The Diamond Case

CHAPTER FIVE: Apogee Quest, Where Everything Goes Wrong

 Now. School is FINALLY..., wait. Hold up. Let me just put that in a nicer way without you thinking that I hate school. OK. Sooo......... *REWINDS* → Now. School is over, and I can meet up with Emily in Apogee Quest, our after school gifted program club. What a mouthful. You know, Apogee Quest is a very long name. They should rename it. Ooh! They could have a renaming contest! Anyways. Apogee Quest is when Emily and I can get together and work on the necklace case. BUT! This year, we're in middle school, not elementary school. So new teachers, new classmates, and new material. Just thinking about it makes me sick. I'm just going to take it easy, step-by-step.

Apogee Quest is ALL the way outside in our outdoors classroom. Lucky us, right? Not really. The air conditioning isn't that good, it stinks of yucky plants from the greenhouse, the lighting is horrible, and the classroom is way too small.... I could spend a year listing the bad things about the outdoors classroom, yet I would take that long to list the good things about the outdoors classroom. So, I guess I have to deal with it.

"Emily!"

"Hmm? Oh, hey Rose!"

"What are you doing, reading a book? You hate reading. We both know that."

"Umm," she said sheepishly, "I'm writing about my C-R-U-S-H. Sorry. Also, what nickname can I give you? I mean, you call me Em."

I glared daggers at her. Did she really think that she could get away from the serious talk I promised her? Also, she should never be able to ruin a beautiful name like Rose to a horrible name like Read. Horrible taste of names, right? DON'T TELL EMILY I SAID THAT!! She would kill..., actually? I'm actually better at defending and attacking, so. Let me rephrase that. → She would TRY to kill me! Now, pretend that I didn't say anything about her taste in names.

"No," I said fiercely. I would never let her rename me. She would probably come up with a nickname like, "Row" from "Row, row, row your boat." It's a horrible nickname, right? Yeah, I'll save you the horrors. For now.

"For now," she replied. Which I rolled my eyes at.

"Come on. Apogee Quest time."

Emily grumbles. "I think I'll hate Apogee Quest. Just the long name makes me want to faint again!"

"Emily. Emerald. Potter. You are not fainting on me again."

"Aye eye, Captain. Apogee Quest is going to be great this year!"

"Stop being sarcastic."

"But I can't just help it!"

"Then just shut up. Simple solution."

"ZIPPPPPP!!!!" I rolled my eyes.

"ZIPPPPPP!!! UNZIPPED!!"

"Shush. The teacher's talking!"

"OK!!!" Emily whispered loudly into my ear, which caused me to wince and pull back. Emily smirked. Ugh. Her stupid smirk. I hate seeing it almost as much as I hate popular kids! I mean, her smirk literally says: "Hi! I'm Emily's smirk and I show how happy you make Emily when you have a 'weird' and 'mad' reactions to Emily's ReSonAbLe actions!"

"Ok, hello kids! It's so nice meeting you all, and as you know, we'll be spending a lot of time together this year. My name is Ms. Bun. I'll start calling out names, and when I call your name, please say here and give a brief description of yourself. Ronald?"

"Here! I'm so excited to start this year off! I'm going to give you an introduction of me. I'm Ronald Kale, and I'm MUCH smarter than all of you. I think I'll be the boss this year. So. I want you to know that I'm nearly as smart as Einstein, so you need to respect me." Ronald sassed. Ugh. Of course it had to be Ronald. Emily told me enough about him to be annoyed at him. Stupid guy. What a stupid guy.

"Joy?"

"Here. My name is Joy Reed, and I love reading. I hope to be a famous author one day," Joy murmured. Joy's in my class! My bestie! That makes 3 classes Joy is in with me! But... Amberly isn't in the same class. Sad.

"Patricia?"

"Hi." Patricia quietly said. Of course Patricia acts all nice, quiet and innocent. When will she learn that she is too stupid to even try that trick? Oh, yeah. She just said "Hi." What about her introduction to the class? What about her hobbies? Well, I'm related to her AND we're enemies, so I know enough about her. If you didn't know, her full name is Patricia Maleficent Eval. Her hobby is probably making me and Emily's lives miserable.

"Seth?"

"Here. My name is Seth Marie. I love basketball."

Emily gasped. Then I smirked. Seth was in our class. Wait. Seth was in our class, and... Patricia. Oh great. One hour of the day wasted. UGH!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! BLEASFHFSFAS LFKJ SLDKFJ. Weeeeellllll. I guess I'll just watch Emily become a gibbering idiot.

"Emily?"

"Here. My n-name is Emily Potter." Wait. Nooo! Emily, way to go. I didn't mean actually stutter and make a fool of yourself! You made yourself look like the shy girl. The nerd, who you 100% aren't! Oh, and you forgot the brief description of yourself. Which is smart in a way, because your hobby is staring at "dreamy" Seth and getting Fs in class because you spent your time staring at your crush.

"Rose?"

"Here. My name is Rose Potter. I'm Emily's sister, and this is my 3rd year in Apogee Quest."

Yes! Good first impressions are always a good way to start. Unlike *cough* Emily *cough*. Just so you know, I didn't add my hobby in there because my hobby is a secret. Not even Emily knows about it!

I guess you have to read on to find out more about me. Cue the evil laugh that Patricia always does!

JK! I'm not evil. Patricia has that title, and there is no way she's letting her "precious" title go! You're safe!