Students slowly piled into the classroom, walking—no, more like dragging their selves into the one-hour cage we call classroom. Cassie plopped herself onto the seat next to mine, her green dyed hair covering her face. She never liked fixing her mane of a hair. Sometimes, I wonder if she ever brushes her hair. Small nose, rosy cheeks, fair skin and innocent ocean eyes, she is truly a beauty. Boys often jumped into puddles for her. I meant it literally! Once we were in a trip with the whole class as a parting gift for our teacher and it rained the whole day. It sucked a lot our planned activities were mostly outdoors. Cassie almost fell face first into a relatively large puddle when out of nowhere a couple of boys jumped and landed into the puddle. Instead of being embarrassed covered in mud, they were blushing and visibly shivering (which was very creepy and I don't want to know what's going through their head) when she said, 'Thank you and I'm sorry!' Then there was this joyful chatter in the far corner of the park, to which I don't want to know what they were once again talking about.

"Evelyn, I'm sleepy," she groaned and slumped back on her seat. Minutes later, the door slammed opened and a fat bald man in his late thirties slowly walked in. He dropped his things on the table emitting a loud noise. I saw Cassie jolt at the corner of my eye, and internally hoped Mr. Whitt didn't wake up on wrong side of the bed. He was once a happy man until a wrong marriage ruined him. His wife was, let's say, not exactly loyal. Unfortunately, Mr. Whitt fell in love and you can guess the rest of the story. "Open your books to page 359, read, and answer the following questions," he droned and fell on the chair that I'm sure I heard a crack. He opened a book and placed it standing in front of him.

I read and read until I felt someone nudged me from behind. "Psst! Psst! Evelyn," Killian whispered and continued poking my back on different places until I grew annoyed and faced him.

"What?!" I whispered-shouted. "What's the answer on number 17," he sheepishly asked, eyes checking left to right and past me. I began assessing the situation. If I help him, it might help me in the future in case I 'need' something. On the other hand, if I didn't help him I could lose a potential ally and asset in the future, but save myself in case we got caught. Weighing the choices while looking around if someone is listening, I picked my answer. "B," I whispered in the softest voice I could muster and slowly picked up an imaginary pencil off the ground. I noticed Mr. Whitt looking at me so I pulled out my emergency pencil out of my sleeve for 'certain' occasions. He returned to reading his book, so I sighed in relief.

The bell rang and I could see people almost at the door when Mr. Whitt announced, "Leave your books on the table, then you can get out." Everyone opened their bags immediately and ripped out their books. It looks like the cafeteria will be full again, I thought with a sigh. While everyone ran like their pants are on fire, I took my time and even dragged myself out of my seat. Honestly, I don't want to get out of my comfortable seating position. I mean, the weather's cold from rain and my seat just have enough temperature from it that I could sleep. I lost sight of Cassie when I reached the table. I hope there's still food left.

A few groups hang along the hallway. When I reached the cafeteria, you'll think it was in the middle of New York City during rush hour, but no—this is just the normal days in high school. I hurried to catch the only spot I am allowed. You see, there is a hierarchy in high school especially in this school. The popular and rich are sitting near the food and then as the ranking goes lower, it gets closer to the door and trash. Fortunately for me, people don't know me. The doors slowly opened and there stood Ashen and Clarie Gray—the two most popular in school. They said their hellos to everyone and went to their tables.

Some students left, while some were slowly walking towards an open window until someone whistled and screamed, "Hey, stop what you're about to do!" The ones close to the window fastened their pace and jumped out while the others quickly hid their faces and ran like they're being chased by a killer, well technically a killer who will drag them to their death which is the principal's office, out of the cafeteria. As I don't want to be mistaken as one of them, I slowly waiting for the right time to run. I quickly grabbed my bag, shot up from my seat and ran.

one of them, I slowly waiting for the right time to run. I quickly grabbed my bag, shot up from my seat and ran.

The rest of the day were a blur that I just noticed that I was walking back home. I knocked first and when I didn't heard signs of life, I took the hidden key under the mat but found none. I tried knocking again, but like earlier none answered nor showed any signs of life. Sighing, I took the last resort—climbing the tree beside my room. I know what you're thinking, 'Why are you climbing up if there's no one in the house that would open the window for you?' Well, I have an answer to that: I could shake the window enough for the lock to open. How? Well, the house is quite old so it has the kind of lock where all you have to do is to swing the handle up and down like a lever onto a hook-like handle. But my window is special, or rather the one who installed my window is stupid.

Instead of swinging the knob down for window to open, you need to swing the know upwards. From what I read on the internet the lever-like knob is on the left window and the hook-like handle is supposedly on the right, mine is the opposite. Okay, enough chitchat! I shook the window a little until it opened. I stopped for a minute and held my breath to hear anything fortunately there was not even a single squeak. I slowly stepped inside and fast-walked to the light switch.

"Boo!" In my surprise, I hit the person who whispered in my ear. "Ouch! Jesus, are you a woman or a gorilla?!" That voice sounded familiar! I quickly turned and found none other than Ashen Gray. I glared at him and shook my head. "Why are you here? Wait, how did you get inside," I looked behind him to find if he brought anyone or everyone from his group. He noticed that and said, "Don't worry! I didn't bring anyone, I promise." I decided to not trust him and bellowed, "If anyone is hiding, come out now!" I decided to roam the house to find if someone is still hiding. I searched every nook and cranny, but found no one. I went back to find Ashen laying on my precious bed. He had one of my pillow on his face. "Why do you smell so good?" Ashen removed the pillow and looked at me directly in the eyes. I felt my face grew warm and immediately looked away. I heard a deep throaty chuckle from him. Embarrassed, I marched to him and grabbed my pillow from him.

There was a squeaking noise and I turned my head to find them standing there, smiling sheepishly. At my doorway. In my room. "You said you didn't bring anyone?!" I got up, marched to Ashen who was still laying on my bed and started hitting him with my pillow. "Woah! Calm down, woman," he put up his hands in surrender. I stopped hitting him and sat down, but squealed in surprised as he started tickling me! "St-op! Stop tickli-ling me! Ashen!" I tried blocking him, but he's adamant in torturing me. I heard a war cry and look up to see a body falling on me. "Oomph! You're heavy! Get off!" As I try to get the pig off of me I looked up to them asking for help. But nope! They just laughed at me, even falling to the ground clutching their stomach. "Very nice guys. Very nice. Haha. Now help me get these pigs off of me!" One of the pigs gasped," We? Pigs? Have you seen these muscles?

" They even flexed their arms, but I just gave them a deadpan look. We heard a door opening, so we hurried to the front door to find my mother holding multiple boxes. "Hello honey! Oh, is there a party right now? Can I join? I swear I won't be such a bore," my mom excitedly asked. I swear to God my mom is more fun than I am.

"Nope, Mrs. Raiskin. We don't have a party, but if we do have one I'll make sure to invite you. Not your daughter because she's too much of a you know..." I glared at Ashen for what he said to which he only smiled innocently at me. Innocent, my ass. Ashen Gray isn't innocent, and I could create a whole book just for the reason of it. "Now what did I tell you, don't call me Mrs. Raiskin. It's making me old. Call me Jane," my mom giggled and gave the boxes to us. I think I someone already guessed what's inside because Pheonix said, "Oh the most beautiful Jane, your skin is— "Thankfully my mom cut him and gave him a deadpan look,

"I know what you're trying to say and please enough with it. It won't work on me. And yes, you can" Everyone laughed at Pheonix as he tried to open the box while trying not to ruin the heavenly treasures inside. Sure enough, inside it was food. Like a dog, Pheonix used both his hands to get two donuts which he ate. We took our time to place the food onto the table and open it. Allisa tied her brown hair onto a messy bun until her boyfriend, River, took the hair tie and ran to the other side of the room. "River give it back," she screamed and glared at her boyfriend. "No, my sunshine. You'll get headaches if you tie your hair again," he exclaimed hiding behind the couch. On the other hand, Ashen and Clarie were already holding mountains of food. Mason and William were already in front of the T.V. and playing Call of Duty with, of course, a single plate with a mountain of foods on it. "What the hell? You're cheating!" Not wanting to witness another fight, I maneuvered my way to the box that was handed to me. It was ice cream! My eyes looked every direction to see if someone was looking. When I found everyone busy with something, I quickly ran to my room. I heard many footsteps behind me.

again," he exclaimed hiding behind the couch. On the other hand, Ashen and Clarie were already holding mountains of food. Mason and William were already in front of the T.V. and playing Call of Duty with, of course, a single plate with a mountain of foods on it. "What the hell? You're cheating!" Not wanting to witness another fight, I maneuvered my way to the box that was handed to me. It was ice cream! My eyes looked every direction to see if someone was looking. When I found everyone busy with something, I quickly ran to my room. I heard many footsteps behind me.

Almost at the door of my bedroom, I briefly looked back to see Allisa about to catch me. "Spider!" I shouted. That got her attention, stopped them from chasing them and here's why: since Allisa is the closest to me all I had to do was stop her then I'll stop them all.

River would be too engrossed in comforting her then Mason and William would make fun of her resulting in them fighting with River; Ashen would try to join them while Clarie try to stop everything. Let's not forget my mom who would try to film everything as she said 'for us to look back when we're older.' When I translated it into my own language 'for us to cringe at ourselves it's 'for us to cringe at ourselves back then when we're older.' To summarize the whole night: I ate the whole bucket of ice cream by myself, they left with a full stomach, mom is happily adding the video to her collection and I was met with lots of present outside my bedroom door. I completely forgot my own birthday.

After the crazy day I just had, I took a warm bath and changed into my pink bubble gum-colored nightdress. I turned on the night light then snuggled under the warm covers of my bed. Seconds turned into minutes then minutes turned into hours, I found myself staring at the ceiling. For some unknown reason, I couldn't keep my eyes closed. I tried counting sheep, but it didn't bore me to the point of sleep.