The Inevitable

Chapter 2

** Picture: Debs ** 

I wake up at 6 am like every other morning. I take a quick shower, put on my ripped jeans and a lose black t-shirt and I am all ready for school. I go about my daily routine. Eggs, waffles, toast, and of course my ultimate favorite, coffee. I set everything on the table and call for my dad.

"Yo, pops," I shout, while tying my long brown hair in a messy bun, "Breakfast is ready, your highness. I gotta run to school. Not that I care if I am late, but it's better than having Mr. Adams calling you and barking, 'not only is she late, but she looks like shit.'" I imitate my principles voice and make a stupid face as I am doing so.

"Okay. I'll see you when you get home." He shouts back.

He does not sound too good. I think about going up there and checking up on him. But he hates it when I do that. Hopefully some food in his system will bring his health right back to normal. Whatever his normal is. And I am out the door.

I make my way down the street towards the bus stop. It is usually on time, and I am obviously running late. So I start jogging, getting there out of breath and slightly lightheaded. I can see the bus coming towards me. Yes, I made it on time. I give myself a good pat-on-the-back. That is when I hear a sound of someone, or something, moving from the bushes behind me. I turn around and see a shady black figure walking away. I furrow my eyebrows and get on the bus. As I find a seat on the bus, the figure in the bushes is still lulling in my mind. Such an unusual place to be hiding in. Sneaking away in the bushes at 7 A.M. is the least spooky way to scare someone. I mean, what else was he or she, or heck maybe even it, doing there other than trying to scare a friend. Right?

I get off the bus twenty minutes later and see a familiar building staring right back at me. Applehood Heights Secondary School. My own personal nightmare. I sigh and start to make my way towards it.

As I enter the doors, I hear an annoying voice screeching out, "Oh, wow! Is that really you, Miss Hafner? Arriving eight minutes before class starts. That must be some new world's record." Barks, Mr. Adams.

I turn around and look at his ugly long face with a smirk plastered on it. Mr. Adams is your typical everyday principle. Round figure, yellow teeth, old grey suit, which I think is the only piece of clothing he owns, and annoying as hell.

"Trying to be your model student, Mr. Adams." I say, as I roll my eyes, while  walking away.

I go on a short trip to my locker, then make my way to my first class, Math. I take my usual seat beside my best friend, Debbie.

"Hey, loser." I say.

"You know, I always keep asking myself why I am still friends with you." She says, pretending to be annoyed.

"It's because your life would be a total bore without me around. Plus, I know you love me." I say, smirking.

She rolls her eyes and laughs. We are still talking and giggling as Ms. Taylor walks in. All at once, everyone goes silent. Debs and I are sitting all the way at the back of the class, yet I can smell Ms. Taylor's perfume all the way here. Poor soul. She looks like she is over 40 years old, yet she has never been married. I do not even think she has ever had a boyfriend before, which is why she is clearly trying way too hard to seek for a man's attention. Any man. That is just how desperate she is. Five minutes into the lesson and I am already daydreaming. I have never given school much attention before. To be honest, I just do not have the time for it. With my dad constantly needing me to watch over him, and with my part time job, there is already way too much on my plate. My dad stopped lecturing me about taking my studies seriously. I have already been suspended from school more times than I can remember, and he now knows that school is just not for me. In all fairness, most of the fights that I have been accused of starting at school, were a lie; it is always them that started. But for some unknown reason, I always find myself in the midst of it. Actually now that I think of it, I do not think there has ever been a single fight in school that I was not in. I am suddenly nudged out of my daydream by a strong force hitting my side. I look at Debs and see her, and everyone else, staring at me. Did I miss something?

"Lexi. Can you remind us of the quadratic formula, please?" Ms. Taylor says, clearly irritated.

Okay, I know this. I have seen it on the stupid blackboard a hundred times before. I try to jog my memory. Bits and pieces of the formula begin to formalize in my head.

"So?" Says Ms. Taylor, her patience thinning.

I take a deep breath. "X equals, uh, minus b plus or minus," I pause for a few seconds, "the square-root of b squared... and the rest hasn't changed." I say, giving up the hope of remembering something that does not exist in my brain. The class bursts out laughing. Glad I amuse them. Ms. Taylor sighs, shakes her head and asks the next person. I look at Debs, and she gives me a reassuring smile. I shake my head at her, put my head down and decide to take a short nap.

"Come back to life, crazy. The bell rang." Debs says,  giving me a soft shake and walks out the door.

I pack my things and immediately follow.

"That class literally flew by." I say, as I catch up to her.

She laughs and makes her way towards her locker, which also happens to be my locker. She is still laughing at me as I hear a familiar voice talking behind me, my fingers form a fist.

"See the hopeless remain hopeless, no matter how hard they try." I spin around and see Paul staring me right in the face. And of course, the famous Miss Sarah standing right beside him. She's in her usual cheerleading outfit. And I swear it's like that skirt keeps getting shorter and shorter as each day passes. Paul is wearing a red shirt and a leather jacket.

"Uhh, uhh, well I think you spell Math as, M...E...or is it I? Oh gosh, if only I had a brain." Paul snickers. Sarah barks out laughing beside him.

I can feel my blood boiling inside me. I swear to God, if someone does not remove his gross looking face from in front of me, they will be collecting the remains of it from the wall. Only because I have bashed his face in the wall last month, and I would absolutely love to do it again. Obviously I got suspended for it, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Debs notices by rage rising. She steps in front of me as a form of protecting me from Paul, or protecting Paul from me, I am not quite sure which.

"Okay, that's is enough. Would you really like to relive the events of last month?" Debs says, sternly.

Paul stiffens. "We all know she cannot do anything that would get her in trouble. One more incident, and she's out." Sarah laughs. Paul looks at her with blazing eyes. "Shut your face." He bellows. She scoffs and walks away.

"Come on Paul, we all know if it meant kicking your behind, Lexi would definitely take her chances. Are you sure you want to play this game?" Debs says, soothingly, yet strictly. No one can ever resist her sweet, soft voice. She can easily convince a sane man that his toes are made of frogs. She can commit a dozen murders and convince the jury that it wasn't her.

He takes a second, going over his options. Finally he laughs and says, "This is not over. I'll be seeing you around, lover." He blows me a kiss and turns, heading out in the direction Sarah just stormed off from.

I can finally feel my fists relaxing. I did not even notice I was squeezing them so tight. I let out a long breath and dry my sweaty palms on my jeans.

Debs spins and faces me. She puts both of her hands on either side of my shoulders. Her dark blue eyes staring at me, filled with concern.

"Hey, you okay? Gosh he's such a pain." She says.

"Whatever, it's fine. Thank you for that. I would have definitely lost my nerve if you didn't step in. heck, I think I would've thrown him from a window." I say, still on edge.

Debs smiles. "I have an idea. How about we go shopping after school? It'll take your mind of things. Plus, it'll be fun."

"I am not sure if you caught on, but shopping has never been my definition of 'fun'." I say, relaxing my shoulders.

"We're going! And it is fun." She gives me a wink and walks to her next class.