don't lie to me

Chapter XIII

I took my seat between the two students and opened my backpack to find someone had taken the time to label a binder and notebook for each class and a pencil case complete with the necessities- stupidly luxury supplies- but everything I needed none-the-less. I was beyond grateful for the pencil case for two reasons. One- I had everything I needed nice and organised and two- It had the perfect pocket to store the necklace in for the next few hours so I wouldn't risk losing it (given the appearance of it, stealing wasn't a concern), it wouldn't get scratched or anything, and I wouldn't have to risk it flying out in gym or something and people labeling me as the freak with bad taste and a thing for Hogwarts or whatever they would have thought the necklace was of. In conclusion, the pencil case was good.

It didn't take long to catch up since someone had printed out the syllabus and notes I had missed from previous chapters into my notebook and, even though my old school sucked from lack of funds, I knew most of what the class was talking about. It was a pretty miserable class, no one talked, passed notes, or did literally anything other than the assignment- disgusting. In an effort to appease my brothers and make a good impression, I waited until the end of class to see if there was anything important I needed to know about the class or if there was something I would need to make up. He said no, which was good because I didn't have any real intentions of doing extra work.

My next class was math taught by Ms. Rivera and according to my calculations it was going to be on the other side of the school. I started to follow the signs and numbers that I assumed would lead to where I needed to be. Logic, however, was once again not this school's primary reason for doing anything and it turned out room 864 was just down the hallway from room 137. Luckily this meant I was more than on time than on time and had time to meet the teacher and find my seat without everyone staring at me. It was weird for me to not walk into a class and immediately find my friends and waste the entire period laughing and telling stories- in those beginning moments of class I saw my future at this stuffy school with my stuffy family with a bunch of stuffy people and I didn't like it- I really didn't. I made it through that class and my next with a now rolled down skirt, but lunch was quickly approaching and I had no idea what my plan was and I refused to sit with my brothers. It wasn't even so much that people ignored me, it was more that they would completely change directions to avoid walking past me in the hall and practically run and hide when I smiled at them. I knew it was because news spread fast and my getting out of the car with the great Caputo's and that was enough to practically make me a social outcast before third period.

I sighed and tried my hardest to shake the thoughts swarming me while I walked toward my gym class, my first one in over a year since I always got out of it for cheer. As I walked, I took notice of the boy-girl ratio in this school- it was way off, probably three boys for overy one girl. I didn't fear guys, I had plenty of guy friends- including my best friend (who I definitely needed to call shit)- but I also needed the support that only came from women who had been through similar experiences and you felt comfortable sharing anything without being told you were being dramatic or whatever. I made a mental note to ask my brothers when I got back to their house.

Shortly after my analysis of the student body, I arrived at gymnasium 3 which was- of course- ridiculously fancy for a glorified sweat bucket. Despite my every will not to, I forced myself to politely greet my teacher, a Miss Donovan, who was a young woman who gave off the vibe of someone who spent their every waking hour at soul cycle and judged you if you didn't do the same.

She managed to disprove my assumptions within her first sentence and turned out to be very respectful and genuine. She explained that this school separated boys and girls for gym and that we would not be doing many strenuous physical activities and would instead spend most of our time doing yoga or just walking and- on very special occasions- tennis. As much as my inner feminist found problem in this, she was overruled by my want to be lazy and sit on my ass all day.