcement to make. Starting today, you will have a new classmate. Dear, you may come in now."
A girl with impeccably coiffed red hair held with a magenta headband, wearing a lavender coat, short; above the knee, and pink go-go boots entered the classroom, followed by a tall man dressed in black. Ms. Dunham looked very uncomfortable with the girl's attire as she should've worn school uniform, but went on with the introduction.
"Everyone, this is Daphne Blake. She is from London, England. I hope that you welcome her here at Horace Green and become friends with her. Dear, you may take your seat beside her."
She pointed to the vacant desk beside Alicia. Daphne nodded, bid goodbye to the tall man, which was her butler, and walked towards the desk and sat on it. The kids kept whispering to each other, others stared and gawked at her. Billy had his mouth and eyes wide open. He stared at Daphne, looking at her and her outfit. Summer had a disapproving stare towards her. She didn't approve of what she was wearing at all.
"This is school, not a catwalk! What kind of parents does she have, letting her wear that?" She whispered to Michelle, who wasn't paying any attention to her, and just like everyone else, completely distracted by the new student wearing lavender. Zack stopped midway on writing his song to stare at the girl, but was caught by her. He instantly turned to the piece of paper in his desk and shoved it inside his bag. Freddy, even with his low attention span, stopped rubbing his head just to look at the newcomer.
"Wait a minute…red hair, lavender clothes…she's that clumsy girl I saw yesterday." He muttered to himself. Then, a mischievous grin spread out on his lips as he remembered how she almost tripped in the steps without realizing it was there. Daphne also remembered the floor-sliding she did yesterday and the throbbing pain on her backside and her nose.
Darn it, I gotta keep my composure here. Daphne thought. I can't just go on sliding down the halls and keep experiencing bitter pangs of agonizing pain down my butt.
"Now, children. Get your History textbooks and turn it to page 134." Ms. Dunham instructed. All of them stopped staring at Daphne and did what she said. But it's only Daphne who didn't do what Ms. Dunham told them to do.
"Ms. Blake, any problems?" she asked.
"I, uh, don't have my school books yet." Daphne said meekly.
"Oh. Why is that?"
"Well, I only have Math, Science, English and others, but Carson's going to buy the rest of the books today, including the History textbook." Daphne explained. Ms. Dunham pursed her lips, then spoke in a sharp tone.
"Ms. Blake, I do not allow students who are simply not prepared for my class. However, since you are new, I would make an exception. Alicia, share your book with Daphne."
Alicia nodded and offered her book to Daphne. She smiled and moved her seat closer to Alicia's.
"Hi, I'm Alicia." Alicia said, offering her hand. Daphne just looked at her and did not take it. Alicia placed her hand down and held the book instead.
"Daphne Blake." Daphne said in a bored voice.
"Uh, nice outfit." Alicia said, looking at her attire with speculating eyes.
"Really? Thanks." Daphne said, beaming. She started reading the text. It explains about how the Civil War started. Dates and other stuff were plastered on every page.
"Ick. I hate dates." Said Daphne, an expression of disgust on her face..
"Yeah, me too." Alicia said in agreement.
"I hate memorizing all those stuff. As if that's going to help you in the future." Daphne continued. "Like it's so important. You can't use those dates for your daily life. I mean, come on, get real."
"Uh, Daph? I think you should be quiet now." Alicia said, a twinge of panic in her voice.
"What? Why?" Daphne asked.
"'Coz I think Ms. Dunham can hear you." Alicia said, her voice trembling.
"Oh." Daphne said, her green eyes widening. She turned to the teacher's table, where Ms. Dunham is seated and looking straight at her.
"Oh. Heh heh. Um, sorry." Daphne said, feeling very much awkward. Freddy snorted and whispered something to Frankie. They laughed quietly afterwards. Summer looked very disapproving of Daphne and gave her a nasty look. Billy did the opposite.
"Daphne, you're just new here. Stop making a fool out of yourself." Alicia whispered to her.
Okay, fine, whatever, loser! Daphne whispered to herself..
As the time flies by, Daphne felt uncomfortable with herself, surrounded with these new kids. The only way she could think of to make her discomfort seem unnoticed is to snob everybody. And she did just exactly that. She raised her left eyebrow whenever someone talks to her. She ignores anyone when they try to call her attention. And she rolls her eyes whenever anyone in the classroom would stare at her. Ms. Dunham did not like her attitude, and so does the other kids, especially Freddy. He dislikes stuck-up snobs like her.
"Look at this girl She's just new here and she acts like an annoying spoiled brat." Freddy whispered to Katie.
"And as if you're not spoiled!" Katie whispered to him.
"Hey! I, for one, am not spoiled!" Kevin said defensively.
"Oh really?" Katie said incredulously and raised an eyebrow. Freddy tried to look innocent, but gave in seconds after that.
"Well, a little."
Katie chuckled. Freddy smiled at her. Then, he shot Daphne an annoyed look. Daphne took notice of this and just rolled her eyes at him. Then, she prodded Alicia in the shoulder.
"What's with the blond guy?" she asked. Alicia, who was also annoyed with her snobbishness, answered in a sharp tone.
"Well, I don't know. Why don't you go figure it out?"
"Oh, sorry. I think I'll pass." Daphne said, holding out her hand.
Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling lunch time. Freddy threw his fist in the air in delight. Recess is his favorite "subject".
"Wooh!!! Finally it's recess!!!" He said, throwing his fists into the air and giving Frankie and Zack a high-five. Daphne walked along with the other kids, ignoring them again, when Ms. Dunham called her back. The other kids stared at her, then to Ms. Dunham. But they caught her eye and continued on going to the cafeteria.
"Daphne, may I talk to you for a moment?" she asked.
"Sure, Ms. Dunham." Daphne said, closing the door behind her. And, so they did. The other kids were curious about why Ms. Dunham made Daphne stay for a bit and talk to her, but they continued on to lunch.
Yep, she's ten. And she wears that kind of stuff. Are ten-year old girls allowed to wear pink go-go boots?