Hey! I-I have no excuses. Instead of a pleading apology, please enjoy this update, because I am just going to get right to it.
Fourteen:
Macy opened her eyes. What was that beeping noise? Alarm. Yeah. That thing. Why was it going off? Oh, yes. It did that in the mornings. It was morning? She had only just gone to sleep. Oh, yes. All night mission. Fun. Awake. She needed to be that. Yes. She was going to stand up now... Her legs were not working. Seriously, they had one job! Not fair! She had to get out of her camp bed somehow... She rolled over and crashed onto the floor. She pulled herself up using the edge of her best friend's bed. She was awake now. She... OH MY GOD IT WAS SO LATE THEY HAD TO BE AT SCHOOL IN TEN FREAKING MNUTES.
"MATILDA CHOI!"
Macy dragged her best friend onto the floor.
"No... I was having the best dream..."
"The one when you're a pro wrestler?"
"...Yes."
"Move."
On a regular morning, waking up extremely early was standard. If you wanted to get into the bathroom before all the brothers, you had to. If you wanted to get downstairs before they ate all the good cereal, you had to move like lightning. Everything had to be faster than fast.
Yeah, they were not getting to have showers or eat food this morning.
Macy pulled her hair into two vaguely pigtail-like bunches without brushing it, pulled on jeans, tugged on her hoodie and pulled the hood over her hair and staggered into her sneakers. She grabbed her bag, her best friend and her best friend's bag and dragged all three out.
"Hurry up! We're gonna be late!"
"Fine, I'll fly."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Yes."
Everyone reacts differently to almost no sleep. Obviously, some people become tired and start to sleep. Some people become more testy. Some people become sluggish and move slower. Some become completely immune to bad ideas and sarcasm. Macy belonged to the last of these camps. Which is why Macy and Matilda ended up running into three or four trees on their way to school. However, they did arrive on time. They met a struggling-to-stay-awake Ruby near the entrance and prepared to walk in. Being nerdy often meant travelling in packs was the wisest option. Especially here. Guarding the front entryway were the three most popular girls in school, nicknamed a great deal of nasty things by the three least so. Some of the nicer names included The Fashion Police, The Bees, The Clones, and The Generics. They were all perfect mean girl stereotypes. Lori and Jenise had apparently been bothering the NERDS since Jackson was popular, but the third, Heather, had moved in at the beginning of the year and taken over. Now she was queen, and she and that Brett guy were apparently 'dating' which, at their age, did not mean that much. Still, The Clones blocked the entryway and refused to grant the nerdy girls access.
"HOLD IT!"
Heather put one hand out in front of her like she was stopping traffic.
"Why, if it isn't Tomboy, Bubble Girl, and Austra-Alien. What brings you losers here?"
On a average day, the three being confronted would have played it safe and stayed silent. But they were running on less than half an hour of sleep, so...
"We're attending the academic institution known as school in order to purse the prolongation of our erudition."
Macy did not even blink. Heather did. Several times.
"Oh, are you?"
"Snappy comeback! You really reached deep for that one, huh?"
"You all look terrible! OMG, you could build a town full of bird's nests in your hair, your clothes are basically pyjamas, and I could go SHOPPING with the bags under your eyes! And I use my daddy's credit cards!"
"Funny. Let us through."
The Generics were so shocked, they actually did. The reality of what Macy had just said came rushing back in her face. She moaned.
"Sorry. We're really in for it now."
Matilda yawned heavily.
"S'fine. Don't worry."
Ruby nodded.
"Hey, what class do we have first?"
Macy checked.
"Double maths. Yay."
As usual, Macy quietly sang Advance Australia Fair through the jumble of words. The math teacher pretended not to notice and began her lesson. As usual.
"So, class! Today we will be learning about units of measurement. How many inches in a foot?"
"Some ridiculous, hard to remember number that makes zero sense?"
The math teacher ignored Macy.
"How many feet in a..."
"Your measurement system is dumb! Go metric! It's easier!"
"HOW MANY YARDS IN A MILE!"
"A STUPID AMOUNT THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT WAS PICKED AT RANDOM!"
"FINE. Miss Nelson, I welcome you to come up and teach the lesson."
"Thanks."
Macy made her way to the front and looked at the teacher expectantly.
"Well? You can sit down now!"
The teacher looked extremely flustered.
"That wasn't literal-obviously I meant-not how this should be going-"
"Please sit down."
The teacher did so, utterly shellshocked. Macy smiled at her.
"Okay, so today's lesson is about the metric system, which is vastly superior to your dumb, nonsensical way of measuring things in the way that it actually makes sense. So, let's begin!"
Macy pointed to several of the popular kids.
"You, you, and you, come to the front and build a tower one metre high with these lego bricks hidden under the teacher's desk."
The kids made their way to the front. The first of them made a tiny little tower, the second copied the first, and the third made one that was considerably bigger. Macy plonked a metre ruler on the desk. Even the tallest of them was way too short.
"Sit down, please."
Macy grabbed three drink bottles and filled them to various levels.
"Which one is a litre?"
The class broke out into a shouting mess. Everyone was loud and angry.
"That one! This one! No, THAT ONE!"
It was an enormous fight. In the end, the class picked the one with the medium amount of filling. Macy shook her head and pointed to the fullest one. The outraged class demanded that she prove it. One lengthy explanation later, she did. Then she pointed to the teacher.
"You! How would you dress for minus five degrees Celsius?"
The teacher looked down at her cardigan and long skirt.
"Like this, I suppose...?"
"NOPE! Minus five degrees Celsius is equivalent to twenty-three Fahrenheit!"
The teacher was clearly taken aback.
"Oh-of course-I was just testing-"
Macy smiled.
"Okay people, now we're going to talk about sensible measurements."
Macy turned out to be pretty good at teaching maths on almost no sleep. Afterwards, however, she was basically a zombie. She collapsed on the ground outside shortly after the bell rang.
"My legs are asleep."
Matilda, slightly more awake now, laughed at her friend.
"You can't walk at all at the moment! It's getting ridiculous! Do you just want Flinch to carry you everywhere?"
Macy was still awake enough to go scarlet.
"No! As if!"
Ruby smiled.
"I'm allergic to crushes, and there's a surprising amount of crushes all over the entire team at the moment."
The boys had arrived just in time to hear that last statement, so now two sets of best friends were staring at Ruby with insane intensity, and Jackson was doubled over laughing.
"Dude! Seriously?"
"Yes. But not intensely enough to see who the crushes are or anything."
Four nerds visibly relaxed.
"Not that I would need any upgrades to."
This last part was said in a whisper. Only one member of the team heard it. All members heard the brain-blowing sneeze that erupted a second later.
"New information, get to the Playground immediently."
Ruby slapped Jackson so he would stop laughing.
"Time to move."
Yeah, not much happened. I just wanted Macy to preach the metric system. Plus, we learned some stuff here that will matter later on, so HA! Purpose! It's in there somewhere!
~Madei