Oh, um, hi. I'm Avery. Glad to see you're here (not).
So, why are you here? What? You want to listen to my life story? *Blinks*
Well, alright. I'll tell you. But don't think I'll do it willingly. There has to be a price!
Nah, I'm just joking. But seriously... I ain't doing this without money.
Hey, hey, don't give me that look! I kid, I kid!
So then, sit back and enjoy the story. Hopefully, you won't fall asleep. *Snickers*
Why the glares? Geez, can't you take a joke?
Anyway, so, it started out like this...
"And that's what Ronnie told me!"
I rolled my eyes as my friend Heather just kept chatting away. I wish she had an off switch, I thought.
We were out in the schoolyard at my school, Northwood High. It was nearly almost the time when school started, and we were still outside. Most of the rest of the kids were already shuffling inside the building, so they wouldn't be late to class. Me and Heather were always the last kids to go to class, and we were always late. But what the heck, who cares?
"So, how was your weekend?" she asked me, quite obnoxiously.
I shrugged. "It wasn't all that special," I said. "It could've been better, I guess."
"What do you mean by that?" Heather asked with a tilted head, as if she was some dog doing a trick to get a treat. Then again, she always did kinda remind me of a Chihuahua.
"It just was boring."
"Boring as in 'boring,' or boring as in your brother is a secret agent 'boring?'"
I shook my head. "What on earth does that even mean? I just mean 'boring!'" I said through clenched teeth.
"Or boring as in..."
"I just mean REGULAR BORING!" I yelled at her, any patience that I had left diminishing.
Heather crossed her arms. "You could have just said so."
"What?! I did! How many times does it get through to-" I stopped myself midsentence, then let out a sigh to calm myself. "Heather, you're impossible."
Heather blinked. "Impossible? What do you mean by that? Impossible as in something isn't do-able, or impossible as in..."
I face-palmed myself. "I just mean impossible."
"Oh."
The sharp sound of the bell interrupted our conversation.
"There's the signal!" Heather suddenly grabbed a leopard-printed cap (which was weird because she usually wore a dark brown and orange one) out from a pocket in her jeans and plopped it on her head.
"Wha..?" was all I could say, utterly bewildered. But before I could say anything else, she grabbed my hand and pulled me along as we hurried to class.
It was nearly the end of school, and me and Heather were in the last subject of the day; science. Not to mention, my least favorite subject. I just didn't really see that much of a point to it. Couldn't we learn all of that stuff on our own?
Then again, that's what I thought about every subject.
"Okay, class," Mrs. Phillips addressed us. "Can you tell me something about why it is good to filter water in the water-treatment plants?"
Heather, almost immediately, raised her hand. "Ooh ooh! I know!"
Mrs. Phillips pointed to her. "Yes?"
"Because it gets rid of stuff in the water!"
The teacher blinked. "In a way, yes. But why?"
A girl by the name of Alysia raised her hand.
"Yes, Alysia?"
"Because some objects in the water may be harmful to wildlife and society, so it is the water-treatment plants' job to get rid of it," she answered.
Mrs. Phillips nodded. "Correct."
Heather leaned over to me from her seat next to mine and murmured, "Didn't we already go over this last week?"
"Yes, but she's probably just trying to see if we remembered," I whispered back.
Heather gasped, WAY too loud for anyone to ignore. "Does that mean there might be a test?!"
At that moment, everyone's eyes were focused on her, including Mrs. Phillips'.
Heather laughed nervously. "Sorry... I'll, um, shut up."
Mrs. Phillips raised an eyebrow then turned her attention back to what she was talking about before. "Anyway, as I was saying, there will be an essay next week. The essay will be about the study of water-filtering and how it is used; you may need to look up a few things on the internet or in some books to get some information."
Heather rested her chin on her hand. "Okay, maybe not so much of a test, but at least I was right in some cases."
Meanwhile, my eyes widened slightly. Are you kidding me? An essay?
Gosh, I needed to catch up on my studies...
"I expect all of you to do your best on it," Mrs. Phillips said. "Now, since that's out of the way..."
In the rest of the time I spent in science class, I hardly listened. It's not that I was purposely ignoring the teacher, I just couldn't listen, even if I tried. My mind was too busy thinking about the essay.
"It just had to be an essay," I muttered.
"You wouldn't BELIEVE what Evelyn told me!" Heather exclaimed.
School had ended, of course (you wouldn't think I would drop out, right?), and we were walking home from school.
"She said that her dog ran away and they found him in someone's yard all the way across town!" Heather continued. "But it's a good thing the owners of the house weren't home. That would have been a disaster!"
I nodded slightly, although truthfully, I wasn't really listening. I had learned to zone out during our conversations. Rude, I know, but when you're friends with a girl like Heather, you learn to.
As we neared our houses (well, actually, as we neared MINE, because Heather lives a few blocks down from the street I live on), we said goodbye to each other and went our separate ways. I made a mental note that as soon as I got home, I would go to work on my studies, so I would be ready for the essay next week.
Little did I know that it wouldn't go exactly as planned.
