𝒻𝒾𝓇𝓈𝓉 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 ~ 𝒿𝑒𝓃𝓏𝒾𝑒.

chapter seven • "change"

Mackenzie.

August 13th

It was the second day of the school, and I didn't want to go. But, it would probably be better than the weekend that just passed. I spent Saturday Face-timing Annie and Nadia, and Sunday I binge watched Netflix with Maddie. The shows consisted of On my Block and The Fosters.

I rolled out of bed and looked in the closet for an outfit. I decided on denim shorts and a simple black T-Shirt. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and I saw Maddie doing her makeup. "Hey, Mads," I greeted her, putting toothpaste on my toothbrush.

She eyed me weirdly. "Hey," she replied. "Why are you so happy?"

I laughed out loud. "Me? Happy to go to school?" I laughed again. "Never!"

Maddie joined in my laughing fit, and we laughed for a solid 2 minutes. Finally, we got back to what we were doing. After I was done, we went downstairs to get breakfast. Dad was nowhere to be found. Maddie looked almost happy about it.

I found a note on the kitchen counter. I skimmed over it. "Dad says he had to go to work early," I told Maddie. "We have to take the bus. The stop is right down the road."

Maddie scoffed. "I thought he said 'us celebrities shouldn't take the bus." We laughed again.

We decided on having waffles. After we were done, we headed out so we wouldn't miss the bus. Maddie locked the door behind us; there was a house key also on the counter.

When we reached the stop, I saw a few people I saw at school. It was like everyone lived in this neighborhood.

"Kenzie!"

I turned around and saw Lauren walking towards us, a big smile on her face. I also saw Johnny behind her.

"Hey, Lauren," I said when they reached Maddie and I. Johnny walked away from us to other people. What was his deal? He was fine on Friday.

Lauren gave me a big hug. "I can't believe we ride the same bus!" She said in astonishment. "We should all sit next to each other in the back. Don't worry; Johnny sits the back, too."

My eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "Why would I care if Johnny sits there, too?" I said.

Lauren laughed. "Sorry!" She changed the subject, even though I wanted a real answer. "I can't believe they gave us homework on the weekend."

The bus came a few minutes later, and everyone went in. Maddie and I followed Lauren to the back, which was surprisingly empty. Johnny was already sitting there. I sat down in between Lauren and Maddie.

Hopefully today would be better.

. . .

Lunch finally came, and I was so hungry. English and history tired me out. I had forgotten to make my lunch, so I had to go in line. I found myself behind Johnny. "Hey!" He said to me.

"Hey," I replied. "I was thinking of some song lyrics last night. I'll tell you in music."

Johnny nodded. "Yeah, me too. But I didn't exactly get to write them down since my friends were teasing me about writing songs again..."

"I heard what they said about you not making it into the industry, and that's not true," I told him. "Everyone had a chance. Just don't listen to them."

"Thanks," Johnny said, a smile appearing on his face. We finally got into the lunch serving area, and I picked up a tray with pizza. I love pizza, but every show I watch says school lunch is disgusting. Hopefully it's not.

I saw Maddie waving me over, and I walked over to the table. It was basically all the same people from Friday. Thankfully, no one was crowding the table. I sat in between Lauren and Maddie.

"Tomorrow is Club Day," Lauren informed me. "What clubs are you going to join? There's a bunch of things, like dance, chess, Future Problem Solvers, technology, S.T.E.M, and other stuff."

I shrugged. "Maybe dance," I answered. "But I don't know."

"Well, while you guys do your girly stuff," Cody said, earning eye rolls from everyone, "Us guys are trying out for the basketball team, so you should come to a game or two."

Lauren laughed. "As if you guys will make it," she said. "Most of the sports teams here are full of seniors. You'll probably only make junior varsity, and barely anyone shows up to those games."

"Well, I'm trying out for cheer," Brynn said. "You guys should, too!"

Cheerleading? Really? First of all, Maddie and I will only be here for a month, and secondly, I've practically been told all my life that dance will always be more important than cheer. It was basically just girls in short shorts moving pom-poms around, as so I was told.

But, to my surprise, Maddie looked like she was actually taking it into consideration. "I'll think about it," she told Brynn.

"Great!" She said. "Tryouts are on the 20th. My sister is on the varsity team, so I kind of know how it works."

"Well, guys, looks like we got some cheerleaders," Jack said, making everyone laugh. His laugh was so cute...Stop it, Kenzie!

The pizza wasn't that bad. After lunch, everyone headed for the student lounge. I had Spanish next. None of the others electives besides music sounded interesting, so I just went for Spanish. However, it was already hard. I just wish I could only go to music then go home. But, life isn't fair.

The bell rang. We were barely in the lounge for two minutes! I found Lauren in the crowd and started walking next to her. We had three classes together: English, Spanish, and gym. I already hated gym. Back on the first day, Coach Casey made us do the Pacer test and a few other tests. I felt bad for public school kids who had to do that all their life.

I was glad Spanish was downstairs, going up and down the stairs was annoying. "Mrs. Martinez said we're just going to look at English and Spanish word comparisons today," Lauren told me. "But my sister took her class and said that it gets harder. Like, you have to write a 500 word story all in Spanish."

I groaned. Hopefully I left before I would have to do that. "I can barely speak English!" I exclaimed. Lauren laughed.

So far, school wasn't going as horrible as I expected. Sure, I missed sleeping in my own bed, hanging out with my friends, and doing my normal things. But, maybe I needed a change.

~

{1105 words}