Sophie?

I woke up to yelling. It was my older brother and sister, fighting over the bathroom. My sister was in the bathroom, probably putting her makeup on, and my brother was pounding on the door, yelling at her.

"Oh, jeez,"I said as Oliver pounded on the door harder. I rolled my eyes as I threw back the covers on my bed and got up.

"Can both of you just shut up? Julie, just finish your makeup in your room!"I yelled. The pounding and yelling continued, so I knew they were ignoring me. I walked over to my closet and threw the doors open. I grabbed my Champion leggings, Under Armour long sleeve, and my Under Armour tennis shoes. I changed quickly and then walked out of my bedroom.

"Oliver! I'm eating breakfast and then I need the bathroom!"I yelled. I walked through the hallway and down the steps.

"I'll be done by then, little sis!"Oliver called back. He and I had a great relationship, the polar opposite of his and Julie's.

I walked down into the kitchen and over to the pantry. I opened the door and got out the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. I got the milk out, plus the spoon and bowl. I poured my cereal and then doused it in milk.

"Can you make me some cereal, too? Fruit Loops?"Oliver asked. I put my spoon in my cereal and set it down on the table.

"Yeah, sure!"I replied. So, I made Oliver a bowl of cereal and set it down in front of the seat across from mine. I sat down and started eating. After a few minutes, Oliver came down the stairs and ate his cereal.

"Alright, I gotta go finish getting ready. You're taking me to school today, right?"I asked. With his mouth full, Oliver nodded and gave me a thumbs up. I got up, put my bowl in the sink, then walked back upstairs and into the bathroom.

I used my brush to go through my hair, put it up into a pony tail, and put an Under Armour headband in. I set a timer on my phone for two minutes and brushed my teeth. When the timer was at one minute, I heard Julie walk by the door, grumbling about Oliver. After I brushed my teeth, I popped a vitamin in my mouth, and walked out.

"April, Julie, you ready?"Oliver asked. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and walked to the door, my hand on the handle.

"Yup, let's go. Julie! Come on!"I yelled. Julie was in the living room, probably on Instagram posting pretty (annoying) pictures of herself.

“I’m driving myself, you dimwit!”Julie yelled back. She didn’t like Oliver or I, so we tried to stay out of each other’s way.

“Jeez! Fine! See ya’ later. Dimwit,”I said. I heard Julie growl and quickly get up, so Oliver and I ran through the kitchen, out into the garage, and into his car. Oliver was already locking the doors and starting it up when Julie came running, whipping the garage door, making it slam against the wall. I waved at her as we drove away, with a face of pure satisfaction.

---

Getting to school was the same as always. Oliver dropped me off, and then went and parked.

I walked in to be greeted by the principal, Mr. Vanderbilt. Not again! He must’ve seen the vandalism on the wall and thought that it was me because of the one time that I put gum under the desk, and he happened to see it himself. He had a grudge against me ever since then. 

“Good morning, Mr. Vanderbilt! How are you?”I asked. He left his face stone cold and pulled me by the arm, dragging me to his office. When we got there, he threw me in, following me, pointing at a chair. I sat down, and he walked over to his desk and sat down. 

“Hello, Miss Suzak. I brought you here this morning to ask you if you knew anything about the vandalism on the wall that was discovered this morning. It precisely says that you should ignore rules, and that rules are made to be broken. What do you have to say?”Mr. Vanderbilt asked. I took a deep breath with my eyes closed and crossed my hands in front of me.

“Mr. Vanderbilt, I believe that this is just a misunderstanding. I would never say that rules were made to be broken. Other than the one and only time that I put my gum under my desk, I have never broken a rule,”I replied. Mr. Vanderbilt shook his head, got up, and walked towards me.

“Miss Suzak, I will let you go this time. But until you can prove that it wasn’t you, and another vandal, then I will be keeping a watchful eye on you. Are we clear?”Mr. Vanderbilt asked. I nodded, shook his hand, and got up.

“I understand, Mr. Vanderbilt. I apologize for the inconvenience,”I stated. I walked out of his office satisfied. I was on a roll this morning! 

“Got away from Vanderbilt?”Joslyn asked as she walked up to me. Joslyn was my best friend, and always knew where I would be.

“Yeah. I just have to prove that it wasn’t me. From all of the times that I’ve seen their vandalism, I’m pretty sure that it’s those dummies in eighth grade. I’ll go over there and twirl my hair, while their locker is open, and grab one of the cans of spray paint. They always stash it away in their lockers. Such dumb criminals,”I rambled. Joslyn laughed and then held the door open for me since we were in front of our homeroom.

“Why, thank you, madam,”I chuckled. I gave Joslyn a little curtsy, and she bowed back. I walked in laughing, Joslyn doing the same right after me.

“Excuse me, girls. But I believe you’re in the wrong classroom.” Yikes! We had gone one door too many, and we had walked in on the new teacher’s first day. 

“Oh, gosh. We’re so sorry, Mrs. Dardenhoff. Our homeroom is in the next classroom over. We just went down one door too many. We’ll be going now. Sorry for the trouble,”Joslyn quickly said. I smiled a bit and then grabbed Joslyn by the arm and pulled her out of the classroom, both of us laughing. Still laughing, we walked into our actual home room.

“Hey, April!”Boston called. He was on the other side of the classroom, waving me over. He was also my boyfriend. Joslyn pushed me forward, and I walked towards him as she sat down at one of the desks in the front row. When I got to Boston, I sat down at the desk next to him.

“Hey, babe. What’s new?”I asked. Boston leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then leaned back and sat straight up in his seat. I looked behind me, and our teacher was in the doorway. He hated high school relationships because his high school sweetheart had divorced him a couple years back.

I sat back as Mr. Louk walked over to his desk and sat his bag down next to it. He sat down, and the rest of the class focused their attention on him as well. He was the strictest teacher of the whole school. 

“Good morning. I have no announcements, so this morning we will be doing attendance and then you will read until the first period begins. Alilo, Will,”Mr. Louk stated. He did attendance, and everyone was “Here!”. When he was finished, I bent down into my backpack and pulled out my book, The Catcher in the Rye. I read, while stealing glances at Boston. He had put gel in his hair that morning, and it was all put to one side. I liked it this way.

Once home room was over, Boston and I walked over to our locker (we still had to share them at our school) and put away our books, pulling our next books out. I grabbed my French, Boston grabbing his history book.

“See you in our third period,”Boston said, "moon walking" away. I shook my head and smiled, while turning on my heel. I walked a couple of yards before running into Joslyn.

“Sorry, girl. Gotta get to Mrs. Perdot’s class, can’t be late. Or I’ll get a detention and a tardive,”I chuckled. Joslyn laughed, shook her head, and walked off. I smiled and walked the ten yards to Mrs. Perdot’s classroom.

---

Mrs. Perdot’s class was a bore, all she talked about was about how there are feminine and masculine translations from English to French for some words. Bo-ring! The rest of the school day went by fast, all in a blur. Except for the part of the day that I turned the eighth graders in for the vandalism with proof. I did just what I told Joslyn I would. Charm, and grab.

---

I stood in front of the school doors, waiting for Oliver. I was looking all around, and after five minutes I sat down on a bench. My leg bounced up and down as I waited. After a little bit, I got tired of waiting and walked back into school.

“Oliver? Where are you? Oliver!”I called. I looked up and down the hallways to no avail. I called his names a couple more times, until I finally got an answer. 

“Oliver’s out in the car. We should go meet him before it starts raining again.” I turned around.

“Sophie! Oh, my God! You’re here! How are you here? I’ve missed you so much!”I shouted. I grabbed Sophie and wrapped her in my arms. She hugged me back tightly. Sophie was my older-by-one-year cousin who I was closest to, but she lived three hours away from me. Letting go of her, and then linking my arm with hers, we walked out of the school.

“When did you get up here?”I asked. Sophie pointed in one direction, and we walked that way.

“This morning. Mama drove me up and then I spent the day with Aunt Charlotte. So, I think I’m more excited than you about me being up here...but I can hold in my emotions better than you!”Sophie laughed. I laughed along with her while we got to Oliver’s car and got in.

“Was that a good surprise, little sis?”Oliver asked. I nodded and started chatting away with Sophie about how everything was going, yada yada yada, as Oliver drove us back to our house.

---

“Why didn’t you call me about that?!”Sophie asked. I shrugged while we walked in and took our shoes off, setting our bags down.

“Because! I wasn’t sure it was going to last. But I guess it will. Boston and I have been together for three months now. A kiss could mean a lot of things,”I replied. Sophie shook her head when Mom came running up to us.

“Hey, honey! Was Sophie a good surprise?”Mom asked. I nodded and gave her a big hug.

“Thank you so much! This was a normal day, but I guess now I get to have some fun!”I yelled. Oliver and Mom shook their heads while I pulled Sophie into my bedroom.

“You two can have fun, but don’t be loud! I’m listening to my music!”Julie yelled. Great. She was already home.

“It’s fine. I’ve dealt with her before,”Sophie said. I nodded and pulled out my makeup case from under my bed.

“Let’s have some real fun!”I yelled.

"I said...BE! QUIET!"Julie shouted. I rolled my eyes and opened my makeup case, smiling at Sophie.