Ms. Anderson (TeacherXStudent GirlXGirl)

Chapter One

"Aspen, it's seven thirty. Did you sleep through your alarm?" My mother's soft voice comes through my door. I crack my eyes open to look at the small digital clock on my bedside table. I groan in frustration when I see my mother is right and I slept through my alarm. What a great way to start Junior year.

After showering, I wrap a big fluffy towel around myself going into my room to find some clothes leaving my hair wet. How hot is it supposed to be today? Without thinking about it, I hop on my bed laying on my tummy. The towel slipping down to just above my butt. I pull up the weather app on my phone. Gross 89 Degrees. Pulling the towel back around me, I go to my closet pulling out a mid-thigh length blue sundress with a thin brown leather belt around my middle. I stand looking at myself in the body mirror on the back of my closet door. Junior year. The filler year. The year where you start applying to college and everything becomes more real, but not fully real. Juniors can still find comfort in the fact that they have one more year to mess around with their friends. They just have to start thinking about college, not actually planning. I already know what I want to do with my life and where I want to go to college. I'm ready for the world, yet every adult in my life tells me I'm not. I get that they all miss high school and I'm sure I will miss some parts, but I want out.  

Glancing back at the clock I realize it is almost eight. School starts at eight-thirty and I have to pick up my friend, Ever. Time to go. Ever and I have been friends for years now. I can honestly say she is the only person in the school that doesn't make me want to hit my face against a wall repeatedly. She has her license and a truck, but it's tradition for us to switch off every week for who picks who up. The first week of school is my turn. 

The ride to her house is a short one, only five minutes. I pull up into her driveway and wait, knowing better than to beep the horn. She gets pissy when I do since her bedroom window faces the driveway and she sees me coming in. We have just under twenty-five minutes to go get coffee and get to school. We are going to be late on the first day of school. Way to make a good impression. I don't mind being late to school, I'm a straight A+ student so missing my morning class which is Art is not that big of a deal. Actually, my first core class isn't until the third period so I can skip most of the morning without it messing anything up.

"Aspen! Holy crap!" Ev bounces into the passenger seat of my small mini cooper. "We are finally upperclassmen! We rule the school. It's so angelic." I look at her like she has four heads. I give her a funny face as I turn around to look out the back window as I back down her driveway. "Don't judge me. I read a book where this girl says angelic about everything she finds awesome. I like it so I'm using it."

I stay silent as Ever goes on and on about how angelic junior year will be for us. She spouts out every cliche thing you can think of when it comes to high school. We will find the man or woman in my case of our dreams and will fall hopelessly in love with them. We will be together until college when we go to different schools, but we'll forever be each other's soul mates. I try hard not to gag. I don't really believe in soul mates. I think two people can be in love and stay together for their whole lives, but I don't think we are predestined to be with somebody. I also think you can love someone with all of your heart for a long time, and then you can fall out of love and fall deeply for someone else. Love is a strange thing that is not set and stone. 

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"Ladies, cutting it a little close this morning, are we?" Our advisor, Mr. Collins, scolds us as we walk in just as the bell rings. I avoid all eye contact with everyone in the room and just go sit in my seat in the back away from everyone. Ever has other plans. She decides to go talk to everyone and bounce around the room. I watch her, curious as to how she is able to talk to people she barely knows so effortlessly. Even just talking to Ever I sometimes have to force myself and work really hard to keep the conversation going. I'm not able to talk about obsolete things like what we did over the summer. Why should I care how you spent your time? I want to have an intelligent conversation. A conversation about the brain, perhaps? The brain is not given enough credit for all it does. I want to give the brain the attention it deserves, but nobody my age cares. All they care about is the latest snapchat filters and some stupid drama that blew up over Instagram last night. Mr. Collins stands to ask everyone to get into their seats, mostly talking to Ever since she's the only one up. He announces that he will be handing out our schedules in case we didn't get ours in the mail over break and then we are free to do as we please for the next fifteen minutes while we wait for the bell to dismiss us to first.