The Town of Ruins

Chapter Two

Here's where the story begins:

February 2, 2068

I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door. "Cassie honey, time for school." I heard my mom call through the door. "Okay mom, I'll be out in a second." I replied, as I looked at the clock. 6:25. Why does she always have to wake up so early? School doesn't even start until eight. I got up and went to take a shower. The water was cold so I waited for it to warm up before I got in. When I was finished, and I got out of the shower I walked to my closet, I thought about how today might turn out. I was excited. Carter and I were supposed to hang out later, and I couldn't wait. I looked through my clothes, wondering which outfit I should wear. I finally decided on my white ice skating dress that has silver sparkles all over it, my white tights, and my white flats with silver flowers on the tips like Tinkerbell's cotton puffs. I know what your thinking, Why are you wearing an ice skating dress to go to school? Well, that is because the dresses look cuter, in my opinion, than anything else I own. It's not like it's illegal or something, it's just my style. Anyway, once I was dressed, I walked over to my mirror and put my hair up. It took a while, because my hair is so long, it goes down to the middle of my thigh, but I finally got it brushed and up in a ponytail. I wasn't allowed to wear makeup because my Great-Grandpa Jeremy said I was too beautiful for it. Everyone else agreed, but I just didn't understand. I stood back and looked at my outfit altogether, and realized how pale and colorless I was. A white and silver outfit, with my platinum blonde hair, and my skin that is almost the color of snow. I wanted to change, but I heard my mom calling me from the living room saying it was time to go. I looked at the clock and realized she was right. It read 7:40. I grabbed my bag that had lyrics from my favorite song, Bad Juju, and quotes from my favorite book, Something Wicked This Way Comes, along with drawings of phoenixes that my best guy friend Simon drew for me, on it. It was the kind of material that you can write on, then wash and the writing comes out as long as you use the special markers that come with it. I also had a stuffed dog that my friends and I drew on when we were bored. When I walked into the living room my mom handed me a granola bar and some coffee and said, "We're going to be late. Maybe I should wake you up earlier next time. Or maybe you shouldn't take such long showers." I thought about it and realized it wasn't the shower that took so long. "Actually, my hair takes a good ten minutes to brush you know." I said. "Well next time, wake up earlier so we aren't late." She said with a laugh.

We got in the elevator and pressed six. Rather than going down from level five to six, the elevator carried us up to level three where the teachers for the young and middle grades (who are also married) got on. The elevator then proceeded down to six. We all got off and walked toward the classrooms just as the bell rang to mark the tardies. The other two teachers walked into their classrooms and began attempting to calm their students down. My mom and I walked into the high grades classroom, where my boyfriend and three best friends began throwing popcorn at us and saying we were late. As I took my seat behind Millie, beside Simon and Chrissy, and in front of Carter, my mom walked to her desk in front of the chalk board and began teaching. While she was talking about algebra and how to do synthetic division, Carter started playing with my hair. "Do we still get to hang out later, babe?" He whispered. "Of course, silly. Why wouldn't we?" I whispered back. He was about to answer when my mom yelled at us for not paying attention. She turned around and wrote a problem on the board, then had Carter go up to the front of the class and solve it. When he was finished, he put the chalk in its holder, and walked back to his seat. Then, mom erased that problem Carter had done and put another on the board for me to do. When I finished, she let me sit back down and I watched her look over the problem to see if I did it right, which I did. Algebra is kind of my thing. As the classroom listened to mom teach about algebra, then eventually move on to biology and English, I watched Millie glance over at Lily more than she should have. I wanted to tell her to stop before someone noticed, but it was too late. Mom said, "Girls, if you can't stop talking I'll move you apart." After which both girls looked down at their desks. Thank goodness she thought they were just talking. Carter started rubbing my back and playing with my hair as a way to tell me to stop being so tense. When mom was passing out our homework sheets for the morning, she said, "You all may not be able to finish these three sheets before you go to lunch, so I expect them to be turned in first thing tomorrow. You have one sheet of synthetic division, one sheet of filling out periodic table squares from memory, and one sheet of sentence corrections. I realize that this may be a lot, but if you get started now and don't talk you might get down to only one sheet for homework."