First Impression I

Chapter Four- The Etiquette of Insult

Chapter Four- The Etiquette of Insult

Friday came non-too quickly. I rested my head on my arms, trying to catch some precious few minutes of sleep before my first period. This week had been hectic. I had laboured, endured and ploughed my way through incessant piles of homework, relentless teachers and unforgiving social battles before the end of the week finally loomed in sight.

Ah. This was peaceful. It was still early and nobody had entered the classroom yet. Everybody was still socialising in the various parts of the school. And recounting the details of the epic food fight yesterday. That was another reason I came here. I so did not want to remember the food fight that I had narrowly escaped. The spaghetti in tomato sauce. Eww. The prawn noodles. Double ewws.

“Hi!” Isn’t that the prawn noodles saying hi? Goodness gracious. My mind must be playing tricks on me.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, the food fight. I am so pissed off at Medusa, ahem, Audrey. She had pulled every prank that I wanted to avoid on me. Thank the Lord. I had expected everything. Almost. From the food fight to the spray paint. From the timeless classic “Bucket over the door” to the Thornwell original “Singing shoes”. (The singing abruptly stopped when I stepped on gum though. Wonder why.)

“Hi.” There go the prawn noodles again. Shoo. Not welcome.

And there’s the annoying soap that would not lather to save itself. And it stuck to my palm like a leech. I had to smash it into the wall to get it off me. Yeesh. Audrey and clones were watching from the toilet stalls with ill-disguised glee. I pocketed the soap or what remained of it and thoughtfully slipped it into her pocket to remind her of the delightful pranks that we shared. Medusa’s shrieks came two periods later but I heard them anyway. Did I mention that I had coated the soap in toilet perfume? The pungent one? I would have preferred pepper spray or something along those lines but well, I had to make do with what I had. What? She started it first, I maintained.

“Hi!” a soprano voice shouted in my ear, a voice so high it almost exceeded my frequency range. I let out a startled screech and scooted as far away as I possibly could while still being seated on the chair. That wasn’t a very smart thing to do. I nearly toppled over.

“Morning,” the same voice trilled. “Sorry, I wasn’t meaning to scare you like that but you never responded.” I looked up. It was Alice. And Katherine.

“Oh, it’s you. Morning,” I muttered.

“Who else do you think it would be?” Alice sang. Now that she wasn’t at my ear, I realised that her voice was actually quite beautiful. It had a dreamy musical feel.

“Uh nothing.” I couldn’t very well say prawn noodles, could I?

“Don’t you look tired? Aren’t you glad we’re handing in our essay today?” And no homework for the weekend.”

I groaned and glared at the said essay. Do not remind of the dratted thing. I stayed up doing that.

“Don’t stress. Mrs Taylor will be kind since you are new here. The standards are a whole ledge higher.” A lower voice consoled. I looked up again. Katherine was talking to me. Big shock. That’s the first time she talked to me after my disastrous first day. My jaw would probably have dropped if the screws weren’t spoiled from working overtime these past few days.

“Thanks,” I mumbled and we fell into awkward silence. Usually I would have switched the topic until we were all chatting happily. But I wasn’t in a good mood so I left them to come up with the topic instead.

Alice caught the hint. “So what clubs are you joining? You have to choose by next month right?”

I shook my head miserably. I had been too busy.