Sophomore Status

Chapter 3: Alyss Banks

I woke up the next morning to the screeching birds, outside fighting over the seeds my brother left out yesterday. It was 5:50 and my alarm was set for 6:00 so I decided to get up anyway. I got ready, ate a crumbly blubbery muffin for breakfast, and went outside to get on the bus around 6:45. I waited out there for five minutes just to make sure that I wouldn't miss it.

I got on the bus and again, there sat the purple haired bus driver smoking a cigarette. As I slowly paced down the isle, I found an empty seat and sat down. When we got to school, the students spilled out of the bus and charged into the doors of the main hallway, where my first period class was.

I reached my locker and dialed in my combination and to my surprise, it opened without even the slightest yank. This gave me a warm feeling in my stomach that today might possibly be a good day. I went to English, and then geometry, and then arrived in painting. Although I was already in that classroom yesterday, everything seemed quite unfamiliar to me.

In the classroom, there were no desks. There were only ten easels and a wooden chair set aside for each easel. I sat in the back, like yesterday and the students began to fill the ten seats. When the bell rang, there was one empty seat near the middle. It was empty yesterday too. A few minutes later, a girl with brown hair and brown eyes came rushing into the classroom. She had a leather cross body bag with lace stitched on the front that held her books. I noticed that there was a small clear pouch on the side of the bag that held some pencils, and a few paint brushes.

"Your late." Said the old teacher, slowly. The woman pulled her reading glasses down toward her nose to look at the student that had just arrived.

"Sorry. Mrs. Robertson held me back." The girl walked up to the teacher and handed her a small pink post-it note. She was walking fairly slow, so I was able catch a glimpse of the scribbles written on the slip of paper.

The note read, "Alyss Banks 10:35-10:42 am; Mrs. Robertson advanced Drama..." There was more, but I couldn't quite make it out because it was far away.

"Alyss banks, you were absent yesterday. Are you aware that the first day of school was yesterday?" Said the teacher. I want paying much attention yesterday, so I had already forgotten her name.

"Yes ma'm, I was out of town." She said quietly.

"Go have a seat then." The told her, "My name is Mrs. Shrider."

The girl nodded and sat down in the empty seat toward the middle of the room, and class began.

Before we started painting, we had to learn the elements of art and design. Things like line, shape, and texture. It was pretty boring, but I still enjoyed it much more that English and geometry. Mrs. Shrider told us that we wouldn't start painting for about three weeks, after we study elements, colors and famous artists. It would take a while, but the class would end up being worth the wait.

About ten minutes after listening to the old woman teach us about design, we were told to take notes. I grabbed a notebook from my bag and a pencil from my pencil pouch. I had to grab a clipboard from the front of the classroom, since there were no desks in the room.

We took notes until class ended, which she planned to do for the next three weeks. When the bell rang, I shoved the notebook in my backpack and returned the clipboard on my way out of the room. It was finally lunch time.

On my way to the cafeteria, i pulled out five dollars that my dad gave me that same morning while I was eating my muffin. The money was to buy my lunch, since I hadn't set up an account yet. The lunch lady dished out my meal, and let me pay for it after. When she was finished charging me, I started outside with my red lunch tray. To my surprise, the same girl that came in late for third period was sitting at that table where I sat yesterday.

I approached her and asked, "Can I sit here?"

She looked at me and microscopically flashed a smile at me and said, "Sure."

I sat down at the table and took a bite of my hamburger. We awkwardly ate in science for a few minutes until she broke the silence.

"So what's your name?" She asked.

"I'm Kate." I told her

"I guess I'll call you Kat then."

"Call me whatever you want to." I replied with a smile. I took another bite of my hamburger and got lost in my thoughts for a moment. For the rest of lunch, we sat there eating our food in complete silence which was very relaxing.

When the bell rang, I went back inside and grabbed my economics book and headed to class. Like all except painting, the class period flew by, much faster than yesterday.

After that, the day was pretty boring. I didn't talk much, and I didn't do much. The only thing that happened was a girl puking in PE class when we were running around the track. Luckily, she threw up in the grass, so we didn't have to clean it up.

Just before that, during stretches, there was a blonde haired peppy girl sitting in front of me, doing the wrong stretch. I tried to bring it to her attention, because the coach was VERY strict and wouldn't be happy if even one person was stretching wrong.

When I told her, she looked back and gave me a rude look, as if I had insulted her. I could tell that she was wearing makeup, because there was a small black smudge beneath her eye, where her mascara must've smeared from the scorching sun. I could also tell that she and I wouldn't quite make the best friends in the future, because she was rather rude and self-centered, from what I had just experienced.

The girl continued doing the wrong stretches for the whole stretching period, which upset the coach. Finally, the coach approached the girl with a nasty look in her eyes.

"Run!" She said sternly, while pointing her arm towards the track.

The blonde girl flashed another nasty look back to the coach as she slowly stood up from the ground outside. She started to jog slowly, like she was injured or something, because she looked awfully lop-sided.

"Faster!" Yelled the coach, as if yelling would improve her ability to run.

The girl continued running and tried to run faster, but she still had the non-athletic looking, lop-sided jog.

After she ran all the way around the track once, she sat back down where we were for stretches. When she noticed that we were all standing up now, she stood up with us, to avoid having to run again.

"Sarah! The more you doze off, the more you run. End of story." Yelled the coached.

The girls name was Sarah. She seemed like the type of girl that was not interested in rules, or physical activity. At that moment, I was glad I hadn't made friends with her.