Counting the Stars

Just tell me when you're ready and I'll be at your service, Your Majesty

For a week, me and Evie had been going back and forth between Target and Walmart, trying to get the perfect school supplies and first-day outfits. Being the organized one, Evie had made lists for both of us, just so we wouldn't miss anything. Thankfully, because of them we finished our shopping quickly.
Now, I got the list out of my new grey backpack and tossed it into the trash bin. A smile of satisfactory spread across my face as I stacked my notebooks into my backpack.

"Honey, aren't you asleep yet? It's your first day tommorw!" My mom startled me, entering the room without knocking. I looked at her.

"I know, I know, I was just fixing my things for tommorow." I replied.

"You have been fixing your things for the last 4 days! Get to bed now!" Without another word she turned the light off and retreated from my room.

I set my backpack against my nightstand and snuggled into my navy blue whale blanket.
Pretty soon, I was asleep.
***************
Dylan had driven me and Evie to school, just as our mothers had decided the previous year on last week of 10th grade. Both me and Evie sat in the back, but that didn't stop Dylan from shooting me cocky looks in the rearview mirror. I rolled my eyes and went back to freaking out about our first day with my best friend.
In less than 20 minutes we were on the school grounds. I immeaditely smelled the fresh grass, covered in dew. Evie and I went inside to look for our lockers which were right across from each other, luckily.
I organized my locker, just by stacking my notebooks and binders onto the bottom part and the rest of the things on the top, and made my way over to Evie. I sighed. She was sticking mirrors and dry erase boards into her locker.

"What?" She giggled. "I'm just making it look pretty! New year, new locker." She said defending herself from my annoyed look.

"Sure." I drawled our. "Lets go to Math class."
Math and English were the only classes we had together, Math being the first and English being second to last. We were pretty stumped that we didn't have lunch together, but I was glad I had a few other friends in my lunch period.
Together we went to our first class of the day, and listened to Mr. Moore read out instructions and requirements for the next 45 minutes.
By the end of 3rd period I was beyond bored, so I was glad when my history teacher, Ms. Laqro, dismissed us for lunch.
As soon as I entered the cafeteria I was squished into a bear hug threatening to suffocate me. I whipped around to see the cheerful face of my good friend, Sydney.

"Syd! Oh my God!" I stood back to admire the haircut she got over the summer. Evie and I had been dying to see it via social media but Sydney insisted we see it in person at school.

"Oh stop that Audrey!" She laughed, as I closed my mouth which had formed a perfect o shape out of surprise at how different she looked. "Do you know how much I missed you? Do you?" Sydney pulled me into yet another bear hug as I giggled into her neck.

"I missed you too! And look at your hair, it looks...awesome!" We walked to the lunch tables together, talking about almost everything that happened over the summer. Sydney was like my second best friend, she knew almost everything about me, as much as Evie.

I told her about the guy that crashed into me with his car the other day and how I coincidentally met him at The Garden Street where he punched Dylan to which she replied that he was an ass.

"Sooooo, met any other boys this summer?" Sydney winked at me. She knew how I despised the very fact of dating, after what happened a few years ago in 9th grade. I had given Lucas Peterson my whole heart, trusting he could keep it intact but instead he crushed it so bad, I doubt I could ever get over it. The memories of him still haunted me. I had tried so hard to hold on to him but he left me, and did so aggressively. I glared at Sydney.

"For me!" She giggled, but stopped and let out a long sigh when she saw the far-away look on my face. "Aud, you need to let go of him. He dumped you, and that was his loss. You know anyone would die to be with you. Lucas was a jerk and he didn't deserve you to begin with." She explained, patting my arm.

"I know, i know," I sighed. "But you can't just forget someone like that. I was with him for 18 months!"

"What do you mean 'like that'? It's been 2 years, you need to move on now."

"I am moving on, but that doesn't mean I need to jump any guy within 2 meters of me. I'm not ready to date yet."

"And when will you be? Because believe me, I know a handful of guys who are dying to take you to bed." I rolled my eyes, and devoured the last of my chicken sandwich before the shrill sound of the bell sent ppl rushing out of he cafeteria.

"Just tell me when you're ready and I'll be at your service, Your Majesty," said Sydney.

"I'll see you in science," I laughed, waving her off.

I went back to my locker, and grabbed everything I needed for my last 3 periods.  I was hoping to catch Evie, but she was no where to be seen.

I quickly went to my next class, Newspaper. Mr. Cenalis talked and talked about how passing this class would be hard if we didn't take journalism seriously and how this class could determine our future jobs. We all groaned when he started handing out the rubric for an essay we would have to finish by the end of the week. My friend, Jenelle, who sat across from me, pouted and stuck an imaginary knife in her throat, making me silently giggle.

Pretty soon I was out of Newspaper and headed all the way across the school to room B-12 wear my English class was. I saw Evie as soon as I entered, and sat in the seat beside her.

"Mr. Cenalis is torturing us." I said as soon as I sat down.

Evie raised an eyebrow at me. "Why, what'd he do?"

"He's making us write a 4 page essay on why we picked this specific class as an elective, and what we plan to do with the 'knowledge you gain in this class.'"  I whined.

"Well, he's way better than Mrs. Cole in art class. We're supposed to focus on drawing one thing for the whole semester. Talk about no variety!" She said.

The whole class quited down when the new English teacher entered the room.

Clad in a brown leather jacket and dress pants, he walked to the front of the room.

"Good Morning class! I'm your English teacher,  Mr. Peneheiro." He sounded like a cartoon character. "I will be teaching you ELA this semester." The class smiled at his happy nature. I had a feeling that he was gonna be a really good teacher.

For the rest of the 45 minutes of class, he told us his backstory, and let us introduce ourselves. I recognized a few people from last year but a lot of the students were new. Pretty soon it was the last period of the day, so I said a quick bye to Evie and headed to my last class: science.