He Was A Ten

I Should've Stayed In Bed

I hate school. Seriously. I mean, I know I need an education, but do I really need it at eight in the morning?

I woke up that morning, more tired than usual. I had stayed up, probably later than I should've, trying to finish all my homework. I slammed the off button on my alarm clock and sighed. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I slowly slipped out of bed, the cool air hitting me instantly making me want to dive back under the covers.

I quickly threw on some jeans and some random t-shirt from my closet before pulling on my favorite sweatshirt. I grabbed my binder and stuffed it in my backpack, then ran upstairs to have breakfast.

When I got up there, my dad was already making his famous Wednesday Waffles. I put my backpack down by the door and sat at the counter to eat my waffles.

"Morning Paige," my dad grinned as he took another waffle out of the waffle iron. "Ready for school?"

"I hope so," I muttered. No matter how many reminders people gave me, I had a talent of forgetting things. That wasn't my only talent though.

I looked above my dad's head to see the same number I always had; 2. 

Ever since I could remember, I had always been able to see numbers above people's head. These numbers showed on a scale of 1-10, how dangerous the person was. The higher the number, the more dangerous the person was. So an armed assassin? A 7. The bully at my school, Chase Tucker? A 5. My annoying younger brother? Surprisingly a 1.

My mom walked into the kitchen, a 3 hovering over her head. "Morning sweetie. How did you sleep last night?"

"Well," I replied through a mouthful of waffles.

"That's good. Can't have you falling asleep in class, can we?" my mother smiled teasingly.

"I bet she will anyway," my brother taunted, stealing the last waffle on my plate. "Thanks for the waffle!"

"Joshua! Give me back my waffle!" I demanded. My dad chuckled and handed me the blueberry waffle he had just taken out of the waffle iron. "You still owe me a waffle Shortie."

Joshua smirked. "Sure. I'm the short one here."

Okay, so my twelve year old brother was just a couple inches shorter than me and I was sixteen. Whatever.

I glanced at the clock on the stove and saw that it was 7:30. "Well, the bus will be coming soon, and I don't want to be late."

I stood up to leave and my dad called after me, "Make sure to call me if you need me to pick you up after school or if you need me to drop you off!"

I rolled my eyes and replied, "Got it! Love you!"

"Love you too!" my parents called as I shut the front door behind me.

Running over to the bus stop, I stopped as I caught up with Hattie, my best friend since first grade. "Hey Hattie! You're awake!"

"Ha ha, hilarious," Hattie retorted, sticking her tongue out at me. "And, for the record, I don't sleep in that late."

"Of course you don't," I agreed. "You just miss first period once a week because you hate science."

Actually, Hattie loved science. Almost as much as my mom did. It came as little surprise that they both had the number 3 floating above their heads. Although she did have a pretty high number for someone her age.

"Whatever," Hattie told me. "At least I don't forget my best friends name."

"Hey that was one time!" I defended. "Besides, it was towards the end of first grade, I hadn't known you that long."

"Sure, you had only known me a couple months, I can understand your confusion," Hattie teased. We both laughed and waited for the bus to arrive with the other kids in our neighborhood.

While we were waiting, I noticed a boy that I didn't recognize. I nudged Hattie and asked her, "Do you know who that kid is? I don't think I've ever seen him before."

Hattie smiled teasingly. "Oh, someone's crushing."

I frowned while Hattie laughed at me. "Come on, who is he?"

"I don't know," Hattie admitted. "He must be the kid of those people who moved in next door to you."

"Wait, people moved in next door to me?" I asked. "When?"

"Last week," Hattie said. "You know. We were in English, and I asked if you had met your new neighbors yet."

"I don't remember having that conversation," I said.

"I'm not surprised," Hattie smirked. I rolled my eyes at her as the bus finally arrived.I glanced over at the boy again, trying to see what his number was. But Hattie shoved me on the bus and into a seat before I could get a good look. I tried looking at him again, but I couldn't see him. I shrugged it off and started talking to Hattie about what answers she got on the homework.

I didn't notice that the boy was sitting right behind me. If I had, maybe I would've figured out his number sooner.