Scars will never hold you back

Chapter 5

Dani's POV

While I was certain I would hate school, I thought that I would have friends. No offense to Lauren, but she is pretty shy. There is like nobody cool, that I can talk to, in my first period History class. I walked it to class, and the teacher just

kind of waved me in.

"You're Danielle Cimorelli?" He asked in a monotone voice.

"Um, yeah. But call me Dani" I responded.

"Okay, Danielle, introduce yourself. Say whatever. I don't care. Go sit wherever." He said lazily.

I guess he doesn't really want to be here at all. And I told him to call me Dani. He just called me Danielle again. That was kind of annoying. I would never have to go through substitutes not knowing my name with homeschooling.

To introduce myself I said, "Hi, I'm Dani Cimorelli. I'm 13, I like to sing, and I'm in a band."

I walked down to a seat in the back and slide into it. The bell rang, but the teacher showed no interest in starting class. So I just waited for about 5 minutes watching other people. All the girls had formed into cliques and every so often one of them turned around and looked at me. I felt so weird, like an animal on display. Finally, the teacher actually got up.

"Okay, everybody pull out your textbooks and notebooks. Make notes for Chapter 2, 3, and 4. Test in one week." He said.

Okay? No introduction? Nothing? I did as I was told. I picked up my textbook and started penciling notes that seemed important. I got bored with the process after 3 or 4 pages. I figured I could do it as homework and kind of was just staring into nothing. One of the girls came up to me.

"Hi, I'm Britney! You're in the band Cimorelli, right?" She asked sweetly, almost fake.

"Yeah, with my sisters." I said, suddenly unsure of myself.

"Oh, well, me and my friends over there." She pointed to a group of girls. "Wanted to let you know that we hate your music. Your voices suck. Bye" She said, in the same fake, happy tone.

What? Why would anyone ever say that to someone?! That's so mean! I wanted to cry, but I wasn't a really emotional person. I held back the tears and pretended I was working. The girls and guys all around the room were obviously talking and not working, but the teacher didn't say anything. I just kind of drew in the margins and stared at a wall for the rest of the period. The bell rang and I literally jumped out of my seat. That meant that I got to be out of this class, and I got to see Lauren!

Lauren's POV

Dani and I both got to P.E at around the same time. I ran to her.

"How was first period?" She asked me.

"Great, I didn't meet anybody new" I said.

"I didn't either" she said. "People here know about Cimorelli" she casually mentioned.

She didn't seem really excited, so I just let it drop.

Our teacher walked in to the gym at that moment.

"Hello, everybody. I'm assigning you a number based on last name. Remember yours.

Bethany Arterfield, 1

Indra Battera, 2

Dani Cimorelli 3

Lauren Cimorelli, 4

Kate Davidson, 5

And so on. The funny thing was, when Bethany's name was mentioned, Dani's face went kind of pale.

"Dan, what's wrong?" I whispered.

"Um, n-nothing. Why would anything be wrong? I'm fine." She said.

She still seemed kind of shaken up, but the teacher was talking already.

"There are two tracks. A half mile and a whole mile. This is the testing area. We are going to do some preliminary testing to see where you are. Partner up and go sit in the area marked by the yellow line."

Lauren and I got up together and walked toward the the line. We didn't really need to communicate that we were partners, it was just like that. We sat down at the mat area.

"The person who's number comes first will do as many proper push ups as the can. Then the next person will do them. Same with sit-ups. Remember your number!"

Dani went first and got like 14 push-ups. We did work out at home, but it was mostly cardio and fun. I got 17. For sit-ups, Dani got 36 and I got 34. We went and told him our numbers which he recorded.

"Now we are going to do preliminary testing for the mile. Everybody line up. When you come in, listen to your time, then tell me when I ask you." He announced.

We all lined up on the beginning line of the dirt track. He blew the whistle and we started running. I kept up with Dani for a little, then I pulled ahead of her later. I got 7:11 and she got 7:31.

"Okay, thanks for giving me the times and participating in testing. P.E uniforms can be bought online. Next month by the 20th, everybody is required to wear them." He said.

The bell rang and we were both of to math, just with different teachers.

"Bye, Laur." She said.

"See you, Dani." I replied.