Running on Adrenaline

I was guessing it was second period. I still had one period to sleep. As I suppressed a yawn, I thought it was a good idea to maybe get some shut eye. I lay in my bed with the comforter I brought from home, it smelled of my room and I pulled it up to my chin as I drifted away into unconsciousness.

That same loud ring was heard and I got up, only to find my head was light and I was dizzy. I clutched the side of my bed when I stood up and I quickly gathered a notebook and my pencil case from my bag, when I pulled those out something shiny caught my eye, a necklace slipped out of my bag. I picked it up and looked at the simple oval shape I turned it over to find the inscription I was always familiar with. "Keep following the reckless dream that’s tearing you up inside." My brother gave it to me before he took his own life when he was 18. I sighed and slipped the necklace on, to remind me of those words. I grabbed the sheet of paper with my schedule on it and I was off.

I hurried through the halls looking at door numbers and feeling dizzy as I got more lost by the second. I finally reached my class room and as I entered I felt a million eyes looking my way. I ran my fingers through my hair nervously as I handed the slip I was given to my teacher.

“Welcome to maths…Amelia, is it?”
“Yeah” I answered quietly, looking around at the eyes boring into my soul.
“I’m Mrs Henson and were working on quadratic formulas toady” the whole class finally redirected their attention from me and groaned when she mentioned this.
“Oh hush, it’s not that bad” Mrs. Henson turned and wrote an equation on the board.
“So what would I use to solve this?” the class fell silent, not a noise was heard. I took a wild gesture and put my hand up.
“Well at least someone wants to have a go, Mrs…stokes?”
“The quadratic formula” I said quietly
A few people glanced back at me, I noticed a girl in particular, with short bleached blond hair shaped in a stylish pixie cut. She smiled and I did so back.

“Thank you” Mrs Henson turned and wrote on the board “And I know asking this is probably using way to many of your brain cells, but what IS the quadratic formula?”
Once again I took the liberty of breaking the silence “Minus B, plus or minus the square root of B squared, minus 4 AC all over 2 A” I trailed off when more people looked back at me like I was some sort of prophet.
“Mrs. stokes, I’m afraid I think you’re too smart for my class” Mrs Henson playfully joked as she wrote this on the board.
“Teachers pet” I heard a few people snicker as they turned back the board. Well it was more creative than the label I was given at my old school.
By the end of the lesson i had a page full of maths notes I already knew. When the bell rang loudly the students all filed out rowdily and I was left, I stood up slowly and walked out with my notepad and pencil case.

A head of bleached blond hair was waiting outside of the door and when I passed her she stopped me.
“I think yeh need to tutor meh” she laughed
I smiled, thinking she was teasing me. She asked where I was next.
“um art, B207”
“No way, I’m there too, ill take yeh there and yeh can meet Jeremy. I’m Hannah by the way”

she smiled leading me to the art room. I was still getting used to the British accents.
When I got there, the classroom was still waiting to be filled. Hannah led me to a desk towards the back and sat me across an impossibly sweet looking boy. I was assuming this was Jeremy. His messy caramel hair hung down to his eyes, he looked up at me relieving brilliant blue eyes with a dark rim around them.

Hannah was chatting away about the school and to sit with her at lunch and I just sat and nodded trying to keep my eyes open. When the teacher entered the room fell quiet and I shook my head to get a grip.
The teacher was a plump man with a red beret on. He stood confidently as he introduced himself.

“We have a new student today, and her name is” he looked down at a sheet “Amelia Stokes” the whole class looked at me and I gave a small wave.
“Okay, okay everyone. Attention back to me, where it should be” he smiled, he rambled on for a few more minutes and when he stopped everyone stood and headed to a different part of the large room.

Hannah smiled and left the table. The plump man walked over to me and sat beside me. “Hello, I’m Mr. A. what kind of medium are you interested in? Because we need to get started on that right away”
“um, well at my old school I did photography”
“Photography it is, there are cameras in the cupboard over there and a dark room right out the door and to the left” he walked away to pester the rest of the students.

“So photography huh?” Jeremy’s voice was husky and he pulled his messy fringe to the side.
“Yeah, I love it to death” I said
“Is that an American accent?”
“No its Australian, I can’t believe you’ve mistaken me for an American” I joked.
“Oh, my humblest apologies” he joked back “but yeh don’t look Australian” he studied my features as he spoke.
“The way I look is a long story” I laughed
“Ive go’ time” he offered
“Well” I started “I’m a whole half Russian from my dad, but my mum’s side has Spanish, Chinese, Greek, Egyptian and….British” I smiled
His eyes widened and he laughed “Well yeh must feel righ’ at home, being in Britain an all”
I smiled but it did reach my eyes as I filled my mind with thoughts of my real home.
At that moment Hannah slid back down beside me.
“yeh know, I would kill for your hair, I’ve been trying to grow it. But I’m stuck with this for a while” she said looking at my hair and playing with her short spiky hair.
I picked up the ends of my hair and started playing with it
“Thanks, but I’d kill for your hair” I laughed, and she replied with a smile.
When that same loud rang went again I was shaken out of my sleepy state and looked down at the page of doodles I worked on all lesson. I closed my notebook and followed Hannah and Jeremy to the cafeteria. As we walked in the whole room was filled with students talking and eating. A boy with dark hair stood on a table and looked down right at me.

“ ‘Ello love, you new?”
His dark hair framed his face and his fringe came down to his bright green eyes. He stood there waiting for an answer.

“Yeah” I quirked my brow.

“oli you twat, get off the table!” another boy yelled at him. He jumped off the table and came over to me. His face was almost flawless, but he was pretty damn close to perfect. Perhaps this boy was perfect, maybe he was nice and sweet.

Hannah took my arm to lead me away. She seemed desperate to get me away from him.

“Listen love, you gotta know im the one to impress in this place if you wanna get anywhere” he smiled a cocky smile. Pshhh, perfect? nice? sweet ?
Mistake number two.

“Sod off oli” Hannah yelled.