Hopeless, Breathless

Chapter 4 - Mallin' It Up

Have I ever said how much I hate detention?

Because I do.

They have you sit in a desk and literally just stare at a freaking wall. I understand that they want to torture us, but if they wanted to do that they could honestly just make us learn. They don’t even let us do our homework. Someone really needs to reevaluate this whole detention system.

I actually start counting the seconds. How is it that each minute seems so long right now but in the morning when I wake up they go by in the blink of an eye? This clock is rigged, I swear.

I decide to analyze Ms. Hamilton. Her glasses are literally from the 80’s, and not in a good way. They’re hideous. And her outfit…she needs to understand how to match. Her face is slightly wrinkly and her bright red lipstick is burning my eyes. Her eye shadow was probably meant to match her outfit but it doesn’t. And then there’s that weird mole she has on her right jaw, which I can’t even begin to describe without wincing. And nobody even wants to know what that looks like if they don’t have to. If all of these flaws were placed on someone else with a good personality, they could probably be overlooked. But Ms. Hamilton has the worst personality in the entire world – it’s a wonder she’s not married.

I'm kind of extremely judgemental.

The time passes painfully slowly, until finally I’m free. Out of this prison at last. On my way out, I am about to give Ms. Hamilton the dirtiest look in the world, but I figure it probably wouldn’t help my case if she saw it. I drive home to find that I have the house to myself. I don’t really like the house to myself, so I text Rachel.

To: Rach<3

Wanna mall it up? I'm boooooorrreeeddddd

A few seconds later, I receive a response.

From: Rach<3

I’ll pick you up in 15 :)

Well that was easy enough. I clamber up the stairs and pull out Harold. I have time right now, so why not?

Dear Journal,

Hey Harold. I didn’t address this to you just because I thought it would sound weird, in case you were wondering. Even though inanimate objects don’t wonder…

Anyway.... I had detention with Hamilton today. Ugh. That woman makes me want to throw yogurt at small children (is that weird?). Literally, I think her life goal is to give students hell. She needs to leave our school forever. It’s about time she retires. I don’t care that she’s probably only 50 – she wears a flashing sign that reads ‘I AM HERE TO KILL SMALL CHILDREN AND TURN STUDENTS INTO HOMICIDAL MANIACS’. No joke.

So now I’m going to go to the mall with Rachel and shop my pain away. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with shopping. It’s so much…work (I’m lazy, okay?). But I like clothes. Why can’t cute clothes just show up at my house?

OH, I forgot to tell you about my AP Gov tutor, didn’t I? Yeah, I did - I didn’t write in here yesterday. Well anyway, he’s super cute and nice and he’s super smart and he’s kind of perfect. Yeah. Except I asked him if he wanted to get fro-yo with me and he turned me down so…

Yeah. Okay, I’m done talking now since Rachel’s probably coming soon and I REALLY have to pee. Bye Harold. :)

Love, Noelle

Rachel arrives a millisecond later. Or what felt like a millisecond. There is honestly no time to do anything! Next thing I know, I’ll be graduating high school.

The two of us drive to Willowbrook Mall, one of the only good things about this town. It has every store a girl could possibly dream of (even Build-a-Bear Workshop) and there is food everywhere. It’s one of the good things about shopping, except then there’s the fact that it’s so big that it takes hours to shop.

We both buy dresses for the Winter Formal, which is over a month away. I figure I won’t exactly gain or lose that much weight before the dance so the dress would still fit me even after all the time. I’m fairly untalented in any area of athletics or any type of anything for that matter, so it’s not like I’d be doing any type of physical activity anyway. My body somehow manages to stay balanced out with everything for some reason. I eat like a pig and am lazier than everyone I know.

Rachel, on the other hand, has to work out heavily just to stay in shape. She doesn’t eat as much as me, but she’s the same size. She hates that I’m skinny without any effort, but she’s in love with running so I guess it doesn’t really matter to her.

The only thing I’m worried about is that I have to find a date for the dance. I don’t exactly do the whole “crush” thing. I think a guy is hot or I think a guy is nice. I don’t fall for them. It’s basically a waste of time. There are so many people in the world – what are the chances that the person you like will like you back? I mean, if a guy asks me out, then what the hey – why not say yes? But I won’t ever make the first move and I refuse to go crazy over some guy.

Maybe I’ll just take Hunter as my date.

Wait, never mind, that’s gross.

“Rach, you’re so lucky you have a boyfriend. You already have a date for the dance while I’ll probably have to pay some freshman to come with me.”

She snorts, “Freshmen boys – what hotties.”

“Some of us have to stoop low for a date.”

“Elle, any guy in our grade would love to go with you – you’re gorgeous and funny and everything a guy would want. You just don’t want to go with any of them.”

“The guys in our grade? Yuck.”

“Like freshmen are better?”

I roll my eyes as we walk up to the smoothie counter. We both order our drinks before sitting down at one of the booths in the food court. Real chairs are for losers.

I have one of those black out things again. Plus, I feel a headache coming on. I have no idea what’s going on with my body lately. I’m getting sick or something and it’s getting annoying now.

I take a few deep breaths and a sip of my cold, refreshing smoothie. My vision comes back quickly, but the headache persists. Maybe if I bang my head against the table enough times my head will fall off and I won’t feel the pain anymore.

“Elle?” Rachel asks, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah. Sorry.”

“It’s fine…” she says with confusion. She gives me a look asking me to clarify, but I just shake my head. I have no idea what’s going on, but I want it to stop.

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Wait but I'm actually not gonna finish NaNoWriMo since it's halfway through the month and hadifhaiuerhtiuah okay please comment & vote! I don't really get a lot of comments, but please comment! I wanna know your thoughts on this story!! thanks for reading! :) xoxo