Double -Take

Chapter 1

"Love is that condition in which the of another person is essential to your own."

~Robert Heinlein

ELOISE

My English teacher is trying to make us write essays with prompts that she stole from college admissions essays. All the topics are related to struggles you've had, and how you overcame them, or events that have changed your life.

So basically they want to know all the shit you've been through and if you're really still motivated to go to college at all.

I'm not sure if this bothers me because that it assumes we've all got problems and have had tragic events in our life, or the fact that it's true and nobody seems to be struggling to think of what to write about. Still, does she expect us to just take a knife and spill our guts on that paper for her to read and criticize?

Andrea must be able to detect the "disturbance in the force", because she catches my eye from across the room and lifts an eyebrow. Best friends are always good at detecting that kind of stuff, and sometimes it bothers me how utterly predictable I am.

I'm torn out of my internal monologue when the bell rings for class changes. In a sudden rush, I started collecting my stuff that I had forgotten to put away due to my inner rant.

When I finally finished packing up, I walked to the door of the classroom.... only stopped by the voice of the devil herself.

"Eloise, can you come here a second""

I nodded and moved over to her desk that sat in the corner of the classroom.

"So the teacher that teaches the newspaper class asked me to recommend students for going into her her class next year"

I nodded with an inkling of where this was going, while hoping I was wrong.

"I'm going to recommend you, Eloise. All of your essays stand out from the others, and we both know you definitely could use the distraction ", she said.

I internally cringed a little when she said that.  Apparently my mom had decided to email ALL of my teachers to let them know "what was going on a t home" and she didn't even ask me first. I didn't occur to me that she had done this until I realized that all my teachers seemed to be paying "special attention" to me with awkward shoulder pats and how-you-holdin-in-there-hon expressions.

"Oh, um thank you, that sounds like a great opportunity" I said with the fake enthusiasm I didn't know I possessed. Don't get me wrong, I hated her guts, but I still believe respecting teachers is important. Also, I was so desperate to leave I would literally do anything to escape this dumb room. I nodded at her, grabbed my stuff, and booked it.

This get-away plan was going great, that is, until I swung open the door like a madwoman, and then felt something strike into it solidly. This of course was followed by a sound that definitely came from a human in pain.

Shit