It took Elektra a lot of time to fall asleep that night. She was so upset about her family being mad at her again. It felt like she looked at her alarm clock every few hours, but every time only a few minutes had passed. It was a horrible night. After a while Elektra cried herself to sleep. Unfortunately it felt as if she woke up only a few seconds later.

Elektra felt horrible. She wasn't fit enough to go to school at all. She wasn't sick, but going to school was not easy in her position. Nobody was nice to her. She didn't have nice teachers at all, most of them hated her for her bad grades and so called "bad behaviour", and most of the kids were awful bullies.

But Elektra had to go anyway. Even though she wanted to call in sick, she knew her parents wouldn't let her. They didn't even seem to care about the bad time she was having there. They thought it was all her fault.

Elektra was too tired to get up. But to avoid an angry mother to start the day with she got up anyway and put on her school uniform. She looked at herself in the mirror for a few seconds. She looked awful. That would be another excuse for her mother to shout at her.

Elektra took her bag and went downstairs.

"Good morning Mandy," Marilyn said, "did you sleep well?"

Elektra shrugged. She didn't want to tell the truth because she knew her mum wouldn't like it.

"Mandy, I'm talking to you."

"Yeah..." Elektra said.

"Good. Before you go, have something to eat please."

"No mum, I've got some puffed rice cakes in my bag."

"Mandy..."

"Mum, I'll be late."

Elektra tried to walk away from her mum, but she followed her.

"Mand, come on. Haven't you learned anything from yesterday night?"

"It's nothing personal, I just don't want to be late at school."

Elektra decided to leave without saying goodbye. She'd even be late without eating if she had to argue with her mother.

Elektra got on the bus a few minutes after she left the house. She was lucky this time. If she missed this bus she would have had to wait 20 minutes to catch the next one, and that way she'd obviously miss class. Not that she would mind. She had history, maths, English, art and biology today. If it wasn't for art she wouldn't have gone to school at all. If she didn't get off the bus until the very last stop she'd end up in the middle of the city. She had done that a few times before. Not that she enjoyed that very much, but at least it was better than school.

A few stops later a few classmates of Elektra got on the bus too.

"Heeeeeey Mandy!" One of them said.

It was Joey. Elektra decided to ignore him, as he was the most annoying lad she'd ever met.

"Maaaandyyyy!" He said again.

A few of his friends repeated him and laughed.

"Ignoring me, are you?" Joey asked, and he threw his bag at Elektra.

It was a heavy bag and even though Elektra didn't want to show, it hurt.

"Didn't your mummy and daddy tell you that it ain't cool to ignore people?" He shouted at her.

Even though it was pretty loud the bus driver completely ignored it.

"Didn't your mummy and daddy tell you that it ain't cool to throw stuff at people?" Elektra replied in a calm voice, while she was actually trying to control her anger.

"Oooooooh Mandyyyy... Getting an attitude?" One of Joey's friends asked laughing.

"They didn't!" Joey said, "Because my parents aren't annoying busybodies like yours!"

"Nice one Joey!" One of the others said.

Elektra was so angry. She wanted to punch them. But she didn't want to get in trouble again, so she decided to move to another seat.

"Scared, are we?" Joey shouted, loud enough for the entire bus to hear.

"I'm not scared!" Elektra shouted back.

Weirdly enough people didn't react to Joey's shouting, but they did to Elektra's.

"Easy girl," The bus driver said. "This is public transport. If you want to shout you better do that when you're on your down."

Joey and his friends started laughing and high fiving eachother.

When they arrived at school Elektra got off the bus as soon as possible to avoid Joey and his gang. She was a little disappointed to find the classroom door locked. She didn't want to wait in the hallway because she knew she'd probably see people who weren't really nice too her. Unfortunately she did. Someone took Elektra's bag when she wasn't watching it and took her agenda out of it.

"Monday, April the third," A girl read from it, "Benjamin, four 'o clock. Who's Benjamin? Your boyfriend?"

"GIVE THAT HERE!" Elektra shouted, and when she headed for the girl who took her agenda someone else took the puffed rice cakes from Elektra's bag and threw them in the bin. A few people started laughing at Elektra who was chasing the kids who stole stuff from her bag. The girl who took her agenda ran away, and Elektra pushed the girl over to stop her.

"Mandy Perkins!" She heard an adult voice saying angrily behind her. It was the deputy head master.

Elektra didn't know what to do or say. She was caught in the act. Even though it wasn't her fault, she couldn't prove it, could she. She turned around.

"Come with me please." The deputy head master asked.

Elektra wanted to protest but knew it would only make things worse. So she took her bag and followed him.