Chapter 6: Chloe

“Luke!”

“Mom” I say. I thought she was joking when she said she was going to bang on Luke’s door if he wasn’t up. “You can’t just go round banging on people’s doors at 5 in the morning”

“Oh, she can” I turn around to see Miss Patty walking towards us. “She’ll do whatever she wants” Mom has finally stopped banging on the door but she’s still shouting. “Luke!” Who knew she could be so loud. I turn to Miss Patty.

 “So, what are you doing up at 5 in the morning?”

“I was awoken by your mom shouting the top of her lungs out” I only just realised that she’s in a dressing gown. Her reddish hair is all scuffed up which is unusual for her. Usually she has it all done up nicely, wearing weird costume’s walking about telling stories about her life in the show biz.

“Well it not my fault Luke’s not up yet” Mom says, banging on the door again. “Luke, I need coffee… NOW!” The diner door suddenly fly’s open and in the door way is a rather angry looking Luke.

“It’s 5 in the morning” He says to my mom.

“Actually it almost 6” Miss Patty says.

“Which means it’s time for coffee” Mom barges her way into the diner heading for her usual spot at the counter. I wave goodbye to Miss Patty and go and sit next to my mom.

“Can we have the coffee to take away, please Luke?” I ask.

“Sure” he says.

“Take away?” Mom asks.

“Yeah we’ll have to go in a minute”

“Why do you always have to be early?”

“Because it’s better than being late” I say.

“You mean it’s because you like to be a geek”

“No, I just don’t want to be late” Especially not on the first day of High School. I’ll never understand our education system. We have to go to Junior High when we’re 11 and then go to High School when we’re 14. Why not just have one high school?

Luke hands Mom her coffee and gives me a doughnut. I never ask him for a doughnut but he always gives me one just before I go to school.  “Come on then” Mom is already outside and getting into the car. I say goodbye to Luke and jump into the car. Literally.

 

There’s hardly anyone at school when I arrive. Perfect. Now I can read in peace and quiet. I find a bench that has a bushy type of tree next to it on both sides. I sit down and get my book out and start to read. After ten minutes I’ve gone through half of the book when its suddenly disappears from my hands I look up to see James Simmonds walking away from me.  I hate it when he does that.

“Give it back” He turns around and looks at me. He obviously has it because his arm is behind his back.

“Give what back?” he says.

“My book”

“What book?”

“The book behind your back you idiot!” He pulls his arm out from behind his back. In his hand is my book.

“Oh, this book?” he says.

I try to grab it but he’s too quick. He holds it up above his head thinking I won’t be able to get it. Luckily for me I grew over the summer. I grab it out of his hand and take my bag off my shoulder to put it away.

“Why do you always read?” he asks.

“Because I like to read. Maybe you should read something to keep you from annoying me”

“I do read just not all the time and what fun would you have if I didn’t annoy you?” He does have a point. Another reason for me getting here so early was actually because I wanted to see James.

“Chloe” Someone shouted. I turned around to see Claire coming towards me. I turn back to James only to find that he’s gone. I walk over to Claire.

“Were you just talking to James?” She asks.

“Yep, but he’s disappeared as usual” Claire has been my best friend ever since we meet during elementary. She hopes to be a singer but she recently started to change her mind. I think she will be a singer.

“Do you still have a crush on him?” she asks.

“No, I got over that ages ago” I say.

“Yeah yeah”

“We should go find everyone else”

“Change the subject why don’t you?”

“I have nothing else to say”

She’s right not to believe me though. I still have a crush on him, but I know he’ll never like me. Not in that way anyway.