"And please don't use the teacher's restroom." Finished Mr. Bennett, closing his ripped copy of his teachers manual. "There was an incident last year that I shouldn't have to remind most of-"
"What happened?" asked Olivia, whispering to the boy next to her.
"Something involving a shit ton of shit," he laughed.
"I know it gets tiring year after year, besides the new kids, but we have to recite this crappy old rule book at the start of the year. I swear..how do they even know if we recite it, though?" Mr. Bennett sighed and looked at his watch. "I'm hungry, and you guys have about 3 minutes so, um," he waved his hand around carelessly, "mingle or something. No Snapchat, though."
Olivia let her eyes wander around the classroom. There seemed to be about 20 people in each class. She looked out the windows and saw the suburbs-not really, sort of, but not at all-of New York City. Meaning, the brownstone part. She became distracted again by people getting up from their seats signaling the bell soon. Putting everything in her bag, she looked down at her schedule and sighed. Math. Room 603.
...
The bell rung and she wandered up and down the stair cases until the tardy bell sounded. Eventually, giving up defeated, she sat on the stairwell and looked through her vine. Somewhere down the line, there was a vine of Shawn Mendes from 3 hours ago, in central park. He had his tounge out and was buying a taco. Olivia chuckled and put her phone down. 'I swear it would be so cool if he went here,' she thought to herself. She heard a voice from upstairs, causing her to look up.
"Hi? Are you okay, sweetheart?" said a feminine voice from above her.
Olivia's lips frowned before straightening up again, when she replied, "Yea, I'm fine, I just didn't know where my class was."
The feminine voice had a smile and a giggle in their tone, "I mean, there isn't too many people in this school but you could've asked for help." they said. "I'm going to help you; what's your class number?"
"603! And I couldn't find anyone!"
"Well you're not looking hard enough, there's tons of people just laying around up here! Come up, I'll show you to your class."
Once Olivia got to where the voice was, someone popped out of the door, matching the tone.
"Hey, call me Lisa, I'm a student teacher here. Actually, not really, I'm just never here at school but I'm still enrolled so I'm an..."assistant". Lisa held up her hands to emphasis the word. Lisa help open the door to let Olivia in.
True enough, there were people who lay on the ground, some sleep and some listening to music or otherwise considered not productive. Olivia seemed to forget that this wasn't a normal school.
"What class is this?" Olivia smiled, not realizing she said it aloud.
Lisa stood by her checking something on her phone when she began to walk forward slowly.
"Theatre, its awesome. But you already know that don't you?"
"Yeah, acting is my life. I just thought they'd be doing something."
"Oh they do, sometimes they work on individual scenes and stuff before letting the class come back in and see them as a whole." Lisa began picking up her stride to casual speed. "What's your 4th period? And where did you say your next class was?"
Olivia looked down at her schedule. "Oh! I have theatre, that's right! Room 603, math."
"Really? Those say dancer." Lisa tilted her head downwards towards Olivia's legs.
"I used to do gymnastics, if that counts."
"Nah, it doesn't. But ok. Wait did you say math 603? That's Mrs. Henderson. She's so awesome! But then again every teacher in this school is. That also means your lunch is not too long from now. You still wanna go?" Olivia nodded.
"What do you do?" Olivia asked her, also feeling curious.
"I dance. I do acting, too, though. I've been acting since I was young but in the last few years I became interested in dance. And then I found this bomb ass school with both. If you're wondering about the singing and artistic drawing school then that's about three blocks from here. We're basically at each others school all the time, they've been talking about making them into one, but they're so slow, so we just continue going back and forth. Here ya go!" The two had arrived at the math class.
"Thank you so much!" said Olivia.
"Anytime, Olivia!" Lisa grinned and walked off. Olivia was confused for a second, but then walked into the classroom.
No one was really staring, but the teacher looked up.
"Hi, sweetheart, who are you?"
'Apparently, sweetheart,' thought Olivia, "I'm Olivia Mayo, and I couldn't find this class, I'm sorry."
"It's fine! I'm going to be your math teacher this semester, my name is Ms. Henderson. You're new to the school?"
"Yes!"
"Welcome! Go ahead and take the seat over there." She pointed to a seat next to a dark haired boy.
Olivia walked over and sat down. Ms. Henderson resumed teaching.
"You're gonna take the 5 and drag it underneath the 6x." she explained.
Olivia observed other people taking small notes and no one seemed to be taking too many. She assumed that she was probably the only one slightly, as a bit of an understatement, confused. That was when the boy next to her rolled his eyes and muttered to himself,
"Lord, she teaches so...got me bent..."Olivia snickered lightly and as he heard her he directed his attention to her, "I swear if she has a test on this.." he put his hands up in defense. About a minute later the bell rung.
Everyone parted out of the class and made their way to the lunchroom. Olivia, following the crowd, gazed at her surroundings, again, in awe. She wasn't hungry, so she scrolled down her twitter feed when the boy from her math class sat down with a girl.
"Oh, hey!" Olivia said, and he smiled. "I'm Olivia, were you confused as I was or.."
"Yes! I'm Enrique, the savage. Nice to meet you." he held out his hand, lightly chuckling, "I really hope she doesn't teach like that for the rest of the year. I didn't see you here last year, where are you coming from?"
"About an 1 hour away. Suburbs kinda girl."
"Ah, you like it here?"
"Yes! SO glad I get to start acting right here in the city."
"Oh, really! I would've thought you a dancer. I'm an actor, too. How lit."
Olivia laughed. "Someone thought I was a dancer earlier, actually there she is!" She tilted her head across the lunch room towards the girl from earlier, Lisa.
Enrique followed her tilt. "Lisa? Ah, Lisa's chill, love her. She's a great girl."
The conversation paused for a moment while the two scrolled through their phones. Enrique broke the silence and firmly slapped his hand on the table. Olivia looked up, slightly startled.
"Oh my god."
"What?"
"I'm having a fanboy moment for a second. Are you ready?" Olivia nodded. "Okay, so this guy I've been following on vine is in the city and is planning on attending this school."
Olivia's eyes widened. "Is that guy Shawn Mendes?"
"Yes! Do you know him?"
"I love him! He's so great."
"Wow, this is a dream come true. My friends at this school know him but don't freak out about him like I do."
"Well you have me then," Olivia smiled.
"Woo, this is the start of a beautiful friendship."
