Hate is a Strong Word

1)Me llamo Alaina

"Hello, my name is Alaina," I said, praying that my face isn't bright red like it always is. Who am I kidding, I'm way too pale for it not to be red. I snapped out of my thoughts once I saw the teacher listening attentively and nodding me on. I looked back down at the notecard in my hand.

"Hola, me llamo Alaina," I said to the class of 30 7th and 8th graders, sure I was pronouncing everything wrong. They all looked practically asleep, and you could tell from a mile away that their parents made them take Spanish as their elective. My parents did the same. The class made a dreadful, slurred sigh of "Hola Alaina" as I walked back to my seat and slumped back into my chair, realizing how much I over think things. No one cared, including the 7th-grade boy right next to me that was doodling on the desk. The teacher probably said his name ten times before he looked up with bags under his eyes and stubbled up to the front of the class. You could tell his last night of summer was eventful, unlike mine.

"Hello, my name is Jacob. Hola, me llamo Jacob," he said quickly and emotionless, without even looking up at the class. He knew they didn't care. He slumped back into his seat, now flicking his pencil against his hand, making an awful sound. It was quiet enough not to disrupt the teacher though, who began to tell the class her excuse for not having their Greetings Packets. I had never seen a teacher so disorganized, but I didn't mind because I didn't want to do the Greetings Packet anyway, whatever it was.

"Now that we've all introduced ourselves, I would like to introduce myself. Me llamo Senora Elizabeth," she said to the gum-chewing class. After that, she continued to tell us incredibly boring things like what we were going to learn, how often tests were going to be, etc. Most of my classes had been quite dull so far, but this one was the absolute worst.

After for what felt like hours, we were saved by the bell to go home. I walked home; my neck and back were aching from my backpack. Having all that weight on my back and neck felt weird, but I would have to get used to it.

Buzz Buzz

I glanced down at my phone to see one of my best friends, Cristina, had texted me.

Cris<3 : omg alaina guess who's at my table in spanish

Me : cris u know i don't like guessing games

Cris<3 : it's rlly easy i can give u an obvious hint

Me: just tell me

Cris<3 : fine ur so boring

Cris<3 : it's laurel

I almost dropped my phone because of how quickly I stopped walking. My neck hurt more than ever, but I couldn't look up. Laurel was my very best friend two years ago, but our friendship broke into a million pieces. You may think you want to know what happened, but you really don't.

Cris<3 : alaina answer me

Cris<3 : i wont let her play any of her games ok?

Cris<3 : she is out of your life now

Me : just dont talk to her ok?

Cris<3 : not a word

Cris<3 : not even a letter

Me : but listen in to her convos just in case shes planning something

Cris<3 : of course

Cris<3 : sticking my nose into things is my business

Me : gtg

Cris<3 : dont overthink it alaina its not going to help anything

My stomach churned inside me as I thought. I couldn't go one day of eighth grade without something related to Laurel coming up. Whenever Laurel's in one single class with me, something horrible happens. At least this last year of middle school was going to be memorable because I'm not going down without a fight. And this time, I'm not going down.

(666 words)