H.O.P.E.F.U.L

And so it begins

I woke up as I usually did, my alarm blaring in my face like I was in a teen movie. If I could, I would smack that stupid thing off my nightstand like I was in a teen movie.

Welcome to Monday morning and the start of another boring day, the first of a whole week.

I don't mind Mondays, but I do mind the early parts of it. The only effective way I've found to get out of bed quickly is to jump out and make a mad dash to the other side of your house to make sure you won't get back into bed.

My mother was already at work, as usual, so I just grabbed a slice of bread from the bag. Who can actually be bothered to toast it and butter it on a Monday morning?

Anyways, I continued my morning routine, showering, changing, brushing my teeth, etc etc.

Once I locked up the house and left, I put in my earphones and went to school.

I arrived on time for once and headed towards my locker when I spotted a familiar face. I sped up slightly and yelled ahead.

"NINA! HI!"

Nina was my best friend. She had been the little girl next door to my grandparents, who lived in another city, so whenever I asked to go visit them, I was really asking to go visit her. A few years ago, she moved into the school zone I was in, and we simply remained the best of friends.

"'Hi!" She greeted me enthusiastically. "What do you have first?"

"Uh... English. I think." I said. My timetable was sticky-taped into my locker and colour coded, but I hadn't seen it yet today. I was just basing the guess on last Monday.

"Ughh, that means I have math..." Nina said, looking understandably annoyed.

"Wait," I said, opening my locker. "I have PE, not English."

I rummaged around my bag. "Shit... I forgot my pe uniform... Can I borrow yours? I'm on my third strike, and you know Mr Nathan literally hates me." Mr Nathan was (unfortunately) my PE teacher and still holds a grudge against me for the time I called him old. This is true, by the way, Mr. Nathan doesn't seem a day under 75 and probably isn't the best candidate for teaching PE.

"Yeah, sure," Nina said, finding her uniform and handing it to me. Nina's a lifesaver like that, and without her, I would be dead in a gutter right now, so I gotta love her. "But if you have PE, then I have history."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." I closed my locker and swung the bag with the uniform over my shoulder. "Should we go?" I asked Nina, who nodded, and we walked off.

Halfway through my PE lesson, Chloe sauntered into our gym. Chloe is putting it lightly - a teacher's pet whom nobody likes. She's constantly reporting kids and doing the teachers dirty work, and no one can stand her. She walked up to Mr Nathan and handed him a small blue note; the schoolwide standard of someone in trouble. Almost everyone had stopped playing their games to watch the unlucky kid be called up.

Mr Nathan's mouth turned up into a dastardly smirk, and he called out, "Lillia, go to see Ms. Jen"

Ms. Jen was the school's admin/secretary, a prim, scary lady who seemed to hate kids despite it being her job.

The walk to the teachers office seemed exceptionally long - not that I normally got sent there - and unfortunately devoid of students. I ran through all the previous events of the last couple of days, wondering why I could've been summoned.

When I finally got to the office, Ms Jen was waiting for me, sitting behind her tall desk.

"Lillia the principal is ready for you to go in." Ms Jen said stonily, not looking up from her computer, which I'm sure contained some Excel sheet as usual. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the conjoining door and was greeted by my sombre-looking principle.