Where the Moon will Shine

Chapter 2

"Rach, babe, trust me. It'll be so worth it in the long run!"

"Nope, absolutely not."

"Ugh. You can be so difficult, you know that?" My best friend, Lucy, slammed her locker shut, and started walking with me down the hallway.

"I'm not saying that you have to do it for the rest of your life or anything, but wouldn't it be great to make some quick cash?" Lucy made a motion with her hand to demonstrate the money we'd supposedly make.

"Luce, you know that I love you, but there is no way in hell that I'm watching other people's annoying kids for hours on end just to make a few dollars. Not gonna happen, so forget it."

"Okay okay, I get you aren't fond of kids, but hear me out. Mon-ey. MONEY Rach! Do you know how much people will pay for someone to watch their brats for a few hours? Just think about it, please!" She stopped moving when we were in front of a door that was completely foreign to me.

"This is my stop."

"Whatever, I'll see you at lunch."

She winked at me, then blew me a kiss. I rolled my eyes in response. There's no way that I'd be giving up hours of my precious free time to babysit. The thought of it was repelling. I continued to walk down the crowded hallway.

Where was I at? I had only been down at this part of the school a few times, and it was safe to say that I was completely lost. How did Lucy know exactly where to go? I envied her sense of direction sometimes, especially now.

I'd never really been good with directions. Ever since I was little, I'd had a hard time finding my way around. Growing up, I had a bad habit of getting lost a lot. Lucy was my only saving grace when it came to navigating places.

A year ago I tried looking it up, just to see if it was common or not. After a bit of researching, I'd discovered something called space dyslexia. I tried to tell my mom about it, but she just thought I was just self diagnosing myself. She didn't believe me, and more importantly she didn't want to spend any money on a doctor's trip or treatment. Because of this, I was just as lost and confused as ever.

I kept walking forward and pulled my schedule out of my purse. I felt like a freshman wandering the halls for the first time. In my defense though, the school was broken up into two parts. There was a half for the lowerclassmen, and a half for the upperclassmen. I was confused beyond my belief.

Next class of the day, AP English 11, great. Room number 506. I looked up from my schedule and noticed all the rooms were numbered with 400's. Just fantastic. My third year of high school, and I still didn't know where I was going.

"Hey, watch it!" Some senior boy ran into me, causing me to drop everything.

"Sorry," I muttered. I kneeled down to the floor in a certain way so that my skirt wouldn't fly up. I gathered all my things and stood up quickly, trying to get out of the way from everyone. I ducked my head and kept to the side of the hallway hoping to stand out less than I already had.

Just as I rounded the corner to the next hall, I saw someone in the distance. Watching me? The figure was at the end of the hallway. It was too hard to make out who it was, considering how long the hallways were, but I could tell it was a guy. After a moment, he must have noticed that I was looking at him too, and he disappeared just as a group of kids walked past him.

What was that all about? No way he was looking at you Rachel, stop freaking yourself out. I looked up at the door that I was suddenly in front of, forgetting what I was doing for a second. I checked my schedule and then the room number. Yep, 506, here at last. I tucked my schedule back into my pocket, then entered the room.

I must have looked like a fish out of water the way that everyone was staring at me. I scanned the room looking for a potential place to sit. I walked to the back of the classroom as I heard hushed whispers around me. Finally I found an empty seat, one row from the back of the room. I walked hurriedly over to it and plopped down in the seat, laying my purse down beside me.

After about five more minutes of odd stares and talking, the late bell finally rang. 

At last, the teacher stood up from her desk and set down the book she was reading. She looked around the classroom at everybody, but hesitated a moment at me. I looked down at the desk, suddenly self-conscious.

"Okay everybody, I'm going to do a role call to make sure everybody is in the right place." She studied her list and started reading names off of it. As each person responded with 'here,' I realized that I didn't recognize any of them.

When she finished, the teacher set down her list and looked straight at me.

"And who might you be?" Everyone turned to face me. Flushed, I responded, "Oh um... I'm Rachel. Rachel Jones." The teacher hesitated a moment, then spoke.

"Well Rachel. Rachel Jones," suddenly feeling embarrassed, my peers let out a snicker. "I do believe that you're in the wrong class. Where are you supposed to be?" 

I quickly grabbed my purse and pulled out my schedule. Right there it said 501, AP English 11.

"Uhh AP English 11, I thought..." Once again I could hear muted laughs around me.

"Well miss Rachel, this is English 12. I teach AP English 11 next period. It is currently period four, not five."

What!? How could I have misread that? I looked down at my schedule again and realized she was right. I was supposed to be in pre-calculus right now.

"Oh, I'm sorry." I shoved my schedule back into my purse and practically ran out of the room. I could feel everyone, including the teacher, staring daggers into my back. Well, that was rather embarrassing.

Pulling out my schedule for the hundredth time today, I saw that I was supposed to be in room 407. So I was in the right hallway beforehand.

I checked the time on a nearby clock hanging on the wall, seeing I was five minutes late. Suddenly, five minutes did seem like the end of the world...

I sprinted down the hallway until I was finally in front of room 407. I stood in front of the door for a moment before deciding it was better to deal with the embarrassment rather than skipping class. The teacher couldn't be too upset at me for being late on the first day, right?

I opened the door as quietly as I could, then ran to the first empty seat that I saw. My efforts of being stealthy though, went unnoticed.

"Rachel Jones, I presume?" The teacher looked as if he could murder me right then and there.

"Oh um yes, sir. I'm sorry that I'm late I went to the-"

"Save it. I don't have time to hear your excuses."

"No, you don't understand. I genuinely-"

"You will either come to class on time, or not come at all. Do you understand me young lady?" I had flashbacks of my mom getting mad at me this morning.

"Yes... I'm sorry." I mumbled, sinking down into my seat.

"Good. Now as I was saying before Rachel decided to show up to class today, I expect you all to work your hardest in this class.

"I guarantee that at least half of you will fail my course. I also expect you all to be on time, every day, or I will have to report your tardiness to the principal." As he said this, he glared at me.

I sank even further down in my seat. Today was turning out to be a great day.