First Impressions

"Ok, it's official. The school lunch is toxic." Shale says while pushing her lunch tray away. I stare at the green Jell-O as it wiggles along with the spaghetti. Then I turn to Trev, who was shoving everything, insight down his mouth. I shrug and start shoving my mouth full too. A girl's got to eat.

"It's not so bad." I say through a mouth full of bread while grabbing Shale's tray and scooping her food onto my plate. She makes a disgusted face.

"You say that now, but wait until you die. Then what will you say?"

"I don't know; I'll be dead, won't I?" I answer her question with another question with food spraying from my mouth as I talk. I see Brad come over with Shelby on his arm. "Oh, Lord."

They sit down at the end of our table, Shelby whispering things in Brad's ear. Probably something nasty since he pulls back to give her an amazed look and then lets her keep whispering.

"I don't understand why they're together." Shale comments while staring at them. She pulls a pudding-cup from her bag and starts eating it slowly.

"Brad's a guy. What do you think guys want?" Trev asks looking in the same direction.

"A good fuck." Tash says instinctively. After he realizes what he just said, his face turns red as he covers his mouth. I laugh a little.

"So?" Shale inquires.

"So, guys are pigs, very shallow pigs at that." I say while sliding Jell-O into my mouth. Trev and Tash look at me with a hurt expression. "Oh, well, not you guys."

"Isn't there just some guy out there who isn't?" Shale asks. I shake my head 'no'.

"No, there isn't. Guys let their dick think for them, not their heart. Why do you think there are so many divorces right now? It's because almost every guy is shallow. There are so many pigs in the world right now, that they give the good guys a bad name. I think that women rule the world; men are just in it so we don't get bored. Men are simply play toys with no brains." I share my opinion. Shale, Trev, and Tash all stare at me with the same weird look. I look up from my Jell-O. "What?"

"You've thought about this a lot, haven't you?" Tash asks. I stare at him.

"What gave you that idea?" They all sigh and shake their heads at me, returning to their food, still staring at Shelby and Brad. She had moved from whispering in his ear to sucking on his neck like a leach. I make a disgusted face and look away.

"I still don't get it." Trev mumbles to himself. The others nod their heads in agreement and then there was silence. Sounds of other kids talking and laughing filled the air.

The bell rings and we all gather our books and bags. I walk to the door while throwing my tray away and walk out the door to my next class. Algebra 1.

I enter room 205 and realize that I'm one of the first people, giving me an advantage of choosing any seat. I choose a seat in the back corner, deciding to sit farthest away from the teacher. I was never good at math, why else do you think I'm a junior and taking a freshman course? I failed way too many times, and summer school didn't help any. I see someone walk in and look up from my notebook.

"Well, well. Looks like I'm not the only one who sucks at math." I smirk while Brad walks over and sits in front of me, turning around to give me a little glare.

"I'm probably better than you." He snorts.

"We're in the same class, aren't we?" I snort back at him. He rolls his eyes then looks at my notebook. I quickly cover it with my hand, not letting him see anything inside.

"What is that, your diary?"

"Haha. Very funny. No, it's personal. None of your business." I say childishly. He shrugs and turns around as freshmen start coming into the classroom. Brad and I receive some strange looks, but other than that, everything was fine. Mrs. Shanks comes into the room after the bell with a large smile on her chubby face.

"Welcome to Algebra 1!" She says excitedly. She then pulls out a bunch of papers and starts passing them down the rows. "Today, we'll just review a little."

Brad throws the paper over his shoulder; dropping it quickly and making it fall onto the floor. I growl out of irritation and bend over to get it, making sure to smack him in the back of the head while doing so. I take one look at the work sheet and feel my face drain of any life.

3x+4y4x-7y

What in the name of God's green earth is this?

I stare at the worksheet and all of the problems, not paying attention to anything Mrs. Shanks was saying.

"Autum!"

My head shoots up at my name. I see every kid in the classroom looking back at me and Mrs. Shanks glaring at me.

"What?" I ask cluelessly.

"Come up here and do this problem." She says, pointing at the chalkboard behind her. I get up and walk up to the front of the class slowly. How ironic. I don't pay attention and I'm the first one she picks at doing a problem. Beautiful.

I stare at the problem written before me, not understanding a thing I'm supposed to do. The only thing that keeps running through my mind is 'What the hell?' over and over again. I finally turn back to her.

"I don't know how to do this." I state blankly. She gives me a look of surprise.

"How do you not know? You learned this in eight grade." She says, probably astonished at how stupid I am.

"I failed eight grade math. What can I say, I'm a walking disaster." I shrug and hand her back her chalk before sitting back down in my seat, kids snickering at my reply.

I spend the rest of the class period sleeping very contently. When the bell rings, I walk out of the class with my hair defying all laws of gravity. When I walk down the hallway, I receive more weird looks. I grab my Chemistry book out of my locker and then walk to the room with Trev by my side.

When we enter, kids are all chattering about their own subjects. I guess we would be doing some sort of lab today. That's pretty amazing, usually you had to take this really big test at my old school to make sure you knew what you were doing and didn't catch anything on fire. I failed that test multiple times.

The teacher then comes in, explaining all the rules and handing out the sheet with instructions on it, stating that we had to work with a partner. I look at the sheet and smirk, giving Trev a high-five.

"Oh, yeah! We get to mix chemicals!" Trev shouts excitedly. I nod my head like a bobble head doll and shoot up from my seat like many of the other students, racing to get to a lab.

We both put on out goggles that the teacher had at each lab and put on the white apron too. We laugh at each other before reading the sheet.

"Be careful. Some chemicals contain harsh acids." Trev reads aloud. I pay no attention and start mixing the different colored liquids together, laughing as some of them start to sizzle. Trev looks over before joining in, laughing to himself too.

I spot a catchy green colored liquid and mix it together with an orange one, putting it on the burner to see what happens. You know how I said I was an impulse person and I act on impulse? This is one of those times. I bend down and watch it start bubbling, the bubbles getting bigger and bigger. Trev stops doing what he was doing and bends down as well, watching it. It was just so…. Hypnotizing.

"Uh-oh." I say before a giant boom rings out through the whole room.

"What happened to you two?" Shale asks, staring as we walk up to the entire group in the library. Trev and I look at each other tiredly and look back at them.

"We might have accidentally blown up the entire Chemistry unit of the school." Trev says.

"Or atleast Mr. Gelino's room." I mumble, sitting down across from Shale. They all stare at the both of us. I saw myself in the window reflection; my hair being splayed around the whole place, parts of my face black except for the circles around my eyes where the goggles had covered me. I looked like a reverse raccoon.

"It wasn't my fault; Autum was the one mixing the chemicals." Trev says diligently. I glare at him.

"You were too!" I whine.

"Not the ones that blew up!" He shoots back. I huff and slouch down into my seat, crossing my arms.

"You could've stopped me instead of just standing there and staring at it." I retort before turning away from him. "You have some issues."

"Atleast I don't have the ones that involve exploding glass objects." He mumbles to himself. I see Shale kick him in the shin and tell him to shut up before I stick a dynamite up his ass.

"So, your first day at your new school and you blew up your Chemistry class." Tash inquires, apparently surprised that I can go through so much in just the first day.

"How exciting." Brad snorts before going back to the book he was reading. I stick my tongue out at him before letting my head hit the table and falling asleep.

It's been a long day and I'm all pooped out.

I open the door to my house groggily, Trev and Shale stumbling in after me. Brad was parking the truck in his driveway and Tash had to work after school today. I let go of my bag and do a belly flop onto the couch, burying my head into one of the pillows. Mom comes in, smiling, from the kitchen in her work suit.

"How was your first day?" Mom asks in a sing-song voice. I let out a muffled moan and toss her a fake baby. She lets out a shriek and throws it up into the air. I let out a gasp and dive off of the couch, catching the screaming baby in my arms. I moan again. "What is that?"

"It's my kid. Guess who the dad is." I say grudgedly, trying to get the stupid thing to shut up. Then Shale's baby starts crying and she glares at me before retrieving it.

"Who?"

"Brad. Whoop-dee-freaking-doo." I say with sarcasm dripping on every word that would seem exciting. I then get up when Brad walks through the door and shove the baby in his arms immediately. He groans and shoves it back into my arms.

"What class is this?" Mom asks, pointing at the baby.

"Adult Roles, remember? The class you said that would be perfect for bringing out my 'motherly' instincts." I say, using air quotes and searching through my bag for the stupid bottle. "I told you, I'm going to be a sucky mom. Do I look like a mom to you?"

I turn to her and prop the baby on my hip and stick the bottle in its mouth. My hair was still messed up from the lab, but my face was clean. My shirt was wrinkled from sleeping so much and my eyes were squinted. Mom smiles back at me.

"Yes, actually, you do." I kick my boot off, sending it flying towards her. It lands a foot away from its target. Damn. She laughs and then looks at everyone else in the room. "Who are these two?"

"Shale and Trev." I say, sitting down on the couch with Brad beside me. I hand him the baby for a minute and tug at the stupid band on my wrist. The teacher said that we always had to wear it and couldn't take it off. So basically, it's locked on my wrist and cutting off my circulation. I see Brad trying to tug at his too. I take the baby back and continue feeding it.

"Are they also a couple with a baby?" She asks looking at the baby Shale was trying to burp.

"To my dismay, yes." Trev says, taking the baby from Shale and hitting it once, making it burp and cry again. Mom laughs before trailing upstairs, humming some song.

"Your mom seems cool." Shale says, changing the diaper.

"Yeah, I know." I take the bottle away from the baby and trying to burp it. I then turn to Brad, still patting the doll's back. "Can we name it?"

"What?" He asks, looking at me like an idiot. "Why?"

"Well, we can't just call it 'The Baby' the whole three weeks, can we?" I ask, the baby burping. I set it back down in the cradle and rock it with my foot, still staring at Brad.

"Fine, you'll get your way anyways. What do you want it named?" He asks, staring at the doll. I think for a minute, pressing my pointer finger to my lips. I always do that when I think.

"How about Aera?" I ask, liking the sound of that. He just nods his head before leaning back and sighing.

"How did you two even get stuck being a couple?" Trev asks randomly. I turn to Brad, letting him tell the story.

"Punishment because someone wouldn't stop shooting spit-balls at me and she made me say a couple of 'unpleasant' words, as the teacher puts it." He says, glaring at me. I smile back innocently but then stop when the baby starts crying again. "And it resulted in both of us having a kid." He finishes.

I growl and rub my hair in frustration, making it even frizzier. I grab the baby and jump up and down, trying to make it be quiet. I see Shale pull out the paper that the teacher had given us, telling us some things we would need to do to make the baby be quiet.

"It says that sometimes it'll cry because it needs to laugh. You have to make it laugh." She says, looking up at me. I stare at her for a minute before handing it off to Brad. He backs up, refusing to touch that thing. I growl again, but then Shale continues. "Or somehow entertain it."

I stop shoving it towards Brad and think for a minute.

"I can handle that." I grin cheekily and run upstairs to my room, everyone falling slowly. I jump on my bed and continue jumping, laughing and making funny faces at the doll. They all walk in, probably thinking I've gone senile. The baby stops crying and starts laughing. I keep doing that for five minutes before landing on my butt and putting it back in the cradle. "See?"

Shale grins at me, sitting beside me on the bed.

"You're such a kid." She giggles. I grin at her before letting out a sigh and falling backwards on my bed.

"I know."