I strolled through the halls with my right hand on the strap of my bookbag and my left hand swinging slightly by my side, glaring back at whoever glared at me.
"Lauren! Hey Lauren, wait up!" yelled a familiar voice from not far behind me.
A skinny girl with shoulder length brown hair and glasses ran up next to me.
"Hey, Tori," I said, turning my head slightly as she walked beside me.
"So what's happening?" Tori asked energeticly. I don't think I remembered a time when she wasn't energetic. But that was Tori.
"Um, nothing," I said bluntly.
Did she really expect my pathetic life to change over night?
"Oh," she said cheerfully, unwrattled by the fact that I replyed in the same way everyday.
"Well, I'm writing a new novel called The Diary of Emily Rose. I came up with the idea last night. I've decided to get ideas for characters from the people around me."
"Mmmhmm," I said to let her know I was listening. At least sort of listening.
She started rumaging through her leather book bag she wore daily.
"Look," Tori said excitedly. "It's where I'm going to write all the ideas and facts about my characters as I acknowledge the people around me."
"Tori, that's the same note book you've been writing all your thoughts and opinions in since the beggining of the year."
"Oh yea! I forgot. My bad!" Tori said smiling brightly as she clicked her pen open and began writing away.
I slowed to a stop at my locker. I opened my locker, my hands automaticly doing the combination, 16, 26, 16.
"You know, you should really decorate your locker, color it up a bit," Tori said glancing at the white walls of my locker.
"Tori, have you ever seen me 'color' anything up? I'm not wasting my time plastering my text book space with pictures of too-rich-for-their-own-good celebritys."
"Mmm, I suppose," she said her brows furrowed as she opened the door of her locker wich happened to be right next to mine.
I had met Tori at the beggining of the year on our first day at the high school. We had both been patheticly lost and at least ten minuets late for social studies. We eventually found our way to the classroom, twenty minuets late into the period.
I considered Tori a friend. I guess. She's nice, but she can get on my nerves. But she's the only person I care to talk to in this damn place. So I guess my day would be pretty different without her.
Tori chooses not to hang out with all the fake people, that being the majority of the teenagers in this school. A very smart choice in my opinion. So I guess you can say Tori and I are in it together. No. No, I'm not in anything with anyone.
I took my Science text book out of my locker so I wouldn't have to go to my locker for a few periods. I shut my locker and waited immpatiently for Tori to close her locker too.
It was all her idea. The whole-waiting-for-her-at-her-locker-thing. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea as I can be a very impatient person in certain situations.
I stood there for a few seconds, Tori's head hidden behind her locker door.
"C'mon, are you coming or not?" I asked her impatiently.
"Yup," Tori said, her voice bairly understandable because of something clearly in her mouth.
She finally shut her locker revealing that a lolly pop was already in her mouth.
"It took you three minuets to pop a lolly pop in your mouth?" I asked, amused.
She took the lolly pop out of her mouth and giggled.
"No, of coarse not, I just couldn't find the flavor I wanted," she said as if that was a perfectly good reason.
There was rarely a time you would see Tori without some form of candy in her mouth.
As we walked to Algebra, which was just a few doors down the hall I heard alot of yelling coming from an unpleasant voice.
"Who is that Stephanie bitching at now?" Tori asked, a disgusted look on her face as she looked to the far side of the hall.
I followed her gaze down the hall and saw Stephanie shrieking at some girl much shorter than her."
"It looks like her cousin again," I said. Stephanie was always found yelling at her cousin, Amy, for no good reason.
Stephanie Cohlear is possibly the biggest you-know-what at Rivermound. She honestly doesn't care about anyone but herself and her reputation. Sure, most people would say she has a huge amount of friends; but the term 'friends' isn't used the same way anymore. Stephanie has been known to act one way to your face and than go and say a bunch of crap about you behind your back. And let's just say, she's got an attitude and knows how to use it.
Unlike so many other people in this stupid school, I don't think she's anything special. She's no different that all the other two-faced stuckups that inhabit this place people call a school, except
I hate her more.
I walked into the classroom, feeling the warm air elope me and in a matter of seconds I had a sudden urge to take off my jacket. Why Mr. Longo kept the heat up so high was a mystery."Is it just me, or is it a tad warm here?" Tori asked fanning herself with her notebook.
I ignored her.
I was very tempted to open a window in the back of the classroom to let in some chilly, November, air in the stuffy classroom but thougt better of it. Mr. Longo positively hated it when students touched objects in his voice that weren't desks. Not that I cared. I just wasn't in the mood to land myself in detention for the seventh time this year. Already. Trust me, Mom was not pleased. But since when was Mom ever pleased with me? So I guess it doesn't matter anyway.
Tori took her pop out of her mouth for a few seconds to say:
"Come on Lauren, aren't you gonna come sit next to me?" Tori asked me eagerlly.
"Yeah, yeah," I said coming out of my thoughts, "Just hold on a sec."
"O.K. than," she said popping her lolly pop back in her mouth and taking her usual seat, in the third row, fifth seat.
I scanned the mostly vacant seats. The majority of the class was planted throughout the halls gossiping their loud mouths off despite the yells of "Get to class people!" coming from the teachers as they urged packs of chatting girls to get a move on.
It was unheard of to enter the classroom before the second bell rang: unless you had "buisness" to attend to. And buisiness was exactly what Casey Benting was up to.
Casey had squeezed herself into Matthew McCurry's chair and was botting her eyelashes and giggling. She wore a super tight, pink shirt with a disgustingly short mini skirt. She replaced a misplaced strand of her thick, brown, hair behind her ear and chatted onto Matthew, giggling every other word.
Matthew was grinning and nodding his head to Casey's babbling. Every few moments his eyes would drift down to Casey's lip glossed lips.
For being the considered smartest guy in the ninth grade, he acted pretty stupid around Casey. It wasn't like they were even together. If Casey didn't pull the same thing on at least twelve other boys in a days time, she would be sent to the nurse, something clearly wrong with her.
Despite how disgusted I was at the sight of them, I had told myself I would confront Matthew about his homework assignments and honestly tell him it was to much work and that I didn't grasp what he was attemting to teach me, at all.
I walked up to the seat, keeping my eyes set on the unpleasant sight of two beings sitting in a chair meant for one.
They were inches from eachother and now Casey was gazing at Matthew's lips, biting her own.
I cleared my throat as I stood right next to them. Casey turned her head sharply, eyebrows raised, her bushy hair moving with her. Matthew pried his eyes from Casey and seemed to come out of a stupor as he looked at me.
"Um, Matthew," I said briskly, "We gotta talk about this whole tutoring thing-" I was inturrupted by Casey who was obviously annoyed.
"Lauren, do you have anything better to do than badger poor Matthew?" She glanced sideways at him, her tounge between her teeth.
I was surprised for two reasons. One, I was shocked to know that she actually new my name. Two, she used a semi-inteligent word, badger.
I was getting pissed now.
"Uh, yeah I do!" I said raising my voice a little,"Do you think I enjoy getting tutored by this guy?" I was inturrupted again except this time, by Matthew.
"Lauren, not now. We'll talk some other time." He said calmly.
I stared at them for a few seconds, my face looking as annoyed as ever. Matthew was starintg back, waiting for me to leave him and Casey alone. Casey was squirming uncomfortably in their seat, impatient to have Matthew's attention focused on her again.
"Fine!" I said sharply, before huffing away, making sure to let my book bag swing right by them.
I shook my head, jaw clenched as I found my seat next to Tori. I sat down roughly, my arms crossed, staring at the ceiling, not in the mood for talking with Tori.
"Are you O.K.?" Tori asked glancing up from her note book, eyeing me closely.
"I'm fine," I said, still angry.
I was so sick of Casey. Casey and her ugly, pink, shirts and slutty mini skirts, flirting with every guy she layed her eyes on. She couldn't turn her stupid charm off for two seconds so that I could have a quickly-as-possible-word with Matthew. And it's not as if I liked talking to him, if I could avoid him I would.
I snatched up a pen that was on my desk and began scribbling violently on an open page in my notebook.