Watch The Skyline [Hiatus]

School, Jobs, and Prom

"Not going to be in school today. Doctor's appointment."

The text was from Tanya. Mackensie let out a sigh of disappointment upon reading it, holding her phone behind her textbook as stealthily as possible so her teacher wouldn't see that she had it out. She didn't normally get text messages during first period, and she was afraid of getting caught especially since she sat in the first row but she couldn't hold off her curiousity.

Melbourne Academy had a strict no-electronics policy. Cell phones and ipods were meant to be kept in students' lockers, they weren't even able to keep them in their backpacks, which they were allowed to take into class. Any electronics found on a student's personage meant confiscation and detention.

Of course, no one actually followed this rule and pretty much every student kept their cell phones in their pockets or purses.

Now I'm going to be alone for Pre-Cal and APES, Mackensie thought to herself. And lunch. She slipped her phone back into her pocket while her teacher had his back to her.

"What's up?" her friend and desk partner, Alyssa, asked. The dirty blonde turned to look at Mackensie with slight concern in her big brown eyes. She had one elbow on the desk, using her hand as a chin-rest whilst her other hand was busy mindlessly playing with a pencil.

"Oh, Tanya is going to be absent today," Mackensie answered. "So I'm going to be by myself for Pre-Cal and APES."

"Sucks for you."

"Yeah, I know. It already sucks being alone in Health class on a daily basis." Mackensie scowled at the thought of the subject she most hated. Alyssa gave a small laugh before quickly clamping her mouth shut as the teacher turned back around.

"Okay," he said, looking at his students from behind his desk. "You know the drill. Your next allusion list is due on Monday at the beginning of class. I'm letting you guys out a minute early, go on. Get out of here."

Students quickly scurried to get their things together, determined to leave the classroom before the bell rang and the traffick would start in the hallway. One of Melbourne Academy's values was to have order, yet the hallways during the five minute intervals students had to get to their classes had no order whatsoever.

Frankly, it was chaotic.

Mackensie and Alyssa put their things away in their backpacks and walked out of the classroom together, speedwalking towards the other end of the hallway to get to the AP European History class before the bell would ring.

They made it halfway down before the second hand hit the top of the hour and the familiar ringing echoed through the building, and immediately a flood of students came rushing from their respective classrooms and into the hallway.

"Ugh," Alyssa let out a groan as she slowed down, not wanting to bump into anyone though it was hard not to.

Fed up, but not willing enough to make a scene in order to get by, she and Mackensie trudged through the masses until they reached the familiar door to Mr. Wainwright's room. They entered, saying hello to their teacher while heading straight to their desks in the second row.

"Did you do the reading?" Alyssa asked as she sat herself down in her desk adjacent to Mackensie's. She pulled out her notebook and writing equipment from her backpack along with the ever so heavy textbook.

Mackensie, who was doing the same, froze in place and looked up at Alyssa from her backpack. "Uh, what?"

"The reading..." Alyssa said, her voice trailing off to a quiet whisper as she glanced over at Mr. Wainwright, not wanting him to overhear the fact that her friend didn't do the assignment. "We were supposed to read chapter seventeen," she continued. "The introduction to the 20th century?"