It Started With A Dare

I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock beeping obnoxiously loud at 6 am. Groaning, I slammed my fist down on the wretched devise and got our from under my comfy bed sheets, feeling the coldness of my wooden floor against my feet as I made my way to the bathroom.

Bob always got up a lot later than me so I didn’t have to worry about hogging the bathroom for too long. I quickly stripped myself of my PJ’s and took a quick shower, washing my hair with strawberry scented shampoo. Once I’d finished showering I wrapped the towel around myself before starting to dry my hair with the hairdryer until it returned to the normal wavy chocolate brown it usually is.

After taming my hair and scrubbing at my face with a daily cleanser, I exited the bathroom to pull on my clothes for the day. I decided to go with something simple, so I pulled on a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, a white long sleeved shirt and then a black band tee over the top of it. I then rolled the sleeves of the white shirt up to my elbows and tugged on a pair of converse.

My shoulder bag was filled with empty binders and notebooks, along with some stationary; seeing as we weren’t really going to be doing much on the first day apart from orientation. I made my way down the stairs and into the kitchen to make myself some toast. There was a note on the counter, as usual, saying that dad had left for work and wishing me good luck on my first day. I smiled slightly before putting some bread in the toaster.

By the time Bob finally made it down stairs, I’d already eaten 2 slices of toast and had watched about an hour of cartoons.

“Come on Bobby! I don’t wanna be late on my first day!” I said, getting up from the sofa and walking towards the door, waiting for him to follow me.

“Alright, alright I’m coming!” He called back, making his way to the front door, grabbing his car keys on the way. We both got into his car and drove off to school; it wasn’t a very long drive and soon enough we pulled up into the school parking lot. There were lots of groups of people crowded around cars, chatting together and laughing; it just made it all the more intimidating. I hopped out of the car, grabbing my bag and waiting for Bob to get out.

“Okay, I’m gonna give you a few rules. Number 1: Don’t talk to me in school, at all, number 2: I’m not your brother, if anyone asks and number 3: If any guys hit on you or anything, you’ve got to tell me because I’ll smash their faces in.” he said.

“Charming, but I doubt that’ll happen, Bobby.” I said, referring to his third ‘rule’.

“Have you looked in the mirror recently Cassie? You’re not a little girl any more, and I don’t want my baby sister taken advantage of. Some of the guys at this school are real creeps,” He explained, making me roll my eyes. “Now I’ve gotta go, so I’ll see you after school, okay?” he said, about to walk off before I grabbed his arm.

“Wait, do you know where room … 13g is?” I asked, glancing at my schedule.

“Oh, yeah, go in the main entrance and take the third corridor, it’s the first door on the right, okay?” he asked, I nodded and watched as he walked off, presumably to go and meet up with his friends.

Taking a deep breath, trying to get over the sick feeling in my stomach, I pulled my bag onto my shoulder and started to make my way towards the school building. I barely knew anyone here so I thought that it was best to just go straight to class instead of loitering around on my own. Making my way up the school steps, I followed Bob’s instructions and soon arrived at room 13g.

I opened the door and looked in, there were about two people already inside; one looked like a swot whilst the other looked like one of those people who are loners because everyone’s scared of them. I took a seat nearer to the back of the classroom and towards the side, not liking to sit in the middle of the classroom where it was too open.

A few minutes later the bell rang and more students filled into the classroom; our homeroom classes were supposed to be mixed grades and it made me feel a bit on edge. I looked up as someone sat in the desk next to me; it was a girl with bleach blonde hair with a straight fringe, immediately reminding me of lady gaga. She had bright green eyes and was dressed in a pink blouse and denim skirt.

“Hi, I’m Debbie, what’s your name? I haven’t seen you around before.” she asked me, in an overly peppy voice, smiling widely at me.

“I’m Cassie, and I went to a different middle school than most people here.” I smiled back at her.

“Cool, so I’m guessing you don’t know many people then?” she said, I shook my head “Well don’t worry, we can be friends!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around me in a hug. It was a little weird, I wasn’t really one for physical contact, but at least I wasn’t alone for the rest of the day.

“Alright class, settle down now.” The teacher called to the class of rowdy teenagers. Everyone eventually shut up and he took registration. Maybe things were gonna be alright today after all.