Losing My Mind

2 - Cameron

The new girl is due to arrive today. Somehow I got stuck being her escort, which is completely unfair. The teachers just want an excuse to give me extra work, or at least, more than usual. I have to catch up on any class work and I'm sure everyone is going to be celebrating when they realise I'm the only one who has to complete it as homework.

I didn't even want to give the new girl a tour. Why does she need a tour? Why do they always need a tour?

Maps are awesome.

Maps are a thing of the past, present, and future. They don't crash you into huge buildings because the huge buildings come up on maps. They don't lead you into a no right turn area because it's put on there, and they don't need charging. The one thing they do need, though, are waterproof pages.

I've managed to drop every single map I own into a puddle at least once.

I don't have time to lead a clueless nobody around the school, pointing out the various artefacts that they've probably already read about on wiki. Kids google the interior of our school all the time, some of the ex-students make a living from selling photos of the inside of the school. It's crazy. I'd much rather spend my money on good food or on parts for my project. I have to win the building competition! It's my life goal.

My flying car. She's a piece of art. I call her CB, 'cause I couldn't come up with anything better than Car Bike, and CB sounds so much better.

There's the girl. She's just standing there, turning around in circles to look at everything. Weird enough, she looks pretty. She must be a study freak to get in without looking like a complete hobo on the first day. Either that, or she found the showers.

The second thing that surprises me is that she's almost my age. I thought I was the youngest here, but now I have someone else I can use to avoid the constant mocking. Damn. The girl's taller than me by a few centimetres. Then I glance down at her feet. She's cheating. She has at least 3 inch high heels and I stare at her ankles for a few moments, puzzling over the fact that she can walk properly in them without the heel cracking or anything. My sister had once forced me into heeled shoes.

Pretty girls in movies always snap their heels off their shoes. If I took her shoes off I'd be taller. Why do girls love to be giants looming over everyone? Although, she  barely makes it to everyone else's shoulders. Welcome to my world. Two of the teachers are watching me intently. I know they're expecting me to run, since last time I had to give a tour I ditched my person in the middle of a corridor and ran. It wasn't my fault. The teachers don't get it.

I can't tell someone how our school won every single trophy on the wall over and over when aliens could very well be invading. It's a possibility, and that possibility overrules my responsibility of being a tour guide. At least, that's what I told the assistant principal. They didn't buy it, so I got mad. I think I might actually need some control classes.

I'm not that bad unless I'm provoked. My temper tantrums end up with innocent old teachers with screws all through their fake beards and horrid wigs, and the occasional sewing needle flying through a fancy window, but it really isn't my fault. I have great excuses for every circumstance, like the time when-

You know what, never mind.

I need to give this fake giant a tour of our humongous school. One of the teachers looks at me with their squinty eyes and I poke my tongue out at them, knowing it will take them a while to remember who I am, and by then they'll probably have forgotten all about what I did.

"Hi" I tap the girl's shoulder and she whirls around.

"Hi! You're a short kid!" She beams and I fix her with a glare. "Are you here to show me around?" I stop to think at her question, wondering if I should risk it. I do. I might as well.

"It's a school rule that new students can't wear high heels." I say matter-of-factly. She pauses.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware of that." She begins to undo her shoes and I notice that her nails are painted in a lavender purple polish. "Should I take them off?" I just stare at her open mouthed. Does this kid have a brain? You don't just take your shoes off in the middle off the hall. That should be an actual rule, she looks like an idiot.

"Okay kid, just come over here away from the rushing students and get some flat shoes from your bag or something." I feel bad now. It isn't a real rule that you can't wear high heels, I just wanted to be taller than someone for once. Being the youngest in the school hasn't been easy.

"What's your name?" she says, fishing around in her suitcase. A photo clatters to the ground and I snatch it up before she can get it back.

"Cameron." I answer, examining the photograph for anything concealed in the side of it. Nothing.

"Hey! Give it back! You know that's really rude, right?" I hold the photo above her reach and she jump for it, just missing each time. She grabs my wrist and pulls it down to her other hand and plucks the frame from my immobilised fingers. "Thank you." I smile at her strategy. I'm gonna use it next time someone steals my phone. She packs it back into the middle of her bag and takes out a pair of black flats. "Happy?"

"Ecstatic, shorty." She punches my arm and I laugh.

"That wasn't even a real rule. Aren't tour guides supposed to tell people the actual rules and not lies?"

"I didn't make it up!" I say. "I'm just an innocent child who's been teased too many times for their height."

"How old are you?" She asks.

"15 turning 16 sometime soon." I answer.

"You're an old man!" She cries.

"How old are you then?"

"14," she replies. "And a half."

"Old lady!"

"Hey! You're a copycat Cameron." I realise I have no name to call her by.

"What's your name? If I'm going to give you a tour I have to know which idiot to ask for when you get lost."

"Illeah. Make sure you spell it right, cuz I'm not I-L-I-A or some hybrid of my name. I'm I-L-L-E-A-H. Illeah. Say it."

"Okay, Illeah. That's nice."

"Not as pretty as Cameron." She quips.

"Excuse me? Did you just insult my very manly name?" I place my hands next to the sides of her head on the wall, and she looks down at her feet in mock bashfulness.

'I didn't, Miss Cameron. I swear." I was starting to like this kid a lot. If only she was a boy I could spend years with her in my room, just annoying the crap out of each other. I realise we have a small audience gathered at the opening of a tunnel I had wandered into. The walls are a blueish hue and the floor is a marble tile floor, much like the rest of the school.

"What are you children staring at?" A teacher's voice echoed through the tunnel. I hear one voice, maybe Thomas's, say something about the new girl being taught a lesson. Another older student told the teacher that we had been kissing and everyone had gathered to see how long we could hold it. I shuddered at the thought of it. The punishment for kissing a girl is severe. The teacher in question is none other than the one who assigned me my mission. Damn it. I'm doomed now.

"Cameron Lerramore! Don't you dare!" But it's too late.

"Run!" I shout to Illeah, who has already gotten to her feet. Even if I didn't kiss her, no one would ever believe me. I show the student who told the teacher the lie my special reserved finger for people who get me in trouble. He just shakes his head as I run from the teacher. I'm so glad we're not in a video game right now. If we were, the teacher would have thrown some inanimate, or possibly animate object at me. As it isn't a video game, there is no restart button. I won't get out of a month of detention, but I might get out of cleaning duty. Cleaning duty is the absolute worst. You miss out on all your favourite subjects to clean the hallways and cafeteria, then you have to go back to class for maths and all the boring subjects that absolutely everyone excels in.

Except for me.

I honestly have no idea how I got into the school, but they haven't kicked me out yet, so I must be doing something right. The school just doesn't want me to stop working on my car so they can start taking the credit for all the ideas, then steal all the profits.