The Signing

Notebooks

        When I got to my school, Rock Creek High, there were only a few students meandering about. I made my up to the second floor of the main building and headed to the right and down the hall to get to my math class. I looked through the window to find a dark and empty classroom. Damn it. I decided to sit on the ground and wait until my teacher got there.

        It was only a couple minutes before Mr. Richards arrived. "Hello Ms. Mitchell, what brings you here so early?" he questioned.

        "I just needed to ask you a few questions before we take the test today," I explained.

        "Okay, come right in." He held the door open for me and I smiled and walked in. I set my backpack down at my seat, since I felt that putting it anywhere else would be abnormal and foreign. I took out my notes and sat in the plastic chair next to Mr. Richards' desk. I proceeded to ask him my questions, only to find out that I had been doing three-quarters of the problems wrong.

        I nodded my head and pretended to understand the jibberish he was speaking to me, but left feeling more confused than before. By that time, the first bell had rung and I walked to my first period class, photography 2.

        The class was a joke, to be honest, but I found photography fun and it was a great way to take my mind off of math, even though I probably should've been thinking about it. A couple people came up to me and wished me a happy birthday, which also made me more relaxed. I knew a lot of people in school, but I only had a small group of really close friends. The class was over sooner than I had planned, so I made my way back across campus and back up to math.

        As I got into class, I saw that everyone was frantically reading through their notes and practicing problems to take advantage of the last few seconds. The bell rang as I sat down in my seat, and Mr. Richards stood up, tests in hand.

        I tried to take deep breaths, to no avail. My heart was pounding and I knew I should've studied more, but what could I do about it now? I accepted the fact that I wasn't going to do well on this, which was a good thing because once I got my test, I realized I really didn't have the slightest clue what I was doing.

        I wound up guessing on about half of the problems, which didn't rest well on my mind. As if that wasn't enough stress, Mr. Richards likes to put the scantrons through the machine and grade them direcly after you finish taking the test. The machine made a ticking noise on each one you got wrong, so the whole class had a good idea of how you did.

        I finished my test and handed my scantron to Mr. Richards, who took it and pushed it through the machine. I could've sworn it ticked more times than the number of bubbles on the page. I walked to my seat and daydreamed about how this would go over with my parents as the minutes dragged by. I thought of a couple short ideas for songs and jotted them down in my songbook, careful that no one saw what they were.

        The bell finally rang and I headed downstairs and to the outside tables where I sat with my friends and ate lunch. I was the first one there, so I took out my sandwich and was about to take a bite when I heard a concerned, "Hey, Violet..."

        I turned around to see Desiree standing there with a worried look on her face. "Yeah?"

        "I just wanted to talk to you about something," she started, her eyes beginning to tear up. She sat down next to me and looked me in the eye. "I haven't been completely honest with you lately."

        "About?" I questioned, my face growing concerned too.

        "You see, I won these tickets..." She paused. I began assuming the worst. She was moving away and this was when she was going to tell me. Her parents are sending her to boarding school. She got plane tickets to spend a year in South Africa. "So we are both going to meet 5 Seconds of Summer in two months. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but happy birthday?"

        "WHAT?!" I questioned, my face still wearing a worried expression as hers grew slightly more joyful. "WAIT, WHAT?"

        "I said we are going to meet 5 Seconds of Summer," she calmly explained again.

        "No I heard that, but WHAT? Dez, if this this is some kind of joke, it's not fucking funny," I warned her.

        A smile grew on her face and she held back a laugh saying, "It's not a joke."

        My face matched her giddy expression. I took a deep breath. "Okay."

        "Do you believe me?" She asked, her hazel eyes staring at me.

        "NO!" I screamed excitedly. We both had a laughing spell and when we finally regained our compositions, I wanted to get more info. "Okay, spill. How? Where? Why? When? Tell me everything."

        "Okay, so Friday night, I was listening to my radio when I heard the opening chord to She Looks So Perfect." I suddenly recalled the same thing happening to me. "And the announcer started talking about winning these meet and greets and I was like 'Oh god, I have to win these.' So I started frantically calling, but I kept on getting the annoying beeps, so I called once more and it went through and they said 'Congratulations! You are caller number 98!' And I started screaming and crying and told them I was going to go with my best friend as her birthday present. I hoped to god you weren't listening when I said that. So yeah, it's on June 29 and they even gave us front row tickets to their show!"

        "Oh my god," was all I was able to say.

        "What?" Dez asked me.

        "I was listening to the radio. I tried calling to win. I was caller number 99. I heard the winner screaming and it gave me a headache so I shut off my radio before she said a word." We both sat with somewhat disappointed faces due to my luck at calling, but soon burst into hysterics at how close I had come to ruining the surprise.

        "Okay, so you are coming to my place after school and we are going to buy notebooks and write a  giantass letter to the boys, deal?"

        "Yeah, of course!" I started texting Katrina to let her know where I would be after school, but the bell interrupted me. I looked up away from my phone and to Desiree, then down to my sandwich, then back up at Dez. "Shit." We both laughed and gathered up our things to walk to physics together.