The sun was shining as it peered in through the make shift blinds of Taylor's room. She stirred slightly, adjusting her head on her pillow as she turned herself around, eyes shut, still sleeping. Her soft breathing was going in and out as her little sister, Neveah slept in the bed beside her, she too sleeping soundly. This peace was cut short as her alarm went off with a blast that shook her awake almost instantly. She quickly reached a slender hand out from under her thin blanket and turned it off. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, turned her head and peered at the clock. 5:15, Taylor's day had begun.
She silently got up and crept across the floor, careful not to wake her sister up. She got to the dresser stumbling a little as her tired feet tried to adjust to having weight on them. She placed her hands firmly on the dresser and peered in the mirror tiredly. Her eyes were red and barley open, her hair a knotty mess and her tank top and shorts were wrinkled. Taylor felt around for her glasses and placed them on her face as she took a deep breath and stretched. A smile spread across her face as she remembered what day it was.
"First day of school," she said quietly, barely audible to even her.
She turned the water on as hot as it would go as she let the water run across her body. She washed herself slowly, her morning shower was one of the only things that she made sure was not hectic about her day. As she did she ran through a checklist of what she needed to do that morning. Get herself ready was only one of many. She had to do that, clean up the house, wake up her sister, make breakfast for the two of them, get her sister dressed, pack her dads lunch for work, make sure both her and Neveah's back packs were ready to go, wake her dad up, drop her sister off at school, and then go to her own school. She enjoyed her last few moments of peace as she washed the last of the conditioner out of her hair and turned the shower off. She stepped out and wrapped a thin blue towel around her as she opened the door slightly and stepped lightly back to her room.
She peered into her closet for something that she felt would be suitable to wear and pulled out a simple, short black dress, grabbed a red belt and a pair of jeans. She dressed quickly; slipping the dress over her head that came down to her mid thighs and slipping the jeans on under it. She placed the belt under her breast line and tightened it and wrapped a towel around her head. She slipped on a pair of flip-flops and wandered once again out of her room.
She came into the small living room and found her dad, as always, sleeping on the couch, beer loosely in his hand as he snored quietly. Four other bottles similar to the one he was clutching lay on the floor beside him. She pulled the first gently out of his hand and grabbed the others and walked across into the small kitchenette and threw them in the trash. Taylor turned the small TV off, making the house silent as a tomb, the only sound being the small clock on the wall above the door of her bedroom. She went back into the cramped living room and began to pick up the mess her father had left the night before. Picked up the newspaper and placed in the recycling bin and put the magazines back on the table. She placed the pillows back on the lazy boy chair in the corner and turned on the lamp above it, shedding some light into the room. She then walked over the glass door that led out to a small pathetic balcony with a oh so lovely view of the back alley and opened the blinds that concealed it. More light peered into the gloomy apartment. Her dad stirred a little on the couch and Taylor took an afghan out of the closet and placed it on him. She leaned down and kissed his stubbly cheek and he stirred softly once more, rolling onto his back. She walked into the kitchen and found his wallet, she located her own and pulled out two twenties, placing them in his. She figured he would never notice that that money hadn't been there all along, besides, they had to make rent somehow.
Taylor walked back into her room and looked at her clock, 6:00. She took the towel off of her head and the glasses off her face. She put her contacts in her eyes and then walked back over to the closet. She pulled out what she though was a cute pink dress and white tights for her seven-year-old sister. She grabbed them and proceeded to walk across the room to where her sister slept soundly. She gently shook her.
"Neveah," she said quietly, "Neveah its time to get ready for school, it's the first day!"
Neveah stirred and fluttered her eyes open. She starred tiredly at her older sister and glared before pulling the covers over her head and trying to go back to sleep. Taylor found this highly amusing and giggled.
"Neveah don't be silly, you love school. Besides," she said pulling the covers slowly down revealing her sisters face, "You are going to second grade now, you'll get to be on the big kids play ground this year, isn't that exciting?"
She vaguely remembered her mom giving her the same speech ten years ago on her first day of second grade. She smiled as she saw Neveah's face brighten and a smile form around her young face as she sat up.
"Ya and now we can play four square on the black top, and not have to play in the grass!" she said exhilarated, then her face turned completely serious as she said the next thing to Taylor, "You know, you cant bounce the ball very good when you are on the grass."
Taylor did her best to keep out a smile and to nod seriously at her sister, "Yes that was a serious problem, but no more," said Taylor and she lifted her sister up out of bed and placed her feet on the ground, "because now you can bounce the ball as high as you want. And by the way, you can't bounce the ball very well not good."
She lifted her sisters night gown over her head and helped her get her dress and tights on, she told her to brush her hair as she plugged in her blow dryer and proceeded to do her own. As she did this she watched as Neveah pulled a step stool up to the dresser and stepped onto it so she could see herself as she brushed our her tangles.
When the two of them were done getting ready for the morning, she packed up her sisters' backpack with her new supplies and led her into the kitchenette. She placed some cartoons on and put two bagels into the toaster. While her sister was busy laughing as sponge bob tried to catch jellyfish, instead entrapping Squidwerd in his net, she got a cup out of the cabinet and filled it halfway up with water. She placed it on the coffee table next to where her dad was heavily sleeping and went into the bathroom. She got three aspirin and placed it on the table next to the glass and went back into the kitchen.
She hurried her sister along when it came time to eat. She looked at her clock 6:50. She quickly made a sandwich for her dad and put it in a bag on the corner of the counter. She walked over to him and shook him a little harder that she had Neveah.
"Dad wake up, you have to go to work, " she said this to him while pushing his shoulder back and forth, "Come on dad you cant be late again." He stirred and opened his eyes, letting out a loud groan.
"What time is it?"
"6:54 to be exact now come on get up."
He rubbed his head with his big hand as he stood up and looked around confused; she blinked a few times trying to adjust his vision, failing miserably and falling back down onto the couch.
"No Dad, you have to get up, they said you can't be late again, remember?"
"Screw them, Ill call in sick, my head is pounding anyways."
"Dad no you cant, besides, you wouldn't want to disappoint your daughters now would you?"
He opened one eye, his hand still on his forehead as he looked at his daughter smiling. She was fully dressed and ready to go, responsible and on top of things as always. He lifted his head slightly and peered over towards the kitchen table as Neveah laughed at the TV, he smiled at her too. "I guess not," he said looking at Taylor, "Got to make my girls proud."
Taylor leaned foreword and kissed him on the forehead, "I have to go get her to school, and me as well, Ill see you later Daddy." She stood up and grabbed her rolly backpack and her sisters also and shuffled her out the door. She walked out slamming it, only to come back a minute later to grab her own bagel, throw it in a bag and shut the TV off.
After dropping her sister off Taylor rolled into the parking lot of East High. She glanced at the car clock that read 7:15 as she pulled into parking spot number 88. She turned the car off, got out and started walking towards the entrance to the school, past the fountain and mounds of people trying to get off the bus and into the building. She finally found her way in and went immediately to her homeroom to drop her backpack off finding Ms. Darbus to not be there yet, which was slightly unusual. Not thinking much of it she grabbed her papers and left the room. She had made flyers for the first Scholastic Decathlon meeting, which would be that Thursday after school. The paper read:
SCHOLASTIC DECATHLON MEETING ROOM B407 3:00We will be voting on captain, choosing our subjects
and eating. Come on by and don't be afraid to join
the fun!
If you have any questions you can contact Ms. Droden or Taylor McKessie.
She walked on by, hanging them around the campus, occasionally slipping them into a locker when she knew it was one of her friends from the team. She hadn't been doing this for two minutes when she ran into Gabriella; doing the same thing with the posters she had given her that weekend.
"Gabs!" she said as she walked towards her smiling, "Nice posters."
Gabriella laughed, "Thanks Taylor, I've been here since seven passing them out, my Aunt had to go to work early today so she dropped me off then.
Gabriella's mom was a busy businesswoman and when she made her company promise that she couldn't be transferred until Gabriella had graduated she agreed to go out of town a lot more. Because her mom had permanent custody over her and her dad didn't have the time or space to keep her in New York, her Aunt Alex, a spunky and crazy short Mexican girl had moved in with them. She was a twenty seven year old girl straight out of beauty school who had just landed a job as a hairdresser at the local Curl Up and Dye. Taylor loved her aunt and especially loved when she offered to do her hair and practice something on the two of them when she spent the night at Gabs house, which was almost every weekend.
The two girls strolled along together hanging up signs, perfectly aware that only the usual people would show to the meeting, maybe a few new freshman and obnoxious upperclassmen wanting to steal food. But they hung the signs anyways, nonchalantly conversing with each other about their hectic mornings. Taylor left out the part about her dad's beer bottles and having to clean, as she always did.
Soon enough the bell rang and Gabriella and Taylor walked into their homeroom together. Homeroom, unlike the rest of your classes, did not change the four years you were at the school. So for the past four years Taylor had been stuck with this group of people, of which she thoroughly loathed until last year when Gabs had came. Everyone was scurrying around like nervous mice trying to find a seat; Taylor observed the occurrence like she had every year, with blatant confusion and curiosity as to why they tried. Everyone knew Darbus had written up a seating chart, which was the one thing that changed year to year. She herself sat in the last open seat. It wasn't one she liked at all, thank god they were moving because she was cursed with sitting right next to none other than Chad Danforth. The obnoxious curly haired dolt who loved nothing more than annoying Taylor and getting her all flustered. Next to him was Troy, the nicer and more level headed of the two. She had actually decided through out the eight months him and Gabs had been dating that he wasn't such a bad guy. And of course on his right sat Gabriella, they were in deep conversation about something that Taylor couldn't make out. On the other side of her she had the demonic twins, Sharpay and Ryan. Ryan sat there twiddling his thumbs—literally, as Sharpay pulled out a small compact adjusting her overly hair sprayed fake blonde tresses that wouldn't move no matter what she did to them. She smiled at herself and puckered her lips before abruptly shutting the compact and looking over at Taylor who had been caught staring.
"What is it McKessie? Never seen a compact before?" she stared her down slowly, observing every inch of her body and outfit, then peering at her face, inspecting every inch of her skin. It made Taylor feel somewhat awkward as she crossed her arms over herself protectively. Sharpay smirked at her, "Actually, it doesn't appear that you have." And with that she pulled out her cell phone and began texting away. Taylor rolled her eyes and turned away, choosing to ignore that comment as she looked at the person in front of her. Jason Cross. Once again she thanked her lucky stars they were moving because if she had to go through another year listening to Jason's un thought out comments and blatantly stupid jokes she might actually contemplate self-mutilation. She nonchalantly looked behind her shoulder to see who was sitting behind her, Kelsi Nielson. Now that she could handle. She would have no problem if when the time came that Darbus pulled out the laminated sheet of seats for the year her name was next to Kelsi's. She was quiet and only spoke if she really had something important to say, Taylor liked that, she usually didn't talk that much in the mornings anyway. But the seating as it went just wasn't going to fly with her. Maybe Ms. Darbus would sit her next to Gabriella and Pricilla, her Scholastic friends, they were quiet, and she could trust them. She hadn't had much time to think this over before Ms. Darbus herself came rushing through the door with her bag, looking quite flustered.
She walked over to her desk and threw her stuff onto it, she adjusted her thick-rimmed glasses and turned to face the class, stepping onto her makeshift stage.
"Please excuse my tardiness class, as I was in the theatre cleaning the sound booth."
Taylor watched out of the corner of her eye as Sharpay and Ryan exchanged glances, wondering if they were supposed to be part of that cleaning crew.
"As a result of that, and the fact that I am relocating myself to a different part of town, I have been very frazzled lately and not my usual level headed self."
This got a few snorts from the basketball players in the room. Taylor leaned foreword and gave Gabriella a look as they both smiled. This reaction from the class earned them all glares from Ms. Darbus before she continued.
"So I am sorry to announce that tryouts for the new play will not be this week but next week, as I am still choosing the actual production."
Whispers floated throw the room like a slight breeze from both sides of the room, Gabs and Troy exchanged a few words while Sharpay and Ryan sounded like they were already plotting.
"Furthermore I have not had the chance to make up a seating chart for this class, so for the rest of the year, these will be your seats."
Taylor looked up, shocked, as cheers were heard throughout the room and high fives were exchanged. How? After three years she decides not to make a seating chart? She couldn't believe she was going to be stuck next to the most obnoxious people in the class for a full nine months.
"This is going to be a great year," she said quietly and bitterly to herself as the bell for first period rang.