Lacia

School

I was shook awake by Natalie the next morning, the first rays of sunlight filtering in through the closed curtains.

"Morning kid, time for school" Natalie said before grabbing some clothes off her bed and going into the bathroom to change. I got out of bed and put some clothes on before making an attempt at my hair. The attempt was stopped when Natalie came back in, did my hair quickly and plaited it in two plaits down my back. I grabbed my backpack and filled it with a notebook and pencil case. After a moment's hesitation I added my cup from the nightstand as well.

Natalie was standing by the door tapping her foot impatiently waiting for me to be ready. She held out her hand and I grabbed it as we hurried down the stairs as quietly as possible. We arrived in the kitchen where everyone was waiting for us. Tim went to the cupboard and took out a big bag of those mini tuck crackers handing one handful to each of us. We then hurried out the door JessaBella leaving last and closing the door gently behind us as we began our walk. Natalie holding my hand and Tim holding on to Phil and Louisa as we walked towards town.

We walked towards a colourful old school building with a big banner over the entrance gate reading 'Welcome to the new term' along with children buzzing around. Natalie took me to the front office to find out my classroom number while the others headed to class with a wave.

Once we got my class information Natalie brought me to the classroom. I sat near the back of the room and tried to pay attention but everything they were telling me I already knew. The teacher gave us all a small quiz to see how much we knew but I finished it in about a minute and when I handed it back she graded it and realised I already knew all this so she moved me up a grade. The new class was a little harder but I still knew most of it but this time I decided to stay quiet at least for a couple of days. At lunch I sat by myself and ate my tuck quickly before going to the bathroom and filling my cup and having a nice drink of water before drying the glass and putting it back into my bag to return to class.

The bell rang to signal the end of the day and I walked off to find Natalie who was waiting outside my old classroom. I surprised her before we walked out and waited for everyone else before we started walking home. Tim was holding Daser by the scruff of his neck as though he was a misbehaving puppy and I wondered what he had done. Natalie apparently wondered as well because she let go of my hand and instead walked to stand beside Tim leaving me to walk beside JessaBella. Bobby, Louisa and Phil were talking about something at the very front, probably whatever it was that Daser did to get Tim mad at him.

"What did Daser do?" I asked JessaBella with a confused little frown.

"He got into a fight in the playground today and got suspended. He broke the other kids nose." JessaBella explained with a sigh. "Bloody Idiot"

"What's going to happen to him?"

"Most likely a whole lot of beatings. I don't actually know though, no ones ever gotten suspended since I came."

"Oh..." We reached the house in tense silence as the door was opened and a menacing figure stood right inside the door with a menacing grin. Lulu knew. She grabbed Daser out of Tims grasp and dragged him upstairs slamming the door to the room with a thundering thud that echoed through the house making me flinch. JessaBella squeezed my hand a little before going upstairs followed by Louisa, Bobby and Phil. Tim and Natalie shared a look before they each took one of my hands and took me upstairs as well all the way to the top floor where everyone was huddled together in Natalie and I's room.

"What are we going to do? We can't just let him suffer..." I said as Natalie went and sat on her bed. Everyone turned to me.

"There's nothing we can do kid. We tried..." Tim said in a fake comforting voice.

"So you're just giving up? Really?" I said getting a bit angry now.

"What can we do?" Tim said standing up and towering over me.

"We could do a spartacus..."

"A what now?"

"We could do something like really bad and then all take credit for it. I am Spartacus kinda thing. She can't punish all of us and it gives Daser a chance to get out of there." I explain "So what is Lulu's prized possession?"

"Her bracelet. It's a rainbow themed diamond bracelet with like diamonds every color of the rainbow on it and a piece of rainbow quartz like in the middle of them. She loves that thing." Nat says with a mischievous smile.

"Let's break it!" I say with a smirk. We planned very silently in a small tight circle. Natalie knew where it was so she went and snuck into Lulu's bedroom to take it. She brought it downstairs and we stood around it each taking a hold of it and pulling as hard as we could. It snapped and the diamonds and piece of quartz went tumbling to the ground. The snap echoed through the house eerily.

We heard the door open upstairs and Lulu's shoes echoing on the stairs as she came into the room. She stared silently at the broken bracelet on the ground for several moments before looking up furiously.

"Who is responsible for this?" She asked. She wasn't screaming. Her voice was eerily calm. Like the calm before a fricking hurricane. We all shared a look anxiously before taking a deep breath.

"We all did..." Tim spoke up first. We all nodded lightly.

"Don't lie to me boy!" Lulu screamed, taking a step forward. She was only a tiny bit taller than he was but Tim took a step back.

"He's not!" I shouted. I regretted it instantly as Lulu turned around and stalled towards me.

"Lulu don't! It was my Idea, punish me!" Natalie started.

"It was me!" JessaBella cut in. The others echoed the claim until Lulu screamed. She looked irritated and just turned around and left the house. She slammed the door shut behind her and we heard the car drive away. We all shared a look and laughed. Daser shouted from upstairs and we hurried upstairs to help him.

We each kept one piece of the bracelet. Natalie got the red diamond, Tim got orange and so on based on when we arrived. I got the piece of quartz. I kept it in the front pocket of my backpack.