Chapter Three

OHMYGOD this chapter sucks ok bye

It's surprising how comfortable your bed can be when you don't want to get up in the morning. “I made hot cocoa,” Mum pulled open the curtains of my bedroom, revealing the dirty dusty streets of New York. I rolled over and pulled up my blankets. “Cough cough. I'm sick.” I mumbled through the sheets. As for my mother she just laughed and pulled them off. “Ha ha, Jess, now get up. Your hot chocolate is turning into a frozo so hurry.” I sat up slowly, looking outside at the dark gray clouds. Deep shadows covered any visible light and rain began to fall. I grinned; at least now the weather matched my mood.

“Jess, where were you yesterday?” Kelsey gasped when she saw me. “Uh, it's a long story.” Kelsey just pouted her lips and decided it might be best to let it go. “Damn this weather, it's freezing! I hope they turn on the heaters in homeroom.” she clasped her hands together in an attempt to keep warm. I laughed as we made our way to class. “Today class, we have a new student!” our homeroom teacher, Mr Ukovich, always made a huge show of new students. This time it was a girl, taller than me in her heeled shoes, with long wavy brown hair sashaying down her back. The guys seemed impressed, while many of the girls just stared in jealousy. “Hi everyone!” she said, a little over confidently. “I'm Clara, I just moved here from California, I'm so excited to be joining a new school!” she grinned her perfect smile at the rest of the class. I smirked. Who could be excited about joining Backridge High? Mr Ukovich scanned the room slowly. “Kelsey, you're assigned as Clara's mentor for the week �" you can show her around Backridge and get her to know everyone in the class.” He smiled, I sulked. Kelsey seemed all too happy to be mentoring Clara, the all-too-perfect California girl. Kelsey just gave me a weird look when Clara came over. “Hey, so you're Kelsey?” Clara's sweet voice sickened me down to the bone. “Yeah hi! Oh my gosh, I'm so excited to show you around our school! You're gonna love it here.” Kelsey couldn't help herself! I nudged her in the shoulder. “Oh right, this is my friend Jess.” I smiled at Clara, the sort of smile where if looks could kill, in Clara's place would only be ashes scattered in her purple pumps. She smiled back, oblivious. She pulled over a chair at sat down straight next to Kelsey, filling her in on how sunny and amazing and perfect California is. I moaned, counting down the seconds before the bell rang.

“You have pizza for lunches? Amazelings!” We were ordering our food at the cafeteria, finally lunch time. I couldn't help roll my eyes. “Amazelings?” I asked. Clara nodded happily. “It's like amazing, but way cooler.” I raised an eyebrow as we found a table. “Okay so you have to fill me in about the guys here!” Clara did a little silent clap as she looked around the room. Kelsey nodded and began 'filling her in'. I tried my best to zone out, but Clara was so annoying it was hard to concentrate on my tuna sandwich. “Oh my gosh seriously? He is so cute. Did you read the latest issue of Girlfriend? I know!” I slouched as best as I could but Kelsey didn't seem to notice. “Hey Jess, wanna come show Clara around the school? We can show her the stage, the library, ooh and the corner spot!” I shook my head vigorously. “Kelsey, not there. It's our spot, remember? Since kindergarten!” The corner spot, as we call it, was were Backridge High and Backridge Primary met up. The two buildings were back to back, although we each had separate areas and never met up with the students. The primary building had an extra art room put in at the back, which created a perfect hidden corner where Kelsey and I ate lunch together for years through primary. “Oh come on, Jess. We never go back there so who cares?” I shuffled my feet together under the table. “Well we're going. Bye!” Kelsey dragged Clara along, which she was all too happy to oblige to. I sat at our table for a few minutes, watching my best friend walk away with Miss California. I barely heard the bell ring as I counted the 209^th tile on the cafeteria ceiling.