Oh, well, here I am again...

Aight, before you jump me for disappearing of the face of , let me tell you this:

Finals, midterms, projects, procrastination, stress, the flu (twice), inner-ear infection, sinus infection, Workout Wednesday in gym, tests and exams, and all sorts of other crap. All on top of my general laziness. Yeah, I know.

~Noah's Point-of-View~

I throw my backpack into the passenger seat, then push it onto the ground, then sit down, buckle myself in, and close the door. My mom gets into the car, then shuts her door, then drives off.

"You know Noah, I can't wait until they accept your magnet bus application." she tells me.

"I know that mom." I reply. I look out the window, watching snow flurries fall.

"Because I generally only have fifteen minutes to get to work after I drop you off. If you don't get to ride a bus soon, you're going to have to be dropped off real early."

"All thanks to that new job of yours." I tell her sarcastically. However, she ignores that.

"Right. But how else are we supposed to get money?"

"I don't know mom."

"Exactly. And you're not going to get a job to help out. You need to focus on your grades. You need that scholarship. When your dad was here, we could afford to send your sister and brother to college,"

"But now," I answer, "Me and my little sister – I mean my little sister and I – have to use our intelligence to get to college."

"Right."

I sigh. We're approaching the school. I would walk because it's close, but I don't even like participating in gym. I don't think I'd volunteer to walk to school. Mom stops the car a little before the entrance of school.

"Bye mom." I tell her, as I open up the door.

"See you later Noah! Make sure you're ready for your dentist appointment today!" she tells me as I hitch my backpack comfortably up my back.

She speeds away as I walk towards the double twin doors of the school. I choose the doors closest to me – the left ones – and push them open. I say excuse me to a few groups of friends standing in the way. I walk in a constant rhythm. Left, right, left, right. A constant rhythm. It keeps me motivated, and calm. I don't like walking around people. It's uncomfortable. Changes my walk because I feel as if everybody is watching me walk across the room. But maybe they are, because, well, I'm the Tenth Grade Vice-President. And that means that I work with the President, who we all know is Courtney Millard. So maybe I'm not anti-social like I used to think I was. Kinda like Izzy. But, well, we're similar. We all are, I mean. Sierra, Courtney, Izzy, Cody, and I. Well, that was a sentence fragment, but this isn't grammar class. So, in a way, we're all friends. By way of each other:

Me: Courtney and Cody

Cody: Sierra and Me

Courtney: Me and Sierra (to some extent)

Izzy: Me (or so she says sometimes) and Sierra

Sierra: Cody (because she *blech* loves him), Izzy, and Courtney (to some extent)

So, see, that's what I'm talking about. Friends of sorts. I never would have imagined it...

"Cody, I'm not going to the dance. Especially not with Izzy."

"Dude, you have to!" Cody exclaimed, flaring his arms wildly in the air. "You're Student Government for Pete's sake!"

"Oh, now we're cursing my uncle Pete." I joked. Cody play-shoved me.

"Funny. Real funny, you comedian. But, seriously, you literally have to."

"Didn't we already have this conversation already? Like, two days ago on Monday?"

"Come to think of it, yeah, we did..."

"Exactly. I'll go, but not with Izzy."

"You, my friend, are complicated."

"The story of my life."

"No dip." Cody rolls his eyes.

"Isn't it January now?" I ask. It feels as if it's still the same old month and year.

"Yeah."

"It feels as if we're still in December."

"Time works like that, my friend. And plus, it's only the beginning of January. The fifth."

"I don't even remember Winter Break."

"Me neither."

"Like, what did I do?" I questioned. Nothing, probably. There was Christmas and Boxing Day gifts, visiting family (lots of family), and lounging around the house in pajamas for hours, and that's about it.

"I went to Cancun with my parents and sister, remember?"

"Yeah, that would explain that great tan you got." I joked.

"Hey, I get sunburn easily! You know that!" Cody told me.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Liar."

Cody and I started laughing before the bell for fourth period ending rang. We packed up for our next class.

"And now we go onto that horrid science class of ours." I sigh.

I was going to type a bit more, but then I got lazy. So, yeah.

Let's start suggesting ideas for the next chapter...while reviewing this story!