The Emo Girl

English class again

"Can I sit here?" asked Ash. "I noticed that Lea isn't here today, so can I sit here instead?"
"Sure, go ahead," I said, while taking my stuff away from the desk. "Lea told me that something came up today, and she couldn't make it to school. It would be easier now if we needed to pair up."
"Yeah," said Ash, putting her black and red bag on the floor next to her feet. "I'm guessing she would ask us to do another group work."
"Yeah I think she would do that again," I said. "Also, I'm getting kinda lazy to walk over to your place at the back. Wonder if we're gonna get best essay again..."
This girl only moved into this school this year. Wonder which school she was in before this...
"Which school were you in before this?" I asked. "You only moved in this year right?"
"Yes I was in a different school before this," said Ash, taking out her earphones and MP3 player. "I was in Riverside High before this. I moved here to Greenhills High because my parents moved here instead."
"Oh my that's pretty far away," I said. Riverside High was in another part of the state! "Don't you miss your friends from your old school?"
"Of course I do," said Ash. "I miss them dearly, but I still keep in touch with them. We still chat."
"Yeah same," I said. "I still chat with my old friends from primary school."
She nodded and started plugging her earphones into her ears. She took out her phone and started seeing something on it. Wait. Why did she come sit with me if she was just gonna plug in her earphones and listen to her music while seeing her phone? Oh well... at least I don't have to go all the way to the back to partner up with her for English.
Janet and Kate came while chattering and laughing loudly. They set their bags on their chairs on the desk in front of us. Then, they stopped short as they saw Ash sitting on their friend's usual place.
"Wait where's Lea?" asked Janet. "Is she late?"
"And what's she doing here?" asked Kate. "What's this weirdo doing here?"
I looked at Ash and was relieved that she didn't hear what Kate said because she was wearing earphones. I turned to Janet and Kate and told them in a quiet voice that Lea was absent.
"She's absent," I told them. "She just texted me that she couldn't come and asked me to send her today's homework later."
"Okay then," said Janet, taking out her phone when it vibrated. "Oh look, she told me about it too."
She showed her phone to Kate who nodded.
"Alright then," said Kate and proceeded to put her bag on her chair and sit on it, same as Janet. I still don't get how they're actually comfortable enough to sit on the chair with their bags on it.
I looked over at Ash again and saw that she was still peacefully seeing whatever it was on her phone. I couldn't really see what was on the screen because her hair was covering the sides of it.
The English teacher soon arrived as it was first period for the day. English is my favourite subject and I therefore enjoyed English class. She was carrying a sheave of papers which I assume were the essays we did yesterday. She was holding up one essay in particular.
Ash didn't seem to realise that the teacher was already here so I nudged her and she looked up and quickly removed her earbuds and put her electronics away. She paid attention to what the teacher was saying. Then she leaned over to me.
"Don't tell me that's our essay, again?" asked Ash in a low voice. "That's definitely our essay..."
"How could you tell?" I asked her, also in a low voice. "I mean for all we know, it might even be Janet's and Kate's?"
"I'm positive that that's ours," said Ash, confidently. "Look at the paper. I noticed that we were the only ones to hand in our essay written in pink paper."
"You actually realised stuff like that?" I asked and Ash shrugged. "Well then I guess it's ours then..."
"Why do you actually use pink foolscap paper instead of white or yellow?" asked Ash, sounding a little annoyed. "Like you're the only one I know who uses pink foolscap paper..."
"It's just my favourite colour," I said. "I found it in the store and I just bought tons of it..."
"I can tell," said Ash, nodding. "So I guess it's the 'Best Essay in Class Award' for us again."
"I think so," I said. "Are you sure we are the only ones who handed it in in pink?"
Ash nodded. How does this girl even observe stuff like this? She's always on her phone, with earphones in her ears. How could she possibly observer her surroundings? Wait... so did she actually hear what Janet and Kate said about her earlier today? And why is she so friendly with me all of a sudden? She doesn't seem so emo now. Well, at least, I have a new friend. The teacher started talking so we quickly turned towards the front of the class.
"So I read your essays and this is the best essay so far," said Miss Smith. "This one is also by Penelope and Ash."
"See," said Ash. "I told you."
I nodded without looking at her. The teacher proceeded to tell the class how we wrote a very interesting story and what not. She then asked us to go and get the essay from her. Ash asked me to keep it again so that's what I did. The teacher was busy returning the essays so I decided to check my phone. I noticed that my loyal reader actually read my latest chapters. But they never bothered about the short stories I wrote. They usually only read the novels that I wrote.
Is Ash a writer too? She writes pretty good essays too, but never shows it. Until now, of course. The lesson went on with her asking us to do a comprehension worksheet that she gave us. It was easy stuff and we didn't have much difficulty with it.
The lesson after English was History. Our history teacher tries her best to make history seem fun. She does a good job, and we all like her for that. But the thing is, no one can make learning history actually fun. She's a funny teacher though, always makes jokes and teaches us some tricks in answering history questions. So we actually enjoy her class. Funny thing is, she is also our physical education teacher. She makes us do extreme sports and I found it surprising that I can actually do them. Until one fine day, I fell flat on my face and hurt my knee after trying to jump over a bench as a practice for high jump...
Anyway, the class went on as usual and soon it was break.