All But One

Chapter 3

I wake up the next morning to the sweet melody of my alarm clock. By sweet melody, I mean the sound of my mom yelling at me to wake up.

"I'm up!" I yell back, rolling over.

She yells a goodbye and leaves for work. She's a doctor at a hospital and has to wake me up before she leaves at around 6 am. My dad is also a doctor; but, he has to leave a little bit later than my mom.

I struggle to pull myself away from the warmth of my bed. After a couple attempts, I succeed. From there I walk to the bathroom and get ready.

About an hour later, I'm dressed in thick black leggings and a dark purple hoodie. I look at myself in my full length mirror before leaving the room. The hoodie creates a fluffy cloud that hides my boobs, but the leggings accentuate the rest of my curves. Pleased with how I look, I head to the kitchen and make myself some breakfast. Once I sit down at the counter I notice a post-it note.

It reads:
Here's your phone. Don't disappoint me.
Mom

I giggle in joy when I find my phone under the note. I unlock it to reveal a ton of notifications. I scan through them for any important names. I notice that Ruby texted me asking if I am okay. I quickly respond explaining what happened. I also tell her that I'll be outside her house in 10 minutes.

I quickly finish my breakfast. I clean up a little and grab my stuff. I pause by the door and put on my jacket and boots. Finally, I step out into the cold December air and walk over to my car. I quickly make the five minute drive to Ruby's house.

When I stop outside I notice that I'm five minutes late. I call her and tell her I'm outside.

"Um, give me like two minutes." She says before hanging up. I roll my eyes. Of course, she's late.

A couple minutes later she finally runs into the car.

"Wow, you made it." I tease.

"Shut up." She laughs. "It's not like you were on time either."

"Whatever." I concede, driving towards school.

---

I step out of the car and into the parking lot. Ruby and I start walking towards the entrance. We somehow made it ten minutes early. I'm surprised to see groups of friends outside talking. It's freezing out here. Is gossip really worth losing your extremities?

"Hey Rox!" Someone calls, I turn to find Damien and his bro, Rhondel, standing a few feet away from me. Rhondel is a few inches taller than Damien and slimmer as well. His features are more chiseled and he wears his long dreadlocks in a messy bun.

I wave and try to continue walking but they both walk up and stop me.

"What's up, short stack?" Rhondel greets Ruby, looking down at her through his dark frame glasses. She gives him a fake smile in response. Damien begins talking to us about some teacher that yelled at him yesterday.

"It's dumb cold out here. Unless you want to talk to an icicle I'm going inside." I say, trying to pull away from the conversation. Just as I turn to walk away I notice a familiar face walking up to the school.

"Yoo what's good Hakeem?" Damien grins, reaching out to dap Hakeem. I watch quietly as Hakeem stops and stares coldly at Damien. "Damn man. So I'm guessing you're not gonna swing the homework?" Damien adds, putting his hand down.

"No. Maybe you should do your own work, dumbass." Hakeem shrugs. Damien and Rhondel almost leap onto Hakeem but Ruby and I stop them.

"Why are you always so uptight?" I ask, genuinely confused.

"Because everyone in this school thinks you're so funny and so cool when really you're just annoying." He answers, glaring directly at me before walking into the school.

I am once again left in shock by Hakeem's words. I look around to find everyone within earshot silent and just as shocked as me. I grab Ruby's hand and rush into the school just as the murmurs begin.

"Who was that? And what the f-ck is his problem?" Ruby asks once we reach our locker.

"I honestly am not sure. All I know is that he's in my history class and he hates me." I say before telling her that he's the same guy I told her about yesterday.

"Well, he sounds like he has deep issues." She rolls her eyes as she closes the locker door. "We have a minute until first period starts. I'll see you later." She adds, giving me a hug.

I say goodbye and walk to my class. I sit down in my seat and pull out a notebook and a pen.

---

Three more periods later, I walk into trig class. Ruby and a couple other people greet me as I sit down in my usual seat. I respond to all of them before pulling out my supplies for class. It's clear that I mean business when I actually start taking down notes. So what if I have no idea what my notes mean... At least I took them!

"Okay guys. Work on these problems while I come around to check your homework." Mr. Smith says, grabbing his clipboard.

Homework? F-ck. I fell asleep before I could do it last night.

I look over at Ruby make a face that says I'm screwed. Her eyes widen.

Mr. Smith approaches my desk. "Where is your homework?"

"My homework? Oh... It has to be here somewhere..." I say, randomly shuffling papers on my desk and in my folder. "I think I might have lost it, can I show you tomorrow?"

He crosses his arms and narrows his eyes at me. "I'm not stupid, Roxanne. But, since you need as much help as possible right now. I'm going to let you slide. You can ask your tutor to help you with it later."

"Wait, who is my tutor?" I ask.