The Price Of Acceptance - [On Hold]

Chapter 3 - Meet Rachelle

Geography went by a lot quicker than I had expected. My teacher, Mr Evans, was actually kinda cool. He didn’t mind if the class talked like my last geography teacher Mrs Rivers but of course I didn’t have anyone to talk to yet. They all stuck together in their own friendship groups like glue and it was starting to bore me to be honest. I even tried to talk to the “normal” group but they just looked at me weird and turned their backs on me.

The buzzer went a second time that day indicating it was time for period 2. A frown crawled onto my face when I checked what I had and it turned out to be French, which I was terrible at. I gathered the colouring pencils I’d use to doodle to pass the time when Mr Evans was talking and put them in my pencil case. I was walking towards the door when someone tapped my shoulder. I turned back and saw a girl with chocolate brown hair and green eyes. Her hair was straightened and she had a grey bowler hat resting on her head. She was wearing boyfriend jeans and a printed t-shirt with converses. Boyfriend jeans were something I would never wear but they actually suited her nicely. She was clearly a tomboy.

“Hey, I’m Rachelle,” she said smiling, “Do you know anyone here?” she asked.

“Hey and no, not really” I said feeling myself go red.

“Have you made any friends yet?” she asked. Wow, she sounds like some sort of counsellor.

“Yeah, some guy from 11AK, Shaun. He’s been showing me around a bit”

 “Year eleven?” she repeated slightly impressed. I nodded.

 “Yeah, I’m gonna meet him right now” I told her starting to walk out again.

I could see Shaun waiting outside the door straight away. God he’s cute, I thought. I grinned up at him as I stood beside him. Rachelle smiled but looked slightly uncomfortable in Shaun’s presence and said bye. She said she’d be in the cafeteria with her friends if I wanted to hang out later so I said thanks as she walked away.

“Awww, Did Lucy make a little friend?” Shaun smiled trying to tease me in a baby voice like I was some little kid.

“Her name’s Rachelle, she’s actually the only person that’s spoken to me all day” I said sticking my tongue out at him.

“Well, I thought I’d introduce you to my mates. They’re all talking about the new girl” he winked.

Great, I was getting somewhere, too bad no one from my own year is interested yet. I did want to get to know Rachelle because then I’d have a friend who was in some of my classes but I really wanted to hang out with Shaun. I decided I’d meet Shaun’s friends then Rachelles’s, I mean I’d be seeing them after break in Science anyway. I told Shaun I’d  meet his friends at break but for now I had to endure fifty minutes of French.

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This is absolute torture, I groaned, putting my head down on the table. Why does life always go in slow motion when I’m stuck in a lesson I hate. I felt like ripping my hair out in frustration. I looked back at the clock, there were five minutes left and every minute was taking forever to pass. I completely and utterly hate French, the only reason I took it in the first place was because I thought it sounded sexy and I wanted to visit Paris.

I looked at my watch and realized the time on the clock was wrong. I’d been sitting here for an extra thirteen minutes wasting my life away. No wonder this lesson felt like an eternity. I raised my hand to make a complaint and I could feel my leg shaking under the table, which was a signal I was getting tremendously impatient.

“Yes Lauren?”  Mr Bourdon asked when he noticed my hand was up.

“Sir the clock on the wall is wrong, we were meant to be out thirteen minutes ago” I explained. Mr Bourdon looked down at his own watch then the clock on the wall. He seemed extremely calm for someone who’d caused me several minutes of my life that I’d never get back.

“Sorry everyone, you may pack up now” he said gathering up his own things before heading straight for the door, not caring that we were still seated at our places. What a great teacher, I muttered sarcastically to myself.

I looked around the class, everyone was clearly not happy, some guys were swearing under their breaths and others muttering about how this was so typical of Mr Bourdon. Everyone was rushing out the class and running across the now empty corridors to the cafeteria. Some looked back at me and said thanks. I waved them off and walked out the class last hoping this was not going to become a habit. At least I’d been noticed now, maybe more people will talk to me.

Shaun wasn’t there like he’d promised which left me feeling slightly disappointed. Rachelle however was. I walked up to her smiling yet slightly confused.

“Hey” she greeted me grinning back.

“Hey, thanks for waiting” I replied gratefully.

“No problem,” she said casually before noticing I was confused, “Oh right, I bumped into Shaun on my to the cafeteria, he told me to tell you he had a family crisis back at home and had to leave school but he’ll make up for it tomorrow”

“What sort of family crisis?” I asked curious.

“I never asked, he was in a rush, sorry”

“Oh, it’s okay” I said looking down, not understanding why I was so disappointed when I’d only met the guy this morning.

“Oh don’t be sad, come on I want you to meet my friends” she said hooking her arm round mine and pulling me along towards the cafeteria. I had no idea what her friends were like but I was pretty sure that if they were all tomboys like her, we wouldn’t have very much to talk about. This was going to be interesting…