Happy Friday everyone! How was everyone's first week back at work/school after the Xmas holidays? Mine was fab considering I got to work from home and listen to audiobooks all day 😁

The next morning I decided to stick with my original plan and get to school early so that I could give my hair a quick trim. The art rooms always had the sharpest scissors, them being made and bought specifically for cutting sturdy stuff like fabric and other materials. So with a careful use of two paper clips to unlock the supply closet attached to the art room I scoured the shelving units until I found what I was looking for.

After succeeding in finding a pair sharp enough I flipped my head upside down and took off a few inches so that it was sitting just below my shoulders. Much better. It may not make it look more healthy but at least it got rid of all the rats' tails.

I quickly scooped up all the hair that had fallen to the ground, not that there was much of it as my hair was on the thin side, and threw it in a nearby bin before locking the room back up, making it look like I had never been there.

"What are you doing in here?" A voice suddenly asked me as they walked into the art room, seeing me standing with the supply room's door handle still in my hand.

I froze for a second, thinking that maybe the teacher had seen my fiddling with the lock and assumed I was trying to break in to steal stuff, but after turning around and seeing a young girl standing in the doorway with keys in her hand I relaxed. She couldn't have been more than fifteen with her braces catching the light and the odd spot on her otherwise clear skin.

"I could ask you the same thing," I asked as I crossed my arms and widened my stance slightly to look more intimidating.

"I asked Mrs Dooley for the spare keys as I left my textbook in here yesterday and couldn't do my homework that's due today," she explained as she held a small ring of keys up higher to show me. "So what are you doing here?" She pressed as she narrowed her eyes at me slightly, "and how did you even get in here?"

I rolled my eyes at her attempt at looking intimidating and sighed as I reshouldered my rucksack. "Looking for the teacher who obviously isn't here, now if you'll excuse me I have somewhere better to be," I sighed with fake impatience as I waited for her to move from the doorway, which thankfully she did. That was a close one. I really didn't have the money and resources to pay for another set of fake I'D's, if I got caught now I'd have to hold back a year in graduating until I've earnt enough money to buy myself a new nakme.

I released a breath as I walked past her, thankful that she didn't drill me too much on my reasons for being here or how I got in. She may only be a freshman, but it only took one person getting suspicious of me to cause others to look at me in a different light.

I walked through the empty hallways until I made it to my locker and started to switch my textbooks around. My old bag definitely wasn't strong enough to hold the amount of weight schools expected you to carry. I mean it was no wonder kids always ended up with back and shoulder problems, the amount of work we were expected to carry around with us at any one time was crazy. At least in America they had lockers, in my old school back in England we had no such thing, we just had to carry everything around with us all day and hope that  you didn't forget it somewhere along the way.

I slammed my locker door closed after getting out the few textbooks I'd need for my morning lessons before walking over to the cafeteria and out into the courtyard. It was peaceful here, unlike last time I was out here when every other annoying student was corralled into the small open space.

As I surveyed the area, looking for a place to sit so that I could relax and read my book until my first lesson started, I noticed a lone tree not too far from the outskirts of the courtyard. It was a massive oak tree, reaching high up into the sky with new leaves just starting to sprout on its bare branches. The thing that caught my eye though was the gentle slope the trunk had as it connected to the ground, it was the perfect angle for me to lie against, as if it had spent years growing just so that I could one day sit under it.

I smiled as I walked across the concreted floor and sighed as I sat down and leant against the rough bark of the tree. This place was definitely going to be my go to spot to do some reading and just relax. The light was shining through the new leaves, casting a spotted pattern across the floor below and my extended legs, shielding me from the occasionally blinding rays as it peaked through the many clouds that drifted across the sky. Yep, this was my new spot.

I sighed again in bliss as I retrieved my nearly finished book from the confines of my bag and opened it where my bookmark lay sticking out of the pages. I used to be one of those people who would turn the corner of the page, but after being called a psycho by my old friends I quickly stopped doing it. Apparently it was on par with placing the toilet roll on the holder with the paper facing inwards, not outwards. I didn't see what all the fuss was about, but if it helped me blend in just that little bit easier than you were damn sure that I was going to do it. Anyway, the habit helped with keeping my 'book borrowing' on the down low, I'm sure the librarians would kick up a fuss if they noticed their books being tampered with.

Thankfully I managed to finish the rest of the book uninterrupted and just about finished reading the last page when the first bell rang, signalling to everyone that we only had five minutes to get to our next class. Being the over-thinker that I was, I had thought ahead and stopped at my locker earlier so instead of having to battle the packed corridor to gather my needed books I was able to walk round the outside of the school to get to my class which was situated in a nearby temporary hut. Apparently they were only temporary, that the school was funding for a building to be put in their place over the summer so that the school could house more students then they currently have, but they were still way off target.

One of the issues I had with my change in... humanness... was my heightened senses. My sight, scent and hearing was drastically better than the average persons. At first I found it amazing, being able to hear and listen into other people's conversations and see further with better reflexes than any of my classmates could even dream of. The joy from it was short lived though, it wasn't long before I realised that listening into other people's conversations usually meant hearing something you probably could have done without hearing, like your supposed best friend moaning about you behind your back. I think the worst one though was my keen sense of smell, not only was it horrible smelling all the rubbish that had been left out in the hot sun for days on end, I also had to suffer through things that you wouldn't think of being an issue. Like walking past someone's house and having to smell the lovely meal that someone had cooked and provided whilst you were out on the streets searching through others rubbish to see if there's anything edible for you to eat.

I think pollen was by far the worst though, one or two flowers were fine, but if I walked into a house with a really strong smelling bouquet I would be non stop sneezing. Thankfully I could blame it on some form of hay fever or allergy to plants, but seeing as I'd lived a life before all this and knew what it was like to walk in a field without sneezing it was kind of annoying. I had trained myself to be able to block out loads of sounds and smells throughout the five years of having my heightened senses, but sometimes it still catches me off guard.

I readjusted my bag onto my shoulder and looked down at my feet as I noticed a group of rowdy students walking towards me. Maybe skipping class seeing as they were heading in the opposite direction to the classrooms, but I wasn't one to make assumptions. I continued to look down at my combat boots as I made my way over, all of them too busy laughing about something that happened that weekend to notice that I was even there, let alone me being on their collision course if they didn't move out of the way.

I grumbled under my breath when I realised they weren't going to move aside and held my ground so that they wouldn't push me against a wall. I'd learnt through my many schools that it was best to face up to all the different cliques in the schools, even the popular ones. If I didn't it just sent off a vibe of weakness, a vibe that can be sniffed a mile away by some dimwad who believed they were all high and mighty. I wished American schools were more like English schools, sure we had to deal with a uniform but at least it wasn't as cliche.

I ground my back molars together and braced myself for the impact of one particular guy who was walking backwards and facing the small crowd of five, making some joke about how he was the God of all living things and that everyone should bow down to him. When his back hit my extended arm which I had held out so as not to get slammed in the face by his broad shoulders he stumbled in his steps and looked behind him in shock.

Okay so maybe I had used a little bit of my extra strength to propel him into his friends arms, but could you blame me? If I hadn't, not only would I have probably ended up splattered on the grass below me, but the fact that I, a 5'5 girl,  managed to knock him off his feet, definitely would have bruised his ego slightly, and I couldn't say no to that.

"Watch it," I hissed at them as I brushed past the stunned group.

"And there's me thinking our friendship had blossomed after our conversation yesterday," the guy I bumped into laughed as he straightened himself and readjusted his black bomber jacket, not that it had moved an inch from where it should be.

I froze as I spun around to face him, this was the guy that caused me to not finish my book yesterday and suggested I should call him if ever I was in need of a booty call? To be honest it didn't one hundred percent surprise me, he did seem like the pig headed, up himself jock type guy you'd find in RomCom movies.

"You and I remember that conversation very differently," I replied as I looked into his eyes before turning on my heel and heading off to class, hoping that the idiot hadn't made me late for my lesson.

"I'm still waiting for that phone call Angel," he yelled back at my retreating form.

I didn't even bother turning around as I shot him the middle finger and just carried on walking, that waste of space was not worth my time.

As always thoughts and feeling please! 😁😘
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