"I love you Erin! Have a great day!" Mom innocently shouted as I walked out of our apartment building. "Yeah, right" I mumbled under my breath as a cold gust of air blew into my face. She ran up behind me and caught my hand. "Erin, I-" she said desperately. I turned to face her, "Don't apologize." I stated bitterly, "Look, I get that you're not coming. Your job is clearly more important than me, or anything that has to do with me". She looked hurt, which meant that I had made my point. "Baby girl..." she tried, "You know that I care about you. This is a really important meeting, I might get a promotion if things go well! You can finally get that dress you've been wanting, and we could go places this summer, just the two of us. But I have to work to get there". I glared at her. "Yeah, whatever," I answered as the bus pulled up. "Now leave me alone so I can go to school".
I climbed the steps of the bus while the wind whipped my hair all over my face. I had blonde hair and green eyes, just like my mom. We also shared the same pale complexion. She had been making extra attempts to be nice lately, but only because today was my fifth grade skit. Everyone else's parents were coming to watch our production, we had been planning it since the first day of school. Tuesday the eleventh- I had the date memorized. My mom had to go to work though, she had an important meeting in the world trade center. Big deal. My dad left us right after I was born, so mom had to work a full time job. Naturally, I was on my own a lot. I'm only eleven, but I can take care of myself almost as good as an adult. Just because I was on my own a lot didn't mean that I wanted to be alone. Especially on the day my class was doing skit!
We had been fighting all since Sunday, and I was still steaming on the bus ride. She never made it to this stuff, yet this time was different. We never got to talk because she went to work an hour before I went to school and got home as I was getting in bed. She always told me goodnight, but that was it, and that had started to annoy me. I didn't even feel bad, I was so furious. She was being so self-absorbed she didn't even have time to talk to me!
The bus arrived to the red and white bricked elementary school at seven forty five, giving us time to get to class, which started at eight. I took my time going down the long hallway, and I stopped a few times to look at some of the kindergartener's artwork on the walls. It reminded me of being in kindergarten. The hallways were long, with dark blue walls, the color of our school.
I continued into the white-painted classroom and found my teacher, Mrs. Smith, at her desk. She had dark, curly hair, was tall, and in her early 20's. She was easy-going for the most part, but she had no trouble being strict when needed. I liked her a lot. She also loved owls. She had owl statuettes, an owl mug, owl notebooks, and owl pencils. It was clear that she was obsessed with the mysterious bird. Some of the boys would call her "crazy owl lady" behind her back, which I didn't think was very clever.
There was an owl calendar (of course) on the wall that read "September 2001". Our neat classroom was set up like your average elementary school room; five rows of desks where we were alphabetically placed by our last name.
Luckily, I was next to my amazing best friend, Zoey. We had known each other since the third grade, though it felt like longer. We met because in third grade, I was bad at math. My mom was talking to Zoey's mom, and Zoey was having a hard time making friends. Zoey helped me with math (she skipped a grade because she's so smart) and I would "get to know her". Luckily, we got along great and soon became best friends. She was really smart, and often used big words when talking to me. She had deep brown eyes with long eyelashes, hidden by glasses that fell down a lot because of her small nose.
"Are you prepared for the skit?" I heard her soft voice behind me.
I nervously turned around, "I sure hope so, I stayed up late studying last night." I said worriedly.
She smiled sheepishly, "I forgot to study my lines last night, I really hope that I haven't forgotten any!"
That almost made me laugh. Zoey never forgot anything! However, just to make her feel better, I helped her study them a little bit before class started. She remembered every single one, word for word.
Once we had gone over her lines, we sat at our desks. I started daydreaming about Luke. His desk was two rows behind me, and one seat over. Which was way too far away, if you ask me. If you haven't guessed already, he's my crush. I know, I know, I'm only in fifth grade, "too young for such shenanigans". You would have to meet Luke to understand. Luke has gorgeous brown hair, and stunning blue eyes. He even plays football. I mean, I've never actually talked to him, though I know almost everything about him.
After a couple minutes of quiet chatter, Mrs. Smith stood up and cleared her throat." Get your costumes and line up at the door, please." She stated firmly. The chairs we sat in groaned as we stood up. We all lined up, costumes in hand, awaiting further instructions. I made sure I stood next to Zoey. Mrs. Smith walked to the front of the line and motioned for us to follow her down the hall.
As we walked down the vacant hallway, my stomach churned with anxiety. I was still mad at my mom for not coming. Why did her stupid meeting have to be today? I would have been fine with almost any other day. This was unforgivable. My mind raced back to the skit-I guessed that there would be around forty people watching! I loved the excitement I got before I performed, it was so exhilarating!
