Chapter 1 Welcome To Hancock

“NATHANIEL I’M GONNA KILL YOU!”, I screeched as I chased him down the staircase with Marquee at my heels. Marquee was my springer spaniel terrier, he was a fast, agile dog who loved to play. The ice cold water was dripping down my face as I pushed Nathaniel back so that I could have time to tackle him. But Marquee beat me to it, and jumped on his chest knocking him backwards onto a heap on the floor. I’ve never been more proud of a dog in my life

“Way to go Marquee!”, I yelled while Nathaniel began to pout.

“CRYSTAL AND NATHANIEL, WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT YOU ARE DOING! GET OFF THE FLOOR NATHANIEL, AND CRYSTAL STOP ACTING SO STUPID, BE NICER TO YOUR BROTHER!” My face turned crimson, I hardly ever got yelled at by Ashley. Ashley was our babysitter, she had short blonde hair that bobbed around when she walked, her pale skin was scared with burns from a fire when she was younger, you’d think that she’d be hag like from that description but she’s pretty in her own sort of way. Anyway, you’d think that at the age of thirteen I wouldn’t need one but Mel decided to get us one, I hate Mel. She is my stepmom, and unlike Ashley, she would fit right in with a bunch of trolls. My dad and mom split when he found out she was having an affair with some rich man, I could never forgive her for that. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if she still lived with us, I may even have another sibling! But maybe mom having three kids was enough, Me, Nathaniel and Lauren managed to get along just fine without her. I don’t miss her whatsoever. Then we found that Lauren was being bullied and was starving herself, after what happened after that we decided that it would be better if she moved to grandmas, so she lives there now. I wonder what is happening to Lauren now, she’s two years older than me and much much prettier than me. We were always close and I kinda idolized her, she was skinny, had long curly blonde hair, blue eyes, basically off the cover of some teen magazine. She is everything I could only ever dream of being. Apparently people didn’t see what I saw in Lauren, and she didn’t exactly handle that fact very well. Mel looking over us, she has these dark cold eyes and when they look at you, you feel attacked, as if a demon is looking into your soul, reading all of your hidden secrets and feelings. Good luck hiding anything from the snake too, she has a dachshunds nose for when you’re hiding something. I raced back up the stairs to beat Nathaniel to the shower, I made it first and used all the hot water, that’ll show him for pouring water all over my face that morning. After my shower I put on my robe, and shivered to my room to get ready. We don’t have too much money, which meant the same few things every week, but that’s all I knew so it didn’t bother me that much. I often got told that I was dirty by the kids at school when I was younger, but when I got to middle school people didn’t notice me so it wasn’t a problem. Except for the few people who did notice me, not in a good way. I’m talking about the popular kids on the top of the pyramid that is seventh grade. Except for Kassidy and Mariah, they were nice to me but, I always felt kinda out of place in their company. They were really popular, pretty, smart, and nice, yet here I am just an extra. I put on my jeans and sweatshirt and sat down to brush out myterribly long rats nest which I refer to as hair. This is a terribly long process and made me look worse than usual due to my apparent inability to act like a normal person while brushing my hair. It hurts since my head’s a mess of knots and I’m very low on the scale of pain tolerance. By the end I look like a poodle. It’s a frizzy mess and looks like a platnum blonde bush on my head. It doesn’t help that literally everything about me looks like I just crawled out of grave. My thighs are too big, and my waist is too outwards, my stomach isn’t flat enough and my arms are too big, my face is unsymmetrical, my eyes are too round, my lips are too small and my nose is too wide, why cant I look like those girls, the popular ones, the pretty ones, the ones that aren’t like me. My face is a pin cushion of acne scarring, and the only thing worse than my complexion is my eyes, they’re a puke color green and I can’t stand them. Nothing I do now and nothing I will ever do will make me pretty. I’m doomed to be a disgusting, ugly person for the rest of my life. I must be the opposite of Lauren, how could we even be sisters? I was ugly, fat, disproportionate, and sad, while Lauren was, pretty, skinny and smart. I wish Lauren were here today so that I could ask for her help but, she’s safer with our grandparents I guess. She’d know what to do to get through the hell hole that is middle school. I tied my bushy hair into a ponytail, that was uglier than I thought it would be. I tried a bun, now I look like Cindy Lou Who when she is having a bad hair day. After the bun failed I gave up, I’ll just look like a sasquatch today oh well. I grabbed my I.D and winced. The picture made me look worse than I do in person, which on the photographers part was a magnificent feat as I already looked like a Stephen King character and the grinch had a child. I grabbed a sticker of a bear and stuck it over my face. There, now I’m less hideous. This was another attempt to lie to myself. I grabbed my backpack which was just black to hopefully make me less noticeable (Then people wouldn’t notice I looked like a troll doll), and sprinted out the door. My family has always been extremely over competitive and this morning is another example of it. No matter how bad things got I always raced Nathe to the bus stop, he insisted on being called Nathe rather than Nathaniel as it made him sound “ less dweeb-ish”. In my opinion the nickname Nathe made him seem like a blundering idiot. We had our daily competition to reach the bus stop. I always beat him as he left late, I heard from behind me as I ran,

“C.J I WILL DEFEAT YOU AND THEN I WILL DESTROY YOUR ENTIRE LIFE, WELL I WOULD IF YOU HAD ONE!” C.J was my nickname, which i much prefer to Crystal, i thought that Crystal was to precious and fragile, two things i was not. He seemed rather proud of himself over this latest quip but I couldn’t help but laugh over the fact that he thought he was funny. Was this fueling the flame to make him think that he had a shot at being funny, yes. Did I care, not in the slightest, the more Nathe embarrassed himself the less attention got put on me. We waited at the bus stop for a good fifteen minutes. Mr Jaime was always late.

“Time to go to hell” I whispered to my little brother as I approached the old yellow bus, which for some peculiar reason always smelled like out of date Doritos.

“LET’S DO THIS” I sounded more confident then I actually was.

I stepped on the old bus, Mr Jaime looking at me with impatience as usual, and gave Nathaniel a dirty look. Nathaniel wasn’t a favourite of Mr Jaime’s, in fact nobody is his favourite, but he likes Nathe the least. Nathe was always the problem child on the bus, he always had something smart and witty to say, it was quite comical. He may just be showing off as usual but at least he is a laugh. I went and sat with Holly who was waving at me like a maniac as usual, Kassidy and Mariah a row in front like always.

“Hey Holly!” I said as I plonked down into my seat with my big bag at my feet. I looked over at Nathe. He had sat down next to Riley in hopes of being closer to us, and more importantly Kassidy. He had suddenly played with his short dark hair and had started making his stupid jokes for attention. He was trying to act cool in front of Kassidy and Mariah. He’d always had a crush on Kassidy from the minute he’d seen her, I wasn’t exactly surprised as she looked like a Barbie doll, but still.

“Hey, C.J!” Kassidy and Mariah chorused talking as loud as they could to attract as much attention as possible, they definitely got it. Mr Jaime screamed,

“Now i’m as deaf’ as an ol’ man but y’all need to shut up” in his thick country accent.

The girls ignored him and laughed. God the only way they could get more attention would be by wearing a billboard.

“C.J! HI!” Holly yelled as always jesus this girl was excitable, she was like a mix of Mercedes and Rachel Berry from my favourite show Glee.

Always sing song she chimed,

“Wassup my friend” in the tune from the opening line of “Seasons Of Love” from Rent.

“ Hey Holly, is Rent the musical today?” I asked exasperated it was a new thing everyday with that girl but that’s the journey, right?

“Yeah….” Holly answered reluctantly, normally it was a few songs in before I guessed correctly

“What homework do you need today?”

Holly knew me from sitting next to for years, I always need some sort of homework, and she’s in honor roll so I knew that I’d not fail at least.

“Nothing today” I said snarkely she wouldn’t be able to be a smart alec about me not doing my homework today.

“That’s new, even Algebra?” This time Holly chose will you light my candel.

“Yes, Mrs. J would be proud” I said sarcastically.

Mrs. J would not be pleased with me but that’s just what you have to do stay on top of classes and if I take a low grade in Algebra it’s fine, I”ll be switched out anyway. Only the really smart people got put into that class and just sitting in that room gave me major imposter syndrome. Everyone in that class is going somewhere, and here I am thirteen and already I can barely keep up I have a seventy-one percent in that class, I’m sure that everyone else has one huge A and is in the honor roll. I may as well go down to standard and accept my fate of mediocrity. It’s either that or I have to ask Kassidy and Mariah for help, that’s a no they’ll either be A: Condescending and not let me live it down, or B: They’ll let it be known to the entirety of Hancock Middle School. Neither of these seemed like good options so I could just go down to standard and die a little inside. I loved my class though, whenever I get a good grade on something I feel like I belong there, but then I get a bad grade and I suddenly become very desperate to move down to at least advanced, as that is what I took last year after all.

“At least you try in her class, they haven’t kicked you out, they have done that with a few students in my class already, and we’re only in the first quarter.” Holly exclaimed as she began to scream the words to ‘Take Me Or Leave Me’. Right only the first quarter into seventh grade and I already know i’m going to fail at least one of my classes.

“Shu’ the ’ell up!” Mr Jaime cried, Holly and I looked at each other and giggled, which made Holly start snorting like a pig. The bus journey was so special.

“Hey C.J!” I turned my head to see a small, skinny, pale boy with blonde hair yelling at me.

“What do you want Christopher?” I asked impatiently. The boys in the back often said stupid things or asked silly questions.

“Are you racist?” He replied. Great another stupid question from the idiots that we call the royalty of the school. They were the most popular neanderthals at our school, for some ungodly reason. Wait, I know why, they look the best. They wear the cool clothes with the ripped jeans, or the cute crop tops that show their flat stomach and for the guys they wear the cool sports tops with their white washed jeans and the huge holes in the knees.

“I don’t know am I racist or are you just idiots?” I sharply retorted.

“Oohh!” The sixth graders at the front of the bus exclaimed.

“Ha ha, good one C.J!” Kassidy commented in her fake sing-song voice. It wasn’t even that good, I know for a fact that I have done better.

I looked over at Holly, she had her head down typing out a message. Her mess of brown wavy hair fell untidily around her caramel coloured face,

“Holly, we are at school now,” I said as the old bus skidded to a halt at the school entrance.

Holly looked up from her phone with a jolt and quickly turned it off.

“Sorry I was just texting Angelica.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed coarsely. Angelica was Holly’s girlfriend, She was pretty and tall which in retrospect looked rather strange as Holly was quite short. Angelica was like if Kassidy had a good personality, but what am I saying I’m just a little jealous after all who my age doesn’t see another girl and think that they’d rather have “ her hair” or “her metabolism”. Besides, Kassidy had a good personality she doesn’t realize she’s not inclusive in the group with her and Mariah being seemingly sewed too each others sides, kind of just like a big mess of charm intelligence and popularity.

“Are you good C.J?”

Holly’s question brought me out of my own thoughts with a jolt.

“Yeah why?” I asked trying to seem genuinely interested in the answer.

“Nothing, you just seemed dazed I was seeing to make sure you weren’t going into a stroke or something.” This was said almost as if she knew it was obsolete. Once I was inside my own head there was no getting me out of it. I simply couldn’t make up for that in all truth, just another one of my many faults, but on the brightside I’d never have a day where I’d be completely alone. It’s not like my thoughts are completely overrunning of my life, the strongest voice is that of reason which can work in my favor but I’m thirteen so it’s not like I’m going to be overly sensible, scratch that I’m just not sensible period. I have logic and I have an, at least I hope so, good sense of social cues, but take that with a grain of salt. I really am just another dime a dozen person.

“Lost in my own thoughts, as always.” I took way too long to respond, another thing I do that is just an overall bore to everyone around me no matter who they are.

“Well go ahead I’ll catch up” Holly always did this she took forever to get off of the bus so I went ahead and then she ran up to catch up with me. It was kind of funny watching her run since she was really short and her face would get all red, for a cheerleader she was really unathletic. She was always going on about how much cheerleaders were real athletes more so than say a swimmer or a runner, and she was right but jesus that girl couldn’t run for her life, or do anything athletic for that matter.

“C.J! Darn it slow down!” She yelled about twenty feet behind me. I had been in my thoughts for about five minutes and I guess that Holly had just now gotten off the bus, she was further behind than usual. I stopped and turned around to wait for her when Riley came up to me.

“Hey C.J!” He said as he tapped me on the shoulder.

“Hey Riley!” I replied “Thanks for saving me from Malakai” I whispered so that he wouldn’t hear. Malakai was the weirdest kid at Hancock Middle he was always trying to talk to me so we could attempt to have a conversation, if you could call it that. It was if we did get any words in before one of my friends got him away from me (which usually happened pretty quickly, thank god) he would just kinda say “Hey” sheepishly. I kinda feel bad for him, he has no friends and I’m the only person who will actually be nice to him. Everyone else finds him too annoying and will be unnecessarily rude to him whereas I will at least be nice to him. I think that it has started to become an obsession whenever he gets the chance he will talk to me and my least favourite topic that he brings up is Grayson. Don’t get me wrong I love Grayson, I really do, but I always feel uncomfortable when he tries to make me talk about him. It was kinda like seeing those puppies in the animal rescue booth at festivals, sad wanting attention, and just an overall pity party. Malakai was the dog that had half its fur missing and a snaggle tooth that scared you but you felt bad for it.

“No problem C.J, if I didn’t Holly would give me hell anyway.” Riley was Holly’s neighbor and despite being pretty non threatening as a person she still managed to have Riley wrapped around her finger, which worked in my favor.

Behind me I could hear Holly’s feet pounding against the ground, I turned around to have Holly appear at my side.

“Band room?” I asked Holly as we walked through the school courtyard.

“Yeah” She replied coolly. At least she tried too it was kinda forced as not to embarrass herself, even though she still did.

“Wanna come Riley?” I asked. We were all in the band sixth period, that was band three, the best band you can get into. Besides jazz band which was a special selection, Riley wasn’t in that one because he didn’t play a jazz instrument. He played clarinet, unlike me, who played trumpet and Holly who played percussion in sixth period band, and piano in the seventh period jazz band.

“Actually I was gonna go to the gym and meet up with Ben and Harry.” He told us made his way to the gym.

“See you later mate!” I called as Holly and I entered building four. I opened the band room door to the sound of instruments clashing and making a horrible sound. I made my way to the back of the classroom to put down my backpack and trotted into the locker room. The second I walked in my eyes were immediately drawn to Grayson. The twinkle in his dark eyes and his light brown hair. His eyes met mine and his pupils widened, I could stare into those eyes for hours. He walked up to me and gave me a warm hug. He obviously had to lean down to reach me because he was a little taller than me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and smiled, this is why I haven’t completely given up at school. I pulled away to hear Nathe making gagging noises behind me.

“Angelica and I are so much cuter, like how can you guys compete” Holly said giggling, she really like Angelica and did this all the time.

“Speak of the devil” I said as a gorgeous brunette strutted through the doorway. Her beautiful brown eyes were darting around the room to presumably find Holly, and when she did she ran up too her. Angelica could run much better than Holly which wasn’t exactly a feat. She had average lips, a smaller nose, and long brown hair that perfectly framed her face.

“Hey sweetie!” Angelica’s voices was almost artificially sweet.

“Wassup hun?” Holly sounded like a random guy standing at the side of a street corner in the eighties, but dressed like a nineteen fifties housewife plus converse.

“Nothing much and you?” I hated how Angelica seemed to talk down to Holly, Holly was an aggressively liberal person, and here she was in a instrument storage room being called sweetie. Where was the fire that she usually had like when she was at her rallies, no shouting no moxy she was completely compliant, and it was horrible.

I turned to open my locker realizing that the steps were missing. I stretched up onto my tiptoes but I still couldn’t reach it.

“Need help?” A soft voice asked me. I turned around to be face to face with Grayson.

“No I can do it” I told him, he laughed at me.

“Are you sure?” He asked as he pulled open my locker door. I rolled my eyes and laughed,

“I could have done it!” I said.

RING.

That was the school bell. I shut my locker door after putting my trumpet away and picked up my bag.

“Come on Holly! We have to get to Mrs. J’s class!” I said as I pulled her out of the room.

“C.J, Mrs. J’s class is in the next building over calm down!” Mrs. J’s class was my worst class and the faster I got there the faster I could get out of it.

“No can do Holly, we gotta go right now after all don’t you want to get to class” Holly loved Mrs. J’s class, she was a favorite as she was in all of her classes and she could do as much extra as she wanted without the teacher being mad she wrote so much.

“Yeah but can you walk at a normal pace” Even though she had a pretty fast pace, I was much faster.

“I guess so, yeah” Slowing down bothered me, I was often late to most of my classes.

All of first period I did all I ever did, which was sit back and be confused. Strangely enough today it seemed like Kassidy was answering more questions than usual. I kept staring at her, she was twirling her hair around her finger and singing (terribly) to herself, she sounded like a hyena. But nonetheless, she was a likeable hyena and what I strived to be as a person. She was getting everyone’s attention in class, I hate it. Why is she so perfect, just once I wish I was like her, to be noticed, to be pretty, to get boys attention, and to be smart. Mrs. J was no idiot though. She could see right through our little perfect Kassidy. She seemed to be able to see through everyone. Like she could see into people’s soul, and find their darkest secrets. She did love Holly though, maybe because Holly didn’t have a bad bone in her body or maybe because people didn’t like her but, Ms.J was always on Holly’s side.

To me all that class meant was extra homework, sorry not extra homework, extra extra homework that I had no idea how to do because I was an idiot. Then again I just have to wait until the end of the semester and then I won’t have to step foot in that class for the rest of the year. It’s common knowledge that if you have a C or above at the end of the semester your fine but anything below that you get switched out, and if you have a C you still should they won’t make you, but they will strongly encourage you to do so. Guess who has seventy-one percent and is seriously regretting her choice to sign up for Algebra. I’ll let you guess she has two thumbs and she’s me. Grayson has an A and he helps me which is why i’m not completely failing the class. Even having him, Holly, Kassidy, and Mariah to help me and them all being Straight A students can’t help my stupidity, not that Mariah and Kassidy actually ever help me..

“Hey Holly do you get this” I asked. She sat next to me, and she always understood everything.

“Yeah just divide three x and twelve y plus twenty-seven by three and then you should get x equals four y plus nine” she told me. Of course I don’t understand that, but that’s besides the point, I had the answer.

“Ok, thanks?” I still don’t get it but I’m not gonna admit it.

“You have to isolate a variable if you want it to be an easy expression” Grayson whispered to me, Grayson, Holly, Kassidy and I all sat at the same table, Mrs. J didn’t have any assigned seating. She said that it “Promotes camaraderie in the classroom to where it didn’t have to be forced.” I personally had no idea what it meant probably just another random thing that the county wants everyone to know but never really teaches because they can’t figure it out.

Algebra wasn’t that bad that day if I’m speaking in terms of material, I could probably understand it if I worked through it enough on Math Nation. That doesn’t mean that I’m not still majorly confused though I still feel like I’m not supposed to be there. Especially when I have people like Kassidy and Mariah to compare myself to, they’re practically perfect but it’s not like I’m jealous. Sure I wish I had their social skills, their grades, and their looks but who wouldn’t. Okay, maybe I was a bit jealous but still, I’m fine and they seem like they care at least a little in their own way even if they are joined at the hip. I’d always have Holly and Grayson to rely on if they decided that I wasn’t good enough to be part of their group like they should have a long time ago. Darn thoughts, this is why I don’t have an A in Algebra it’s because my heads are in the clouds instead of my studies.

RING.

There’s the bell again. Oh well, I’ll have time to study next period anyway. My second period I had keyboarding otherwise known as get everything done in a week and then do what you want. The teach Mr.Perez was a total pushover, which meant a fun but very very very unruly class period. I had Riley in this class so it wasn’t all that bad. There was also the idiot that went by the name of Alberto, he had red curly hair which made him look like a terribly groomed Irish setter and a nose the size of an elephants trunk. He had the personality of an ogre and a smell to match, to give perspective he’s gotten deodorant in every classroom secret santa for two years now. There was also Josephine, she wasn’t all that bad, and played flute in the band but he was in the intermediate level not the top. She was also on the bus but, no one really talked to her except for the kids in the back to make a snide comment off handedly, or to try and get homework answers from her, kind of like Holly but Holly will retort and give you a comment twice as bad as the one you give her.

“C.J, wassup” Riley always talked like this. It was annoying but I humored him.

“Nothin’ here you Riles” Riles was a way of getting him to talk like he wasn’t from the slums of Malibu.

“I thought I said to stop calling me Riles!” He was practically hissing at me and scoffed at Riles which was hilarious.

“I thought I said to stop talking like one of these brain dead idiots” I chuckled. I’d like to think this comment was perfectly justifiable.

“Touche” That word is on my top twenty list of words I hate, it’s just so, well how do I say it, yuck. Also on that list was ‘moist’ and ‘moisture’, just say it’s damp instead of moist it’s damp outside not full of moisture. The only way those words are acceptable is when your talking about cake. Chances are I’m not talking about cake unless it’s with my grandma or with Lauren, so it’s a word I prefer to avoid in general.

“Ok kids, seats. I have to talk before you get to work” Mr. Perez groaned he was always like this no one took the class because they wanted to, it was required by the county to be a pushover class.

“There is a school show coming up audition if you want to otherwise don’t and don’t make fun of the poor idiots who do” That seemed like it could be fun, but then again do I really want to risk being made fun of for trying out.

“Hey C.J, maybe you should try out for that” Josephine whispered to me, man that’s a load of crazy I’m untalented and uninterested.

“I don’t think I will” Afterall why would I give myself another way to be outshined by Kassidy and Mariah.

“You’d be great though I’ll do it with you and I’m sure Riley and Holly will if you asked” Josephine wasn’t wrong, but she was forgetting that I had legitimately zero talent.

“I’ll think about it” Sure I felt guilty about technically lying to Josephine but that wasn’t to say I was completely wrong in doing so.

“HEY QUIT TALKING!” Mr. Perez was yelling at Alberto and his little group of birdbrained friends. This was pretty much a ritual at this point. Alberto, Dylan, Eric, Daniella, and Clarissa, all sat in a circle talking about people and playing dull games like Truth or Dare or Never Have I Ever, until Mr. Perez yelled at them. Then they shut up for maybe six minutes before they resumed chattering nonsensically.

“Alright, does everyone know what you should be doing today?”

“Yes” Josephine and Alana said in unison. Alana was a teachers pet she’d never gotten so much as dress coded.

“Hey Riley Homework for Wheely?” Ms. Wheeler was one of the strictest teachers in the school she gave out tons of homework and didn’t take any late work. We all called her wheely though, the nickname had no meaning to it but it was, in fact, a way to make fun of Ms. Wheeler. She was also referred to as the lioness by her student because of how she would watch students during classes, she’d prowl the classroom looking at your work to point out errors, and she’d roam the halls in between classes to catch any students who would say have their phones out or were with in a millimeter out of dress code.

“Come on dude, I thought you’d get it from Holly on the bus!” Riley always copied my homework for either Science or English, I should’ve just copied off of Holly.

“Not today I thought you’d have it” Riley and I both Ms. Wheeler in fifth period, so I could probably copy off of Grayson at lunch he didn’t have her until seventh period anyway.

“Fine, you can copy during lunch part” I continued, Grayson, Kassidy, Mariah and I had “B” lunch which means we went to lunch halfway through the period.

“You know you two could just do your homework now together so you don’t have to copy” Alana again, of course she’d say that, and of course she’s right. However there is always that simple fact that Grayson is smarter than me and it works out better if I just copy off of him than for me to struggle through it. He knows that.

“We already tried to Alana, but we struggled with it” Saying something along these lines usually got her off my back, and most of the time it was true.

“Well if you need any help call me I’m usually free” Alana always said this I never called, maybe I should all things considered. I suck at homework and Alana seems like she needs a friend.

“I’ll try but unless Ms. Wheely assigns an ungodly amount of homework again I don’t think I’ll need that much help” This of course was a lie but she didn’t need to know that. I’m fine with being an idiot I’ve accepted it and I’m ready for my career as something below average. I might just completely give up and have fun working at McDonalds my whole life. Not that McDonalds is that bad, right? Who am I kidding if you work at McDonalds you are at the epitome of being an idiot, so you are basically stupid and a loser. Kinda like the disappointments who aren’t disappointing because they’re on drugs, just because they’re absolute idiots.

“Well call if you need anything cause Ms. Evans is supposed to be hard today” Great she’s like Ms. Wheeler lite, there’s heaps of homework but, she acts like your grandma in a weird way, you can’t help but like her but still hate her with every bone in your body.

“Great what do we do?” Her in class work was hard maybe once a month if that, but when it was she lost all of her grandma-ish personality, in came dictator Evans.

“We had two practice tests, three worksheets, two new scales, and B.A.V.” Great so not only will I be struggling through the day to not be drowning in homework when I get home, I’ll have all of this stuff to do.

“So it was one of her hard days?” I mean of course it was so much dang work.

“Yeah, everything is due on Friday” Well most of that is gonna be a late grade, I would copy off Holly but Ms. Evans was standard and Holly was in all advanced and even Algebra.

“Great well thanks Alana, I’ll make sure to get Algebra done now” Thank god for my own laziness that stopped me from being athletic so I wouldn’t play any sports. If I did I’d probably be completely failing everything.

Algebra homework sucks I can barely understand what is happening in class let alone doing it without teacher assistance Holly, Kassidy, and Grayson. I should’ve just left the whole being in smart classes too the actual smart people.

I have one huge binder in my bag for my core classes, in order there was a section for Algebra, then Civics, then Science, then English. Each section had a folder divider (two for Algebra and English since more often than not they have bundles of homework) a large section of paper and a few page protectors. In the front there was a hole puncher for any sort of forms or rule sheets or anything that would be in the binder for a little while and then wouldn’t be turned in, or were handouts that I didn’t want but still needed to be in the binder to seem like I was going to do something with it. It took a while to get it out because I also had two different folders for band one for sixth period honors band and a second for seventh period jazz band.

“Crystal, how many times have I told you to not screw with random papers during class” Mr. Perez always did this it was super annoying, and it was almost an open door for ridicule from my annoying peers. As always there was a chorus of laughter from the idiots in the room minus Riley, Josephine, and Alana.

“I’m not, i’m just trying to get my work done, and for that I need my binder. A binder which just so happens to be in my bag which also, shockingly, has papers in it, I know it’s crazy.” This snide comment I had made also earned laughter from the idiots of the class, and a glare from Riley, Josephine, and Alana.

“Watch your mouth or detention is coming your way and then you can get your binder out there” Of course he’d say that I make a point that’s semi valid and, surprise! Automatic use of the detention card.

“Yes sir” I didn’t really feel like arguing or getting a detention. Especially knowing that if I did Holly would have a field day.

RING.

I had enough time to write my name on top of the page before the bell rang to go to third period.

Third Period was a lot easier even though it was an advanced class. Mrs. Attwood is one of the nicest teachers, if not the nicest teacher at all of Hancock Middle. She was really young and always jokes around with her students, she was less of a teacher and more of big sister now that I think about it.

I always got to class pretty quickly yet everyone was already there, I had Holly, Riley, Grayson, Mariah, Josephine, and Amber. Amber is kind of just a neutral party so it’s really nice too have her around, especially with Mariah around she was almost like the underground leader of Hancock. She was pretty and smart so everyone trusted her, which she used to her advantage. She’d get close to you learn your secrets and then use them to her advantage but, Mariah wasn’t the leader, she was just Kassidy’s lead goon. Kassidy was behind the velvet curtain placing everyone where it was most convenient to her. Holly was the only person that they didn’t have any dirt on which, in turn, since she couldn’t be controlled, she was their mutual enemy. It’s not like it wasn’t reseprocated though, Holly had a special glare specifically for the two of them that could melt someone’s bones. Holly was a pretty passive person in general, unless it was Kassidy, Mariah, and Archie. Archie had no friends and was just a general jerk, even Malakai didn’t like him.

“Well look who it is, Mariah Chamberlain, what ten year old did you terrify today? Was it the one on crutches, seems like he’d be about at your IQ level” Holly sneered at Mariah, her chipper mannerisms were shed and all that was left was a cobra ready to strike with deadly accuracy.

I gave Holly a stare as if to say ‘Watch it, I don’t need this drama’. Holly new exactly what I meant, it was as if we had our own secret language depending on our facial expressions to one another, I used that one look quite often.

“Oh hey Holly, having wallowing in your mediocrity?” Mariah always tried to bring Holly down but never quite succeeded.

“Wow! The monkey learned a new word! Mediocrity! Isn’t that just the babies new five dollar word?” Holly said this with an air of sarcasm which settled over the room like a dense sheet of fog over the San Francisco Bay.

“Oh look the loser thinks that she’s oh so smart, and tries to make fun of me.” Holly’s face was getting red, she was undoubtedly getting embarrassed now that Mariah had brought the class into matters. “Aww, look she’s getting red, is the baby upset?”

I looked over at Grayson, who looked like he was enjoying himself watching the squabble. He saw me looking and pulled up a chair at our table.

“What should I do?” He whispered into my ear.

“Help!” I replied evidently.

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know that you were too much of an idiot too actually handle yourself, you need backup, guess your nothing without little miss Kassidy are you?” I mean Holly wasn’t exactly wrong whenever Mariah was without Kassidy she was like a puppy who got off the leash and couldn’t find it’s way back to its owner. You couldn’t help but feel bad for her though.

“Well.. well… well.. You look like a baboon in an ugly skirt” This was Mariah flustered Holly won yet again.

“Oh real funny Mariah good to know that Kassidy is the one thing you can’t get through being insulted with” I mean of course it was those two were probably closer than me and Grayson, and Holly and Angelica combined. I’m surprised that they don’t just start dating already We’ve all suspected it at one point or another.

“Go run to your girlfriend Mariah, I can’t take it upon myself too believe you two really are just best friend” Now Mariah’s face was bright red, Holly had clearly overstepped some sort of imaginary line.

“SHE’S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND WE ARE JUST REALLY CLOSE FRIENDS! SORRY THAT YOU DON’T HAVE ANY!” Mariah screeched at Holly, and then she stormed off to the otherside of the room to take her seat more heavy footed than a stampeding elephant.

“Guys! Time to get to work.” Ms. Attwood said as she walked in the room. I took my assigned seat next to Amber Matcher, Mitchell Cordova, Alana Heicks, Riley James, and Josephine Bates. It was common knowledge that Riley had the biggest crush on Alana, at least obvious to everyone except for Alana. He was always staring at her or making corny jokes to get her to laugh, you could see that when she smiled his eyes widen like a puppy. I’m not going to lie, it’s kinda adorable. I really hope she was just pretending to be clueless and wasn’t just a complete idiot in that sort of matter.

“Hey Alana how are you?” Riley was struggling to speak probably from butterflies, or just because he’s an awkward person around everyone but Holly and I, but whatever the exact reason, Riley was a complete mess.

“I’m doing well and you Riley?” Jesus Riley was such an idiot. He looked like he was about to pass out from how red his face was.

“Ok class, quiet down” Ms. Attwood told us from the front of the classroom while booting up her computer. “You’ll need your notebooks your phones and a pen” Ms. Attwood almost always had us have our phones out usually for a game of kahoot or something similar for review at the end of the class period. I got my notebook out of my bag the front pocket was for notebooks and the science one had a strip of green highlight at the top so I wouldn’t get notebooks mixed up.

“Go to the ‘Out Of Space’ page answer the questions in your notebook, exactly how its shown.Show me by the end of class tomorrow as thats when im putting the grades into the gradebook” See what I mean this class was super easy and it was a nice breather in the middle of the day nothing dramatic ever happened, there was talking with your friends and all the work was pretty simple.

“Hey Mitchell, Alana wanna work together?” I always asked Alana And Mitchell if they’d work with me since they were the smartest people at my table, they always had their work done on time with amazing results, so if I could piggy back off it a little what would be the harm?

“Yeah! Of course you do every day, you don’t have to ask at this point” Alana was chipper as usual and it showed in her voice.

“Sure dude, whatever” Mitchell said indifferently, he didn’t care about anything there could be a raging fire and he’d sit through it unbothered Nothing was said for the rest of the period, everyone did started their work. Ms. Attwood seemed like the pushover type but she obviously wasn’t. One day in her class and you don’t know if you have had a great day or whether you learnt what discipline is in one class period.

“Okay, so I don’t get it.” Honestly this was how every class activity started for me, I always need help.

“It’s simple, you know how there is three main types of galaxies? Well you just have to classify each picture into one of those categories and explain why the belong in that section.” Alana explained. This seemed a simple task, it was one of the easier lessons in science. I looked down at my work and immediately felt a wave of relief, it didn’t look too hard. I started working and I was finished with thirty minutes left of class. I looked up after putting my name on the worksheet to find Grayson’s dark brown eyes looking at me. He saw me looking and smiled. That was an amazing feeling, like I was safe and protected. It was like I could be myself no matter who I was around. All of a sudden Mariah turned around looking at me accusingly. Her glare was stone cold and, felt as if they were staring into my soul, ready to engulf all of my deepest secrets. She had a smug grin on her face almost like the cheshire cat. I looked down at my work pretending that I hadn’t noticed the way that she had been staring at me.

“What did you get for the Andromeda galaxy?” Riley asked as if I had actually tried to do the work.

“I don’t know. Did you really think that I will get it right? I asked jokingly, Riley took me seriously though and went off on a whole rant about how I was smart and my self esteem is very low.

“Dude, I was joking! I got spiral! Okay?” I explained quickly. All of a sudden, a loud banging sound echoed around the room. Ms. Attwood spun around in her chair as there was a high pitched scream.

“I’m gonna kill you!”

I stood up and I swirled around to find Grayson standing in the corner, his face scarlett. Across from him was Mitchell, holding a chair that he was going to throw at Grayson. Instinctively, I ran over to Grayson and stood in front of him to prevent Mitchell from letting go of the chair. Despite my weak efforts, Mitchell dropped the chair onto me leaving me in a heap on the ground. Grayson then launched himself at Mitchell and started attacking him.

“ENOUGH!” Ms. Attwood screamed making each boy let go of one another. They jumped back and Holly reached out for me helping me up. Within minutes we had Mr. Waters along with the school deans, Mrs. Williamson, Ms. Newman, and Mr. Mccoy in the classroom all yelling down each others throats. After ten minutes Mr. Waters had taken Grayson and Mitchell from the room and left everyone in shock of what had just happened.

“Guys we have a minute left of class grab your stuff and sit in your seats.” Ms. Attwood told us whilst falling back into her seat. Holly and I sat down in complete shock, but knowing Holly she wasn’t going to let it slide, she was going to play detective and try find out what had happened. I knew that as soon as we got to sixth period we would have all the details about what had happened in that class.

RING.

Well there was the bell. I walked out the classroom and bade my farewell to Holly as she turned into the gym.