"Ugh, fuck me!" Anima groaned as she and Kishi trudged towards Mr. McKay's English I class early in the morning, "We didn't even get to do shit at all last week!"
"That's not true," Kishi replied airily, "You were with your girlfriend Penelope a lot at the playground. That's something, isn't it?"
Anima snorted and scoffed. "I'm not telling him that," she grumbled under her breath.
"You probably won't have to," Kishi said, "I think today's pre-bell is just gonna be on wherever we left off on Romeo and Juliet." She sighed dreamily and added, "Forbidden love between two innocent teenagers-"
And that was when they stumbled into the classroom and found out what the actual pre-bell assignment was.
"Some of a fucking bitch!" Anima griped as she reluctantly dragged her feet towards her desk, which was at the front of the classroom where Mr. McKay could keep an eye on her. She looked around her and realized that she was sitting right inbetween Jeremy and Hailey in the aisle. She stood up the teeniest and saw Shibi still in the same place she was sitting at the whole time.
"Psst, Shibi!" Anima whispered loudly, "Can I copy your pre-bell, please?"
Shibi glared at Anima and shook her head, squinting her eyes and giving her the finger.
"Oh, come on!" Anima pleaded, "We're neighbors, aren't we? And friends?"
Still, Shibi shook her head and glared meanly. Her light brown eyes were burning holes into Anima's dark tan skin. What the fuck was up with that? What did Anima even do to hurt Shibi. She couldn't think of anything that she had done, unless...
"You're not still mad at me for what happened during Christmas vacation, are you?" Anima asked.
Shibi nodded and looked down at a sheet of notebook paper, harshly scribbling down words onto it. What a bitch!
"Psst, Jeremy!" Anima whispered again, praying that her plan worked, "Can I copy your pre-bell?"
Jeremy looked up at her and asked, "What the fuck for?"
"Because I didn't do sh-" Anima paused and looked around all over the room just in case Shibi heard and was going to snitch on her for saying naughty words. "I didn't do anything for Spring Break."
"Ain't my problem, bitch," Jeremy told her.
Anima sighed heavily and dragged her feet back and forth. What the fuck was she going to do?! Pre-bell was going to end soon, and then what?! She didn't want McKay on her ass again, not after what had happened after Christmas break. "I'll give you five bucks if you tell me what you did over Spring Break."
Jeremy sighed heavily and relented, hastily tossing a crumpled up piece of notebook towards Anima's desk. It said-
"Me and my girlfriend went to McDonald's and did it in a bathroom stall. My girl had a Big Mac with a small fry and a Diet Coke, and I had a Quarter Pounder with cheese with a large fry, a Dr. Pepper, and three chocolate chip cookies. My girl stole half of my fries and a cookie from me. I told her to get her own food, but she don't ever listen."
"Where's my five dollars?" Jeremy asked.
"I'm not giving you any money!" Anima told him, "This is a bullshit story that you made up! Do you really think I'm that fucking gullible?!"
"Aight, fuck you bitch. Give me my paper back!" Jeremy said.
"Duly noted. It was nothing more than a bunch of crap anyways." Anima threw Jeremy's "pre-bell" back at him and scowled in anger. What the fuck was she going to do now, copy off of Hailey?! Surely, Hailey couldn't be a bullshitter like Jeremy, right?!
"Psst, Hailey!" Anima whispered yet again, "Can I copy your pre-bell?"
"What the fuck for?!" Hailey asked back in a much harsher whisper than Jeremy's.
"Because I need something to tell McKay on what I did for Spring Break!"
"So? What the fuck does that have to do with me?"
"I'll give you five dollars if you let me copy off of your pre-bell. Please?! Pretty please?!"
Hailey sighed, rolled her eyes, and shoved a piece of notebook paper onto Anima's desk. This one said-
"Me and my boyfiend went to McDonalsd and made a lot of love in the dathroom. I got a Big Mack and a Deit Coke and small fire, and my boyfreind had a Quartar Puonder with chese and a large frie and a Dr. Pepr and thre choclate chip cookies. I wanted sum of hsi fries and a cookine, but he siad no and to get my onw food, but I was hunrgy and wasnt full."
"What the fuck?!" Anima exclaimed.
"Where's my money?" Hailey asked.
"I'm not paying you money for this!" Anima answered angrily, "This is nothing but a bunch of fucking lies!"
"Well then, give me my pre-bell back! I don't need any of your bullshit either!"
"Good fucking riddance!" Anima shoved Hailey's pre-bell back at her and slumped back down into her chair, crossing her arms and exhaling through her nostrils. Damn it, damn it, damn it! Why the hell couldn't she write something down, something that wouldn't get herself into any shit from Mr. McKay?! Something...
Something that wasn't like that- gross! What the hell was Anima going to do?! Was the inevitable gonna happen anyways?! Did she have to be the only one in the class who had to deal with McKay's shit, or...?
"Alright, everyone! Pass up your pre-bells!" Mr. McKay's chipper voice rang out all over the walls of the tiny classroom.
Anima quickly scribbled a half-assed paragraph about something something something. Shit, McKay was about to walk towards her desk. Oh shit, he was at her desk now!
"Where's your pre-bell?" Mr. McKay asked.
Anima looked up at Mr. McKay and said innocently, "What pre-bell?"
"The one I assigned on the board," Mr. McKay answered sternly, his right eye starting to twitch.
"Ohh, that one!" Anima gracefully handed Mr. McKay her beautifully written pre-bell and let him handle the rest. And the more he read, the angrier and sweatier he got, and the more his eye twitched profusely.
"Anima Hatsune, what do you think this is?!" he inquired angrily, "Is this a joke to you?!"
"No, it's my pre-bell on what I did over Spring Break," Anima answered calmly, almost too calmly.
Mr. McKay's vein popped out of his throat, and his fingers crumpled the paper, but then he quickly cooled off and asked if she would like to read it for the whole. Anima complied, grabbing the paper out of his hands and clearing her throat. She read-
"I had a threesome with a boy and a girl inside a McDonald's bathroom. There were french fries, Big Macs, cookies, soda, and cheese in our orgy. The boy and I licked cheese and soda off of the girl's stomach and girl parts. Then the girl and I licked chocolate from the cookies off of the boy's boy parts. After that, we french-kissed each other by slowly chewing on each end of a french fry. The boy kissed the girl, the girl kissed the boy, and I kissed both the boy and the girl. Not only was this the best sex I had ever had, but this was also the best Spring Break I had ever had. After all, isn't the whole point of Spring Break experimenting with each other?"
The whole class exploded into laughter, filling up the whole room and then some. In fact, the only people who weren't laughing were Hailey and Jeremy (because Anima had pretty much told the whole class about their funtime at McDonald's), Kishi (who was absolutely blushing of embarrassment), Mr. McKay (who was too shocked and enraged to utter even one word), and Anima (who stared at Mr. McKay with a smug smirk on her face).
And that was why Mr. McKay sent Anima to the principal's office for the very same reason as the last time- again.
"Damn, you're just making this a regular thing, aren't you?" Niklas asked as he, Madison, and Claire were sitting in chairs next to the principal's office's door.
"Yeah, like you're one to talk," Anima muttered back as she slumped down in a chair right next to him.
Madison and Claire snorted and giggled as Niklas slumped down in his seat and glared at Anima like the little shit that she was. "So, what are you in here for?"
"I got pissed off at my English teacher over a bullshit pre-bell he made us do," Anima answered.
Madison almost spat something out. "That's the same reason you got here last time!" she stated.
Anima blushed. "Yeah... well, what are you guys in for?!" she asked.
"Weed," Madison and Niklas answered at the same time.
"That's literally the same shit you did the last time you ended up here!" Anima exclaimed.
"Yeah, so?" Niklas said with an apathetic shrug. He slumped down even more in his seat and added, "At least I'm not making an ass of myself all the time."
Anima rolled her eyes and started at the ceiling because that was a fucking lie. He looked high every time they bumped into each other at the principal's office. There he was- red eyes, droopy eyelids, baggy clothes, shaggy hair, and slumped-over position on a chair. "You look high as hell," she told him.
"And you look like a little bitch," Niklas grumbled back, rolling his eyes and stuffing his hands into his pockets.
Anima flipped Niklas the bird and slumped down into her seat with her hands in her pockets. They all waited outside the principal's office for what seemed like hours until the principal finally opened his door and invited Niklas, Madison, and Claire in. That left Anima all alone with her own thoughts, a very scary concept indeed.
"Hey, Anima!" a girl's familiar voice thankfully interrupted Anima's thoughts.
Anima jumped and looked up; it was Caitlin. "H-Hi."
"What brings you here this time?" Caitlin asked.
Anima sighed and looked down at the floor where Caitlin's feet were. "Do I have to tell the truth?" she asked with a slight groan.
"Thou shall not lie," Cailtin answered cheerfully, holding up the peace sign and smiling ear to ear.
Anima sighed again and confessed to her sins. "I had this pre-bell in English class where we had to write this whole essay on what we did over Spring Break, and I said something that really pissed- I mean, really made my teacher angry."
"Oh?" Caitlin cocked her head sideways and stared at Anima like a cat staring at its prey. "What all did you say that made your teacher angry?"
Anima shrugged and shoved her hands back into her pockets. "I only told him what I did over Spring Break."
Caitlin nodded, her index finger stroking her chin. "So, what all did you do during Spring Break?"
Anima slid down even further in into her seat and glued her eyes to the floor. "Well... I hung out with my girlfriend, and we kissed a lot at the playground near my house..." A moment after saying that, she felt a bad vibe in the room she was in, so she reluctantly looked up and saw Caitlin with one eyebrow furrowed into her forehead and a frown on her face.
"Oh... oh." Caitlin was silent for a few minutes before she said quietly, "Yeah, I can kind of see why your teacher might have an issue with that."
"Yeah, well... why should he so upset about what I did over Spring Break? It wasn't like I was hurting anybody or something like that," Anima stated uneasily.
"Let's just say that your lifestyle is very uh... well, controversial." And with that out of the way, Caitlin walked out of the office to deal with some junior who was having some serious argument with a teacher or some shit like that.
That left Anima alone with her thoughts again, which was even scarier than the last time. What had Caitlin meant by controversial lifestyle? Did Caitlin seriously said that because Anima had mentioned her girlfriend? What was so controversial about that?! Was the fact that she was gay really that controversial, something that she couldn't help or control?! And then she remembered what Penelope had said about her on Halloween.
"Like I said... we were best friends for a few years until I got to seventh grade. That was when I found out I was gay, and I told Caitlin that in the woods. I told her-
"And Caitlin stared at me with her eyes big and her jaw dropped open, like she couldn't believe it. So I was like, 'Are you okay?'. And she was like, 'I gotta go now...'. And then... and then she left slowly and without, like, saying anything like she was disappointed in me. Hell, now that I think about it, I think she ran away from me.
"And that's not even the worst part. The next day at lunch, when I was with my science class, Caitlin was talking to some girls in her English class, and she had the balls to say that, no joke, that I was gay and that we should hate the sin, not the sinner, like I was some drug addict or something."
Oh... Oh, God. Maybe Penelope had been right about Caitlin being a homophobe this entire time. Lord only knew what other bigoted opinions she had this entire time.