Board Thread:Short Stories and Fanfictions/@comment-43347423-20200126154845/@comment-43347423-20200129014521

Valerie woke up the next morning, stretched, and then remembered today was the Test. Screaming internally, she walked to the shared girls bathroom. Mina was already there, brimming with excitement.

“How’d you sleep?” Mina asked. It looked like she’d already washed her face, meanwhile Valerie’s reflection was extra greasy. She had white drool marks on her cheeks and half of her hair was sticking up.

Valerie splashed some water on her face and rubbed the drool off of her cheeks. “Badly. I kept having nightmares, and I’m kind of freaking out about the Test.”

Mina gave her the side-eye as she brushed her hair with an old, hand-me-down, beat-up brush. “I thought you weren’t worried about the Test.”

“Well,” Valerie began after some hesitation. “What if I get a job I don’t like?”

Mina replied, “Well, they specifically make you take the Test so you get a job you fit. You might not like it, but at least you’ll definitely be good at it.”

Valerie ran a brush through her hair, trying to pull it all off the top of her head. “I guess.” What Mina had said somewhat assured her. But you could learn to be good at anything, couldn’t you? You should have to do what you like, not what you’re good at.

The girls finished cleaning up and then rushed to breakfast. They grabbed some porridge and ate in silence, both of them anticipating the Test to come.

Once they’d finished, they got up and began walking to the School, where they’d take the Test. It was fairly sunny, with a few clouds, just the way Valerie liked the weather. Not too hot, not too cold. It must be a good omen.

“Still excited?” Valerie asked. “Or is the stress starting to get to you?”

“Well,” Mina replied, “I’m just gonna wing it. That usually works out for me.” She grinned as she said it, because it was true -- Mina seemed to have the luckiest ability ever: the ability to wing just about anything and do amazing on it. “Remember last year in science, when we had to study for our tests? I got, like, 100 percent on the first one, like, 98 or something on the next one, and then on the one we didn’t have to study for, I got 102 percent?”

Valerie did remember. “Yeah.”

“Good memories.”

They reached the school then, and they headed towards the office to check in.

The secretary there looked over her glasses at them. “Mina. Valerie,” she said.

“Hi,” Valerie said awkwardly. “So, uh, today’s the Test, right? Is there a specific place we need to go, or…?” She looked at Mina for help, but Mina was terrified of the secretary. Once when they were younger, Mina had been caught talking in class, and she’d been sent to the office for punishment. Mina didn’t tell her what had happened, but Valerie could only guess the secretary had done something bad, because Mina was petrified when it came to talking to her.

“Yes,” the secretary drawled. “Mina, to the science room. Valerie, to the history room.”

The girls hurried out of the stuffy office.

“Good luck,” Valerie whispered to Mina.

“Good luck,” Mina whispered back. She offered her hand to Valerie and Valerie shook it. This could be the last time they ever saw each other if they got jobs who didn’t work together. Valerie felt tears slip down her cheeks as she turned down a hallway away from her best-friend-for-13-years.

𝌀

Ellen woke up the next morning to the sound of Jessica’s voice. “Ellen, time to get ready! School starts today!”

Ellen jumped out of bed and ran to her bathroom. She brushed her teeth quickly then changed into a pink T-shirt with a white design on it. She put on some blue jeans and went back to the bathroom to brush her hair and put on a little bit of makeup before rushing downstairs for breakfast.

Jessica already had some pancakes made. “Here, Ellen. I made you some cinnamon pancakes for the first day of school! Syrup’s in the fridge.”

“Thanks, Jessica,” Ellen replied, already opening the door to the refrigerator for the syrup and butter. She grabbed them and spread some butter on her pancakes before drizzling them with syrup. “These look really good.”

She ate three pancakes before she was full and ready to go. She grabbed her blue to purple gradient backpack and said, “Come on, let’s go! We don’t want to miss the shuttle.”

They headed outside and walked just a two minute walk to the shuttle station. In a few minutes it would be there to shuttle Ellen to school and Jessica to work. Everyone rode it, and missing it was a serious offense. You had to be at work or school on time every day, and the only way to do that was to take the shuttle.

Finally they heard the telltale whoosh of an oncoming shuttle. When it slid to a stop, they boarded. Ellen scanned the shuttle for any of her friends but only saw a few kids who she hardly talked to. Choosing to sit next to her guardian instead, she waited for any of her friends to get on.

A few minutes later, a short, intense- and blue-eyed girl with long, wavy strawberry blonde hair got onto the shuttle and grinned at Ellen.

“Amy!” Ellen said, excited to see her friend again.

“Ellen!” the girl replied, just as excited. She came and sat down on the other side of Ellen, and her guardian, Isha, sat down next to Jessica. Isha and Jessica began talking, but Ellen wasn’t listening to them.

“I’ve missed you so much!” Ellen exclaimed. “Summer break is too long.”

Amy grinned. “I don’t know, summer was pretty great.”

Ellen glared at her.

“Just kidding. I missed you too.”

Ellen laughed. “All I did was practice piano and trumpet all day. Sometimes I baked with Jessica, but otherwise it was so boring.” “I know, right?” Amy agreed. “There was nothing to do all day. All I could do was play soccer in the backyard, all alone.” Amy loved soccer. It was her hobby, like music was for Ellen. Everyone was required to choose a hobby in their society. Supposedly it enriched their culture. By age ten they must have made their choice. Amy had chosen soccer, like how Ellen had chosen music.

Ellen made a sympathetic face. “Wow, that must have been boring. Sports are only good if there’s someone else. At least for music you can practice on your own if you really have to.”

“Yeah, sometimes I’m jealous of musicians. But I love soccer, so…” she trailed off as she noticed another girl get on the shuttle. “Lola!”

Ellen turned her gaze to the shuttle door. Sure enough, a tall, freckle-faced girl with blond hair and blue eyes was entering with her black-haired guardian. “Lola!”

Lola grinned at them and sat in the seat across from them. “Ellen! Amy!”

“We missed you,” Amy said as she strangled her friend with a hug. “We’re gonna be at school soon, so get ready!”

Amy was right; in a few minutes they were at school. Jessica had already gotten off, but Isha and Nicole, Lola’s guardian, where there to see their kids off.

Ellen watched as her friends hugged their guardians, feeling a little awkward. Then the three girls got off the shuttle and began heading into the school.

“Do you think the teachers will be nice?” Amy asked worriedly. “I hope they don’t give us too much homework.”

Lola, a naturally optimistic person, reassured her: “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“What about the kids, though?” Ellen asked. “They could be jerks again this year. I wouldn’t put it past our grade, you know.”

Lola shrugged, and the three girls walked up the stairs and through the doors leading to a hallway filled with lockers.

“I have English first,” Ellen said, digging out her schedule from her backpack.

Lola beamed. “Oh, me too!”

“Dang it,” Amy said after pulling out her schedule to check it. “I have math. Do I have, like, any classes with you guys?”

Lola grabbed Amy’s schedule from her hands and compared it to her own. “We have science together. What about you?” she asked Ellen, grabbing her schedule too. “We have English, math, and science together!”

“So we all have science together!” Ellen exclaimed. “That’ll be fun.”

“It will,” Amy agreed.

The first bell rang, and Ellen and Lola began walking to English, waving goodbye to Amy as they walked. When they reached the classroom, they walked inside and looked at their teacher for instructions. He looked about thirty, with messy brown hair and brown eyes. On the whiteboard, in blue, it said “Mr. Kikley,” and the girls could only assume that was his name.

“Names?” he asked them.

“Ellen,” Ellen said.

“I’m Lola,” Lola said.

He nodded at them. “Ellen, you’ll be sitting here,” he said, pointing to a desk near the back of the class. “And Lola, you’ll be here.” He pointed to a desk a few seats to the left of Ellen’s seat, and the girls grinned at each other before sitting down.

Ellen looked at the boy next to her and smiled. “Hi, I’m Ellen,” she said.

The blond boy replied, “I’m Ryan.”

“Hi, Ryan,” Ellen replied.

Mr. Kikley called their attention to the front of the class and both Ellen and Ryan turned their attention there.

“Today, boys and girls, you’ll be learning about the English language. But first, let me introduce myself. I’m Mr. Kikley, and I’ll be your English teacher this year.” Mr. Kikley droned on and on about the English language. Ellen couldn’t pay attention. She began to bite her nails, bored of this class already. She didn’t just bite her nails as a nervous habit, she bit them when she was bored, too. But she’d never really liked English very much anyway.

By the time the bell rang, four of Ellen’s fingernails were cut as far back as was possible with her teeth. She walked to the door, where Lola was waiting for her, and together they walked towards math.

Math was nearly as boring as English, but at least they actually got to do something. They were assigned twenty problems for homework. Ellen was beginning to remember why she’d been so excited for summer break at the end of last year.

At break, not much happened. She sat with Amy and Lola, as usual. After break, they got to go to their hobby classes. Amy headed to soccer while Lola headed towards the art room. Ellen made her way to the music room, excited to play with a group of people again, not just alone.

Ellen walked into the band room, looked at her favorite teacher, Mrs. Grebot, who was short with blond curly hair. Mrs. Grebot was holding a clarinet up, showing the new clarinet students how to hold it and play an A. Ellen had played the clarinet when she was younger, but had dropped it for the trumpet.

Ellen plopped down into a chair next to Riley, a girl with dark brown eyes and hair, who also played the trumpet. “How’s it going, Riley?”

“Good,” Riley replied as she oiled her valves. “You?”

“Pretty good. Summer was pretty boring, though.”

“I know. I didn’t know what to do with myself the whole time.”

Soon Mrs. Grebot was handing out sheet music. They began to sight read through it. Ellen had missed this class.

When the bell rang, Ellen headed towards history, where she learned the guidelines of the class and got a slip of paper to have Jessica sign at home.

Finally, it was lunchtime. Ellen slipped out of the history room and walked to her usual table, where she found Amy, Lola, and, surprisingly, Ryan. She sat down next to Amy.

“Hey, guys,” she said, nodding in Ryan’s direction. “How were your hobby classes? And, uh, Ryan, what hobby class do you take?”

“Good,” Amy and Lola said together, then looked at Ryan.

“Well, I take writing,” he said. “And it was pretty fun. We did some writing exercises.”

Ellen crinkled her nose. “I’ve never liked writing.”

Lola glared at her. “Don’t be rude, Ellen,” she said, before turning to Ryan. “I used to write a lot when I was younger. But I chose to do art. I’m better at it, anyways.”

“That’s cool, I guess,” Ryan said awkwardly.

They made it through the rest of lunch without it being too awkward, and Ellen wondered why Ryan had chosen to sit with them at all. Didn’t he have any other friends?

Ellen headed to physical education, her least favorite class. Who liked to exercise, anyways? You got all sweaty and gross.

By the end of P.E., she was sweaty and gross, just as she’d predicted. She headed towards the science classroom, which was covered in posters. Ellen liked to stare at them during class sometimes. They were pretty entertaining.

Amy and Lola were already inside the familiar classroom when she got there, and she grinned at them before sitting down in a seat marked with her name. Amy was in the row in front of her, and the red-headed girl turned around in her seat to face Ellen. “I’m so glad I have at least one class with you guys.”

“I know, right?” Ellen said.Mrs. Welly, a tall, silver-haired woman, said loudly to her class, “Okay, students. Today we’ll be learning the scientific method.”

They spent the entire class going over the scientific method for about the millionth time in Ellen’s life. This year is off to a great start already, Ellen thought to herself.