Brave Enough

Chapter Six: Two Teachers and One Crazy Class

Willow's POV

As we walk back to class one of the teachers stop us. "Good job, Willow," she says holding my tightly in a hug, "and welcome to St. Lucia's Ms. Stirling, I'm Mrs. Baker. Willow, I noticed that you haven't come in to sing to the Pre-K yet. Do you mind coming in on Wednesday?" I turn to Lindsey for a second, "Of course." "Thank you very much you two."

As we continue on our way to the classrooms, Lindsey stops in her tracks and notices that there was someone hugging her. "Bella, don't do that," says my other friend who sees Bella's arms wrapped around Lindsey's waist. "LET GO," she says as we both try to pry her off of Lindsey. "I'm sorry if I startled you,"Bella says bouncing on toes and laughing shyly, "I got a little bit over excited which is normal. My name is Bella and that's Erin." "Nice to meet you," Erin says. Lindsey sticks out her for a handshake, Bella shakes it but Erin backs away. "Sorry, I'm a bit of a germaphobe." "It's okay I understand." I look at the clock and panic, "Class starts in thirty seconds!" They rush off and Bella yells, "I'll text you later!"

We continue on our way to the classrooms and I move my stuff to my Social Studies seat. When Mr. Gregory walked in, he told Derek, the kid the normal sits next to me, to move next to Rosa. "You can sit there, Lindsey." Lindsey sat down next to me, She drops a notebook on the desk. The pages were old and a little bit yellow. The cover was decorated with glitter and pictures and the words "Lindsey's Notebook" across the front. She whispers to me, " I haven't used this notebook since high school." "Today, because Lindsey is here we're going to do something fun," Mr. Gregory says, "take notes!" The whole class groans. "I'm just kidding! Kahoot and Ball game! Let's go!" Everyone searches for their iPads. "You can play on your phone or you can look on with Willow," Mr. Gregory says to Lindsey. Everyone had a different name in the game. We have FaZe, Dat Boi, MetsRock, and so, so much more. When Lindsey got on she chose LindseyStomp, and I chose Bento. I told Lindsey the rules beforehand. All she had to do was answer the questions and tap on the answer with the corresponding shape and from the smartboard. Then the game begun. The first question was easy. Where was Mesopotamia. Egypt, Europe, Fertile Crescent, or India. I chose the Fertile Crescent. Lindsey chose India. I was in the third, only ten points behind Fascism. I peered over at Lindsey screen. She was in fifteenth, thirty points behind FaZe Rain. I felt kinda sorry for her. Next question was what river did Ancient India survive off. I tapped on my answer. "Indus. Green," I whispered to Lindsey. She smiled at me, " Thanks." We played for another twelve questions going through American history and World War I. I was in second place. I could have won but I forgot how to spell assasination. Lindsey got seventh place. She pushed through during the Revolutionary War until we reached Roosevelt's Legacy. Then, she lost it. Everyone on the leaderboard gets a lollipop. Mr. Gregory gave me two. Peach and a mystery favor. I gave the mystery favor lollipop to Lindsey. Next was the Ball Game. Everyone sat down on top of their desk. Mr. Gregory took out three, big, practically torn apart, foam dice. He juggled them while explaining the directions, "The rules are simple. Three people will have the dice. The dice is thrown to three people at a time. You have to answer the question as quickly as possible I will ask question and you will have to answer them quickly. Whoever says it first, wins that round everyone else has to sit down in the chair. But instead of answering only Social Studies, we will answer question in Music and pop culture, as well. You guys ready?" Everyone screamed. And the games began.

When it comes to Mr. Gregory's games it is complete madness. Alliances are made and friendships are broken. But, it's all for a prize.... Candy! Dum dums, Jolly Ranchers, and Skittles. And I was determined to win.... Until I got out three rounds in. But amazingly, Lindsey made it to the final three. And then got out. The final two were Sydney who's into performing arts and Jacob who was one of the best lacrosse players. Mr. Gregory pulled out a hard question that would have been a breeze for me. "Name one song by Ms. Stirling?" Turns out he did some research on her music during lunch/recess. "Um,"Sydney said, "I just going to go with my first instinct and I'm gonna say Swag?" she glaced at me and I smiled back, There was a long pause. If she her answer was wrong, Jacob would win. "Surprisingly. You. Are.... Correct!" Sydney jumped off of her desk and celebrated her victory. She grabbed a Jolly Rancher from the prize box and skipped happily to her seat.

When the bell rang, we grabbed our stuff and made a path through the hallway to our next and final class. I walked through the door and Ms. Peretti hugged me and shook me, "I'm so proud of you! I knew you would win!" Ms. Peretti was one the youngest and new teacher in the school. She understood our culture and made lessons interesting. She has always been there for me even considers me to be her best student. She walked up to Lindsey, "Hi! I'm Ms. Peretti, the ELA and Religion teacher for the eighth grade. I have heard a lot about you, mostly music related but their good things. She pointed at Tyler, "Tyler you can sit next to Demetri for now so Ms. Stirling can have a seat." Everyone got seated and got out their iPads. "I was planning on giving a quiz today but I'll to next week because of our surprise visitor, so you better say thank you. "Thank you, Lindsey," the class seat half lazily, half happily. She wrote on the whiteboard "SONG LYRICS". "Most song on the radio has lyrics. They could be exciting, depressing, and even complete and utter trash COUGH COUGH Sweatshirt COUGH COUGH COUGH.... Lindsey can you give us some examples of your songs and tell us what they're about." "Let's see.... We have We are Giants which is about strength, Brave Enough which is about opening up your heart, and Those Days which is about remembering a friend of mine who passed away in 2015," Lindsey responded. Ms. Peretti quickly wrote some things on the board in her usually "meh" handwriting. "Struggles, inspirational, and memories. These are all very common themes for songs. For the next few minutes write down a list of songs of with the same theme of your choice." I write down the word "Inspirational" in my notebook. Then I wrote down the songs:

Rise Up by Andra Day

Heal the World by Michael Jackson

Hall of Fame by The Script

Skyscraper by Demi Lovato

Then, Ms. Peretti called on me, "Can I talk to you for a minute?" I followed her outside the classroom. "Are you feeling any better," she asked me. "Yazmin told you?" She nodded. "I still feel bad but I'll be fine." "Why didn't you tell me this time?" "Because Lindsey helped me out a little so I didn't think I needed to tell you this time." She send me back inside and called for Lindsey.

Lindsey' POV

After writing a lengthy list of songs Ms. Peretti motioned for me to come outside. "Do you know what happened at lunch with Willow?" she asked. "Yeah, Ms.... uhhhh?" "Just call me Miranda," she leaned against a wall, "do you might telling me what happened?" I told her everything that happened including what happened to me. She let out a sigh, "It's sad you know." "What?" "that we can't get rid of some students like him. They're the one providing the school with most of the money for their funds for events and things like that so most of them...." We both heard a bunch of desk being pushed and yelling from the classroom. "What the hell," I heard her mutter under her breath. She opened up the door to the classroom and to of the boys were wrestling in the back of classroom. "What in God's Name are you guys doing?! Lindsey hasn't even been here for a day and you've already made a bad impression! I thought you guys would be better than this." The whole class was silent as she wrote on the homework board "One page essay on responsibility due tomorrow". " you can get started now," Miranda said. The phone rang and Miranda answered. "Hello.... Yes.... Yes.... Okay, I'll send them down," she hung up, "Willow, Lindsey, you guys can go now." "Bye, Ms. Peretti," Willow says picking up her stuff.

We run down to the office and we gather my bags and suitcase she talks to the principal for a few minutes. The only thing i heard was something about a walkie talkie and room keys. "Okay," she says grabbing a bag, "everything is set up for tomorrow all you to do is practice."

*******

Finally chapter six is done! Sorry for the 4 month long wait. I've been extremely busy so it might take me awhile to update sometimes. Also I sorta need someone to help me with my new book, it's nothing much, honestly. (I sorta gave up one the song this time, sorry)