The Unorthodox Life of Aaliyah Kaye Marx

The Unorthodox Life of Aaliyah Kaye Marx (4)

I grinned brightly at the teacher. "I slept in." Was my smart excuse. I saw her jaw tighten and her eyes flashed.

"That's no excuse. Detention for the next week."

"But MISS. Shouldn't I get bonus points for actually COMING to school? I could have stayed at home!"

"TWO weeks Ms. Marx, now be quiet and try to pay attention to the rest of the class." I frowned and groaned loudly, earning myself a warning glare from the teacher before slumping down in my seat.

Five minutes later the bell rang and I was out of my seat like a shot. My head was pounding, I needed a fag. Next class was languages, in my case. Spanish.

"Hola, hoy en clase, vamos a conjugar algunos verbos!" My Spanish teacher greeted us brightly. The majority of the class groaned. I had no idea what she was saying. I always hated Spanish.

"Oh, dejar de quejarse, conjugando los verbos es una parte muy importante de la lengua española y lo tiene que hacer." She said rolling her eyes. I was so totally lost right now. And I had a craving for cigarettes. And chocolate ice cream.

I thrust my fist in the air.

"Sí, Ali?" She said, smiling at me.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" I smiled brightly at her.

"Sí, pero tienes que pedirme en español." She smiled gently at me. I frowned. And using one of the five words I know in Spanish, I replied.

"Perdone?"

"Ask the question in spanish and then you may go."

I just looked at her. "I don't know how to speak Spanish?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Repetirme. Perdón señorita, por favor, ¿Puedo ir al baño?" I stared at her blankly.

"I kind of have to go now, if we could just hurry this up a bit?" I asked, crossing my legs, pretending like I was bursting for the toilet.

She sighed. "REPEAT what I say Ali!" She said exasperatedly. Oh.

"Perdón señorita, por favor, ¿Puedo ir al baño?"

"Perdon señor, ir al baño?" I rushed off.

"No Ali, listen to what I say. Listen again then repeat-" I cut her off as she tried once more to explain to me.

"Aggh, I don't have time for this crap, I need to go to the bathroom!" I yelled standing up and bursting out the door. Grabbing my sunglasses on the way out. I winked at Emmet who was sitting, laughing at me at one of the front desks on the way out. I see I've already become the laughing stock of the school.

Running flat out down the hall I stopped and carried on at a leisurely pace as soon as I was out of seeing distance from my Spanish class. I walked out to the gate, debating on whether to bring my car. It was in the carpark and the car park could be seen from many of the class windows. It was too risky, I lit up a fag and walked leisurely towards town, hands in my pockets. It took me about ten minutes to get to the Ice-cream parlour where I bought a triple chocolate Sunday to-go.

I slurped the delicious ice-cream as I wandered the town, gazing in all the shop windows. I was in no hurry to get back to school. Why had I even bothered going in? Spur of the moment guilt trip. I gazed in the window of the pet shop as I walked by. The multicoloured fish catching my eye. I loved animals. I dumped the container my ice-cream had been in and walked inside, looking around me at the fish tanks stacked high against the walls and the cages containing hundreds of different animals. I went straight to the reptile section. I had all the stuff you needed for a reptile but Mom had just never gotten around to saying I could actually have a reptile of some sort ...