Skater Girl

Chapter 3

*Mackenzie's POV*

Don't get me wrong, I love to sleep. However some nights are just too dreadful to comprehend, filled with terrible nightmares of all my demons: of my dad, my mom, old 'stepfathers', my biggest secrets, something happening to siblings, being alone. Last night was one of those nights. Therefore it was no surprise that my head was resting on my folded arms, on the desk, as the English class took place before me.

"Mackenzie." I small voice whispered to my right, but I was far too tired to raise my head and acknowledge the person, or anything else going on in the room and my brain drifted off back to sleep.

After what felt like a few seconds, but was probably 30 minutes later, a huge bang sounded in front of me. The ringing filled my ears and I lifted my poor head up to see Miss Elliot standing before me and a large text book on my desk, which hadn't been there several moments before. "Mackenzie, I'm sure you will be able to stay behind after class considering you received enough sleep already?"

"Sure." I mumbled with a sigh, pushing myself back into my seat. I looked towards Felicity who gave me a quick half smile before returning her attention to the front.

"So, your task is to research one of Shakespeare's plays. Find quotations, key themes, critical opinions and then you will be presenting them back to the class, understood?" Miss Elliot informed, receiving a few mumbles and groans in return. "Fabulous, now I have decided your partners so you don't have to worry about that, the sheet will be placed at the front so make sure you know who you are working with before you leave. Thank you for, the majority, of your attention." Her eyes quickly darted towards me and I rolled mine in return.

As the rest of the class began to rise from their chairs and head towards the doors, including Felicity who said a little "bye" before leaving, I stayed put bracing myself for the lecture concerning my messed up sleeping habits.

"Miss Ross, I would really appreciate it if you managed to stay awake in my class, please. It really hurts my self-esteem that you think of me as such a boring teacher." Miss Elliot said, a small smile creeping across her face showing she was clearly joking,

I smiled in response, I liked teachers who weren't so strict with their students. "I'm sorry Miss, I think it's the moving and getting used to a new school. We've been really busy at home so I didn't get much sleep." This was a complete lie.

"I understand and I know it is early in the year, so this might be a bit premature to say but I do not want it effecting your studies. Promise me you will get 8 hours sleep tonight." She said, her eyebrows crinkled as she gave me a more serious, or concerned look.

"Yeah. Yeah, sure I promise."

"Okay. I will see you, awake, in tomorrow's lesson Mackenzie."

I only nodded and headed for the door. It was lunch time but the corridors were reasonably quiet as I had realised must people spent there time at the cafeteria or the gym or outside on the field. As I turned to make my way to get some food, hoping it would wake me up so another teacher couldn't give me a 'don't fall asleep lecture', a small voice began speaking from behind me making me jump.

"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to scare you." My eyes finally focussed to see Felicity, she looked disappointed at my reaction, her head looking towards the ground.

"No it's fine, I really don't believe you could scare anyone." I said confidently, grinning which made her also grin.

"I only waited to let you know we are partners on the Shakespeare project." I looked at her blankly. "You know the one that Miss Elliot just told us about? Choose a play, research it in pairs, that one? I did try to wake you up."