August 29, 2014- 6:18 PM
"Wow, summer goes by so fast," I said to Palutena as we pulled into the school's parking lot.
"It sure does," Palutena agreed, parking the car. She pushed a lock of her green hair out of her face before getting out. I pulled down the visor and looked into the mirror, fluffing my curly reddish-brown hair.
"Ella, come on, they've already started," Palutena called after me.
"Okay," I called back, putting the visor back and hopping out of the car into the blazing August heat. My three sisters, Alice, Miriam, and Chris, stood on the sidewalk waiting for Palutena and me.
Alice looked over at me as I walked by and wriggled her dark eyebrows at me. I rolled my eyes, silently giggling at her antics. She's the youngest out of the four of us and tends to goof off more than Miriam and me. She whipped her head over to wriggle her eyebrows at Miriam and Chris, her short sandy blonde hair slapping her in the face in the process. Miriam chuckled as she pulled her long dark hair back into a claw clip.
Chris shook her head at the antics between Alice and me, but I could tell she was amused as a smile crept onto her face, making her green eyes sparkle. She's the oldest out of the four of us currently in the house, just a month older than me. She's also the smartest, getting straight A's and being a favorite among our teachers. She cares so much for the rest of us and is easily the model sibling. The perfect child. I try to be like her when it comes to the rest of my siblings. The only downside is that she sticks out like a sore thumb. Being one of the few non-Black kids at our school will do that. That and her red hair.
Chris and I walked alongside Palutena as Miriam and Alice followed. Alice and Miriam are my younger sisters. Both have complexions lighter than mine and pin-straight hair. If you didn't know any better, you could mistake them for twins (or at least cousins). Their only differentiating features are their hair color, hair length, and eye color.
The four of us go to CCA, which is located in two conjoined blue buildings on the corner of one of the busiest streets in northwest Washington, DC: Rhode Island Avenue. The school's actual name is Calvary Christian Academy, but we just call it CCA. I guess we do it to keep other students from pulling up and trying to pick a fight with us. Then again, people would have to be pretty stupid not to recognize our school. The middle school building is the older of the two buildings, and the only entrance for middle school students is the I.M.P.A.C.T. door. I forget what Palutena said I.M.P.A.C.T. means, but it's really the only way I remember to go into this door every morning. We walked through the I.M.P.A.C.T. door and headed into the building. The teacher's assistant, Mr. Kimbra, greeted us as we walked in.
"Hello, ladies."
"Hi," we all said as we walked into the air-conditioned building. Mr. Kimbra is a tall, tan man with dark brown eyes, curly dark brown hair, and a goatee that matches his hair. We normally see him in a grey dress shirt with a black necktie, black slacks, and black shoes. He always smells nice, too, like he has access to the best colognes on the planet or something. The boys in my class always joke about him, but I think they're just jealous because he cleans up better than them.
Palutena waved to him as she walked in, then turned to him as if about to ask a question. Mr. Kimbra simply pointed his finger up to the ceiling.
"They're upstairs, but you might have to go around to get in," he said as he began to type something on his phone, all while staying in his chair. He must have read Palutena's mind. She just nodded and turned to us.
"Can one of you go around?"
"Sure," Chris replied as she turned around and went back outside. Mr. Kimbra looked up from his phone and raised an eyebrow as he watched Chris leave.
"Do you guys want me to open the door to the other stairs?" he asked.
"Oh, yes please," Palutena said, adjusting her purse over her shoulder. Alice walked over to the exit and opened the door.
"HEY CHRIS, MR. KIMBRA'S GOING TO OPEN THE DOOR TO THE OTHER STAIRS!" Alice yelled outside.
"Oh, okay," we heard Chris yell before running back inside. Miriam and I exchanged glances, trying to keep our laughter to ourselves. Mr. Kimbra walked down the hallway into the vast area known as Guidance by all of the students who took classes in this building. He went over to one of the doors in the corner of the room and unlocked it, revealing a flight of stairs. The four of us turned around simultaneously and said, "Thank you," before running up the stairs. The upstairs was slightly colder than the Guidance room downstairs, causing me to shiver slightly upon opening the doors from the stairwell. We found a few of our classmates hanging out in one of the unused classrooms when we got upstairs. I stopped at the door and waved.
"ELLA!" Aphrodite yelled as she pounced on me, giving me the tightest hug ever and knocking me down to the floor in the process.
"Hey, Aphrodite," I said, hugging her back. Viridi looked up from her book and waved at me. I attempted to wave back, but Aphrodite pinned my arms to my body and forced me to look her in the eyes.
"Why are you late?" she asked with an extremely serious face, although 'serious' is really sugar-coating how her face actually looked. It was downright terrifying...
"You know there's a lot of traffic coming from our end of town to here, right?" I asked her, smiling awkwardly.
"Oh yeah...," she said as her face began to soften and morphed back into its usual cheeky grin. She let go of my arms and helped me up. Viridi giggled at our antics and rolled her eyes before continuing to read her book.
Aphrodite and Viridi are two of my closest friends, despite the fact that I've only known them for a year. Aphrodite mirrors Alice in their goofiness. She has dark skin, pretty brown eyes, and black hair that she normally wears in braids or twists that go down her back.
Viridi has lighter skin with black hair she either wears in braids or has in a bun and dark brown eyes that peer out of her bold-framed maroon glasses. Currently, the two of them were wearing denim shorts and tie-dye shirts from summer camp, which Palutena did not let any of us go to this year, with black Converse shoes to complete the look.
Alice, Chris, and Miriam walked in. Alice, being the energetic person that she is, ran over to Aphrodite and jumped into her arms. Miriam and Chris walked over to a desk and sat down, keeping out of the craziness that Alice and I had gotten ourselves into.
"OH MY GOSH! I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU ALL SUMMER! HOW HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Alice asked Aphrodite while hugging her tightly.
"I've been good," Aphrodite said as she pushed her long braids out of her face.
Palutena peeped her head in to see what we were doing. She motioned for me to come over. I walked over to her, and she bent down to my level.
"I'm going to go over to your classroom," she told me. "Will you guys be okay if I leave you here?" I looked back at the others before turning back to her and nodding my head. "Alright, text me if you need anything," she said as she pulled a notepad out of her bag.
"Okay," I said before giving her a hug and heading back into the room.
Malaysia and Brianne came over to greet us.
"Hey, Ella girl," Malaysia said in her usual loud voice as she hopped up onto one of the desks.
"Hey," I responded, hugging her. Brianne walked over and hugged me as well.
"How has your summer been?" Brianne asked.
"It's been good. I went to the beach like I normally do," I responded, pushing a lock of hair out of my face.
"Well, I-" Brianne began before being cut off by a fit of laughter coming from Aphrodite and Alice. Apparently, Alice tried to do a cartwheel over Aphrodite but didn't stick her landing and ended up on top of Aphrodite. Malaysia, Brianne, and I stared at the pair with wide eyes before bursting into laughter as well.
"Can you guys keep it down over there? You're being extremely loud," Daya said from across the room, an expression of arrogance plastered on her face.
"Like you're one to talk! You literally did the same thing ten minutes ago," Brianne said from one of the desks against the wall.
"Yeah, but we did it in a more civilized manner," Tamar said as she flipped a few of her braids out of her face and pursed her lips.
"I don't think cheerleaders can be civilized when it comes to goofing off," Alice chimed in as she stretched her arms over her head.
"Yeah, and what happened to 'cheerleaders don't twerk'?" Malaysia asked, putting her hands on her hips.
Tamar and Daya went silent, looking at one another for a few moments before looking back at Malaysia.
"Alright, fine, you got us there," Tamar said as she crossed her arms.
We all burst into laughter once again, clearly amusing ourselves with our shenanigans.
"At least the boys enjoyed the view," Malaysia said, resting her chin in her hands.
"Oh, shut the fuck up!" Daya yelled, turning away from us in embarrassment.
Tamar covered her mouth to suppress her laughter before regaining her composure and mimicking Daya's expression. Keyona and Denise just watched from their seats, then continued their side conversation.
Do they think they're queens or something? Oh wait...
Daya is one of the most popular girls in the middle school section of CCA. She has medium-toned skin and usually keeps her braids up in a bun. She's often deemed the most attractive girl, at least body-wise, since most would mistake her for being sixteen if they didn't know she was a middle schooler. Her facial features leave much to be desired, in my opinion.
Tamar is another one of the popular girls. She has dark skin, brown eyes that peer through a pair of turquoise glasses, and dark brown hair always in long braids reaching her waist. She's the nicest in the group and has the loudest laugh I've ever heard.
Keyona has a lighter complexion than the other two girls but also wears long braids. Describing Keya without insulting her is tough. Let's just say she has a big appetite, which explains why she's so chunky.
Oh, I'm being shady. Oh well...
Then there's Denise. She's slightly thinner than Keya, with medium-toned skin and brown eyes. She usually wears her long, dark hair in a bun and has dark brown glasses. She doesn't always hang out with the popular girls, but when it comes to picking sides, she's always with them.
The four of them make up a group called "the Queens." We call them that since they constantly expect the entire school to bow down to them as if they were royalty.
Like I would ever do something that ridiculous...
It's a little sad that our entire class isn't present tonight, but not everyone wants to meet their teachers before school starts. Hell, I was surprised I didn't even see the boys in here.
"Where are the boys anyway?" Chris asked.
"The other room," Malaysia answered, motioning to the room next door. "Do you wanna pop over and say hi?"
We just shook our heads no. Don't get me wrong, they're all pretty cool; they're just a tad bit... immature.
"So, where's Feldt?" I asked the others. They all shrugged.
"I don't think she's coming," Aphrodite said as she propped herself up on her elbows. She was now lying over Alice, resting her head in her arms and looking up at the rest of us.
Feldt is my best friend. She's a bit of an oddball in middle school, standing with Chris as one of the three white students in the middle school (and one of the six in the entire academy). She's also considered odd because of her hot pink hair. We all thought it was an artificial color at first until we dyed a section of it brown as an experiment (with her consent, of course), only for it to return to its vibrant hot pink color. She also has the prettiest blue eyes and the rosiest cheeks I've ever seen. She's a sweet, kind girl, and I hate it when people try to take advantage of her. Especially after what happened last school year.
"Is it because of... you know who?" I asked them, lowering my voice so the Queens couldn't hear. Brianne cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow.
"Do you mean Tamaki?" she asked in a low voice as well.
"Or Mimi?" Aphrodite added, mimicking our tone.
"Both," I whispered.
"It might be," Alice said. "They did make her life a living hell last year." We all nodded, not saying anything else for a few minutes.
Mimi Hargrave and Tamaki Suoh were the most popular kids in middle school last year. Mimi was one of the Queens. She had light skin, dark brown hair with blonde highlights, and crystal blue eyes. She also had a killer body, making her the most attractive girl in the entire middle school. Her personality could use some work, though. To quote one of my favorite musicals, Mimi Hargrave is what we would describe as a mythic bitch. Now that I think about it, Daya always tries to copy Mimi, so this school year is about to get really interesting with Mimi 2.0 (more like 0.5) running around.
Tamaki was the boy that literally every girl wanted. He was a charmer. His blonde hair and blue eyes caught everyone's attention (ya know, like almost every little girl's vision of their prince charming). I used to be cool with him. However, things have changed. Last year, everyone wanted Tamaki and Mimi to be together. They thought they would make the perfect couple. That is until Tamaki started dating Feldt. Afterward, everything went to hell.
"Hey Aphrodite, can you get off me?" Alice asked, breaking the silence. Aphrodite looked over at Alice with a devilish smirk before moving her body up over Alice's face and lying back down. Alice began to flail her arms around.
"GET OFF OF ME!" Alice mumbled from underneath Aphrodite. We all stared down at them while trying to keep another fit of laughter from escaping our lips.
"HHHEEEEEELLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP!" Alice yelled, although it was muffled into Aphrodite's chest. I rolled my eyes as I walked over and lifted Aphrodite off of my poor little sister.
"Ella~, you saved my life! I thought I was a goner," Alice exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around my neck.
"There there, you are safe now," I said, playing along with her game. She smiled up at me before shooting a death glare at Aphrodite. Aphrodite simply stuck her tongue out at Alice before running and hiding behind Masia. I quietly giggled at their antics, but I quickly became caught off-guard by the unusual amount of silence from the other side of the room. Well... not quite. More like not as loud as it usually is. I glanced briefly at the room's other side to see that Daya was looking over at us. She usually witnesses our antics but seemed intrigued by our current ones. She let out a sigh before walking over to us.
"So, did you guys notice the new parent?" she asked.
"Wait, there's a new parent?" I asked her. She nodded.
"Was it a man or a woman?" Alice asked.
"A woman," Daya responded. "And she's stunning."
"And tall," Brianne added. "I think her kid is going to be in our grade."
"Really?" Miriam asked. Daya nodded.
"From what I heard, the new kid is a guy, and she was sitting near the eighth-grade parents," Viridi interjected as she closed her book. We all looked at her in surprise, Daya included.
"Well, that should be a good thing. We have way too many girls in our class," Denise half-yelled from across the room.
"Honestly, but that's assuming that the new student will even be in our class?" Alice mumbled as she rested her head on my shoulder.
"I feel like I've seen this woman before," Keyona interjected into the conversation, making her way over to our side of the room with the rest of the Queens in tow.
"Was she in a magazine?" I asked her.
She just shrugged. "I think I saw her in a brochure for some big school on the west coast or something like that."
I raised an eyebrow at her. "Would this school happen to be in Nevada?" I asked her. Her eyes immediately lit up as I said that.
"YEEESSSSSS," she exaggerated. "It was for that school for kids with unique abilities... or something like that."
We all stared at her upon realizing what school she was talking about. She was talking about the DWMA, the school for weapons and meisters. Feldt and I used to read through the brochures we saw in the store on our way home from school. I never really noticed if she liked any of the students she saw in the brochures, but her face would flush whenever she came across one student in particular.
At this point, we all were excited about the new year. We continued to talk about the new kid for ten minutes exactly before Palutena came back by the room and knocked on the door. We all turned around and looked at her.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I came to get my four young ladies," she said as she looked at me, Alice, Chris, and Miriam. The four of us waved goodbye to the others before leaving the room.
"See you on Tuesday," Aphrodite said as she waved back to us.
"See you on Tuesday," I said before walking down the hallway.
Looks like this year is gonna be fun. I pulled out my phone and sent Feldt a text as we left the school.
He wasn't there. Everyone was wondering where you were. I hope everything is okay over there. See you on Tuesday! :)