Unpredictable

Chapter 2

I'm pretty sure waking up is designed to be hard. It's just a terrible thing to have to do each morning. My alarm clock blares at it's highest, ear splitting volume. If it doesn't, then I won't wake up. Too deep a sleeper. I begrudgingly turn it off and pull myself out of bed.

My brother is absolutely incapable of getting himself out of bed in the morning. I wake him up every day, and that's hard work considering he sleeps as deep as me. "Elliot." I say, pulling his ear. "Elliot." I yank on his ear. "Elliot." Smack in the face. "Elliot." I punch him in the arm. Finally I resolve to stand on his bed and kick him right in the batteries. "YOW!!!! YEE GODS OPAL!!! WHAT THE CRAP?!?!" I jumped off his bed. "Good you're awake. You have thirty minutes to get ready or I'm leaving your sorry butt behind." Leaving his room, I don't look back as I close the door.

Yeah, the bus is annoying. The people are terrible and it's a 45 minute ride, but I get to school on time. So it's what I have to do.

Just as I got off the bus, and Elliot runs away before he's seen with me. Right then, Rosie and Rowan run up to me at such great speed that they nearly plow me over. "Goodness gracious! Slow down speed racers!! What's the big deal?!" Then they do the thing where they both talk at once, only saying different stories and I can't understand a single word they're saying until finally they both end with, "AND WE GOT THE WHOLE FOOTBALL TEAM MAD AT US!!!" My eyebrows raise. "You want to start that over?" Rosie takes a deep breath.

"Rowan and I were walking to class and happened to go past the whole football team. One of them tripped me, so I responded by turning around and spit out all the curse words I know, to which I will not repeat to be heard by your innocent ears. Rowan of course backed me up until most of them were red in the face with anger, and then we ran and they're now looking for us." Sure enough I could see the football team walking around the parking lot. "Oh guys. Last week the cross country team, now this?" They looked at me with pleading eyes. "Please help us get out of this." I sigh. "Last time was easier. Anna is on the cross country team, she helped a lot." They stuck out their bottom lips. "Bea already told us she'd help us, and if she does it alone she'll be squished."

Crap. Bea was a short, brown haired clarinet player who stood her ground. She's very strong, but can't win against the whole team. Sure enough, I see her walking confidently over to the team. "Crap crap crap crap crap crap." I say as I sprint towards her. Just as she's about to open her mouth I step in front of her, out of breath but to the rescue. "Gentlemen! Hi! You all know me, I'm..." "Just tell us where they are." The quarter back answers. "Look, we can work this out." I say, keeping Bea from destroying one of them. "Yeah, how?" He asks, eyeing me. "I'll show you how you little..." I cover Bea's mouth before she can continue.

"Well, what do you need?" I ask, pushing Bea away and standing confidently. He crosses his arms, still sizing me up. "Just say you owe me one, okay?" He sticks his hand out. Bea tries to protest, but before she can my hand meets his and we're shaking. "It's a deal." He smirks. "It's a deal." He has this mischievous glint in his eyes, and I wonder if I've made a big mistake.

Rowan and Rose can't stop thanking me, and it's getting annoying. "Yeah yeah. Just stop getting groups of people mad at you." I would respond. Finally they went to a class and I was at my locker. "Ms. Opal Dawson, are you in dire need of a cheesecake or pie?!" Cries a familiar voice. I whip around and see my friend Alice, brown eyes sparkling as always. "Maybe. Why?" She hands me two magazines filled with different deserts, mostly cheesecake and pie. "I'm selling them to get money to go to New York in the spring with the chorus. BUY ONE PLEASE!!" I laugh as I snap a picture of it with my phone. "I'll ask my mom if she has a desert emergency." She only smiles at me. "Thank you. Cheesecakes save lives you know." "Oh do they?" I ask as we walk to class. And that's when Alice gives me her speech about how cheesecakes can save humanity.

My friends, to put it bluntly, are a big jumble of misfits. We are so wildly different from each other that's it hard to think we're best friends. I met Rowan first, Kindergarden. She has thin blonde hair and blue eyes that sometimes change to green. Don't ask me how, they just do. She has a southern accent, a horse, and is very loyal. Next was Alice in third grade. Long brown hair and brown eyes. A theatrical person, you may say. Tall, freckled and dramatic, but overflowing with love. After that was Anna, in church. She's the sporty one. Almost black hair and dark eyes. Short, country runner, and hyper as anything. After that was Rosie, and don't let the nice name fool you. She's tough as nails, dirty blond hair and blue eyes, with a hard outer core, but her heart is as big as the Grinch's after it grows. Last was Bea, a few years ago. She's a band nerd, clarinet. Curly brown hair and big green eyes, spunky, and though short, makes up for it in her volume.

I left math, about to cry from all the homework she's assigned us. "You made a deal with the quarterback?!" Came a shrill voice. I turned to Alice, coming out of the classroom next to me. I was wondering how she found out, and saw Bea come out of the same classroom. Of course she told her. "Yes, I just owe him one. No big deal. At least that I know of." She gave me a suspicious look, but let it go.