Broken Pieces

chapter eighteen

Nadine's POV

Oh shit!!!
My eyes snapped open and darted to my alarm clock, the time currently is 7:54am, I have a missed alarm at 6:50am. This is what I get for staying up late watching Riverdale!!

I stumbled out of bed, tripping on my bedsheets in the process. When I finally succeeded in taking them off of my legs, I sprinted to the bathroom and had a quick shower before dressing up.

Since I have like five minutes to get to school, I didn't bother taking breakfast, I wrote a quick note and pushed it under Grace's door before running out of the house.

****
The drive to my school was like fifteen minutes, and I arrived at exactly 8:15! I'm so freaking dead, the worst part is that, I have a chemistry practical class today which I can't afford to miss, but, I guess we already know how late I am.

The hallways were deserted when I came, that is to show how extremely late I was.
I pushed the door to the chemistry lab open and all eyes fell on me when I walked in.

Mr. Vincent, our chemistry teacher peered at me through his thick dark rimmed glasses. I shuffled from one foot to another while avoiding eye contact with him.

"You are late." He deadpanned.

I mentally rolled my eyes.
Why, thanks for stating the obvious Mr Vince, I didn't figure that out.

"I'm really sorry sir, I got caught up with something really important." I lied.

He looked unsatisfied but he waved his hand dismissively,
"I'm gonna let this slide, if you ever come late to any of my classes again, I'll deduct your marks for each test you take, it depends on the number of times you come late. Have I made myself clear?"

Really?! He wouldn't even dare.
I just nodded and walked over to my lab partner, who happens to be Devin.
He had an amused look on his face as he eyed me from head to toe.

"What?" I hissed frustratedly.

"You look terrible." He whispered to me while he scribbled something down on his worksheet.

I looked down at myself and back up at him with a glare.

I was wearing purple sweatpants and a white oversized tee shirt, and my hair was another story. Yep, I definitely look terrible.

"Thanks for the compliment asshole."

He chuckled and motioned for me to put on my lab coat.

"We are carrying out the practical to determine the presence of Cations using the flame method."

I groaned loudly, causing Mr Vincent to give me a warning look. I smiled sheepishly and put on my lab coat before getting to work.

Devin has already done half of the practical, so I decided to finish it up while he recorded the readings.

*****

It was my fifth class of the day, which was History. Concentrating during the class was so hard because my mind keep wandering off to Grace. She's all alone at home, locked up in her room.

My heartbeat was racing rapidly as I thought of horrible scenarios that could possibly happen in my absence.
I pulled out my phone from my bag and hid it under the table.

I am going to ditch school after this period.

I sent to Devin and waited for him to reply. Mrs Claire, our history teacher was drawling on about the Roman empire or something like that. Her slightly grey hair was pulled at the back of her hair in a small bun. She didn't even care that half of the class had their heads on their desks.

My thoughts were interrupted when my phone vibrated. I looked down at it to see a new message from Devin.

- you must be crazy. Have u forgotten what happened the last time we ditched school?

I rolled my eyes,
- that was in 9th grade, and we are both in eleventh grade now, what's the worst that can happen? Anyways, I'm not asking you to ditch with me, I'm just letting you know in case you don't see me around.

I hid my phone under my tee shirt when Mrs Claire started walking towards me.
She eyed me suspiciously and looked underneath my desk.

I bit my lip nervously,
"Excuse me Mrs Claire, do you need something?"

I asked as politely as I could.

"The next time I see you with your phone, I'm going to break it." She said before walking away to the white board.

Her threat didn't faze me a bit, because after like three minutes, I pulled out my phone again.

- what are you up to now? Why do you wanna ditch?

I was about to respond but the bell for lunch rang.

"Your project for this semester would be pasted on the notice board, I'll let you all know when it's ready." Mrs Claire said as she sat down on her seat.

"What about the assignment you talked about last week?"

I didn't have to look to know that it was Melissa who just asked that question.

Melissa is a preppy, annoying, when I say annoying, I mean EXTREMELY annoying brunette that only cares about being a valedictorian. Her parents are filthy rich, but let me tell you, she's not your typical self centered spoilt rich girl, the only thing she cares about are her grades.

She adjusted her backpack all the while ignoring the daggers we were all shooting at her.

Mrs Claire's eyes immediately lightened up,
"Thank you Melissa for reminding me....."

"It's lunch time, we have to go for lunch, you can tell us about the assignment In our next class." Tori said while scowling at Melissa.

Mrs Claire was about to speak again, but Melissa spoke again,

"Unlike you guys, my grades mean everything to me, so, just, shush and let her give us this assignment, I'm sure some of you kinda need it to boost your grades up a bit."

My blood began to boil, she just crossed the line,

"Melissa, you are smart, yeah we get it, but that doesn't mean you have the right to indirectly call us dumb. All you want is attention, and it's so sad that this is the only way you can get one. Next time you say anything about my grades or the rest of the class, you'll regret ever uttering any word, so I advice you to shut your pretty little mouth."

My chest was heaving after my little rant and I felt all eyes on me.

All of a sudden, everyone started hollering and chanting "burn" at Melissa who had an angry look.

"Enough! Come over here Melissa." Mrs Claire motioned for her to come to her.

When Melissa walked up to her, Mrs Claire put her hand around her shoulders and scowled at all of us,

"If anyone and I mean anyone ever speaks to Melissa like Nadine just did....you are all going to feel sorry."

"What's the worst you can do? Fail our tests?" Jackson scoffed. "Do your worst Mrs Claire, and we'll report you to the principal about how you favour only one student and acknowledge her work than the rest of the class." He smirked.

Mrs Claire moved her hand from around Melissa's shoulder and cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Just go, all of you. Go and have your lunch, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to still give you the assignment, I'll do that in the next class."

I gave Jackson a high five and followed the rest of the class to the cafeteria.