A Chance to Shine

High School Paparazzi

ARIANA

The bus ride was completely uneventful. Most of the kids were plugged up with earbuds, and/or asleep. Dove and Cat slid into a seat together, leaving me to an empty row. At the next stop, I was joined by a girl with carrot red hair. She was wearing a blue polka dotted skirt and a white tank top, covered with a blue cardigan. Her shoes were white flats with little bows on the toe. Her hair was pulled back in a headband, but was otherwise wild and curly, reminding me of that princess, Merida, from the Disney movie Brave. She sat down and looked at me. It seemed she was thinking about my face. As I turned to fully face her, she realized. "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE ARIANA VALENTINE!" She yelped in surprise. I sighed, but replied to her.

"Yeah, that's me! And before you ask, my sisters are in the row behind us," I said.

"I'm Zoey," exclaimed the girl. "Zoey Thropp."

I smiled at Zoey, and was about to ask her about her performing art talent when a straight haired brunette version of Zoey appeared, asking Zoey a question. "ZoBo, you didn't save me a......." She trailed off as she saw me.

"HOLY COW! IT'S ARIANA VALENTINE!" She squealed, much like her sister had. I smiled and waved at her.

"That's my twin sister Talia," Zoey explained. "She dyes her hair brown and has it straightened with some permanent straightener thing at the salon."

I nodded, because I had been confused about their difference in hair, as they were otherwise identical. Then Talia laughed. "I do that so I don't look like my head is on fire, Zoey!" She exclaimed while giggling.

"Let's compare schedules," I said, pulling out my iPhone, where I had typed my schedule into. Zoey and Talia yanked some wrinkled papers out of their bags. "WOAH," gasped Zoey as she noticed my phone. "That's the latest model!"

I nodded. "My sisters have it too," I said, scrolling through my schedule. I looked at Zoey's paper schedule and saw that we had Improv class and lunch together. Talia had the same lunch, Improv class, and Algebra 2 class as me.

"My sisters have that lunchtime as well! Dove is in Algebra 2 with me, but Cat is in Geometry," I explained. Talia and Zoey nodded.

"What about the Improv class?" Zoey asked.

"Oh," I said, looking down at my phone to check on it. "Cat's in it but not Dove."

Suddenly the bus jolted to a stop. I looked out the window, and saw that we had arrived. We left the bus, and as I met up with my sisters I yelled back to Talia and Zoey. "SEE YOU IN IMPROV!"

As we walked into the building, we saw people whispering as they caught sight of us. As we turned a corner, we were met with flashes and flashes of light. They were phone cameras. "Oh my god," Dove muttered. We power walked through the hall and ducked into our homeroom classroom. I sighed. So much for being normal.