Living with Trouble

Chapter 8

You're the coffee that I need in the morning ~ Her

☆

"Good morning students," The vice principal Mrs. Jenkins Chirped. The senior's and junior's chatter buzzes in the assembly room. Mrs. Jenkins stood at the stage with a group of teachers. I recognized most of them as science teachers.

Mrs. Jenkins tapped the mic trying to obtain the attention of my fellow classmates. As soon as we started school teachers ushered us to the assembly room. Some kids were half asleep in their seats, others were completely knocked out.

The morning birds sat straight in their seats eagerly watching the stage. Unfortunately Lilly wasn't a morning bird. Her head was laying on my shoulder, as she silently snored. Quinn sat beside me and shook her head at Ms. sleepyhead. I bite back a laugh as the room goes quiet.

"Attention students, I have a very important announcement that I'm certain you would like to hear." Her eyes scan the room until they land on my best friend Quinn. She silently calls her up with her finger and mouths, "Come here."

Quinn jolts in her seat but stands up and walks down the stairs to the stage. Declan slides in her seat and peers over at Lilly. "Lils, wake up," he shakes her shoulder. I lean back in my seat as his arm crosses over me.

"Leave me alone," she grumbles and death stares at him. She goes back to sleep, and he shakes her again, and this time I push his hand away. I don't want him to wake the blonde demon up just yet.

"Stop Declan; you know how she is in the morning." I pat her head and she smiles vaguely. My eyes dart to the stage. Mrs. Jenkins is murmuring something into Quinn's ear. She nods her head and steps up to the podium.

"I don't care. She needs to wake up," he reaches out again but I grab his arm before he could lay a hand on her.

"Shh, Quinns about to go on." I push his arm down and turn to see Quinn open her mouth.

"Hello Ravenwood, How are guys doing this morning?" she puts a smile on her face. The crowd stays silent. They all just stare back at her. Her face scrunches, but she covers it up plastering another smile on her face. " We know Earth Day is coming up soon, so I thought we could do something fun!"

She turns around and points a remote that I didn't see in her hand at the board behind her. A picture of a beach littered with piles of trash pops up on the screen. The water was a dark green color and the sky was grey for a dramatic effect.

"This is Etheral Sands, as you can see it's in a bad condition at the moment." She clicks to another picture and this one is a picture of an animal cut open with plastic bottles, used cans, and trash inside. The crowd grimaces at the picture. "Ew" and "Gross'' utter throughout the room.

I feel my stomach churn at the explicit image. I'm starting to regret eating so much toast and pancakes in the morning.

"This is a pelican. It was found dead on the beach by the rocks. When they cut it open this was what was found inside. Trash. Animals are consuming trash because they can't tell the difference between that and food. Sea turtles, pelicans, seagulls, and fish are all-consuming trash."

Lilly lifts her head off my shoulder and squints at the picture. Her eyes widen, and she lays back on my shoulder closing her eyes again.

"Lucky for you, I came up with a great idea to go clean all this mess up. Mrs. Jenkins will tell you more about it." She steps down and lets Mrs. Jenkins reclaim her spot.

"Yes, the picture is disturbing but it's the sad truth. We've arranged a trip to the beach for Friday morning. By the time we get there, it will be afternoon. We will go straight into work so make sure you have a hearty breakfast before you leave."