Now that we've had a chapter in everyone's view point, we can start mixing things up a bit. This chapter is going to be in Henrietta's POV and we're going to be starting classes today! Hooray!

Chapter 6 – Classes for the Strange

Henrietta's POV

I was dreading the start of classes, and I'm sure my friends were as well. They had security cameras set up to make sure we actually showed up, and the fact that we were confined to a prison meant we didn't exactly have anywhere to hide. But that didn't mean I was going to actually try in any class. I was going to show my parents how wrong they were for sending my friends and me to this place.

We got our schedules during the week and thankfully Pete, Michael, and I had all of the same classes, so at least we didn't have to suffer alone. It was still going to be unbearable, though.

Monday rolled around, our first day of classes, and I did not want to get out of bed. I wondered if I just stayed in my bed if they would actually send someone to get me. I hid my head under my pillow as I listened to my roommates getting ready. Suddenly, I felt someone nudging me.

"Come on, Henrietta," I heard Karen say, "You've gotta get up already or you're going to be late for your first class."

"Good," I mumbled, my voice muffled by the pillow. Karen sighed.

"I know you don't want to go," she said, "But you don't want to leave Pete and Michael on their own, do you?"

"Meh," I replied.

"Don't you think it would send a stronger message to your parents if you actually showed up to your class then failed?" she argued, "If you don't show up they'll know you didn't try, but if you do show up then they'll see that this place isn't working and let us go home!"

I muttered something incoherent at her. She let out a humph and went silent. I thought she left, but a moment later I felt her climb onto my bed and pull the blanket off me. Just when I wondered what she was doing, she started tickling me, and I bolted up, desperately trying to stifle my laughter.

Goths do not laugh.

"No!" I cried, trying to swat her away, "Stop! What are you doing?! Stop with the tickling!" She ignored me and continued her assault. "Ok! Ok! I'm getting up! I'm getting up! You can stop tickling me!"

Smiling in victory like the little devil she was, Karen stopped and hopped off the bed. Glaring slightly, I got up and started getting dressed. Mimi and Chris were already up and ready, but I didn't really care about them. I couldn't help but feel like one of them was watching me while I was getting dressed, though.

When Karen and I were finished getting ready, we opened the door to the hallway only to find Michael, Pete, and Firkle standing in the doorway, Pete with his fist raised, ready to knock on the door. They blinked at us in surprise.

"Um, ready to go?" Michael asked awkwardly. I let out a heavy sigh.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I muttered. Just as we left the room, I suddenly felt someone behind me. I looked and saw Chris following me.

"I have like, the same classes as you," she explained in a bored tone of voice, "So I figured I'd walk with you guys."

"Oh, uh, sure," I replied. I couldn't help but notice the nasty look Pete gave her. I cleared my throat and nudged my tallest friend. "Hey Michael, what's our first class?"

Michael gave me a look before pulling out a schedule. He let out a groan of annoyance. "We have science first," he muttered in a disgusted voice. Pete, Chis, and I let our disdain known in our loudest possible moans.

I heard Karen snicker at us. "I have English first," she told us with a smug grin on her face. I frowned at her.

"Yeah, good for you," I told her in a snarky voice.

"What do you have, Firkle?" Pete wondered. Sometimes I forgot that Firkle and Karen weren't in the same grade.

"Math," Firkle replied in a bored tone of voice, staring at his schedule.

Once we got to the main building we were forced to split from Karen and Firkle. It wasn't very hard to find out where to go. There were signs fucking everywhere to point out where everything is (i.e. "Here's the bathroom!" "Here's room 101!" Here's room 102!") Our science class was in room 113 with Mrs. Rogers.

Just walking to class was torture. Walking through a sea of conformists wearing the same clothes and the fake grins. It was agony. I kept Michael and Pete on either side of me so no conformists would touch me.

Finally, we reached the classroom. There were already several students in the room, standing around, talking. A couple was in the corner making out. Michael, Pete, and I immediately headed for the back of the room so we could sit away from the rest of the conformists. I sat in between Pete and Michael and Chris sat in front of Pete.

It wasn't too long before the teacher arrived. She seemed normal enough, but I wasn't going to let my guard down. After all, Mr. Garrison had looked normal.

"Take your seats, class," Mrs. Rogers commanded, "We're about to begin."

Everyone went and found seats and I was pleased that they all avoided sitting near us. Except for this really shy looking girl with long brown hair who looked like she was on the verge of tears. She sat down next to Michael.

After the teacher took roll call I learned her name was Melony, which I guess is easier to call her than shy girl stereotype. I'm certain the only reason she sat by us was so she could be away from everyone else.

While we sat listening to the teacher tell us about what we could expect from her class, I couldn't help but notice that Chris had turned in her seat sideways and was staring at Michael and me. I wondered what her deal was, but then again, she did look rather bored. I could relate. I did not want to be here.

I turned to Pete and poked him in the arm. He looked at me from the corner of his eye.

"I hope Karen and Firkle aren't as bored as we are right now," I whispered to him.

"They're probably more bored," he pointed out, "Or at least more miserable. At least we have each other. They don't even know anyone in their classes. And knowing conformists, someone's going to try to talk to them."

"Those poor kids," I sighed.

I guess science wasn't going to be that bad since the teacher was relatively normal and there wasn't anyone annoying in our class. Math class on the other hand, was going to be much, much worse. The teacher, Mr. Stein was batshit insane. Almost as soon as we took our seats he started going on and on about how much better he was at everything than Mrs. Rogers. Not only that, it seemed like nearly everyone we found annoying was in our class.

That brick-head Bruce, Seymour, Mimi, the stupid cheerleader Christine, Chris, that pretty boy Trent. The only one who wasn't in our class was the bad boy stereotype Rider.

When Seymour saw us come in, he smiled and waved us over. Although he was in the front of the class, I dragged Pete and Michael over to him anyway. He had positioned himself so that there were three seats next to him, so that way no one could sit next to us.

"Hey roomies!" he greeted cheerfully, "I'm so glad we have math class together! Now maybe Bruce won't beat me up for knowing all the answers!"

"Don't expect us to be your bodyguards," I warned him.

"EEEE!" a piercing screech sounded behind us, making us flinch. I turned around and saw Mimi standing behind us. "Hi roomie! Isn't it neat that we have math together! It's so cool! Can I sit behind you guys?"

"Sit behind Michael," I ordered before either of my friends could speak. Mimi gave me a confused look.

"Why?" she asked.

"So Christine can't sit behind him and drool over him all class," I replied, eying where Christine was in the corner of the room watching us. She seemed to be waiting for Mimi to move so she could pounce on my friend.

"Christine? Oh yeah! She's a bitch!" Mimi agreed loudly, taking the desk behind Michael. I watched with satisfaction as Christine frowned and cursed.

I was quite annoyed when that pretty boy Trent came over and took the seat behind me. "Is this seat taken?" he wondered, sitting down. I growled at him, but it was drowned out by like five giggly girls sitting behind him.

"Hey, you guys don't mind if I sit behind you, do you?" Chris asked as she took the desk behind Pete.

"Go right ahead," Michael muttered, not really paying attention.

I turned around and leaned back to Chris. "Keep an eye on this pretty boy here for me," I murmured to her, "I really don't trust him."

Chris pointed at me. "You got it, chief," she replied.

Just as I turned back around, the teacher decided to begin class by quickly introducing himself and then launching into a rant about how this school "doesn't recognize his brilliance" and how he was "robbed of the 'teacher of the year' award" and that "Mrs. Rogers can go to hell." By the time class was over he hadn't taken roll call and hadn't said one word about what we would expect from his class.

"That guy was fucking bonkers," I muttered as we headed towards our next class.

"He is," Seymour agreed, "I had him last year for math. He is brilliant, but he tends to go on a lot of tangents. He really hates Mrs. Rogers for some reason."

"We could tell," Pete said.

"All right, Michael, what's our next class?" I asked. He took out the schedule, looked it over and groaned loudly.

"Sex ed," he replied, sounding absolutely disgusted. Pete and I revolted in horror.

"Are you sure it doesn't say phys. Ed?" I wondered, though that wouldn't be a whole lot better. Michael shook his head.

"No, we have that later in the day," he told us, "Right now we have sex education."

"Seriously?" Pete hissed, "An entire class about sex? They couldn't have made it a health class? What is wrong with this school?" He tossed the hair out of his eyes in frustration.

"If you guys are disgusted now, wait until you meet the teacher," Seymour said.

I dreaded his words all the way to class. I was annoyed to see that Christine and Trent were also in our class when we got there. I was hoping we wouldn't have Trent for any classes. I didn't want the teacher taking roll call because then he would learn our names.

This time the four of us sat in the back of the room. I guess Seymour didn't mind not sitting close to the teacher in this class. I noticed as we came in there were two people making out on the teacher's desk like crazy. It wasn't until everyone was seated and they separated that I noticed that they were a bit older than the rest of us. Despite her scantily dressed form, I realized with horror that the woman was our teacher.

"Hello class," she greeted, slightly out of breath, "Welcome to your first day of sex ed. My name is Miss Lutt."

"Subtle," Pete muttered to me.

"This," Miss Lutt continued, gesturing to the equally scantily dressed young gentleman beside her, "Is my teacher's assistant and boyfriend Mr. B. He will help me with any… demonstrations that may come up." She winked at us and I had to suppress a groan.

"Now, let's get started with roll call," she said, picking up a clipboard. I hated her for that. I was kind of hoping she would skip it like Mr. Stein would. I wanted to tell Pete and Michael not to answer when she got to their names, but then I would have to explain why.

So, unfortunately Trent learned our names. Asshole.

But probably the worst part was when Miss Lutt got around to describing what the class was going to be like. When she said sex ed, she didn't mean the kind of sex ed they teach you in middle school health class. She meant actually teaching us how to have sex. She was going to teach us different "techniques" and "positions" and all that crap, and it was making my friends and me very uncomfortable. I was so glad when the bell rang because I'm pretty sure she was two seconds away from giving us a "demonstration."

"Ok, sex ed is definitely going to be the worst class," I said as we headed towards the cafeteria for lunch.

"Oh definitely," Michael agreed, "Did you see some of the guys? Half of them had their hands down their pants just from staring at the teacher."

"I'm so glad Karen and Firkle don't have to take that class," Pete muttered, "They should not have to be subjected to such disgust and terror."

When we entered the cafeteria, we saw Karen sitting at round table in the corner away from everyone else. She spotted us and waved. We ditched Seymour and quickly made our way over to her.

"Hey kiddo," I greeted, sitting down next to her.

"No sign of Firkle yet?" Michael wondered. Karen shook her head.

"Not yet," she replied. Then she gasped. "Oh no! What if he doesn't have the same lunch time as us? Then we wouldn't get to see him until the evening!"

"Don't worry," Pete calmed her, "I think everyone gets the same hour off for lunch and break. His class is probably just further away than ours."

"Oh," Karen said, a little embarrassed.

"So, how are your classes so far?" I asked her.

"Eh, ok I guess," she answered, "I just wish I had class with at least one of you. And there were less conformists. What about you guys?"

All three of us burst into groans at the same time. Karen blinked at us. "That bad, huh?"

"You have no idea!" I moaned.

We were saved from having to explain anything about our horrible classes by the arrival of Firkle. He looked mildly annoyed as he stomped up to us and sat down next to Michael and folded his arms in irritation.

"What's wrong with you?" Michael asked his friend.

"During my classes no less than five girls came up to me to talk to me and tell me they think I'm cute," Firkle hissed.

I had to stop myself from laughing. If there was one thing that Firkle hated more than anything it was anyone implying that he was cute. His parents always said he was a "cutie-pie" and because he hated his parents so much, he didn't like anyone else calling him cute.

"Sorry Firkle," Pete said, trying to hide a smile.

"That's not all," Firkle growled, "That asshole Rider is in my math class."

"Seriously?" I exclaimed, "He's in a fifth-grade math class? How stupid is he?"

"Rider was also in my history class earlier," Karen told us.

"So, pretty darn stupid," Michael concluded.

That's the perfect place to end this chapter! My sister is going to pick up with the rest of their classes in the next chapter. What do you think so far? Leave a comment and let us know!