Chapter 5

I walked up the staircase to school on Monday morning, mentally going over what happened during the weekend. The one thing that kept on reverberating was the fact that Stacie had cancer. I couldn't wrap my head around it, no matter how many times she told me. It didn't make sense, it wasn't possible...

Someone pinched me, distracting me from my morbid train of thought.

"Ouch!" I yelped, rubbing my sore arm and glaring into the face of Candice Waters, popularly known as Candy, and one of my very best friends. "What was that for?"

"I needed to find a way to bring you back to the realm of the living," she said simply, shrugging her shoulders.

"And you couldn't have done this without causing me bodily harm?"

She shrugged again. "In my defence, I called your name out twice, but you seemed a little out of it. Is there anything wrong?"

He sharp blue eyes seemed to pierce past the barriers of my soul, poking and prodding where her gaze was not wanted, or needed.

"No!" I snapped, regretting my harsh tone as I saw her frown slightly. I sighed. "Alright, yes. Maybe. I don't know!"

I didn't want to tell her about Stacie's cancer. That would make it more real, more final, set in stone. The fewer people who knew about it, the more chances my stepsister had of surviving. At least that was how I rationalised it.

"You know, you don't have to tell me if you're not ready to," said Candy gently, leading me through the doors and into the washroom. "Just know that I'm right here if you need me. Ditto for Mia and Kate."

"I know," I mumbled as I hugged her, sniffing the strawberry scented shampoo she'd used in her wavy blonde hair, even though I was shorter than her. I was shorter than a lot of people.

"Well isn't this just adorable," mocked a nasally voice, and I internally groaned. Mackenzie.

"What do you want, McDonalds?" sighed Candy wearily, rolling her eyes at the girl in question.

"I just came to freshen up. Is that so wrong?" She batted her eyelashes, her smile syrupy sweet, but I knew better than to be deceived by the wolf that lay hidden under the layers of sheepskin. As much as I hated to stereotype people, I had to admit that Mackenzie fit right into the role of the mean cheerleader in those high school dramas.

Annoying voice? Check. Over application of makeup? Check. The burning desire to see my entire high school social life crumble into ashes at her feet, as she towered over me and laughed maniacally? Check and mate. I didn't know why, but ever since I had stepped foot into this ridiculous arena known as high school, Mackenzie had made it her one's life mission to make me miserable. I tried my best to ignore her, but there were days when I felt like hitting her. On the head. With a stick. Made of iron. And covered with spikes. You know, just sometimes.

Candy, Mia, Kate and I had given her some pretty cool nicknames. McDonald's, Big Mac, Big Mac Attack whenever she was on the warpath, MackneverreadaBook. The list was endless.

"You and I both know that's not why you're here, Mackenzie," I said tiredly. I wasn't in the mood for her games. There were much more important things than petty high school rivalries.

"Why else would I be here?" she asked, still sounding like her tongue had been coated with honey.

"You know what?" I said, grabbing Candy's wrist, and barging past her. "I don't have time for this. I don't want to be late for homeroom."

Mackenzie turned red, and clenched her fists.

"Don't you dare walk out on me, or you'll regret it," she said, blue eyes glinting dangerously. I sighed. This girl doled out more empty threats than the Easter Bunny did Easter eggs.

"Watch me." And with that, Candy and I walked out, leaving a gaping Mackenzie behind us.

~|~|~

"In sooth I know not why I am so sad. It wearies me, you say it wearies you..."

I was in English Literature, the last period before my lunch break. My eyes were glued to the clock, and I watched as the hand representing seconds made an agonizingly slow movement to the right.

I groaned, and banged my head on the table, which in turn caused my literature teacher, Miss Arthur, to look my way. That is not something anyone wants to happen to them. Not in this lifetime anyway. I saw a few people send me pitying glances.

To say Miss Arthur is confusing would be like saying 'the sun is hot,' or 'the sky is blue.' It is a well-known, yet to be disproved fact that Miss Arthur is about as confusing and mind boggling as one can get. In fact, she is the epitome of all things confusing on this Earth.

One minute, she can be all smiles, sunshine and rainbows; the next she is like a hawk, talons outstretched, reaching for her prey. Nobody dares to cross her when she is a bad mood, for fear of incurring her wrath. Honestly, her mood swings are worse than that of a hormonal teenager. I should know, I am one.

Unfortunately for me, luck seemed to have abandoned me, as Miss Arthur was definitely in one of her black moods that morning. She narrowed her eyes at me behind her wire rimmed glasses.

"What is the meaning of this interruption, Miss Dawson?" she asked, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

"N-nothing," I stammered.

"Don't stammer! And sit up straight, we do teach you good etiquette at this school, we're not just here to force feed you with facts."

My cheeks reddened as I obeyed. I was lucky she didn't punish me.

She beamed at the class, then motioned for those who had been acting before I had interrupted, to continue.

Approximately one hour later, Literature was over, and I could shove The Merchant of Venice into the depths of my locker. Or so I thought.

"Next two weeks, we'll be acting out Act One Scene Two of the play."

The class let out a collective groan, but it quickly turned into a cheer when Miss Arthur frowned.

"Seeing as Miss Dawson was so intrigued by the first scene--" She shot me a disapproving glare, "she will be taking the role of Portia this time round, and Miss Leis that of Nerissa. This time round, the actresses will be acting without the help of a script, or a prompt. I want to see how well they know the story."

She wasn't fooling anyone. Portia's lines were plentiful in that scene, and she was obviously getting back at me for groaning in her class. But two weeks to learn all those lines? Even she couldn't be that cruel. I had other homework assignments for crying out loud.

I groaned again.

"Any problem, Miss Dawson?" she inquired.

"None," I said. "Nothing at all."

~|~|~

Lunch. I bought my food, French fries and a burger, and headed over to the table where my three best friends sat. Candice, Camila and Kaitlyn. Otherwise known as Candy, Mia and Kate.

"But how can you eat that?" groaned Candy, scrunching her nose at Kate's greasy chicken wings and even greasier fries, and poking a fork into her own salad.

"I exercise," said Kate drily, rolling her dark blue—almost violet—eyes at Candy's diva attitude. "I get to eat proper food because I burn off all the excess fat. Maybe you should try it sometime, then you could eat something more filling than flowers?"

"Are you calling me fat?" cried Candy, outraged.

"Of course not, I'm just..." Kate trailed off, sighing. Then she looked at my tray and grinned.

"Oh no," I said, as I sat down. "You are not dragging me into another one of your arguments."

"But Ash," she whined. "You're eating unhealthy; I'm eating unhealthy. We could join forces and kick Candy to the curb, flowers and all."

Candy did not look impressed, and from the way she was virtually repeatedly stabbing her salad with her fork, I had a feeling she wasn't picturing a salad on her plate. Thankfully though, before Candy or Kate could begin to display any murderous tendencies, Mia spoke.

"You guys, why is Mackenzie headed here?" she said. We turned to look, and sure enough, Mackenzie was striding up to us in her knee high boots and mini short skirt. Somehow, although we all wore the same uniform, since this was an all-girls private school, and a very expensive one at that, she still managed to show as much skin as possible.

"What is it this time, Big Mac?" Kate asked. "Not another Big Mac Attack?"

Mackenzie's eyes narrowed slightly at her, before she plastered on her fake smile again, this time to me. Needless to say, I was very scared at that moment.

"I just wanted to say hi, Ashley," she smiled, "and I wanted you to know that if you ever want to get away from these losers, there's a place for you at my table." She cocked a finger in that direction, and I had an irrepressible urge to snap that finger into two.

"No thanks," snorted Kate.

"Yeah, as if she'd ever want to join a mean girl like you," said Candy, actually agreeing with Kate on something for once.

"She's our friend, she would never leave us hanging," added Mia, her pale features determined. I smiled at my friends.

"I think they made it pretty clear MacneverreadaBook. Go away."

She flipped her black hair over her shoulder, and held her head up in the air.

"Whatever," she said, as she flounced back to her table.

"Phew!" sighed Kate. "No Attacks this time round."

"I wonder what her real agenda was though," mused Mia.

"Oh, Candy and I confronted her in the ladies' room this morning," I said nonchalantly.

"You did what?" shrieked Kate and Mia.

Candy and I then proceeded to tell them what had happened in the washroom ending with Mackenzie's threat.

"Something fishy is going on," murmured Mia.

"You got that right. Did you see the tuna salad they were serving? Probably contains salmonella!" joked Kate. "Get it? Salmon--ella?"

"Not everything is about food Kate!" exclaimed an exasperated Candy.

"I suppose not everything," conceded Kate at last, after a long period of thought. "But you have to admit, most things are about food."

Candy snarled, and looked as though she was going to pounce on Kate, which, sadly to say, was something of a common occurrence.

"I suppose this is a bad time to interrupt," said Mia, "but we have that Maths test immediately after this."

All four of us were in the same Math class, thank God. I groaned.

"If I'm not mistaken," grinned Kate "Isn't groaning what got you into trouble in English Lit?"

I threw a fry at her, but missed. She caught it though, she was on the girls basketball team after all, and threw it back at me.

"Want to try your luck again?" she teased.

I regroaned yes, I know fully well that is not a word.

When would school ever be fun?