Saving the Reject | Michael Clifford | Editing

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| s y d n e y |

The Australian winter was quick to fade to spring, and even quicker to fade to summer.  January in Sydney was close to as hot as August in New York, and the fact was very odd to Charli.  She felt as though summer had cheated her, and winter had lost her. It was a shame, winter was her favorite season.

Term had started up again at Norwest, which meant possible schedule changes for the student body, but it was certain for Charli considering her pervious fifth period of Statistics hadn't been a year-long class.  She unconsciously smoothed out her uniform as she stepped into her Advanced Placement Psychology class.

"Charli!" she heard, but by the time she'd actually looked up, all she saw was the wildly curly brown hair of one of her best friends. Immediately, she hugged her back, chuckling.  "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Oh, come on, Scar," Charli laughed.  "I saw you, like, three days ago!"

"Can't I just be happy to see my best friend?" Scarlett answered.

The two of them didn't get to speak much more than that, the bell interrupting them and beginning first class of the day.  Their teacher, Ms. Elmore, quickly got into her lesson, waiting until the end of the period to hand out the changed schedules, to which Charli was one of the five to receive.  "What's your new fifth?" Scarlett questioned, sitting on the top of Charli's desk.  Only five minutes were left in the class, and luckily, Ms. Elmore wasn't the type to teach to the bell.

Charli examined her new schedule, and gladly saw that it was remarkably the same, in all but her fifth period.  "It looks like I have it open," she sighed.  "I specifically asked my councilor not to give me an open period.  Do you know how bad that looks on transcripts?"

"Char, you already applied, what's the big deal?" Scarlett asked, obviously amused.

"They're still gonna look at it, and that's not gonna fly with NYU," said Charli, beginning to become very stressed about a very small thing. She knew that this was probably a stupid thing to get worried about, and probably made her out to be very pretentious, but she didn't care all that much. She knew who she was and that was enough.

"Just talk to your councilor, then.  I'm sure you can work something out."

Charli sighed as the bell rang, ending first period.  "You're right," she breathed, "I'll talk to him."

The two parted ways at the end of the hall - Charli turning left towards the Math Hall, while Scarlett turned right, making her way towards the Music Department.  Charli walked comfortably - not even her now stressful situation stopped her from smiling to the people she knew as they waved to her.  She knew only half of the school, because, as much as she hated to say it, this school was very much divided.  It wasn't your classic sporty-to-nerdy separation, and thankfully not a racial segregation - no, it was all about GPA.  Norwest was split into two main groups: the kids who were going to college, and those who weren't.  It was a line that didn't often blur, in fact, Charli had rarely come in contact with the 'peasantry' (as she had so often heard them being called).  She, herself, refused to think of her less-educationally-motivated peers as any lower human beings than herself, and that was a rare trait to come by at her school.

"Hey, Charli," came a voice to her left.  At the turn of her head, Charli's eyes settled on a slim, blond boy with entrancing brown eyes.

"Noah!" greeted Charli, giving the boy a friendly side hug.  "How are you?"

"Good, good," he responded.  "Can I walk you to class?"

Charli chuckled a little.  "Considering we're going to the same classroom, sure, why not?"