Better Undercover

Chapter 1: 100%, Not Good Enough

Chapter 1: 100%, Not Good Enough

Why did my parent's always have to drop me off so early? I hated it. No one is here and I have nothing to do, I thought as I walked into school.  Sometimes I got here so early the janitor hadn't even turned the lights on yet.  Today, I wasn't the first one at school.  There was the dude that showed up early to get some time in the gym before the football team completely took it over. 

 I pulled my phone out of my bag and checked it. Nothing. No texts, notifications or calls.  I was fine with the fact my friends barely texted me.  I had a few nice conversations with Nikki, but they always seemed forced to me.  Plus, I felt like I always had to start them.

I pulled my book out of my bag. Pretty Little Liars. I was reading the book instead of watching the show because I couldn't find the first season on YouTube and my parents wouldn't buy me a Netflix.  I tried jumping right into season 5 because that's what was on one night, but I was so confused I stopped before the second commercial break.   I was reading it, and I wondered if it would happen again.

Sometimes when I read books or see movies and TV shows, certain quotes stay in my head and just float around. Sometimes they help me, sometimes they don't. It mostly happens when I read, not so much movies or shows.  Some people think that's normal, but I don't.  I talked to my parents about it and at first they just told me to get more sleep.  Eventually it got to a point that they took me to a therapist and a psychiatrist.  Both of them said there was nothing wrong with me.

I could've stayed outside and read, but it was still dark out and I didn't want to have to strain my eyes to read my book.  Instead, I headed up to the library.  As I did, I thought I saw someone with red hair at the bottom of the stairs.  I looked down, but no one was there.  They probably were just walking by, I figured as I tried opened the door to the library.

The library had a nice view.  From the back corner I could look over the turf stadium and the creek that ran along the outside of the woods outside the school.  But I wouldn't be able to enjoy that view today, since when I tried to open the door to the library, it was locked.

I went down a flight of stairs and sat on the floor of the cafeteria, not being bothered by the dirt on the floor that was probably now stuck to the back of my uniform skirt.

After making through a chapter without having any words in my head, I decided to check my email on my laptop. Mid quarter interums were in! I pulled up my scores. I had an average of 96 in all my classes.  Not bad. My usual grades. I didn't even have to study really hard and school just came naturally to me. Also, my friends rarely invited me to stuff, so that gave me a lot of free time to do my work.  The quantity of work was a bit much, but the quality wasn't too difficult.

Kelly walked into the locker room. She was one of my friends, but I didn't have any classes with her. She walked past me without saying anything.

"Hey, Kelly," I said quietly.

"Oh, hey Courtney." Then she went back to doing stuff on her phone.

Ali and Veronica, who are both in my classes and pretty close friends, walked in, laughing. They didn't acknowledge me either. Kelly came over to them and gave them hugs and they all started talking. I didn't bother to talk to them, I just continued to read.

They sat down on the bench next to me and continued to talk, again not including me.

"Rachel is so perfect at everything," Ali said. "Look at this Snapchat. She's hilarious, gets straight A's, plays sports all the time and is good at everything."

Of course they didn't acknowledge me about anything, not even including me in their conversation.

Rachel came into the locker room after they finished talking, and Ali said, "Hey, Rachel! We were just talking about you!" Rachel gave Ali a hug, and then Veronica, and then Kelly, then she went to her locker without acknowledging me either.