Heather Cannon

Chapter One

I woke up to the extremely irritating chirp-buzz of my alarm clock. I groaned and flailed my arm all over the place in attempt to shut it off.

"Heather, up!" shouted my mom from the kitchen. I groaned again. My foot touched the cold wood floor. I stood up and looked into my shabby mirror propped on top of my dresser.

"Ew," I said to myself. I opened my closet and pulled out some jeans, a lavender lace top, and my maroon-burgandy tweed jacket. I got changed, ran a comb through my thick hair (which is pretty hard to do), and ran across the hall to brush my teeth. I walked back into my room to look in the mirror again.

"Better." My wavy-curly, long, blond hair (with slight brown highlights) fell pretty nicely down to my chest, my jacket looked pretty awesome, as usual, and my light-ish skin looked pretty okay.

"HEATHER!" my mom shouted again.

"Ugh, I'm coming!" I shouted back. I jogged out of my room, down the hallway, turned the corner to my living room, and walked through to get to the kitchen. Connor, my older brother, was sitting at the table, practically vacuuming his cereal.

"Don't hurt yourself, Connor," I said.

"Leave your brother alone, Heather," my mom said in an exasperated sigh. Connor sneered at me as I sat down. I gave him a snotty look back and grabbed an apple from the bowl in the center of the table. After I finished it I grabbed my backpack from the floor and hoisted it onto my back.

"No cereal?" my mom asked.

"Nah, I'm good," I replied, just wanting to get out of there. I didn't know what it was, but suddenly, my house just felt awkward.

"Be careful walking to school," my mom called after me. "Love you!"

"Love you too mom!" I called over my shoulder and pulled the door closed behind me.

Right after closing the door I felt at ease. Well, more at ease anyway. I turned left after exiting the house, walked up a really long time, leaving the poor part of Ceder Wood and entering the rich part, where the schools are. Ceder Wood Elementary, Middle, and High. I'm in 10th grade at the High School. Yup, living it up 15. It's not all it's cracked up to be. High school is like a shark tank; no shark cage.

I got there, walked up the three front steps, and pulled open the door. All was normal. Kids walking around, girls huddling listening to themselves talk, guys fighting about sports teams, everything usual. I walked down the hallway to get to homeroom. Suddenly, I felt a hand go over my eyes.

"I'm gonna punch you in the stomach, Trent!" I screamed and flashed around to find my best friends since the first grade, Trent Accer.

"Calm yourself, Heather," he said and flicked his sandy-brown slightly-Bieber hair out of his eyes bright, dark blue eyes.

"Well I'd probably be more calm if we weren't friends," I said, looking away, pretend-hurt.

"Heather! I- I didn't mean it! Don't take it the wrong way I'll never-"

"Relax, Trent, I was kidding," I said, hysterically laughing.

"Oh," he said, collecting himself. "Well you suck."

"Sucks to suck," I called over my shoulder and dashed to homeroom. Before I could get there he came up from behind and jabbed me in the side.

"HA!" he yelled and bumped into my side as we both walked the now short distance to homeroom.

"I hate you," I said, sticking my tounge out. He smiled at me and opened the door to homeroom and motioned for me to go inside before him. I laughed, walked in, and sat down at the desk he usually sits at. He walked in behind me and kicked the chair.

"Dude, get out," he said while chuckling. I gave him a vomit noise and moved over one desk to mine.

"So," I said. "Did you get the geometry homework?" I asked.

"Did you even do the geometry homework?" he questioned me back.

"No..." I shot him an 'it wasn't me' smile. He play slapped my arm. Just afterwards our homeroom teacher, Mr. Backtread walked into the room.

"You got so lucky," I mouthed to him. Mr. Backtread eyed me suspiciously. I bit my bottom lip and faced forward. I could hear Trent chuckle.

"Announcements are in three minutes," Mr. Backtread spoke in his extremely droned out semi-British accent. "You may converse today."

Trent turned to me. "So you didn't do the geometry homework?"

"Nope," I said, popping the "p". He chuckled. Trent chuckles a lot. I mimicked his deep man-chuckle.

"Shut it, Cannon," he said pointing at me. I smiled; Trent is the kind of person that can do that to anyone.

Just then the announcements started.

"Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance," rang out from the PA. We all stood up and put our hands to our hearts. After finishing we all sat down and waited for the announcements; one of the most exciting parts of the day.

"Good morning, students, and this is morning announcements with Mr. Cougar!" Some of the idiots clapped. Everyone smiled, though. You can't hate Mr. Cougar.

"So today's lunch is pizza. Get those student ID's out now, because Bertha in the cafeteria is fed up with all of your spare change. Just scan it, people! In other news, Mrs. Hawth's sixth period earth science class will be meeting in the quad today. Mr. Backtread's eighth period English class will meet in room 309. As for after school news, auditions for the select chorus are today at 3:00 in the music room- that's room 213 for you new students who still haven't adjusted; it's October, people! Adjust! There's a field hockey game at our field today at 4:00. Support our lady Cougars! An extra thanks to our lovely principal, Mr. Garthler, for dubbing our school the Cedar Wood Cougars! Oh, and the adventure club is having their first meeting today in room 315. This is it folks, the Cougar quote of the day: Always let your Cougar be your guide. I do, in fact, have certification in the guidance department! Thank you all, I'll be here all week. Have a great day! Ron Gordon, please see Mrs. Fergus before leaving school today. Heather Cannon to Mr. Garthler's office."

Everyone turned to look at me. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked around; what's the big deal? Mr. Backtread gave me a knowing look.

"You may be excused from the remainder of homeroom, Ms. Cannon," he said. I looked to Trent, who was very confused, and have him a tight smile while grabbing my backpack from the floor and slumping it over my shoulder.

"See you in geometry?" he whispered.

"Bye, Trent," I whispered back, giggling. I turned to walk up to leave and immediately stopped giggling. Mr. Backtread was still staring at me, almost... empathetically. I shivered. This man doesn't have an empathetic cell in his crotchety body.

"Have an adequate day, Ms. Cannon."

Coming from a man that's always hated me.