A/N: I do not own Bluenotes, Under Armour, Colgate, Nike, StayPut, or Reebok.
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1 Week Later....
I had finished my essay. Researched on hundreds of websites, and dozens of books. Had a plan, rough draft, editing copy, revising copy, and finally, a good copy in a document holder. It was perfect in my eyes. I was confident I would win. I was extremely lucky that we didn't get any homework this week. Maybe I'd hand this story into the History teacher and get some extra credit? Dawn and I were going to go down to the Rose FM studio after school to hand it into Bill Bouquet, who would announce the winners in another week.
After getting dressed in jeans, jeans are my life, and a navy blue Bluenotes tee with skyscraper and bird silhouettes at the bottom, and a blue Under Amour jacket, brushing my teeth with Colgate: Total effects toothpaste and my pale blue toothbrush, brushing my hair and securing it into a low side ponytail with StayPut elastics, washed my face, put on deodorant, lip chap, and cleaned, cut, and filed my nails, I packed my navy blue and light blue messenger bag with all my school supplies; agenda, pencil case, English, Science, Math, and French books, my Rebook gym bag with ankle socks, soccer shorts, and light blue Under Armour shirt, Music folder and flute case. But no makeup, never makeup.
I was out the door and on the bus to school before I realized I had forgotten one thing: BREAKFAST! The most important meal of the day! Oh well, I guess I can go a day without it. I sighed and looked out the window of bus 180. Stephen Ford, what a nice name. I thought to myself. I silently watched the scenery pass by and listened to my 'My Mix' playlist on my iPod Touch. It had all my favourite bands- Mariana's Trench, The Wanted, Jesse Labelle, Simple Plan, Swedish House Mafia, Ross Lynch/R5, Eleven Past One, Ellie Gouldling, Hedley, Hunter Hayes, Tyler Shaw, Lifehouse, The Script, Taylor Matthews, Train, The Goo Goo Dolls, and Owl City. As well as one of secret bands that I like; One Direction. At the moment I was listening to Between the Raindrops by Lifehouse. I tapped my foot to the beat and thought about how I could get to Manhattan.
15 minutes into the bus ride, we reached the last stop before school, Dawn's stop. She hopped on the bus, and I moved my bag on to my lap to make room for her to sit next to me. She sighed.
"I hate Mondays. It's like going back to jail for 5 years, after being free for 2. I'm like Garfield, he hates Mondays too! Did you see Garfield 2 where he went to England and became like a sort of king of the animals at the palace and banned Mondays, and said they would be called Tuesdays and.... Hi!" she babbled before realizing she hadn't even greeted me yet.
"Hey," I said chuckling softly, "this isn't that bad of a Monday, we have the essay to hand in, and then Gym and French as well!" I said happily. I loved sports, except for dance, boxing, wrestling etc, but otherwise they relax me, and it lets me let my anger out in a way that won't hurt anybody and I won't get in trouble for. And I love learning new languages. One of my goals is to have as many languages as possible learnt before I die.
"I guess you're right... let me see the essay!" Dawn's mood changed from hyper to sad to happy in a matter of 30 seconds. I unclasped and unzipped my bag, handing her the essay in its folder. She took it in her hands and did a quick flip of the 20 pages. She looked back up satisfied.
"Well this looks long enough to win!" she said with a wide smile that reached her eyes.She handed the essay back to me.
"You didn't even read it! You just flipped through the pages; not even skimming!" I exclaimed, taking the papers back and then waving then around.
"Because I know that you did an awesome job!" she said sweetly.
"Well aren't you just so nice!" I said back, blushing.
We talked about random subjects; school, homework, sports, activities, books, movies, current topics etc. until the bus pulled up at our school and we filed off with the rest of the kids, and went our separate ways to classes on other sides of the school. I sighed; Math. I don't hate this class, I actually enjoy math. However, I have to sit next to Dave Bowden. He's like a bully, my own personal one. He's an intimidating 5ft 10'' with pale grey eyes and auburn hair. His desk is always a mess, and luckily he's afraid of needles, so I can threaten him with them.
I sat down at my desk in the back left corner of the classroom. Two minutes later, Dave arrived and sat down. Let the ridicule begin.
End of the day...
I tapped my Nike's against the red brick wall by the school's eat doors, waiting for Dawn to get out of her last period Chemistry class. After becoming very interested in my nails, the door opened and she came out with a bigger smile than I thought possible on her face.
"C'mon! Let's go catch the bus to Rose FM studios, it's leaving in five minutes!" she said excitedly. With that we started running to the bus stop about three minutes away. Arriving, we sat on the cold grey plastic benches in the bus shelter. Two minutes later, the bus arrived and us and three others loaded on, bought out tickets, and found seats. A short 20 minutes later, we pulled the yellow stop cord, and we piled off the bus and onto the street, about 100ft from the studio. We started walking with our hands in our pockets, bags over our shoulders. I looked over at Dawn.
"I'm nervous." I said, biting my lips.
"Why? You did a great essay, and we, I mean I lose every year anyways!" she said confused.
"Well, I just feel like there's more riding on it this year, you know?" I tried to explain, squinting because of the sun shining in my eyes.
"No, I don't know. But,if that's how you feel, then okay." she said agreeably, but I could tell she was still confused. And I couldn't blame her. To be honest, I didn't even know what I was talking about at the time! I just didn't get it, it felt like a big deal, even though it usually wasn't!
We turned off the sidewalk to walk into the studios. We followed many paper signs stuck up with Scotch tape leading up to a room where all the contest entries were to be handed in. In there was a long table with five people seated along it with a stack of essays and forms beside them, and they each had a line of about three people each.We walked up to a lady at the end, and waited until it was out turn.
"Hello. We would like to enter the trip contest!" Dawn said politely and confidently. The lady gave us a piece of paper.
"Fill this out and staple it to the front of your essay." She handed us a stapler and pen. We quickly filled out the papers with our names, numbers, and addresses etc, stapled them and handed the stack back to the lady who put in her stack. We returned the pen and stapler as well.
"Okay ladies. You are to be back here at 6:30pm on Monday the 11th. We will announce the winners there. Good luck." she said in a monotone like she did this a 100 times a day. She probably did.
We walked out the door and towards the bus.
That was it, no going back. Just a matter of luck now.
