The Queen Of Seas

A normal day

I woke up with my hair in my face, ready to face another day of the living hell of expectations.

"Medusa!" A melodic voice called out.

"Coming, mother!" I called in response.

Clumsily, I rolled out of bed onto the floor and crawled my way over to the bathroom.

"Alexa, play Hot girl bummer by blackbear."

The voice started bursting out of my speakers and I got off the floor as I reached the bathroom.

"Fuck you, and you, and you. I hate your friends and they hate me too. Fuck you, and you and you, I hate your friends and they hate me too!" I sang as I turned the shower on.

I danced in the shower while singing at full volume.

"This that hot girl bummer anthem, throw it up and throw a tantrum!"

I did a 360 twirl in the shower as shampoo flew out of my hair and hit the shower walls. Giggling, I turned the shower into a soap world by spreading shampoo everywhere and laughing to myself. I finished in the shower and danced while brushing my teeth to my playlist for the mornings. My hair tied into a towel and a blue ocean dress that reached my knees and black flats I grabbed my headphones and headed downstairs.

My mother laughed at me as I stopped on the stairs to lip sync and eventually started to sing to big d^#& by little big. I danced like an idiot and pulled silly wild expressions and used my phone as a microphone.

"My d%@& is big, his d%&# is very very big!"

Mother started laughing and joined me.

"I like his d@^#!" I sang
"His d×%# is big, so very very big!" She answered.

I plugged my phone into the aux chord and the speakers blared it through the house. That's the difference between my family and others. We all act like teenagers. Everyone is just really relaxed. There's no rules. It's honestly great. I know it's not a normal thing but my mother believed that with a little nudge every now and then I would become my own person I was proud to be, not someone she shaped into this perfect model of a daughter. Honestly she gets grossed out when my friends tell her about their parents expectations. Oh, that reminds me. My mother is also the principal of the school.

We quickly scoffed our food since we were running late to school, and ran for moms motorbike. I jumped on the back of her Harley and she put a helmet on my head. We sped off and laughed like maniacs as we swerved through the traffic. She used to have a car but she sold it as soon as she thought I was old enough to get on the back of the bike. We pulled into the parking lot and she ran for her office and I ran for my class.

She might be relaxed at home but as soon as we got to school we turned serious. I was raised to believe the choices I made today would effect the future. And I was greatful. When I got near the class door I smiled when I noticed that I wasn't last. There was one more person not here yet. James. He's my best friend and he's also, well relaxed for better want of words.
I walked to my desk at the front and started getting my things organised. It was another hot day as per usual in California, it's a good day for swimming practice.

Today we were presenting our speeches. Our school was different from others. We didn't have home room. Mother said it was a waste of time when we could be learning. So it got scrapped and the extra time we used to learn was also partially used to lengthen our lunch breaks. She said the system was flawed. It wasn't that students weren't paying attention, it was that they were overworked to the point they were exhausted. So she also made it a rule that students can eat and drink in class. And phones are allowed, as long as you're not on them for more than 10 minutes every 60 minutes, and they were to be on vibrate face up on your desk. She added more classes too. There was now a recreational studies class. They go camping, learn survival skills, go to the gym three times a week and just do general outdoor recreational activities. Her reasoning is that instead of gym class they can have fun and be fit at the same time, while getting away from technology and learn more about the environment. She believes that the next generations going through her school and any other school will be the ones to shape the future so it's best if you don't push them through hell and instead make it more personalised and enjoyable for the students. It creates more work for her but she doesn't mind. She says it's all worth it.

Right now I was in English. We were learning to gain more communication skills through public speaking. We could give a speech about anything as long as it somehow connected to the national curriculum which was world issues. Instead of us reading books and writing notes we could write about whatever we wanted. I wrote about pollution in the oceans and it was my turn to speak.

"Hey fish girl!" A boy called from the back of the class as I stood up.

I smiled instead of retaliating, "Do you have a question Clayton?"

"Yeah," he said and his faced turned into a smile, "Do good on the competition this week."

I smiled. Clayton was known for being not that nice of a guy and was sent to juvie a few times. His family moved here and put him in our school since we were the only ones that would take him. We believed in second chances. Or thirds. Or tenths. Or how many schools he's been to, who knows. Its none of my business. But since he's been here he's slowly been getting better.

"Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I'll talk to you after the speech."

I cleared my throat, took a deep breath and placed my speech on the pedestal in front of my class. We were a small class of 15, allowing for more intimate connections between students and staff so we didn't feel like numbers on a computer screen.

"Good morning all. I have been asked to represent Deviant High to discuss an earth shattering issue with you all. Everyday we open packets. Plastic. Everyday we spill chemicals into our waters. Everyday something gets killed for sport. Everyday we release pollution into our waters..."

Clayton wooped and I laughed. He's such a goof ball.

"That was great Medusa. But it needs editing. Can you email me you're draft so I can give feedback while Clayton does his speech?" Miss Darlington asked.

I nodded with a smile and walked back to my desk while Clayton walked up to the front.

"Hey, I know all of you so I'm gonna keep this casual. I'm going to talk to you about how messed up life is..."

I glanced over at Miss. Darlington to see whether she was gonna let him continue because none of us knew where this was going. She simply said nothing and Clayton continued to stammer through his speech. Which actually had incredible ideas. The only issue was. Other than that the speech sucked. He sat back down at the back of the class and I chuckled at the thought when I realised he must have tried so hard not to swear in his speech. This is the first one that hasn't been swearing. There was one other but he presented it as a song. The nugget.

"Good job Clayton. Now remember to send me your draft this time instead of drawings of dragons. You can ask Medusa to help you organise your laptop." Miss Darlington said.

Clayton smiled at me and I waved a hand and chuckled. He's so messy. But he's a lot better than his girlfriend. Her name is Nui and she is an utter mess. You should see her room at home. I shivered thinking about it and chuckled. Maybe I should help her at it too. They were both in this class and the two of them were inseparable. It was adorable. He muttered something and she playfully slapped him and tried so hard not to laugh at his reaction. Her brown hair was a mess just like everything else and the only thing she bought to school was a pen. The rest of it was borrowed from Clayton. They worked together on everything.

"Nui, you're up!" Miss Darlington called.

Nui groaned and nervously smiled at Miss Darlington.

"Hey miss. You know how much you're my favourite teacher? How annoyed would you be if I were to tell you I lost it?" Nui sweet talked.

I giggled again. She always does this. I'm partially worried but somehow she always ends up pulling through with an A. How? No idea.

"Get a draft to me by 3pm and do your speech 1st break tomorrow." Miss Darlington said.

Nui nodded and released a sigh of relief. It's not that Nui doesn't want to get her work done. She's just in a lot of pain right now, she just needs her own space to do her own thing. It'll only be a 30 minutes until she manages to type something up for miss, and another hour to edit. She'll probably do it during another class again. Most likely recreational studies. They have theory today and she finished her assessment on safety for rock climbing the same lesson it was given to her.

I don't know how she does it. That and their relationship isn't really supported that well by others. I hope people get over it eventually. They're actually really nice together. She helps him a lot and whether she's ready to admit it or not. He helps her deal with the pain she tries so hard to hide.