Snapped

Chapter II

Robin and I passed the rest of the weekend uneventfully. We relished our last moments of summer and freedom together on Saturday, and set out to prepare mentally and physically for school on Sunday.

The first day passed slowly, and by the time I reached fourth block, I was on edge. Syllabus week apparently meant nothing, and in two of my classes we had already started with the textbook. My only saving grace was that Evan was in my third block engineering class, and being able to look at his face made me slightly giddy inside.

I walked into Room 404 fairly confident because my AP Microeconomics class was looping to take AP Macro together, and the teacher already knew us. My white converse scuffed against the floor as I sat down in the front row. I busied myself by taking out my phone to check my notifications, replying to Robin asking if we needed running shoes for practice. Unfortunately, we did. The rest of the class filed in sporadically, and my teammate Maggie Topps sat down next to me.

"Sup, Topps," I said as I locked my phone, placing it in my backpack.

"Hey, Thal. I'm already dying because Physics. The new teacher is crazy. She dropped a bowling ball on her foot while teaching lab safety!" Topps gushed.

I smirked- I had had Higgins first block. She spent the entire class telling us about her move from Nevada earlier in the summer. I could not comprehend why someone would want to move to Rhode Island. I mean it was nice in the summer with the lakes everywhere, but during the winter it was too darn cold for me.

"I had her first block, this year is going to be a trip!" I exclaimed.

We chattered amiably for a minute or two about practice later, overcrowding in the cafeteria (Was the food even edible anyways?), and how long the week already felt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Evan walk in and flash someone a smile. I tried to discreetly see who he was smiling at, but I gave up when I thought about how conspicuous I would look.

Topps and I both jumped when the door slammed shut.

"Alright, losers! Who's ready to learn some Econ!" Mrs. Kowalski said with a huge grin. We all couldn't help but laugh at how comical she was: her enthusiasm and large personality more than made up for her short stature.

She went up to the front of the room and sat at the podium, her legs dangling off the floor even though it wasn't a particularly tall one.

"I think I want to pretend it's the first day of last school year when I gave you all your nicknames, and we're going to go through attendance like we don't know each other! Because when else am I going to get to butcher all your names!" she bubbled, swinging her legs back and forth.

There was an audible cheer from the back of the room. Mrs. Kowalski was what you call a cool teacher. We started off the year with two weeks of team bonding exercises to get to know each other better, and ended the year after exams by challenging the other AP classes to kickball. We all passed the exam though, so I suppose she did teach us something in between.

Her pencil drifted down the class roster, and I think we all leaned forward a bit in anticipation.

"Savannah Lee!" she fired out.

Savannah perked up as Mrs. Kowalski pretended to study her for a moment.

"I think I'm going to call you 'Lil 'Lil A because I called your older sister "Lil A," she said.

Savannah grinned and shook her head.

"Sol Li. How about Sunshine because I think you're going to brighten up my day a lot," she mused. He smiled a bit nervously. Then Mrs. Kowalski went rapid fire down the roll.