Goodnews Hurts

The day had started bleak as the Monday before- only today, at least we had the delightful bonus of a school assembly in the gymnasium, and I was already late. Though trying to sneak in and hiding at the very back of the assembly line seemed like an ingenious idea, I could still see my mother in her row of seats staring bullets at me for being late. 'How could the daughter of the school's principal who was also head-girl be late?'

After the morning assembly, the bell rang- so we filed into our classes for our first lesson; mine was Math. My teacher took it upon himself to always single out the head-girl- an act I never once appreciated. He'd ask me to come up to the board and solve a sum (basic eight-year-old math), luckily they were usually simple. But today we were studying fractions, which I was terrible at. So he showed pity and called someone else up- The new girl. Honestly, I never did like this girl. She was smart, super pretty...but completely obnoxious. Her grades rivaled mine- every time she would ace a problem I failed, she'd rub it in my face and claim her god-awful name was her lucky charm.

"Goodnews has struck again!" she cheered.

I didn't like Goodnews. She reciprocated my sentiments. But the entire school female population adored her, therefore they naturally hated me. Cast out of their precious circle, I was forced to befriend mainly guys- and everyone labeled me as a tomboy. I adored the playfulness of having only male friends though; I could wrestle, tell rude jokes and have people laugh, wear whatever I liked and most importantly, I could say whatever was on my mind. My parents, on the other hand, hated my unladylike behavior, so I kept my antics on strictly the school premises.

On this special Tuesday, it seemed our shenanigans went a bit too far. The guys formulated a plan during recess to flip all the girl's skirts up as a prank and at the time, I was enthusiastic to execute it on a particular person. I took it upon myself to flip Goodnews', just out of spite. But there was a twist: fuming, she glared and spat back;

"If you stupid boys are going to flip all the girl's skirts, flip hers as well!" then she flipped my skirt before I could stop her. "It's only fair." 

Flabbergasted, a dreaded high pitched feminine shriek escaped from my lips as I tackled that scheming witch to the ground and taught her a lesson. Soon, our fight was broken up and I was sent to the principal's office before being sent home in disgrace. My father just about had a fit. I was punished, forced to kneel in the corner of the living room to reflect on my bad behavior. But even then, it didn't bother me. What was on my mind was how Goodnews had reminded me of my femininity by lifting my skirt.