Give me a break, don't break me

Chapter 2

I led Jessica up the main stairs to the maths classroom. As I pushed the door open everybody's eyes pointed our way, desperate for a distraction from the equations on the white board.
"Hello everyone! Miss Breecher, this is Jessica Kaliphorn she will be having a taster day in our class today!" I stated.
"Cool!" Will Cheered.
"Excuse me, William I don't recall saying you may cease from continuing you papers!" Miss Breecher warned sharply. All in unison; the the sea of heads, tilted down to their desks.
I stifled a laugh.
"Well, Jessica it's a pleasure to meet you, I hope Lyra has made you feel very welcome, which I'm sure she has." She smiled in my direction. "Now Lyra, if you would care to take Miss Kaliphorn on a tour around the school, I'm sure it would be much appreciated. It is after all proper protocol, is it not?" He questioned in a friendly manner.
"Of course miss." I looked at the class who looked bored to death. Desperation shining in their eyes. "And speaking of proper protocol, it does seem perfect timing for Jessica to get to know the class, don't you think?" Everyone looked up hopefully. Miss Breecher was hesitate in her answer.
"Well, uh ... I suppose it might favour miss Kaliphorn's convenience later on."
"Great! I'm sure this task, would be easier and quickly completed if we were to pause the equations for a moment or two?" I put on my puppy dog eyes and moved my lips into a temporary pout.
"I don't I mean, it would delay the-" Miss glanced at the rest off the class, who where physically begging. A long, sigh spilled from her lips. "Oh go on then!" The room exploded in whooping and cheering. Miss shot them all a glare, which silenced them immediately. It was quite amusing to see the scene unfold before my eyes. I beckoned Jessica to the far end of the classroom, where all the girls where sitting. On my way, Jack caught my eye and shot me a thumbs up. I raised my eyebrows, a smile dancing on my lips.
Soon, we reached the table outlined with girls. Kat. Her eyes where brown and green swirling into each other like a tornado. Her mid length dirty blonde hair was polka straight. But her eyes that seemed alive, and hair that seemed strict, contrasted with her subtle, kind personality. She smiled as I approached. I shifted my gaze on the other girls. 
Sadie was short, so short in fact she was teased for it. But in my opinion her temper was shorter. But I liked that about her, she was always the one to stand up for you. And with her blackish-brown wavy hair. And freckles dotted all over her pale skin; she still looked like a little girl. Though I could see her racing through her maths paper, she was much more intelligent than a little girl.
Katie, was the enthusiastic, imaginative most humorous of all of us. Her vibrant blue eyes matched her always-hyper mood and her big brace-y smile. She was sensitive and she was more of the person who went to people to speak than the person who other people came to.
She made a big wide brace-face at me as I took the seat next to her.
Jessica took the last free seat next to Liz.
Liz, she was cool, kinda like me in ways, she wore dresses and pink and stuff but she wasn't that interested in clothes, and she didn't care what she looked like. Despite this she was pretty. Chestnut hair that fell about her face, and over her glasses. She enjoyed video games and such. She was Autistic, but she tried her best to be a good friend, and I enjoyed being around her. Us two were close.
"Lyra, you are my savour!" Katie thanked. She sounded really serious. She wasn't exactly the maths genius.
"No problem!" I laughed.
"No, I'm being serious. I love you."
"Right." I snickered.
"Honestly, I could marry you right now." Keeping a straight serious face the whole time.
"Wa-wa-WAAAAA," Kat cut in. "No can do sister, I'm 100 percent sure you already married to Daniel Craig, Aden Turner and Theo James."
"Hey! Wait! don't forget her Grandma's goldfish; Harry Potter" I added.
"Too right." Katie sighed. "Maybe I'll marry you in the next life Lyra."
"Or just wait until you goldfish dies? Then there will be a free spot!" I suggested. Everyone laughed. Katie stuck her tongue out at me playfully.
I could see Miss Breecher looking at us from the corners of her eyes, so I figured I better start the introductions.
"Ok girls, this is Jessica Kaliphorn, Jess this is Kat, Katie, Liz and Sadie." I gestured to the corresponding girls as I spoke. A series of hey's hi's and hello's reverberated round the group as people greeted each other.
We talked for a while about the previous schools Jessica had gone too. Apparently she didn't like any of them. Said they all had something about them which made it less encouraging to join.
Pressure much?
Soon I thought if we didn't introduce the rest of the class soon, we wouldn't have time to look around the whole school.
"Okay, well now you've met the girls, I think it's about time we introduce the boys."
"Good plan." Jessica said as she got up from her seat.
"Bye." Jinx.
I moved to the table situated in the middle of the room, crowded with boys.
Um, let's see we have:
Jack, we've been best friends since play school, it's annoying because all of the girls are in love with him.
Will, he's cool. He's my friend. He's really funny too.
Ryan, he's just a chav. He's a mean, bean drama queen, who buys all his Facebook and Instagram followers.
Max, he's a crybaby, drama queen. He's an overreacting snob, yet he's super popular.
Henry, he's short. Not as short as Sadie. He has a good sense of humour.
Julian, he's kinda handsome, funny too. He's good at football.
James and Steve. I count them as one. They are best friends. They are like stand up comedians! Especially James. Although very different in height hey are similar in other ways.
They all looked relived for an excuse to stop their equations.
"Hey y'all! This is Jessica Kaliphorn." I began.
"She's hot!" Will said. Everyone laughed. I saw a blush spread across her cheeks like an egg cracking into a pan. It was that quick too.
"That's Will for ya!" I said. The boys continued their childish laughter.
"Thank you by the way, Lyra you saved us!" James whispered in a hushed voice.
"Yeah thanks so much I'm so thankful I could marry-" I cut Will off.
"Don't, I'm already, engaged to that lady over there." I pointed to Katie.
"Nuh-uh! Not so fast, my goldfish has to DIE first, remember?" Katie pointed out.
"I can wait." The boys erupted into more laughter.
"So Katie, you single?" Will joked. At this I slapped him round the back of the head.
More laughing.
I noticed Miss Tippen eyeing me from her chair. By instinct, I disguised the slap into a ruffling of hair, and waited till Miss-Nosy-Pants looked away. I instantly removed my hand from Will's head. Then I put on a high-pitched girly voice.
"Ewwwwww! Someone get me some hand sanitiser! QUICK! Or I will die!" I hopped from foot to foot, squealing theatrically. This resulted in even more uncontrollable laughter. I really needed to stop making everybody laugh because Miss Tippen was giving me the sharp eye.
So I gave all the boys brief introductions, and we headed right out the door to our tour.
We started outside, it seemed the most logical option. That way we could work our way to the floors inside.
"Well that was a laugh." Jessica cackled.
"Indeed." I rounded to the tennis courts. "Ok so this is the tennis courts, it's situated at the front of our outdoor sports hall." I walked across the terrace "And just round here..." I trotted round to the junior play area. "This is the adventure playground! Mostly used by the juniors!" We walked back to the tennis courts, until we came to a large, cuboid-shaped building made entirely of white washed concrete with  of glass striping across it. "Ok so, this is the main sports hall, as you can see it continues along the head rose of the playing field until it connects to the main school building over there." Jessica briefly interrupted me.
"Question? If we are out on the back feild at play time can we go through the corridor on the head rose to get into the main school building?"
"Yeah, but, I'll show you at the end of the corridors, where it connects to the school, are doors to the senior boys and girl changing rooms, I'll show you those later though." I explained.
"Would you mind telling me the rules of the school, any that I might need to know in particular!" Jessica asked as we made our way back inside.
"hmmm. Ok, well first of all your not allowed to have you phone in and around school in lesson time, um ... Uh, hehe no kissing either."
"Right, I'll note that." She flashed me a thumbs up. I snorted.
"Back on track no running up and down the banks. Uh, no going in the sports hall when an extra-curricular activities group has reserved it, same with the music rooms."
"Got it."
"Oh and prepare! Late homework, or late for lessons, means detention. Bit of advice, leave break two minutes early to get your stuff ready for the next lesson, then you avoid hallway-rush-hour." I helped.
"Cool, shall we go inside then?"
I was walking along he corridor, when Jessica started to strike up some small talk.
"I moved here from Ireland you know." She said.
"Really? Cool. What was it like there?"
"It was nice I guess, but we didn't stay there long." She sighed
"Why?"
"My dad." She said shortly.
"Did he not like it?" I wondered out loud.
"No it's just. The school I didn't like it."
"Well I think we've already established that there a lot of schools you don't like." I said a little more fiercely that I intended to.
"No look, it doesn't matter."
"Well, yes it does, because then I'll know how to make you feel more comfortable here, then you can join."
Jessica looked as if she wished she never started the conversation. There was something she wasn't telling me. And I hate when people don't tell me stuff.
"Look whatever it is, you can tell me!" I tried to make her tell me, without sounding intimidating.
"No I can't, The reason I could to go to any of those schools was BECAUSE I TOLD THEM!" She shout-whispered.
"Wait what this have to do with your dad?" I was scared she would lash out at me, but she didn't. Instead she steered me towards the janitors closet.
"Look my dad is....well he's kind of an international footballer, okay."
"Really? Cool. AND?" I prompted. Jessica stared at me like she had never seen me before. I returned the look, because honestly I had no idea where she was going with this.
"Wait let me get this straight, so my dad is an international footballer and my mum is a superstar model." She said, as if there was something I wasn't getting.
"Right, I still don't get it."
"Right, and your not surprised at all, you don't want to come to my house you don't want an autograph, your not gonna want badly to be my best friend just because of my parents?"
"Well, no why would I?" Okay, now Jessica was honestly looking at me like I was a reptile alien from another planet in another universe who came down to earth because I wanted to dissect donuts.
Not. Kidding.
Then out of the blue, she just hugged me. And I swear over my shoulder I heard her sob.
"Okay, so your hugging me, and I'm not quite sure why-" but I was cut off.
"Don't you see? Because of my mum and dad, no one ever wants to be my friend, they just suck up to me so they can come round my house and see my mum and dad." She was on the verge of tears. I tried to comfort her.
"I'll be your friend!" I said cheerily. "You seem like a nice girl."
We departed the janitors closet, checking the hall, to make sure no one was there, before closing the door quietly behind us. 
"You won't tell anyone, will you?" Jessica made sure.
"Of course not! Not if you don't want me to." But with her mum and dad picking her up from school I didn't know the secret was gonna stay secret for long. But I didn't say that.
"Your secret is safe with me." It was the truth, I would keep her secret. But I wasn't sure the secret would keep itself.
Holy mother of Pancakes.
I could feel some real drama coming this year.
I promised myself if any drama were to occur, I wouldn't be any part of it.
I promised.

Lesson: don't make promises you can't keep.