Dividing by Zero

Brooke woke up with a start, not remembering what it was she was dreaming about, just knowing it was a good one. She looked up at her clock which read 6:42; she had beaten her alarm by three minutes.

She sighed audibly and threw her covers off of her, grabbing her phone and flipping it open. She saw an unread text from Erin that read,

“Goodnight! Sweet dreams! <3”

Brooke smiled at it, realizing she must have fallen asleep before seeing it. She tossed her phone on her bed and headed to her closet, humming under her breath as she did so.

Once in front of her closet, she put her hands on her hips and surveyed her clothes. After a few minutes thought she grabbed a blue floral skirt, a light blue tank top, and a pair of black flats.

She threw it on quickly, straightening herself out in the mirror, and after finally being satisfied with her outfit, she left her room and went across the hall to the bathroom, where her sister was brushing her teeth.

“Move it, Mer,” Brooke said playfully. Meredith, her eleven year old sister, spit out the toothpaste in her mouth and stuck a white, foamy tongue out at her.

“I’m almost done. By the way, your hair’s a mess. I hope you’re not going to school like that.”

Brooke rolled her eyes and pushed Meredith out of the way. “No, I’m not going to school like this, thank you very much. And what if I did? What’s it to you?”

“It’s embarrassing!”

“We don’t even go to the same school!”

“Word travels,” Meredith said seriously, before rinsing off her toothbrush and leaving the bathroom, allowing Brooke peace. Brooke shut door after her and pulled out her toothbrush, brushing her teeth, and then pulled out her hairbrush.

She ran the brush through her tangled hair, trying her best to make it lie somewhat flat and or straight, but after realizing it was never going to happen, she just grabbed a hair tie and threw it up into a slightly messy ponytail.

She put on a light line of black eyeliner on each eye, slathered on some chap stick, then grabbed her backpack and cell phone from her room before heading downstairs.

As she went in to the kitchen, she saw her mom and Meredith sitting at the counter, chatting away. They were both munching on scrambled eggs and toast, so Brooke looked around for her plate.

“Mom? Do I get some?”

Her mom looked at her watch before answering. “You need to be at in school in twenty minutes, so you have to start walking. Grab a power bar.”

Brooke scowled, trudging to the cabinet to get a Luna Bar, then stormed out of the house, not bothering to say goodbye to her mother and sister.

She began the walk to school, munching on her “breakfast” and cursing the cars that drove past with kids in the back getting driven to school.

As she got close enough to school to see the building, something twitched in the back of her mind, and she let out a yell of frustration after realizing she forgot her Italian poster at home.

She kept walking until finally, she made it over to where Danielle and Lara were standing in front of the building.

She put on a happy face; just seeing her friends brightened her day. “Morning!” she chirped.

Danielle waved, smiling, and Lara just grunted out something incoherent. “What’s up your ass?” Brooke asked, earning a smack on the arm from Danielle for cursing. “Sorry, sorry. What’s up your butt?” Brooke asked again, to which Lara only glared.

“It’s hot,” she stated irritably.

Brooke and Danielle only laughed, to which Lara grew more angry. “Ugh, you guys are freakin’ obnoxious. I’m hot, fix it.”

Danielle rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I have Mother Nature’s complaint hotline on speed dial. Gimme a minute.”

Brooke laughed, less at Danielle’s somewhat weak jab, but more at Lara’s face. She was giving Danielle a particularly hate-filled glare, and she was trying to look menacing, which was somewhat difficult for a skinny, four foot, eleven inches junior in high school.

The silence was broken by Erin’s joining in to the circle. She struck up a conversation, a couple shouts where throw in, and then the bell rang, finally allowing all of them inside.

Brooke and Erin went to the left while the other two went to the right, and they walked to their lockers in a comfortable silence. Erin asked Brooke about her weekend, to which Brooke just repeated what Erin already knew through their text messages.

Once they were at their lockers, Brooke got a text from Mikey, a guy that she kind of liked from work. She was ecstatic, and got to texting him back right away, trying to ignore the somewhat irritated look she got from Erin, of which she had no idea was about.

When they were finished at their locker, they headed up the stairs and towards the history class they were both in. “I don’t want to go to history class,” Brooke suddenly cried out dramatically.

Erin laughed. “Oh please, it’s not that bad. Mr. F. is like, the easiest teacher in the whole school.”

“Thank God you’re in that class, Erin,” Brooke said happily, grabbing her arm and linking it through her own. “I don’t know how I would survive without you!”

Erin was just looking at their linked arms, and a few moments of silence and Brooke giving her weird looks, she snapped out of it and chuckled. “You are honestly the most dramatic person I have ever met.”

“Oh please,” Brooke scoffed. “More dramatic then Lara?”

“Lara’s just super sassy. But I guess you’re both pretty dramatic; you’re tied for first place.”

They had gotten to history class by this point, so Brooke just rolled her eyes and blew a kiss before heading to her seat on the other side of the room.