The Number Of Six

Chapter 1

''I hate Tuesdays.'' Caroline sat down on the empty brown chair next to me, her blond hair pulled back in a ponytail.

''You know why? '' Before I could answer, she explained. Apparently, Caroline thought Tuesday was a waist, that it had no use at all. Monday was the day after the weekend, there had to be one. Wednesday was half a day, which everyone liked. And Thursday is the it's-almost-weekend-day and then Friday, well, it didn't even need explaining. So the only day in the week that shouldn't be there, was Tuesday.

A loud cough in front of the class, made us all quiet, everyone turned around, facing the clean blackboard. The teacher had come in with a suitcase in one hand and an apple in the other, which she placed in the corner of her neat desk.

Ms. Appelo took an apple to class, every day, which made us call her Ms apple instead of Appelo. It wasn't weird she brought them, what was, was that she didn't even like apples. She did it to look more like The Perfect Teacher, the one with the straight clothes, the strict face, big glasses and a pony tail. After setting down her case, straightening her skirt and grimacing, she sat down, legs crossed. As it was said in the book.

I wasn't lying when I said there was a book, there was, in the top drawer. One of my class mates had found out, I never understood how. Everyone thought of her as a crazy teacher, to dedicated to her work. Even her colleagues thought so. And she kind of was, unless you thought keeping charts of all your students grades wasn't weird.

It was lunch break, finally. The weather was good and the food.. eatable. Today was a good day, I could feel it, there was something in the air. Bonnie sat next to me, her beautiful black hair just falling over her shoulders. With her great free-flowing hair , she was my only friend who never seemed to have split ends. Unfair, I know. She was wearing her every day look, not bad dressed but not overdressed either, just normal.

Caroline, in the meantime, had moved on to another topic, a party at Tyler's. When she was about to explain why we really needed to be there, Bonnie stopped her.

''Tell us, now. Who is he?'' Caroline's eyes widened which made her perfect trimmed eyebrows go up a little but only for a second because she recovered fast.

''What do you mean?'' She asked, playing dumb. I knew better and so did Bonnie. From experience, we knew Caroline liked the attention pointed at her, the blonde wanted us to ask further. So we did. More out of habit than curiosity, I mean, try to get excited about the same story you hear almost every week. It was a routine we had to stick to, because we were good friends. Caroline liked a guy, they dated, she dumped him, she cried and we comforted her until the next victim came lurking around the corner.

''It's Tyler.'' She blurted out. Fidgeting with her nails, she looked down and I slapped her fingers. It was our rule, if anyone ever bit their nails or did anything to ruin them, we slapped each other's hands. After she threw me a quick thank-you, I started talking.

''So Tyler. Doesn't he have a girlfriend?'' If I had known then , that by just saying this one sentence, we'd be talking about it the whole day, I wouldn't have said it. I really wouldn't have.

The day was over and it was one of those days that I didn't hate seeing my brothers car parked on the other side of the street. Nearly forgetting to watch left and right, I crossed and got in the BMW. I had four brothers and a sister, I was the youngest. Elijah was behind the wheel, which wasn't one of his habits. Usually, he let one of the others do everything that involved me, like taking me to and from school, he did other things, things where my brothers were too childish for. They wouldn't handle it right, Elijah always told me. Not that I knew what those things were because he liked to remind me that I was the youngest and that it was none of my business.