Different

Chapter 26

I had art first period today, so I was with all the girls. Miss Carson told us that we had to draw our shoes. Was this the most fun thing she could come up with? Art teachers always try too hard and always manage to pick the most stupid thing imaginable. We all took off one of our shoes and put it on the table. Since we ‘need to accurately capture the shadows’ as if anyone even cared.

We never put much effort into art, we just used it to gossip mainly. Drawing shoes was just something to do with our hands. ‘So you need tutoring in chemistry, Jen?’ said Courtney smirking. Here we go.

‘Yeah. Ugh who even cares about chemistry anyway?’ I replied.

‘I know, it’s shit.’ Courtney replied with a bored tone.

‘How often are you being tutored?’ Savannah asked curiously.

‘Every Tuesday and Thursday.’ I replied.

‘Ugh. That sucks.’ Tamzin said. ‘Who are you being tutored by anyway?’ Ugh nooo. Why did she have to ask me this?

‘Luke.’ I replied as if it was the most boring word on the planet.

‘Which Luke? There’s 3 that I can think of.’ Courtney said frowning slightly.

‘I don’t know his last name.’ White lies are so useful sometimes. Courtney shrugged her shoulders, no longer interested. Good. Savannah caught my eye, I looked away trying to make it as inconspicuous as possible.

After art ended we all had gym together. We walked down the corridors towards the gym. Further down the hallway I saw Luke. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and pretended to be intently looking at it as we walked past him. I couldn’t risk him letting Courtney know that he was tutoring me.

We got changed for gym and then got told by Mrs Heywood that we were doing cross country. Ugh. I hated it when we had to do sports that you actually had to participate in. When we did stuff like netball or hockey you could mostly stay out of the way and avoid it, but you can’t do that with cross country unfortunately.

We started running round the field. Tamzin and Savannah were somewhere behind me and Courtney was in front. After a while I was starting to get breathless, I was focusing on running when I heard a high pitched scream. I looked up and saw Courtney and another girl on the ground, looking as if they’d been thrown there. Everyone else had stopped running and Mrs Heywood had gone over to make sure they were ok. I walked towards them to see that Courtney was ok.

Mrs Heywood would pressing on her leg and Courtney was yelping dramatically. ‘It’s not broken Courtney, calm down.’

‘Let me go to the nurse!.’ Courtney said with a whiny voice.

Mrs Heywood sighed. ‘Who wants to take her to the nurse?’ she asked.

‘I will.’ I replied, I don’t even know why she asked, it was kind of obvious. The rest of our class had crowded round us all now. I’d only just realised that everyone was ignoring the other girl who was still on the ground. I think her name was Kelsey or Kayleigh or something?

I pulled Courtney up with the help of another girl and she threw her arm over my shoulder to hold herself up. We started to slowly walk away, since she was limping really badly. When Mrs Heywood was busy talking to another girl Courtney turned around to face Kayleigh or Kelsey or whoever she was. ‘If you ever come near me again you fat bitch I will end your fucking life. Got it?’ she nastily hissed in the girl’s face. Then we carried on walking as if nothing had happened.

I mean it was true, the girl was fat, but it was still a bit harsh to say it to her face. When we got inside Courtney started walking normally again. ‘I thought you hurt your leg?’ I said confused. She laughed in response ‘Nah, I’m fine. Just felt like making Kacey feel like shit.’ Kacey, that was her name. ‘Why?’

‘Because she’s fat, she needs motivation to lose some of that whale blubber.’ I still thought it was mean, but couldn’t help laughing at her whale blubber comment. We carried on walking to the nurse’s office.