comfort ➳ hayes grier

uno

my name is claire lombardi.

my father is italian as far as i can tell, but i guess i'll never know where the hell that last name came from.

i'm fourteen years old and i attend a catholic boarding school in gainesville.

st. therese's preparatory academy.

i absolutely hate it with every inch of my being.

there's everything here.

actual catholics, which are very rare,

punk kids that don't talk to anyone but eachother,

girls with fake nails, fake hair, fake everything,

jocks, but i don't know why they call themselves jocks,

considering there are no sports teams here in st. therese's.

and then there's people like me.

if you think i'm that person who has no friends and just sits in her room all alone

while angrily writing what's wrong with her life in a journal...

you're wrong.

i'm actually one of the more popular girls in this academy, believe it or not.

but i guess i'm also infamous.

all the teachers call me wreck-it-ralph, they think it's clever.

i don't.

my appearance is deceiving, might i say.

i have medium length blonde hair,

innocent blue eyes,

i'm kind of short, i have small hands and feet,

i'm just kind of small,

and that makes people think i'm not tough and i can't defend myself.

well let me tell you this,

i've been attending st. therese's since i was about 6 or 7 years old,

they're not about to get rid of me.

summer just ended, and i'm starting yet another year here,

ninth grade.

everybody was dying in anticipation,

except well, me.

whats so exciting about a new year?

not a lot of new kids come every year, instead more and more people leave.

except for me, of course.

i'll probably stick around for all of high school, and then they'll magically

open a college.

once that happens, guess where i'm going for college!

i don't remember anything about my parents, but i don't know

what it is with them and this school.

it's outrageously expensive and the education isn't even that great.

it's currently 6:48,

6:48 in the morning.

i'm watching my roommate, claudette, get ready for our first day.

well, her first day considering the fact that i won't be showing up to any classes today.

or so i thought.

"claire! how can you miss the first day? you can skip out next week! this is our defining moment" she whined, fixing her knee socks and slipping on her loafers.

i yawned, "how is this our defining moment, exactly? we're the bottom of the food chain."

"that's the thing, the rest of the class might be, but we're not. you've been here for years, you practically run this place!" she exclaimed, hurriedly tying her hair into a ponytail.

i groaned, got up from my bed, and walked over to the closet.

claudette squealed, "i knew you'd come through!"

i buttoned my white blouse and slipped on the horrendous hunter green overall dress, not bothering to make it look presentable.

i yanked white knee-highs onto my legs and slipped on my loafers, i guess this is it.

my first day of ninth grade, ninth year at st. therese's preparatory academy.