Cam

It’s a fact. I have to get away. This place makes me crazy. I live here, but that makes no difference. There’s nothing anyone can do, except me.

I looked up from my journal, mesmerized. Someone had knocked, but who? There it was again! Suddenly a girls’ voice came, “Hey! Wake up! We have to get to class! You know what’ll happen if we’re late again!”

I was dazed for a few seconds more, but then realized who it was. I called back, but not before putting my journal away. If anyone ever saw that, man would I be screwed! I thought. Still stuffing my journal in my backpack, I quickly said, “Be right there! I just have to put on my socks!” This wasn’t true whatsoever. I didn’t have to put on socks, I could just slip on my sandals, and that’s exactly what I did. I came out, dressed in my usual; some kind of sports t-shirt, jeans, a maroon crocheted bracelet, my beach-like sandals, and my long, purple hair hanging down at my side. My friend Riley was not shocked at all to see me wearing that. Sure, we were in a uniform boarding school, but so what? No one ever listened to those rules. I mean, there weren’t any consequences, but the freshmen’s didn’t know that. Riley was also dressed in her usual; some kind of designer top (I have absolutely no idea who, I lose track of who made what after Riley kept trying to make me buy and wear them. Even if I did buy anything, I’d never wear it), a mini-skirt (Egh), her favorite pair of sandals, hoop earrings, and to top it off; her hair was up in pigtails. I have absolutely no idea how the hell she could wear that, it was crazy. But, she could, so that’s that.

“So what were you doing that took you forever? All the boys have already gone to class! It’s because of you that you made me miss Chris!” She basically sobbed.

My answer was sweet and simple. “Oh get over yourself. Even if you did see him, you wouldn’t talk to him. You never do. And you’ll see him after school anyways, all classes have a meeting.”

Riley looked up at me, with her weird glint in her eyes. The kind that you could tell was Riley. She then smiled and nodded. I just rolled my eyes. I knew that in her brain she was concocting a plan of how to somehow get to sit by Chris. These usually never work, but there’ve been stranger things than that happening. I pulled on her arm, tugging her to class. She just followed obediently, still deep in thought. Man, somewhere in there, there’s got to be a real brain, there just is a bit of digging. Boy was that an understatement.

BRIIIIIIING! Oh great, there goes the minute bell. We were at least two minutes, unless we ran. Wait, they changed the location of English this week. Great. Now I have to remember where that is! Luckily, at that exact moment, I saw some of my classmates from English go into the room right across the hall from where we were standing. One of them just happened to be the most known-hated geek, Kati. Sure her name looks cool, but honestly, don’t even get me started…too late. So she always had to be right, even if you got the same answer as her, she always, and I repeat, always looks over your shoulder, checking your answer, and then explains it to you, when she gets the same answer as you! It got so annoying! So enough of how Kati, and it’s pronounced, Katie, became the most hated-geek of all time. I think that the teachers even disliked her, considering she was also always explaining things to them, and coming up with the same answer. Anyways, so I saw her going into the room across the hall, and she was in all of my classes, sadly. I looked at Riley once last time, you could just tell that she was completely focused on trying to sit next to Chris. I shook my head, and then pulled her into the classroom.

We sat in our usual spot, well, except for the new classroom, so we sat in the very back of the classroom, at the very last table, which sat two to a table. I really wanted to write in my journal, but I knew that anywhere besides my room late at night wasn’t safe. So instead I occupied myself with looking around the room and who else was in my class. It was unusual for me to actually have time to look around and observe things. Most of the time we were late, half the time was because I was writing in my journal, which Riley doesn’t know about, and I don’t plan on telling her, and the other half is when Riley can’t seem to find an outfit to wear. Whenever this happens, I always tell her to throw something on and let’s get out of there, but then she always gets into a long discussion of how her appearance is everything to her. I should know better by now, but I don’t. Whatever.

So I just happen to look over at Riley. There she was, her long golden-brown hair swaying back and forth with her every movement. She had her notebook open, and I could only make out what a few words. They were:
• Chris
• Me
• Sit
• Meeting

And then there were a few pictures. One was of two stick people leaning on each other, and hearts coming out of their heads. I couldn’t see the names on them, but I guessed that the one with hair was Riley and the other Chris. Then there was some big lettering, but Riley’s elbow was blocking it so I couldn’t see what it said. Then there were hearts all over the page. Man, when Riley put her mind to something, she really put it to that thing. Sadly, it was usually about boys, mainly ones that she tried hook up with. The final bell rang, making Riley look up for just a second, and then go back to her notebook. I just sighed at this. What else was I supposed to do?

The teacher walked in, fashionably late. I rolled my eyes. So it was fine when a teacher was late, but not Riley or I? I thought angrily. Oh well. The lesson for that day was dull as hell, so I instead concentrated my attention on learning who was in my class. I think I got everyone. I named them one at a time, and then wrote their name down in my notebook. It was weird. I got:
• Me-Girl
• Riley-Girl
• Kati-Girl
• Jaki-Girl
• Bobby-Boy
• Garret-Boy
• Ace-Girl
• Rex-Boy
• Megan-Girl
• Savanna-Girl
• Nick-Boy
• Jak-Boy
• Max-Boy
• Mark-Boy
And
• Yessie-Girl

At this particular boarding school, there was only a boys’ soccer team, and if you were a girl, the coach thought that you didn’t take soccer seriously and just wanted to hook up with the players. A lot of girls did. I wasn’t one of those, so when I went to try-out, he immediately said ‘Next!’ without even letting me try-out. I started to argue with him, but he wouldn’t give in. Sinice I didn’t get in right away, I just went to watch the practices, and then practice what they practiced with Jak after classes were done. Sure, it was during lunch, but I ate out there. I had to smuggle out the food since the administraters didn’t let any food out there, so it was usually just an apple or something. I had a stash of food up in my room, so I ate later. Anyways, so one day, who-knows-when, the coach saw me out practicing with Jak. Now that he saw my skills, he knew that I wasn’t kidding when I said that I wanted to try out for the boys’ soccer team. So I did a little try-out for him, and I got on. So that’s how I knew Jak, Rex, Nick, and Garret. Then, a year after I got on the team, Yessie came, and said that she wanted to try-out for the team. At first the coach wouldn’t allow any of it, but I then went over to him and reminded him of me, and that she should at least get the chance to try-out. After a lot of arguing and me almost getting kicked off the team, he finally agreed. Damn was Yessie good with a ball! So obviously, she got on the team. So that’s how I know her. All the other girls just said that Yessie and I didn’t know which goal to kick the ball into, but boy did we show them at the first match! The final score was 17-2, our team winning, Yessie scoring 6 goals, and me scoring 9. Everyone was just shocked. You could tell. So now people, girls, always ask me to hook them up with someone, ‘cause I know basically every single boy. It gets so annoying. I guess I can deal with it though. So anyways, Yessie and I are both on the soccer team, and I honestly think that that made us a lot more popular. Now, people actually know who I am, and know me for a good reason. Before everyone just knew me as the weird kid who somehow got to be friends with Riley who dresses weirdly. I was nicknamed ‘Lamb Cam.’ I really have no idea why. Honestly, the people at my school really aren’t the smartest, if you couldn’t guess. Also, Jak is one of my favorite friends, and we definitely get along extremely well. Sadly, before I was on the soccer team, he also called me Lamb Cam. I always just ignored these jibes, and always thought ‘They never grow up, and I will never be friends with them.’ This, obviously, wasn’t true, seeing as Jak and I are amazing pals. Surprisingly, the name-calling and jibes were soon forgotten shortly after I joined the team. What a coincidence. Apparently the rest of the team started to complain to the coach about letting a girl on the boys’ team, but Jak was the only who really saw talent in me, so he stood up for me, making it possible for me to still be on the team today. Jak also stood up for me when someone was making fun of me in the halls. Boy is he a good friend. I think having him as a friend has had a definite impact on my life. So now Riley and Jak are my best friends, of course, they’re also two of the most popular people in the school. It’s kind of fun. So anyways, after class, Jak, along with Rex, came up to me, and you want to know what he asked me?! Well, I’ll tell even if you don’t. These were his words exactly.

Jak-Hey Cam! Wait up!

Me-(Turns around) Huh?

Jak-I…Hafta…Ask…You…Something
(He was panting from running after me)

Me-Oh come on! You play soccer, but you can’t run a few yards? What kind of soccer player are you?

Jak-One…Of a kind.
(I just shook my head)

Jak-Anyways, I wanted to ask you something-

Me-I got that

Jak-Haha, very funny. Anyways, what I was going to ask you was if you wanted to go out.

Me-I…uh…what?

Jak-Do. You. Want. To. Go. Out?

Me-Uh, sure! I guess.

Jak-Awesome! Let’s meet at the field after dinner.

Then he just ran off. Leaving me there speechless. I didn’t feel like going to any of my other classes that day, so I went back to my room. Completely unaware that Riley was following right behind me, still coming up with a plan to sit by Chris. Well, that was until I got back to my room and the bell rang. Riley sat down on my bed while I went over to my trunk, reaching for my journal. The remark that made me realize that she had followed me was when she said, “Boy, these chairs must be new! They’ve never been this soft!” This is the remark that also made me drop my journal.

“Wha-What are you doing here?” I practically shouted at her. She looked up confused, then realizing where we were, she shouted back at me. “What do you what am I doing here! What are you doing here? Why aren’t we in class? Why are we in your room?” She then put her hands on her hips, waiting expectantly for an answer. I stuttered a few words, but then explained to her that I didn’t want to go to the rest of our classes ‘cause then we’d be late for the meeting, because Riley would take forever choosing an outfit, and then it would’ve been pointless. ‘Forgetting’ about the part of my journal and Jak me out. Must’ve slipped my mind!