Chapter One

"Son of a b***h..."

I was instantly angered at the bright sun shining in my eyes early in the morning before my alarm went off. I blinked them open, becoming aware of the strange position I had fallen asleep in. One leg was hanging off the edge of the bed, the other spread out as far as it would reach, one arm under my pillow and the other tucked to my side. It was asleep. 

Squinting at the light I looked at the clock. There was still five minutes before my alarm went off, of course the sun would wake me up! Five minutes of sleep is priceless to a teenager.

I groaned, knowing I might as well get up. I smacked my clock, hitting the button to make it shut off the alarm and I dragged myself out of bed, staggering to my bathroom, shuffling through dirty and clean clothes. I yawned as I looked in the mirror. My waist length blue was hair was all messed up and frizzy. I stretched with another yawn and reached for my toothbrush. After I brushed my teeth and relieved myself, I hopped in the shower, blow dried and straightened my hair and got changed.

I didn't really care about the way my hair looked or the way my clothes looked, but it was easier to manage that way.

I sifted through my clothes, trying to find something that wasn't dirty, torn or wrinkled. I yanked out my Three Days Grace t-shirt, a pair of jeans (that did have a tear in the knee, but it's okay with jeans) and my red Converse. Giving myself a once over in the mirror, I frowned, but decided I looked fine, and trotted down the stairs. When I got down the house was empty and smelled of this mornings bacon and eggs as usual and school would start in 20 minutes. Taking my time, I walked to the fridge, poured myself some juice, ate some Cocoa Puffs, watched the weather (sunny all day) then grabbed my backpack and Hawk skateboard, heading out the door. I would meet up with my best friend Fiona a ways down the street. We were neighbors, but she left about five minutes before me, so we caught up with each other every morning. I threw my board on the ground and jumped on it, gliding cleanly on the smooth ground.

The cool, early Spring air blew through my hair and I smiled. Spring meant Summer and I loved Summer. No school, swimming and boarding everyday all day, Summer sales at the mall, our yearly family vacation that Fiona's family joins us on. There wasn't really anything bad about Summer. Except for bees... I don't like bees.

After a few minutes I could see Fiona's red hair fluttering in the wind in front of me and I smiled, picking up speed to catch up to her.

"Fio!" I cried. She looked back and smiled at me.

"Cody!" she cried back. "I was wondering when you were going to show." I skated up next to her and slowed to keep with her pace.

"Summer's coming, Fiona, and you know what that means." I said. Fiona's grin widened, showing her for some reason extremely white teeth.

"Vacation! I can't wait!" she cried. "Hell yeah! Where are we going this year?" I made a thinking face, puckering my lips and looking up at the sky.

"I'm not quite sure." I said. "Hopefully somewhere more exotic than Arizona. Like- Hawaii!"

"Oh, yes!" she cried back. "That would be amazing! Arizona last year was just boring..."

We talked more about our upcoming Summer as we approached the school. Once we hit the stairs we jumped off our boards and walked inside. The bell had already rung and the halls were empty, leaving me to realize all the stupid flyers that were on the wall. So many for school plays, clubs, drug awareness and keeping our school and Earth clean.

I rolled my eyes.

No one ever payed attention to the flyers, our school plays always tanked and our halls were always a mess.

Class had started about 2 or 3 minutes ago so me and Fio went to our lockers, set out boards inside, grabbed our English books and walked to Ms. Honeycutt's class. We were usually a few minutes late. The two of us (along with pretty much everyone else) hated Ms. Honeycutt, as well as her daughter, Kyla.

Kyla was your typical hated school girl. Head Cheerleader, b***h, but for some reason, popular. The main group of b*****s consisted of Kyla and he lackies, Molly and Rachel. Funny thing is, Rachel's the prettiest one.

Me and Fiona walked in nonchalantly and took our seats. Ms. Honneycut gave us 30 minutes detention, which wasn't a rare thing, and continued on teaching us about... words. As she rambled on I doodled swears, skulls and bongs in my notebook. It was rare I payed any real attention in school, except for in PE and Home Ec (I only pay attention in Home Ec because when we bake stuff our teacher lets us eat it during class). I do okay when it comes to my report card. Mostly anything from a B+ to a C-. The only thing I ever get an A in is PE, because I'm good at physical things. I do the worst in English, even though I know a lot of the curriculum. It's just because Ms. Honeycutt's a b***h and she hates me, so she gives me lower grades. Well, I mean, it could have something to do also with the fact that I'm always late and generally high when when I study and take tests... Most teachers will mark you down for that... But, still, Ms. Honeycutt hated me. Pretty much every adult in school, other than the PE teacher, hated me, but I didn't really care.

After Summer break I have one more year of school before I graduate, so what the hell do I care what the teachers think?

As I sat next to Fiona in class I sighed, realizing just how bored I was. Trying to find a way to entertain myself, I scrawled a message to her in my notebook. I glanced up at the teacher to make sure she wasn't looking before I dropped it on her desk. Fiona looked around then carefully unfolded it.

I have a plan to eliminate this boredom. No time to be sneaky, so we're going to be blunt (blunt, hehe). Meet me in the kitchen after class. Hope you don't mind ditching Science...

Fiona smiled and tucked the note into her desk. I sat back, waiting for the bell to ring to take us to our next class. Breaking my thoughts, I heard Ms. Honeycutt calling my name. I snapped back to reality and looked at her.

"I asked you a question." she said, folding her arms.

"Oh, what?" I replied, having no idea she was even talking. She sighed heavily and rolled her eyes, letting her arms drop.

"Oh, why am I even bothering? What would you know about Edger Allen Poe?" Ms. Honeycutt asked as she turned around. I paused then raised my hand a bit.

"Wait, what do you want to know?" I asked. She turned back around and scoffed.

"You think you can answer something about Edger Allen Poe?" she asked. I shrugged.

"I think I could give it a try. Go ahead, ask me." I replied. Little did she know Edger Allen Poe was one of the only things I actually read. I loved his work. Not that anyone knew that... But, I've read as much of his work as I possibly could in between boarding, school and hanging out with friends. Ms. Honeycutt smiled.

"Alright, well, since we're discussing it," she started. "Quote a passage from The Tell Tale Heart." I stood up and cleared my throat. Ms. Honeycutt grabbed the book from beside her to assure I didn't screw up.

"The first passage reads," I began with some sarcasm. With a sly grin Ms. Honeycutt turned to that page and read along. "'True! Nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.'" My grin couldn't get any wider and Ms. Honeycutt's couldn't be anymore nonexistent. She stammered for words and the bell rang loud. I gathered my books, the whole class amazed at what I did, and we walked to our lockers.

"Cody, that was amazing!" Fiona cried as we opened our lockers. "I didn't know you- read!" I laughed.

"I read very few things." I replied. "I do love Edger Allan Poe, though. I've read a lot of his books like seven times." Fiona shook her head.

"You will never cease to amaze me, Cody." she said, setting her books inside her locker. "So, what was this plan of yours?" I glanced around before closing my locker.

"Follow me." I said quietly.

We casually started walking towards the cafeteria, but waited to go in for the bell to ring. Once it did we carefully snuck inside and made our way to the kitchen where the smells of bad food were floating in the air.

I walked to the stove and looked in the emense pot on the burner. Inside was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. The school's creamed corn. I looked away, trying not to gag.

"What is that?" Fiona asked with a wince.

"The creamed corn they're serving for lunch." I answered, grabbing the handles. "Help me carry this."

"To where?" Fiona asked as she grabbed the other handle.

"We have to carry it up the stairs." I answered. "Once Ms. Honeycutt comes out of class she'll walk to the teacher's lounge to get her after class drink and we'll dump it on her." Fiona frowned as we pulled the huge pot down off the stove.

"She'll see us. We'd be the only ones up stairs and you know she'll come after us, if she doesn't see us already." she said. I shrugged.

"I know, that's why I said we'd have to be blunt. She's going to know it was us anyway. Who else would it be?" Fiona smiled.

"Alright, cheif, let's do it."

The two of us held tight to the pot and we waddled out of the kitchen to the stairs, stopping at corners to make sure no one was there. At one point we saw Mr. Maxwell, the principal and had to hide behind a corner, praying he didn't see us. But, he went back to his office before reaching us.

Fio and I carefully made our way up the stairs, trying not to slush the horrible mush inside the pot. When we made it to the top of the landing we lifted the pot onto the banister, holding onto it so it wouldn't fall. My excitment was building inside me as I saw Ms. Honeycutt walking towards us.

I whispered for Fiona to get ready and we looked over the banister. Just as she came under us I called, "Now!" and we dumped the gross contents of the pot right ontop of Ms. Honeycutt, dropping the pot next to us and laughing. After doing our signature fist bump we darted down the stairs and past her as she screamed at us to stop. Laughing, we careened down the halls, sliding around corners, grasping each other for support when suddenly- We slid to a stop (then we were really grabbing on for support so we didn't fall backwards) as we ran into Mr. Maxwell. His arms were folded and he had a very angry look on his face. He said simply, "My office. Now." And without a word we spun around and walked briskly back to his office.

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Sitting in the chairs in Mr. Maxwell's office is like waiting in death row. Especially when Ms. Honeycutt is standing there staring daggers at you. Mr. Maxwell sits at his desk and looks down at your permanent record for a few minutes in silence. No one really knows which parts he's reading, if he's actually reading at all. He just sits and stares for like five minutes, sighs a few times, shakes his head, and then your parents walk in. Sooooo, cue the five minutes, the sighing and- wait for it- Mom (Willow) and Dad (Simon) and Fiona's Mom (Kat) walked in.

I sighed and slouched more in my seat. Me and Fiona get busted a lot for stupid stuff we do, but we don't get busted for half of the stuff we do all together. But, I knew my parents and Fio's Mom were fed up with it, and this time I could really see it in their eyes. I tried not to make eye contact with Mom or Dad and kept my eyes fixed on my lap. Mr. Maxwell looked up and smiled at our parents as Mom sat next to me and Kat sat next to Fiona.

"Thank you so much for coming Mr. and Mrs. McQuaid, Ms. Penney." he said with a pleasant smile.

"Oh, it's no trouble." Dad said. Mr. Maxwell sighed, glanced down at our papers then looked back up.

"I'm afraid there is trouble, Mr. McQuaid, it seems that Fiona and Dakotah," (cue balled fists and clenched teeth on my part) "Dumped the creamed corn for lunch all over their english teacher, Ms. Honeycutt."

"They ruined my best shirt!" Ms. Honeycutt yelled.

It's sad that that's her best shirt... I thought.

It was all I could not to whisper it to Fiona.

All three parents let out sighs and I could feel Mom's anger pouring off of her.

"As you well know, this isn't the first time the girl's have done things like this, and there are many times schemes like this go without a suspect found, but I'm willing to bet these two were behind them. Something will have to be done before I have to resort to suspending or expelling them. And everyone knows how much I hate to do that." And it was true. Mr. Maxwell hadn't suspended a kid since James Harlem took all the students desks and put them out on the lawn, soaking them and everything inside with Dr. Pepper and whipped cream five years ago. And he hadn't expelled a kid since Shane McCarthy cherry bombed the teacher's lounge 3 years ago. Everyone knew he was easier on girls, because he was really old fashioned that way. Ladies first and all the junk. So, no one really knew the last time he suspened or expelled a girl.

"We understand." Mom said with a nod. "We'll take care of it."

"Yes, we definitely will." Kat added and I could see Fiona's face fall. Mr. Maxwell nodded.

"Very well." he said. "Now, the girl's should get to class before they miss anymore."

The five of us stood and exited Mr. Maxwell's office. Mom and Dad stopped me once we closed the door and turned me to face them. I knew they were about to say my full name and I prayed no one was around to hear it...

"Dakotah Rose McQuaid." Mom said in her angry-but-hushed tone. She sighed and looked around. "I don't have time to deal with you right now, but you better be prepared when you get home."

I rolled my eyes, arms folded. I turned to leave when I saw James Harlem and his gang standing there. Mom and Dad were already leaving and James smiled.

"Poor Dakotah." he said, instantly making me angry. "Someone has mommy issues. You must be the reason my mom sees your mom getting drunk at the bar down town." My eyes widened then narrowed. I knew he was lying, my mother rarely drinks. And even though me and Mom don't always get along I will not stand for someone ragging on her. "She's usually in the company of a tall Italian man as well. They seem to get pretty cosey." James continued.

With a grunt I lunged at him, not really aware of what I was doing. I decked him in the face once or twice before I felt my dad's arms wrap around me, restricting my arms, pulling me back. I was struggling to get away, but I knew it was no use. James' friends helped him to his feet. His cheek was already starting to bruise. Mr. Maxwell burst from his office, staring at all of us. James backed off and Dad let me go, keeping a hand on my shoulder.

"Cody, you are expelled from this school until senior year!"

Author's Note

All feedback is appreciated