Break the Sky

It was a fine September morning at seven thirty as Penny waited at Rose's door, tapping her foot impatiently. She could hear the nonchalant "goodbye" being tossed in the way of Rose's mother, Mrs. Clive, who was probably hanging the laundry up to dry before she went off to work. Rose grabbed her bag and dashed to the door, hoping not to be late. She emerged at last from her house wearing a clean new blouse and a knee-length skirt. She sighed happily when she spotted her best friend. "Good morning, Penny," she greeted, flicking her strawberry-blonde hair over her shoulder.

"Same to you, Rose," Penny replied, trudging beside her. She adjusted her backpack carefully, a smug smile sliding across her face. "Nothing like the new school year, huh?"

"Well, getting to see you every day, along with the girls, brightens my day," Rose said, a grin playing on her lips. "Nothing could be better than this."

"You're so happy." Penny laughed. "This is very strange to me."

"Oh, it's nothing." Rose had biked down to the "less safe" part of the neighborhood in hopes of delivering a book for Mr. Roberts, the older gentleman that lived across from her. She instead encountered a girl she quickly became friends with. Her name was Lauren, and she was two years her senior.

"Don't lie to me, Rosalyn Sara Clive," Penny joked, playfully pushing her friend. "Was it a boy?" she asked, causing Rose to shake her head vigorously. Penny giggled at her friend's immediate response. As the duo approached a relatively small group of girls standing off in the corner in the front of the building, the girls were obviously giddy in seeing their other friends' arrival.

Heather, Kate, and Danielle smiled at Penny and Rose. "Hope we have classes together," Heather said, holding out her schedule. They exchanged papers in hopes of being in the same classes, only to find out that not many of them were together in any of them.

"We'll meet back up during lunch!" Kate exclaimed as they parted when the bell rang. They sallied forth to the brick building and hurried inside. Rose's first class was mathematics, which she found with great difficulty. She sat in the front, hoping to draw the least amount of attention to herself.

The class filled in slowly at first, but as the bell struck five minutes 'till eight, a crowd of students squeezed in at the last few moments. Over the intercom, the pledge was said, and after wards, everyone was seated. The teacher, Mr. Khosravi, greeted the students with a hint of boredom in his voice. He wrote a handful of problems on the board for review.

After several grueling hours of introductions during history and sewing, lunch finally arrived. Rose threw her useless Calculus book into her newly-found locker and set down her materials for knitting. She grabbed her lunch and stepped into the cafeteria, glancing at the sea of pupils. Rather than going home for lunch, Rose would rather meet her friends and eat with them, only to feel ridiculously out-of-place and overwhelmed. But when she was on her quest to find her best friends, she spotted someone much more interesting. Rose waltzed toward a group of boys and placed a hand on one of their shoulders.

"Hello, dearest Darren," Rose sang, her grin widening. "How has your day been?"

"Rose, stop harassing me and sit with your own friends," her younger brother replied, his expression showing disgust.

"Darren, who is this?" one of the boys piped up. "She should join us. There's a seat right over there." He pointed to an empty chair between two unfamiliar boys.

"This is my sister. My older sister," Darren described. "Rose, the boys; boys, my sister, Rose." He motioned for her to leave. "We have some business to attend to."

"Come sit with us, Rose! My name's Jack." He pointed to a seat between him and someone else. "I promise that we don't bite."

Rose liked the idea of sitting with some different people for once. She sat down and thanked Jack kindly for inviting her to eat with them. The boy to her right was Alexander, who stuck out a hand. She shook it.

"So Rose, how old are you?" Jack asked politely, turning the conversation to her rather than returning to their original topic.

"I'm seventeen," she answered, taking a sip from her water bottle.

"So we're all roughly around the same age." He laughed. "I hope we have some classes together, otherwise the last year of my high school career is going to be an utter disappointment." Jack winked.

Rose giggled politely and watched her brother scowl at her, probably because she had directed almost everyone's attention to her. Her laughter died as she saw how upset he was.

"Rose, what classes are you taking?" asked Alex, already facing her.

"Oh, the usual...math, english, sewing, biology, music, and history," she replied, standing up. "I really think I should leave...thank you all for your kindness, really."

"Rose, please don't leave. We enjoy your company," Alexander coaxed, holding onto her arm lightly. Her shoulders slumped, and she gave in, sliding back down into her seat between Alexander and Jack.

Darren glared at her openly as the group bombarded her with questions.