Insomnia // Billie Eilish

Chapter 1

I walked into school, still applying my lip gloss. "Are you excited to be back at school?" Olivia asked.

"Definitely not," I replied. "School's not fun. It sucks and I don't even have you in my math class to help me."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll easily find somebody to help you. Plus, I can still help you after school."

I frowned as I contemplated what to say next. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"You've had all Christmas break to talk. Get to class, ladies," the principal said, ushering us forward.

"See you later, Olivia," I waved before walking into Ms. Thompson's class, running into someone and falling backward. My schedule had just been changed so I wasn't familiar with anybody yet.

"Woah. Oh my God. I'm so sorry," I rushed out.

He turned around, a scowl on his face. "You should be. Watch the fuck out. Damn."

The girl in front of him then turned around. "You don't have to be a little bitch about it," she snarled. Her curly, maroon hair was pulled up into a loose bun. She was really pretty and it was slightly intimidating, if I was being honest.

The dude walked away and she flipped him off. "I'm Jasmine."

"I'm Mackenzie, but I go by Mack," I stated.

"What's your name?" Ms. Thompson asked, clipboard in hand.

"Jasmine Reynolds."

"Okay, go," she said, pointing behind her. "Name?"

"Mackenzie Jones."

"Okay, go."

I looked around to see where I wanted to sit, as she didn't give me a specific place. I didn't have any friends in the class, so I just needed to find the spot with the least amount of people. I glanced around and the back left corner was the only part of the room that wasn't all too full. I looked that way, instantly locking eyes with Jasmine. Her bored glare turned into a soft smile that urged me to sit by her.

I took the seat in front of her and put my backpack down beside me. "Alright, we're gonna get right into your first assignment. This is art, but you still have to do work. By now, you guys should know the rules, therefore I will not go over them. I do a lot of partner work and—if I'm being honest, I couldn't care less about who you work with as long as you get my work done. I hate worrying about assigning partners or listening to you argue about who's partner is gonna be who's, so here's what we're gonna do. Look around you. You can choose from the person in front of you, the person to your left, the person to your right, or the person behind you. They're your partner for the semester. You have five minutes. Go."

I looked around. There was a girl with strawberry blonde hair next to me. She was checking her lipgloss in her phone camera and from the looks of it, she already had a partner. The dude in front of me was sleeping and there was nobody to my right because I was on the last column.

I turned around and looked at Jasmine. "Partners?" she offered.

"Sure," I replied.

"Alright, cool."

"Now that we all have our partners, for your assignment you have to create a piece that captures the personality of your partner. You have until Friday. There are no limitations."

I managed to make it through the rest of the day without falling asleep once, surprisingly. Throwing my backpack over my shoulder, I walked outside to meet Olivia by her car.

"Hey, how was your day?" she asked.

"It was very boring," I replied, raising my arms and stretching. "How about yours?"