The One in the MIDDLE

Chapter 2

The next day, I walked into class and took a seat near the back, next to James. I waved hello to him as I sat down.

"How come you're here earlier than usual?" I asked.

He usually waits for me to come down and then we ride together but when I left this morning, his bike was already gone.

"Janice stayed over last night and Dad tried to make me cook breakfast with her! I had to get out of there as fast as possible," he replied.

"Attention!" Mr. Lucas yelled. "Everybody quite down. Due to the lack of non-sporting extra curricular activities, the teachers and I have decided to start an ask column for the school newspaper. We need one volunteer to help sort out all the letters after school. Anyone?"

I really hated staying back for more work but it could be my only chance to do something really interesting. After all, it is my last year in middle school. Next year is all about exams and studying nonstop. Besides, this is probably only a two-time thing. I raised my hand and watched as Mr. Lucas turned to look my way.

"Fantastic! We have a volunteer. Anyways, my second announcement is that all of you have to write to the newspaper at least twice this year. We will be doing one letter today in the last 20 minutes of the day. That is all."

Just then, the bell rang and me as well as the rest of the class got up in order to retrieve our books and head to our classes. I had English first so I started off in that direction. I waved goodbye to James as I passed his locker.

The next time I saw him was at lunch, four and a half hours later.

"Hey, wait up!" I called.

He came to a stop and then turned around to wait for me. I stuffed my books back in my locker and grabbed my lunch from my bag. I caught up to him and we started off towards the school grounds. He asked how my day was because we didn't have any classes together on Tuesday.

"It was fine," I replied. "English was fun but Mr. Boomer kept going on and on about the same topics. Social Studies was all right but the best was science because Mrs. Francis lost it when Harry told her he forgot his science book again.

James snickered and said, " What the heck is wrong with that boy?"

"I know right! He's gone through like 3 books already."

We finished our lunches and talked for a while more before heading inside. 'Ugh,' I thought. 'Homeroom was so boring.' We finished some of our homework and fooled around in between. The boys were all watching football videos on YouTube and the girls were on their phones doing god knows what. At around 2:50, Mr. Lucas handed out pieces of paper and instructed us to write about anything we need help with.

"It could be schoolwork or something from home...anything," he finished.

I couldn't think of anything to write about so I just wrote about my struggles with math. I was certain most of the class just wrote a line or two about school. It was most probably all rubbish. I was really regretting volunteering for sorting out all of these papers. Anyways, the class finished writing and started packing up. The bell rang again at 3:20 and everyone surged out of class. In less than 60 seconds, the school hallways were filled with kids aged eleven to eighteen.

I merely stood and watched as everyone gathered their belongings and made their way out of school. After a few minutes, I said goodbye to James and then made my down to the copy room. The copy room was where the principal's secretary had her office. It was also where everyone went to go get a printout or a photocopy, hence the name. By the time I arrived, all the notes form the eighth grade classes were dumped in one large box, waiting to be sorted through.

"Emma! Great, you're finally here. So, the letters need to be sorted by least important to most important. There are three smaller boxes over there. If there are any really important ones, you can submit a response in the school newspaper," instructed Ms. Caitlyn.