Story of Us

Mondays

Chapter 1 – Mondays

It’s the second week back to school and my alarm clock buzzed furiously at me. Mondays. I hate them. I hauled my arm up and dropped it down on the snooze button. A bit too hard though and a loud crack sound ricocheted around my room.

“Clarrie? Are you up?” yelled Aunt Tanny from the bottom of the stairs.

I groaned a response than dragged myself out of bed. I stumbled over to my sink and filled my hands with ice cold water. I splashed it into my face, and gasped at the shock of it washing away sleep.

“Aunt Tanny, can you put on some toast please?” I called out of the door. I heard the toaster click as bread was dropped into it.

I neatly took my uniform off the hanger I had put it on.  I grimaced at the heavy black blazer, scratchy white shirt, tight red and yellow tie, grey tartan skirt, long, knee-high socks and the old-fashioned heeled shoes that I had layed out on my bed.

I put it all on and had a look in my mirror. I grimaced again, I hate the uniform. I brushed my hair and tied it back in a sleek ponytail. My boring black bag, stuffed with books, lay on the floor and I stopped to pick it up, then headed downstairs.

Aunt Tanny was sat at the table in the kitchen with a cup of tea and a half-finished bowl of ‘special K’. Aunt Tanny’s obsessed with dieting, but I think she’s perfect the way she is. She’s slim and still looks young at 28. My Mum had had me when she was only sixteen.

“Toast is on the side,” said Aunt Tanny briefly looking up from her magazine to smile. I nodded and picked up the buttered toast. I munched through it quietly, staring at the clock for when we would have to leave. Aunt Tanny works at her hair salon ‘Wild Hazel’ in town, and she drops me off at school en-route.

Aunt Tanny finished her cereal and tea and went to collect the car keys. I got up, brushed off the toast crumbs and grabbed my iPod from the counter. I weighed my bag on my shoulder and shuffled by the door. Aunt Tanny came back in and grabbed her coat, then we stepped out of the door into the yard.

Our house was half an hour away from town and twenty minutes away from Langley Academy, by car. Aunt Tanny inherited the house when my Gran died six years ago. For a while, me and Aunt Tanny lived in a tiny apartment in town, those were memories I really don’t want to go back to.

I was sad when Gran died, although I didn’t like her much. She was very old-fashioned and blamed us for Dad’s runaway, she was his mother after all. She did leave the house to Mum, but Mum didn’t exactly live to inherit it, so Gran left it to Aunt Tanny.

It’s detached and sits next to a small road leading to school. The house is quite small, it has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a garage and a tiny front yard. My room, Aunt Tanny’s room and a bathroom is upstairs, the rest is downstairs. I love the butter yellow colour of the kitchen and the big, comfy blue sofa in the living room.

Aunt Tanny’s car was in the garage and I leant against the wall as Aunt Tanny reversed out. I put in my headphones and turned up the music. I wanted to block out the world for a bit, before I got to school. I climbed into the car, a silver Ford Focus, and we pulled out onto the road.

I put my forehead to the window and sighed.

“You okay Clarrie?” said Aunt Tanny.

“I’m fine,” I lied, trying my best to smile.

She seemed to think it was genuine, so didn’t speak anymore. I sort of wished she had seen that it wasn’t genuine, for her to know that I really was not okay.

Eventually, Langley Academy looms into view, and I felt like a stone had been dropped in my heart. I really don’t want to be here, the first week was tough enough without Lela. Aunt Tanny looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to get out, but when I didn’t she opened her mouth to speak. I didn’t want to know what she had to say, I didn’t want to talk about how I felt, I just want to get the school day over with. So, I quickly opened the door, murmured a thank you and jogged into school grounds.