Wakeup Call

I walk through the school doors, my long redish brown braid over one shoulder, my bangs hanging in front of one eye, my bag on the opposite shoulder. Daniel comes up beside me, his arm coming up possessively around my shoulders--not really in the this is my girl kinda way, but in a sorta bored, almost arrogant I've got a pretty girlfriend, am popular, and loved by everyone around me way.

"Hey, babe." Daniel leans in and quickly kisses me on the lips, before pulling back and waving to his buddies, joking around with them as we pass by.

"Hey, Daniel." My usual singsong voice sounds a little too happy, too fake, but he either doesn't notice or doesn't care. I automatically wrap my arm around his side, forming our image of unity that everyone else sees.

The only difference visually being his bored expression--the typical I don't care about school, but here I am anyways look he and his popular buddies always wear and my almost constant natural friendly look--not like I'm always smiling, but my natural expression looks happy and careless--and my wide eyes, acknowledging everyone I know--and occasionally, some younger kids I don't.
We reach my locker and Daniel leans against the locker next to it as I put my things away.

"Are we going to see that new movie that just came out? The guys are going Thursday." Daniel asks, still sounding pretty bored as he people watches.

"Uh..." I glance at the whiteboard in my locker, where I've written all the things going on recently, "yeah, we'll go. What time?" I take out the marker to make the note for Thursday.

"Right after school. I'll give you a ride, 'k?" It's more of a statement than a question. An assumption.

"Ok." I shut my locker and start towards drama, my spirits high for a Tuesday morning--my favorite day of the week next to Friday. Daniel doesn't bother walking me to class anymore, he just drops me off at my locker then wanders off--usually talking to another popular girl, also known as a Barbie.

Unlike Daniel, who's popular for his good looks and connections, I'm popular for being nice to pretty much everyone as well as the fact that I'm apparently skinny enough and pretty enough and dress cool enough to be a Barbie. At our school we have pet names for every social group--well every major social group. Pretty, popular girls are dubbed Barbies, the popular jocks have been known to be called Kens and other player names, then there are Spocks and Daisies (wallflowers) and so on. Honestly, I couldn't care less whether or not I'm popular, but mostly I don't mind.
In drama, I push everything else away from my thoughts and concentrate on just the moment. Just the room with kids who love pretending that they're someone else, in a place and time far away from here. Who look forward to forgetting everything that's gone wrong in their lives and becoming someone else for the moment. Who come to put what's going on now, what's troubling them now, what's hurting them now, away, to store it in a file as if it all happened to someone they vaguely know and to become a different person with different troubles and different likes and dislikes and a different personality and a different life with a clean slate. With no one to judge them on anything but what they can do with their souls when they get up on that stage and pour their hearts out into their acting. And in all honesty, I have more in common with every single person in this room, than I do with the rest of the populars. Than I do with the Barbies. Than I do with Daniel. And I sorta like that. It makes this room feel special. It makes this group of people my other family. And it makes me the other family of the group of people in this room, and we all know that, we all feel that. We all trust each other like we can't everyone else. Because everyone else doesn't understand what happens in this room with our other family in our other identities with our clean slates. And no one else ever will unless it happens to them.

As everyone files in, we greet each other amiably and get excited about the play and the things we'll do in the drama room, but we don't mention anything outside this room, anything outside this private world of ours unless it's caused a strain on one of our members, because we've been together in this class for 3 years. Not a single person has joined since then because you sign up for the class to take for the full 4 years. You can sign up for 1 year drama classes or less, but this is a special class. The only way to get in later is if you're new. And you have to be really good to get through the new person audition. Yeah, you have to audition to get into the class, but it really makes it special. A feeling of I made it, and so did these people. They understand how important this is and how nervous we all were at auditions. Because this is a big thing.

As I'm talking to Andrew, one of my guy buddies in the class - a Turtle (teenage mutant ninja turtles to be exact), if anyone's curious, but I actually love hanging out with Turtles, they're nicknamed that because they don't seem to grow up and become serious people that judge everything around them, they're growing up, but they still act like kids often and just love to have fun, and the only thing they'll judge is when people look down on having fun just for the sake of it, they're so easy going it's hard for me not to love them and their personalities.

"I am so tired." He says, not really to me in particular, just commenting as he stretches and yawns.

I laugh as he attempts to make himself comfortable enough to take a quick nap but then gives up and settles for sitting slouched, his arms crossed, and his head lounging back lazily.

"How come?" I prompt, knowing he just wants to go on about something to keep himself from falling asleep.

"I had to wake up this morning." He mumbles indignantly, shutting his eyes and letting his jaw dropped into a relaxed position.

I nod, "so did I, you know, now that you mention it, I feel really sleepy." I sigh and curl up in my chair, shutting my eyes as well.

Footsteps stop in front of us and bounce energetically. "What are you guys up to?" Cassie's voice asks excitedly.

Andrew and I both open one eye - feigning annoyance, but she knows we're just having a little fun. "We're tired." Andrew moans, repositioning himself.

I follow his example and mumble something incoherently and stretch and then reposition myself.

"Well, why are you tired?" She asks, grinning, knowing we're up to something.

"'Cuz we had to wake up this morning." I mumble shutting my eyes and lapsing into a phony nap, Andrew does the same.

"Oh...well, I had to get up this morning, too, and all this bouncing is making me...so tired." She plops down on the desks and curls up, shutting her eyes.

It's not long before two more classmates stop infront of us. "What are y'all doin'?" Taj asks and all three of us peek one eye open.

"We're so..." Andrew begins, trailing off and yawning.

"tired..." I finish, adding a deep sigh.

"How come?" Julie asks, falling right into our ploy.

"We had to wake up this morning." Cassie replies sleepily, rolling over and repositioning herself. Andrew and I follow her example and mumble incoherently, trying to find a new comfy spot, we end up moving to the floor underneath the desks, leaning against each other.

"Oh...you know, I had to wake up this morning, too." Taj answers, stretching and yawning, he nudges Julie and she smiles slightly.

"Yeah, me too, I'm feeling real...tired all of a sudden, I think I'll just..." she trails off, sitting down in the seats me and Andrew had just abandoned for the floor. Taj sits next to her and we all go back to fake napping.

Another 4 people stop and ask us what's going on curiously.

We 5 yawn and blink sleepily, frowning slightly like they've interrupted us deeply.

"We're..." Andrew starts but yawns and doesn't bother to finish.

Taking my cue, I continue, "...so...." I stretch and yawn widely, snuggling back down.

Cassie finishes, rolling over on the desks above Andrew and my heads, "...tired." She moans and we all reposition ourselves, mumbling under our breath.

"Well, how come?"

"Cuz we had to..." Taj yawns and doesn't bother finishing his sentence.

Julie yawns - these things are so contagious! - and finishes for him - and the rest of us - "get up this morning." She mumbles and we all yawn and sigh and moan and grumble, settling back down to take more fake naps.

"I had to get up this morning, too." One of the 4 sympathizes and the others all chime in. "I feel real tired all a sudden, mind if I just--" and they all settle down with us.

Soon enough, the entire class is pretending to take a nap - Andrew and I still leaning against each other under a couple desks, where, above our heads, Cassie is curled up, Taj and Julie are still on the chairs, and everyone else is clumped around us.

The door opens and closes, 3 sets of footsteps coming in and coming to an abrupt stop.

"Good nap, class," our teacher, Mr. Harley - that is seriously our drama teacher's name - greets us pleasantly, not thinking our class nap anything out of the ordinary.

"Mr. Harley! Your entire class is...is...taking a nap!" That would be our principal, Mr. Polling. He seems quite at a loss of what to do.

"I know, isn't it wonderful!" Mr. Harley exclaims, knowing this is one of our spontaneous things that he wildly encourages. He calmly walks to the drama blocks, pulls on next to our group clump and lies on it, joining our nap. He then remembers something and sits up slightly. "Class, this is our new student, Cory, he's auditioned and joined our class. Cory, what do you do in this situation?" He prompts, laying back down but still watching in fascination.

Cory walks up by Andrew and me, "what're y'all doing?"

We all open an eye, annoyed.

"So..." I reach up sleepily and absentmindedly pat Andrew's hair, not finishing my sentence.

"tired..." Andrew finishes, mumbling and repositioning himself. The rest of the class take his lead and all reposition ourselves, mumbling indignities incoherently. I end up leaning against the desk support, Andrew's head on my shoulder.

"How come?" Cory prompts, not seeming at all uncomfortable or nervous.

"Cuz..." Cassie sighs.

"...we..." Taj adds.

"...had to..." Julie tags on.

"..wake up..."

"...this..."

"morning!" We all yawn and go back to sleep.

"I did, too." He sympathizes and yawns widely. "I didn't think anyone else understood, mind if I just.." and he lays down next to me, snoring softly.

Mr. Harley laughs and applauds. "Wonderful! Now, you are rain dancing whilst someone is shooting at your feet! Go!"

We all hop up and start rain dancing - or our personal versions - while hopping and painfully holding our feet in turn. When I get up, I bang my head against the desk and Cory helps me up when I fall back down - because I was taken by surprise at hitting myself in the head with a desk. I take his hands and start dancing in a circle, he laughs and follows my lead, spinning us like we're doing 'ring-around-the-rosie', rain-dancing-whilst-being-shot-at style. We pass Andrew, and I reach out and take his hand, and he takes Cassie's who takes Taj's and Julie's and soon enough we have the whole class holding hands in a big circle, doing a drama-class version of rain dancing, which somehow involves dancing in big circle and kind of kicking your feet in and out and tapping your heels to the ground. Everyone's trying not to laugh as we jerk our feet out of the way of imaginary bullets and wince in false pain. I'm holding Andrew and Cory's hands and I have never had this much fun in 15 minutes.

The principal leaves with a perplexed look on his face and at the end of class, Andrew and I have decided to take Cory under our wing, walking with him in the halls.

"So, are all our drama classes gonna be like that?" Cory asks as we stop at our English class which, coincidentally, all 3 of us have together.

"With class-nap-taking and group rain dancing? Not always, but yeah, pretty much, it's gonna be crazy and funny stuff that will sometimes seem like the most ridiculous thing in the world, but hey, we've learnt a lot with that kinda stuff." I answer, as we hang out outside, since we won't be able to talk too much inside.

I spot Daniel coming down the hall and smile and call out hey to him.

I hear Andrew mutter something under his breath about him - Daniel - being a stupid Ken and a jerk but I give him a look and he quiets up.

Daniel comes to my side and kisses me quickly, throwing his arm around my shoulder as he sizes up Cory. "What are you doing hanging out with these two?" He asks, honestly not able to understand some of my friendships.

"They're in my drama class, you know Andrew, and this is Cory, Cory, Daniel." I introduce, not letting any of Daniel's hostility dampen my mood.

Cory nods and grins good naturedly. Andrew acknowledges Daniel, but Daniel doesn't return the favor to either of them.

"See you at lunch." He tells me, kissing me again and walking off.

Andrew starts laughing and doubles over, Cory watches with an amused smile but he looks at me curiously.

"Andrew said something about Daniel being a Ken. What...?" He asks me, glancing at the still laughing Andrew.

"You know how there are the major social groups at the schools - populars, nerds, jocks and so on?" He nods. "Well, we have pet names for them. A Ken is a popular/jock guy, Spocks are kinda the nerds, Barbies are popular girls, Andrew's a Turtle - as in Ninja Turtles, because he likes to mess around and act like a kid." I brush my bangs to the side.

Cory nods and turns to Andrew. "So...what are you laughing about?"

Andrew gasps for air. "Daniel was...worried...about...you!"

Cory thinks about this for a moment and then starts laughing. Ignoring their strangeness, I walk into class, the two boys on my trail, still laughing.