Connected By a String

Chapter 2

I woke up to the sun shining in my eyes. Groaning, I slowly sat up. I tried, and failed, to rub the sleepiness from my eyes. It was Friday. My last day of school for the week. I check the time and realize my alarm didn't go off. I woke up 20 minutes late! My eyes widen, and I rush to do all the essentials. Get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair, I quickly apply makeup to the bruise on my forehead, get shoes, grab backpack, grab lunch, and rush out the door. When I'm leaving, I faintly head Mrs. Maria yell, "...Have a nice day at school, Liv!" Liv is what she calls me. I think it's cute, but I don't have enough time to make a proper response.

I rush past her, I quickly stop to put down a note. Late! Sorry! Gotta go!, I wrote. Or at least that is what I think I wrote. It probably looked like a jumble of those words. I'm still not all the way awake. I rush out the door, and start sprinting to the school.

The school is about 2 blocks from my complex, but I cut through some alleyways and I got there, 3 minutes early in fact! I flop down on a bench outside, before I realize I never had breakfast. Mentally cursing myself, I notice my growling stomach. I usually eat at least an apple slice, and with all that running, it's making me feel lightheaded.

I hastily grab my lunchbox and open it up. I take one of the cracker packs Maria puts in my lunch every morning. It has a little hand drawn heart attached to it. Cute. Also, I see a little baggie with my antidepressants in it. I sometimes forget to take them in the morning, so she keeps an extra pair in my lunchbox. I quickly take out my water bottle and swallow them.

While I was eating my crackers, the bell rang, signaling the students to enter the building. I grabbed my bag, make sure I didn't forget anything, and walked in the school.

The school day goes by fairly quickly, Social Studies, Study Hall, Language Arts, Gym, Math. Then lunch rolled around. It's nice outside, so they make us sit at the picnic tables at the back of the school to get 'fresh air', what a load of bullshit. I go to a vacant one, because I don't have many friends, and start eating.

Suddenly, someone throws a crumpled piece of paper at my head. It fell on the ground, so I pick it up. I can tell it has something written in it, but I don't want to unravel it. Suddenly, someone snatched it out from under my nose. I quickly look up, and see Kelsey straightening it out, and then reading it. I can tell she is mad.

When she hears giggling, she whips her head around, and tries to find the source. We both knew where it came from. For lack of a better reference, the plastics of the school. Pretty much the reincarnation of Regina George and Sharpay's daughters. Populars, the big clique, whatever you want to call them. I call them the petty, pretty, snobby rich girls. Only in my mind though. 'Cause, the whole mute thing, remember?

Before I knew what was happening, Kelsey stormed over there. I tried to go after her, but I thought better of it. She slammed the note on the table and yelled, "What is this shit?!". At this point, a lot of the courtyard was staring at us. Mostly at them, but some at me. I shrunk down into my seat. They looked momentarily surprised before reaching for the note. Before they could, fast as a cheetah, Kelsey (sister) snatched it out from under them.  That's the best way to describe it. Honestly.

They just put on a fake innocent facades, and one of them said "What do you mean?" And before I could interfere, Kelsey yelled, "You know damn well what I mean!" I was surprised, no one has ever stood up for me like that before. Now, most of the courtyard was staring at us. My string, even though it didn't move, tugged ever so slightly. I felt immense happiness at this. Before I could even feel more grateful than I already was, I heard in a voice that I've never heard from her before, "You better go apologize, or I will have your ass suspended faster than you can say 'whatever' in that snobby little voice of yours. So get to it, shall we?" Kelsey growled.