Soccer Syndrome

Chapter 2

'Wake up Lara!' yells my mother.

Ugh, school.  It's the first thing that comes to my mind every weekday and I hate it. I hate studying, studying annoys me. I love learning, learning is beautiful. But, I do hate the people I learn with. It's like a jungle at school, with lions, eagles and boars. 

Where I ask question that I don't even want to know the answer to, where I have to wear a fake smile to make others happy, where I have to laugh at the most irrelevant times only so nobody ask me, 'What's the matter, Lara?' Where I have to talk about boys as they're the last things on my mind. There are girls a talk with, but I dont consider them as friends. I just sit there and watch them, observe them, criticise them all in my brain. So like I mentioned earlier, I don't have any girl friends. They're not my friends.

'Hey gurrrrrrrl'! Scream Shaniqua from the other side of the hall. I don't mind Shaniqua, she's your typical African American diva. She's too tacky though, I don't think she could survive without packing gallons of lipgloss onto her everyday. 

'Heeeey!' I reply, trying to be enthusiastic about seeing her. But deep down in my mind, I feel like walking to class and listening to Mr Frederick brag about History. Ugh. This is why I hate school. 

I tell Shaniqua that I'll meet her at class and run towards my locker. I unlock my locker with the digits 9-5-9-7 and grab my History textbook and power walk to my History class.

'Welcome, children.' Screams Mr Frederick. 

Mr Frederick had scruffy grey hair. He looks a bit like Einstein, it's pretty freaky. Anyways, he's about in his mid-fifties or so. I don't think I've met such an intelligent human being at that age, his brain is just crammed with knowledge. Only if I was as smart as him. 

'Today, we will be learning about the Great Depression iand the Wall Street Crash.'  Zzzzzz, I'm about to fall asleep. Why do we have to learn about this? This is so irrelevant. I'd rather be kicking a soccer ball rather than sit here and listen to this magninficent man.

'Then, I will be handing back your results from the topic test we had a while ago.' About time, it's been almost two months and he hasn't marked our topic test. I think I failed, I have a bad feeling about this. 

For about half an hour, he was talking about the experiences during the Great Depression and then he asked us to pack our books up and grab our test results as he called our names out. 

'Pauline, excellent!' He yelled. Pauline was the smart girl, the one who got all of the good grades in every subject. She'll become such a succesful person when she's older, good for her. 

'Kevin, you could do better. Rachelle, good not great. Lara, could I please have a word with you, after class?'

'Sure.' I replied. I sat down and waited untill everybody left the classroom. I swear I failed.

'Lara, what is this mark? I am completely... completely... proud of you! You got the second highest mark, congratulations. 84%, that's such a huge improvement. Now get lost.'

'Hahahaha, thanks sir! I was expecting a fail... what a surprise! See you around, sir.'

'Haha, take care Lara!' He replied.

I left the classroom and continued thinking. Thinking of the rest of my day, what to eat for lunch and the first thing to do when I get home. Next stop, Mathematics. Oh my God, I think to myself. I enter Maths class and daze off for half of the period. The rest of my day was quite boring. The only exciting part was getting home, playing soccer and taking a freezing shower. 

I complete my homework and go straight to sleep. Yet no sign of Malcolm, my mum is worried sick!