A Less Than Average Girl

Chapter Two - Bell Peppers and Desk Gum

Just as I walk into my first class of the day, the bell rings. I sigh, relieved, and begin to make my way to where I sit. My spot in the classroom is on the far right in the middle. No one has ever really messed with me in school, and from where I'm seated in the room I have a somewhat decent view of the teacher, Ms. Neltan, as she teaches at the front of the class and the other students. I plop my stuff down beside my desk and sit down, careful to not touch the bottom of it. Most of the desks, rooms, materials, and pretty much the teachers too at Lincoln High are slightly old. There's more gum on the bottom of my desk than I can count, not that I would even bother trying, seemingly more than last week. As I get comfortable in my seat, I glance around the room at some of my peers. The guy that sits on my left, who's wearing a Slipknot shirt today, is easily one of the weirder kids here at my school. I'm not really one to judge, but he's got some serious issues. He's a senior, and every day he brings a bell pepper with him to school to eat. An entire bell pepper, usually yellow, that he takes a bite out of like an apple. Yuck. Another odd person, Asheton, sits in the front of the class. She's sort of normal I guess, but has some weird obsession with a famous guy and constantly wears pink mustache-related clothing. Besides being really loud in the mornings, I don't know enough about her. In the far back of the class is a kid named River. They're actually really nice, although by their dyed hair and unusually painted nails, a lot of people assume otherwise. Before I can continue to glance around the room, Ms. Neltan taps her capped blue sharpie against her giant mug of coffee that has a picture of her cat on it, and tells everyone to quiet down. I can tell she's exhausted, because there are bags under her eyes and she's got that fed-up look on her face again. Other than being a complete disaster, she can be nice at times.
"Hey, did you g-" One of the popular sophomores begins to speak, but is immediately silenced again as our teacher snags a stray ruler to smack his desk with.
"I said quiet down, and I won't repeat myself a third time." She sighs before continuing. "Now, let's take care of roll call, shall we?" She glances down at her mug blankly momentarily before walking to her desk to pull up attendance. "Lucas Barren."
"Here, miss."
"Amanda Camwaldt."
"Present."
She continues to drone on with roll, and while she does I start to zone out. Not hearing her say my name, I keep staring at the podium at the front.
"Ryleah Towe!"
"I'm here. Sorry Ms. Neltan." I jump up in my seat slightly, startled. She must've already called my name once or twice, because she's visibly more annoyed. I decide to pay attention for the rest of the class period as some of my peers snicker, leaving me embarrassed. She finishes roll and we clear our desks for our test on the book Rebecca. It takes over half of the period for everyone to complete, so after it she pulls up something on Netflix and falls asleep. The bell rings indicating second period, but Ms. Neltan stays asleep until someone wakes her up. She mumbles and dismisses us, and we all flood out of the classroom. Sometimes I swear that she puts a few shots of vodka in her coffee before coming here.
I wait up for River outside of class to walk to our P.E. class. Although we aren't extremely close friends, we do walk to the classes we share. We meet up with Lydia because she too has P.E., and the three of us make our way there. Once we get to the gym, we all go into the girl's locker room to change. Although River identifies as agender, the school board requires students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their biological sex. This rule doesn't bother River too much; my favorite thing about them is that they don't care what anyone else says or thinks about them. After everyone in class changes, we all meet in the gym for our stretches. The elongation stretch, butterfly stretch, planks, and more. Next, we set up the giant nets for badminton. The teacher for P.E. is Coach Holliwell, an he tells us to get into groups of four or six and play against each other until we're "sweating like pigs in the summer heat". We do this until we have to go back to the locker rooms to change, fifteen minutes before the next class chance. Again, the bell rings after we all change and I walk with Lydia down the crammed halls to lunch, holding her hand.
We get to the cafeteria and set our bags at the round table we sat at before school started, and then make our way to one of the lunch lines. There aren't too many people in this line just yet, so we get though quickly. Today, the lunch ladies have grilled fresh hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken. There's a salad bar too, as well as assorted fruits and vegetables. Turning to Lydia, I make a funny face. "What should we get? Everything looks really good today, I just can't choose!" She rolls her eyes at me and chuckles, replying, "You're such a dork, Ryleah," before playfully elbowing me in the side. "How about a burger and strawberries?" I nod in response, saying, "Sounds good to me,"before planting a loving kiss on her forehead. We grab a tray each, getting a burger and grapes. I pay for our lunch, and take a few steps towards the drink section, pouring two styrofoam cups of ice water.
When we finally get back to our table, Avery and Tucker are already there. Sitting down, I take a gulp of my water. "So how's today been for everyone so far?" Avery sets her soda down and clears her throat a little, reorganizing her lunch she brought from home. "I'd say today is a pretty decent day, nothing much happened in orchestra because Mr. Smith is absent. We watched some movie, but I don't remember what it was called. And then in art, we took vocabulary notes." Tucker goes next, sighing. "Calculus was hell as usual. I hate how cold it always is in the upstairs classrooms. Thankfully, my test in psychology wasn't as tough as I expected it to be." The rest of us nod, listening, and Lydia then speaks. "APUSH was alright, but Mrs. Rich just goes on and on. I almost fell asleep. But P.E. was fun!" I then chime in after her, "Yeah, I honestly like playing badminton. My English class felt like it took forever with our test, though," and we all continue eating. After we finish our food and chattering, the bell rings again, indicating the start of third period. We all walk to our classes together, and later once the bell for fourth period rings we head to our last class.
Finally, school ends and it's time for me to get my girlfriend, drop her off at her house, and then head home myself. I make my way through the halls to her last class, and wee walk to the parking lot together. I take both of our stuff, setting them in the trunk before opening and closing the door for her, and then hop in as well. I smile brightly and look over at her. "How was the other half of your day?" I ask, kissing her lips. She rolls her eyes as she blushes, kissing back. "It was good..." She smiles back at me, sighing softly, and I turn on the radio as I slowly drive out of the school parking lot with Metallica playing in the background. She sings along to the music, and I can't help but feeling so happy and alive around her. She's one of the only people who can truly brighten my and anyone else's day. Lydia is my world, my everything and beyond...