17 Things I Found In Your Bedroom

Chapter 2 Part 1

 "Claire Hermione Johnson! If you don't get up in three seconds, I'll force feed you yesterday's Mac and Cheese!" my mum yells at me, whipping the duvet off my body in one swift movement. I sit up bolt right in bed, the thought of eating mum's cooking making my eyes widen.

"You wouldn't dare..."

"There was a reason we had take-out last night, but now that pasta is not only burnt, it's as solid as a brick. Don't even get me started on the sauce..."

"How did you manage to burn pasta again?" I yawn, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hands.

"It doesn't matter, now get dressed!" she walks over to the door and I watch her as she turns to face me. "You have ten minutes." Shit. I stand up quickly and grab the first clothes I see in my wardrobe; a skater skirt, tank top and cardigan. The door closes; signaling mum is no longer in the room.

I dress quickly, grab my converse from under the bed and tug them on my feet as I run to the bathroom and brush my teeth.

"Fuck!" I curse, as I spill the toothpaste all over the floor. It was nearly empty anyway, and I spent a full minute trying to get the last bit from the bottom. I shake my head and grab some gum from my room, shoving it in my mouth and legging it down the stairs.

In the kitchen, mum is trying to break up a block of black stuff on the kitchen counter.

On closer inspection, I see it's the Mac and Cheese from last night.

Suddenly, the whole thing breaks into two pieces, and I see it's completely burnt all the way through.

"What temperature was the oven again?" I ask, as I walk past mum and grab an apple from the bowl, shoving it in my bag and pulling it on my shoulder.

"Wait, oven?" she replies, turning round to face me; clueless.

"How did you manage to burn it that bad if you didn't put it in the oven?" I face her, and she looks down at the floor guiltily.

"The grill looked a good place to keep it..." I burst out laughing, and soon after she follows suit.

"You... put it... on the... grill?!" I spit out between laughs. She just shrugs.

"Okay, enough of laughing at my stupidity, let's go."

I stare at the lockers and stragglers as I walk through the near abandoned corridors of the school, making my way towards the principal's office.

Some students offer a small smile as the rush to get to the first period they are now late for.

When the overhead speakers called me to Mrs Quinn's office, it wasn't cliché like in the movies when the student gets called to see the principal about becoming a famous superstar, or sleeping with the new English teacher. Everyone loves Mrs Quinn, and when you get called to her office, you've either been seriously bad, or amazingly good.

Hence the butterflies in my stomach.

I haven't been either of those things.

I reach the front desk that blocks the pathway to all the main offices in the school, and the student behind the computer looks up, flicking her eyes over my face.

I recognise the girl from History; she is working at school to provide for her baby sister. I've had to babysit a few times for her, and it's sad her mum isn't able to cope with look after them anymore. I feel like I should make an effort to do more to help them, since we live on the same street. We've hung out a couple of times to, and I would say we're friends.

"Hey, Claire." She says, smiling slightly from behind her auburn bangs. "What brings you up here?" she adds.

"Hey, Alice. Um, I don't actually know. I got called to Mrs Quinn's office about something." I shrug. Alice frowns, glancing at her computer.

"Do anything bad?" she offers, typing into the Mac and trying to make small talk as she looks through the results. I shake my head slowly, raking my brain for anything I could've done. But I'm not exactly a rebel as such... I've never had a detention before. Then again, my grades aren't great in class...

Shit, she found out I failed algebra.

That has to be it.

"I don't know... maybe my F in math wasn't to her standard..." I trail off. Alice smirks.

"Okay, fair play. I'll go see if she's ready for you yet. Take a seat." She points over to a torn, old sofa in the corner of the almost empty space a few feet from the desk. A vase of plastic lilacs sits opposite on a small table to make it feel lighter, but it only appears extremely tacky.

I nod and walk over to it, sitting down on the edge and pulling my phone out my pocket. I haven't talked to Ace since yesterday afternoon, and he bunked off form tutor again. Normally he would've texted by now, but I guess it must have slipped his mind this morning. I'll try harder to get him to open up tonight. Maybe we could go out somewhere, and I could ask him then. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

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I've really got to stop making these chapters so long so I don't have to cut them in half...