Skates NaNoWriMo 2023

Chapter 2- Mark

Mark lay in bed, occasionally looking over at his clock. He still had another twenty minutes until he had to get up, but he’d already been awake for about half an hour. There was nothing he could do if he were to get up now, all of his friends would be asleep, since he always gets up really early. From hockey, Mark was just used to getting up early, so it was hard to sleep in. After laying there for another ten minutes, Mark sighed and just got up. He turned on his bright room light, not flinching in the slightest.

He walked over to his dresser, the drawers shoved full of random clothes they couldn’t even fully shut. Mark grabbed whatever pair of sweatpants before trying to close it again, to no success. He moved over to his closet and grabbed a dark green hoodie and a black baseball cap. After putting on his clothes, he ran his fingers through his hair quickly before throwing on his hat. He quickly brushed his teeth, putting little effort into it. He stood in front of the mirror for a few moments, not for any particular reason, but he really had nothing else to do. Mark jumped, startled, when he heard his alarm go off in the other room. He had forgotten about that. Mark walked back and turned it off, then made his way down the stairs for breakfast.

His mom always made him something, he was curious what it was this morning, probably pancakes. “Morning,” he called out as he was almost on the ground floor. ‘Morning!’ She said back ‘you’re up early’. Mark sighed “yup,” he said. “Anyways, what’s for breakfast?”. His mom chuckled, of course that was the first thing he asked. ‘Pancakes’ she replied. Called it. Mark took his time eating, when he finished, all he did was pack his bag, say goodbye to his mom, and then leave. He was going to meet his friends for a little bit before school just to chat, nothing in particular.

As he was walking, he could only really think about this girl. This girl in his class called Lily, Mark didn’t admit it to anyone, including and especially his friends, but he liked her. Her calm personality, how smart she was, and Lily was just really pretty. He pushed the thought of her out of his mind when he saw his friends. They were the first ones at the school, like usual. ‘Hey,’ one of his friends, Evan, called out. Mark waved but didn’t say anything back nor change his pace. ‘What took you so long?’ Another one of his friends asked, whose name was Drew. “Nothing, i was just walking slower” he replied, ‘People are going to start getting here soon’ Evan said. That made Mark a little disappointed, they would usually get to stay there for a while before other kids would get there. ‘You coming to practice tonight?’ Kevan, one of Mark’s hockey friends asked, “Of course, when have I ever missed one?” He asked.

They stayed around for a little bit, but as Evan said, kids started coming. Mark sighed, they would need to go inside soon, but they should still have some time left. ‘See man, that’s why you gotta get here faster, we were waiting for you, and now we’re not the only ones here’ Drew said. “I know, I know, i didn’t take that long, stop overreacting” Mark dismissively replied.

The school grounds filled up surprisingly quickly, a lot faster than usual. He suddenly felt bad for his friends, did they really wait that long for him just to come a few minutes before everyone else? “How long were you guys here before me?” he asked. ‘hah like fifteen minutes’ Evan told him. oops Mark thought. Somehow he had woken up earlier and got here later, weird. They were able to talk for a little bit before it was time to go inside, Mark, Evan, and Drew were all in a class together, but sadly not with Kevan. The four boys walked to Mark’s locker, three were right beside each other, Kevan just stayed for a few minutes before leaving to go to his own. They slowly got ready for their first period, but none of them were very fond of school, so they made sure to take their time and only go to class when the ball rang.

The boys started talking when Evan said ‘Yo Mark Lily’s looking at you!’. Mark turned his head and surely, she was. At that, she looked away, leaving Mark hopeful, trying to play it cool. “Oh yeah, she is. Why?” Mark asked. ‘how should I know’ Evan said ‘I was just telling you’. Maybe I’m just being too excited, one of her friends is probably behind me or something he thought. ‘Alright we better get going now,’ said Drew. Mark only now noticed the hallway was almost empty, other than the occasional kid here and there. ‘right’ said Evan and Mark nodded. They walked in just as the bell went, perfect timing. First period they had their homeroom teacher, who was teaching them Language Arts.

They sat down and their teacher started talking. ‘‘First of all, welcome back, I hope you all had a good weekend,’ he said to the class like normal ‘and now, tomorrow there’s no ELA period so you’ll have to get your work finished up today and hand it in by Wednesday morning, you may need to take it for homework’ .Ugh seriously Mark thought as he, along with most of the class groaned aloud.. ‘Don’t worry, next Friday we do have a field trip’. “yes!” he exclaimed, everyone was obviously very excited by this now, apparently forgetting about most likely having homework. Mark was now actually interested in something their boring teacher had to say, he was listening now, waiting to hear where they would be going. ‘We will be going to the Skating Rink, the school has rented it out for all of your grade and only your grade’ he said with a smile. The skating rink?! Mark thought. This was going to be great, he loved skating!

Subconsciously, he looked over at Lily, who also looked happy about the trip. She turned and looked at him as well and they both immediately looked away. The field trip was next Friday, not soon enough. ‘Oh lucky you two are hockey players!’ Drew said to Mark and Evan. “yeah, and you barely know how to skate” Evan joked while Mark laughed. That’s not half a lie though Mark thought, but deciding not to say it out loud, Drew probably wouldn’t like that much, though it would be funny to him and Evan, even more reason to say it. ‘Alright now get to it, unless you want homework!’ their teacher Mr. Smith said, ‘we’re still working on the short stories from last week!’ he reminded. Ugh, Mark hated writing, especially stories, he was only here because it was a requirement, and because his friends were here. He looked back to Lily again, this time, fully aware of it.

Chapter 3- Lily

At first, when Lily heard her teacher, Mr. Smith, say that they would be going to a Skating Rink, she got super nervous, since Lily was not at all a good skater, sure she’d gonna a few times before in her life, but not at all enough to be anywhere close to good. But luckily, the nearest rink was still a good forty-five minutes away, leaving her with plenty of time to sit and chat with her friends on the way there and back. ‘Oh Lily!’ Natalia exclaimed, whipping her long black hair around, her hand reaching out to tap her friend’s shoulder. “hm?” She replied, fairly distracted by nervousness and excitement still. ‘Mark’s a hockey player, so he’s gonna be really good at skating!’. Oh yeah, he is Lily thought, not quite yet in the moment. But when she realized what that meant, her face became bright red like roses. ‘Ooh she’s blushing!’ Eliana said in a sing-songy voice. “I am not!” Lily laughed, which was an obvious, huge, lie. “But what if he makes fun of me for being bad at it?” Lily asked. ‘You know he’s not the type to do that Lily, you’ll be fine!’ Eliana said truthfully, Lily looked at her friend, which made her immediately burst out laughing for absolutely no reason at all The three of them laughed together, Lily taking a break to look over at Mark. ‘Stop looking at him! You’re crazy!’ Natalia said. ‘No, she’s just in love!’ Commented Eliana in a romantic voice. “Am not!”. The girls shook their heads and rolled their eyes at Lily for denying it, but not in a rude way, since her feelings were quite clear. ‘Lily, we know you like him, you don’t need to say you don’t anymore, it’s no use!’ Natalia told her, to which Eliana agreed, since it was super obvious. Luckily, Mr. Smith interrupted her friends teasing by saying to the class ‘Alright now get to it, unless you want homework! We’re still working on the short stories from last week!’. “Ok great now you guys can shut up about Mark” Lily said, still blushing. ‘Never’ Eliana said with a smile, Lily shook her head and got to work. When her pencil touched the paper, nothing happened. She turned it to face up to her and sighed at her stupidity, she had not realized how dull it was. She reached down to her pencil case and pulled out her favorite blue sharpener and fixed her pencil, trying to do it quickly so that she’d have a good amount of time to write. Once she finished she put her sharpener away and wasted no time getting started. She loved her story, it was a fantasy drama about two girls exploring the depths of space, one of Lily’s dreams. Her brain would shoot out words for her to write, a thousand a second, it was hard for her pencil to keep up, there were too many ideas flowing in her head, like what the girls were doing, wearing, saying, and everything else that could possibly be put on paper. She would smile at the happy parts, write more aggressively when characters would become angry, and blush at romantic parts, Lily really felt like she was part of the story. For a little while, her writing was going smoothly, but after a little bit, thoughts of Mark and skating kept coming, they were really distracting. I should go skating soon, so that I’m better by the time the field trip comes Lily thought. She really wanted Mark to see her a good skater. Lily resisted the urge to look over at Mark, she knew it wasn’t good how in love she was becoming with him. She tried just to focus on her story, writing was the important thing right now, not boys. But this boy, he was, at least Lily thought so. How could I not like him, he’s funny, nice, cute, and smar- ok maybe not the smartest, but still! He’s not super dumb, but definitely not top of the class that’s for sure. She shook her head to try and fling thoughts of Mark out of it and continued writing her story, she knew if she wrote for a few minutes that we’d get straight back into the rhythm. Lily started moving her pencil slowly, writing only what came to her, which for now wasn’t much but she knew that was only temporary. The slowness continued for a bit, but she slowly did start to ease into it again. Just like she had thought, it did start to get easier again, and quickly Lily forgot about Mark, and their field trip. That was all until the bell rang. Lily looked up at the clock hanging on the wall, it was in fact time to go to their next period. Sadly, she closed her binder and put away her pencil, she didn’t want to go to her next class, which was math. Although Lily was great at math, probably even the best in her class, she loved writing the most, especially the story she was making right now, it was super fun. Their math teacher also wasn’t the greatest, she was quite mean actually, making the whole class a lot less enjoyable, and she would have no time to write, even if she finished early like usual. There would just be more and more questions assigned until the period was over, so no story writing. Lily knew in her head that it made sense, but she didn’t have to like it, and she didn’t. She finished packing up all of her things and then waited for her friends to do the same. She just stood beside them, patiently waiting, and they would look up at her and laugh at how awkward it looked. When they had finally also finished, the three girls walked over to the next classroom together, hoping that the period wouldn’t feel too long, and Lily awaiting going home to try on her skates.

Chapter 4- Mark

Mark looked back down at his paper, they had been working on their stories for two days so far, this would be their third class. Most people he thought, were probably at least halfway into their stories, if not, even more, but not Mark. He had barely written anything, just the front and back of one, singular, page. He didn’t really know what to write for his story, so he just put some things about a character who plays hockey, which he thought would be fairly easy. Mark loved hockey, he knows almost everything about it since he’d been playing it for years as a defense, so it’s not super difficult for him to write, he just didn’t really feel like doing the writing, he never really did. Writing wasn’t Mark’s thing, really no part of school was, she he just tried to wait the class out as long as possible by staring at walls, his paper, the clock, anything, even pretending to write. When he finally decided that he couldn’t stall any longer, he sighed and picked up his pencil again, hovering it over a new page. What should I write now? He asked himself, I’ve introduced the main character, and the setting, he’s already gone to his first practice, now what? Mark moved his pencil around in circles over his page, trying to figure out what would come next in his characters story. Oh! Now I can write about his first game I guess, he’ll have a bunch of those. He sat there for another minute half figuring out how to write it and half still trying to stall. When the ideas came to him, Mark wrote out as slowly as he could about his characters arrival to the rink, getting ready, and first getting out onto the ice. He knew that he hadn’t written much, but it was all he could think of, after all, it was still only first period, so he wasn’t quite ready for school yet. He read it over again a few times, and made a couple of small edits throughout the paragraphs before deciding it was good enough. Mark hated ELA, well, he didn’t like much of school at all, he only came because of his friends and because he had to of course. Looking up at the clock for the millionth time, Mark tried to figure out how much time they had left in this class, luckily for him it was only five minutes left. He pulled out his schedule to check which class was next: math. He angrily put it away, he hated math, though didn’t everyone? Their teacher made it even worse than it had to be, she was really mean and would always assign everyone so many questions, how was anyone supposed to finish them all? That should have been a question for Lily though, she always managed to get through them so quickly, at this point she was probably double where the rest of the class was, since she was always working ahead. Lily was honestly really smart, and was ahead in every subject that it was possible to be ahead in, which was pretty much all of them. He started to wonder how she’d do next Friday at the rink, he wasn’t sure how well she could skate. Mark was obviously really good at it, as a hockey player and all, but he was pretty sure that Lily was a gymnast. She’d probably have good balance he figured, so she was probably decent, although it didn’t really matter. Mark looked back up to the clock, only two minutes left now. He decided that now would be a good time to start packing up, so he placed his paper back into his binder and put his pencil in his pocket. He only had one pencil so he made sure to keep it safe, thus why putting it in his pocket, so it was always with him. He loved that pencil, yes, it was just a typical green pencil with a white eraser that he found on the floor in one of the hallways but it was a good one. When he looked around, he saw that most of the people in the class were already also ready to leave. Their teacher didn’t really mind since class was almost over, usually he was pretty chill with them, as long as they were behaving and mostly working. Only a few kids were still writing, Lily, of course, being one of them. Mark smiled, she was always working away at whatever task they were given, and really well too, he guessed Lily actually liked going to school, though he would never understand why. For the remaining minute of the period, Mark just stared at the clock, watching it tick each second away, one by one. The very instant her heard the bell ring she sprung up and walked over to Evan and Drew, when they got up too, the three started talking and walked out of the door. Now that they were in the hallway, they made sure to walk very slowly, so that they wouldn’t be in their math classroom for very long either. There were only a few classes Mark enjoyed, like science and gym, for those he’d try to be there as quickly as possible, but for the rest, he would try to prolong his time outside of class, like right now. “Do you think I can just hand in my story early? Tell the teacher I’m done?” Mark asked his friends. ‘No probably not, Mr. Smith is gonna make you work on it as long as everyone else’ Evan replied. He was probably just going to pretend to work in class then, until they were allowed to give it in, he didn’t have much left to say in his story. But Evan was probably right, Mr. Smith was nice but strict, about everything. He would at least let kids talk but he wanted everyone always following rules, and working. Mark knew that if he said he was done, his teacher would just tell him to add more details and events until the due date. ‘Alright the bells ‘bouta ring, we better get going now’ Drew said to them impatiently ‘C’mon let’s go!’.

Chapter 5- Lily

“Alright, come on, we’ve gotta go, hurry up!” Lily said frantically to her friends as they slowly started walking out of the door. ‘Chill out, the bell didn’t even go a minute ago!’ Eliana laughed. Lily shook her head, he friends just didn’t get how important being on time was, even if she went a little overkill sometimes. ‘Ok Lily, I get if you wanna be on time to most classes, but math? Seriously?’ Eliana asked her. ‘Yeah, nobody likes math, why would you ever wanna show up’ Natalia said, backing Eliana up. “I would like to on time for ALL of my classes thank you very much” Lily sassily replied while holding in her laughs. The three girls along with the rest of their class made their way to second period, math, and took a seat, though she didn’t actually want to be there, she’d rather be writing.

‘The room doesn’t even look good, it’s like Mrs. Halley doesn’t even care’ Eliana pointed out as she looked around the room. She wasn’t lying though, most teachers have some nice decorations or something, not Mrs.. Halley. Her room held just desks, chairs, a singular hall pass, and an empty jar meant for extra pencils. It had everything it needed though, so it would have to be good enough. Before the bell had even rang to signal the start of class, Mrs. Halley trotted up to the front of the classroom. She was a larger woman, around sixty years of age, with short grey strands of hair bouncing on her head with every step she took. If she wasn’t frowning all the time you’d think she was a jolly person, but that was far from the truth.

‘Excuse me! Stop talking, we’re here to do math, not anything else!’ Mrs. Halley boomed. ‘Get some paper out, though you should have done that already’ the teacher ordered. She scribbled some equation on the board before telling the class to get to work, acting as if her silent, messy, writing was going to teach something. Although Lily loved school and acted like she was fond of every teacher and class, she quite disliked Mrs. Halley actually, which made her dislike math as well. Regardless, she still has work to do, so she picked out the pieces of the equation that were readable and tried her best to answer all of the assigned questions. In her ear, she could hear a few kids talking which really wasn’t distracting. What was distracting though was Mrs. Halley constantly shushing every sound she heard. Lily tried hard to ignore it, but the teacher would shush sounds even not coming from the kids, so it was always coming.

For some odd reason, second period just felt so long, and Lily wasn’t sure why. She kept on thinking about their field trip, and more importantly, Mark. She wasn’t even sure if her skates would still fit from last year, or if she’d need to go out and buy some new ones. At least they still had about two weeks before the trip, so she had time to go and buy some. Two weeks just seemed too far away, unless she talked to Mark before then. “psst, Eliana” Lily said quietly “I need yo-“. ‘No talking!’ Mrs. Halley yelled ‘if I hear another word everyone is staying in an extra ten minutes!’. I looked at Eliana and Natalia, but didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to be held in, I knew everyone would be mad if I was the reason they were too. We all knew not to say anything, after all, Mrs. Halley had done it before, keeping us after the bell. Lily angrily looked at her teacher for not letting her talk, shed just have to wait for the end of this eternity of an hour.

She was almost done all of the assigned questions, only one more to go! Lily finished it quite quickly, and was about to go up and ask for some more. When she pushed her chair back, she bumped into her ELA binder. She looked down at it for a moment, and then back up at Mrs. Halley. Maybe, she thought, if I pretend to move it back I can quickly grab my story and work on that instead. Lily carefully sipped her paper out of the binder and placed it on her desk. Her teacher hadn’t noticed so Lily began writing. She was ever so happy to have returned to her story, it was her favourite thing. Lily was almost half way, so she was setting up the climax, the best part. She was in the mood for writing now, and didn’t want to stop. She was so happy and focused that she didn’t even notice Mrs. Halley approaching.

‘The girls ventured off even farther’ Mrs. Halley read. Lily jumped up in surprise. She looked up to see her math teacher standing over her, eyeing her up like a hawk would its prey. ‘Very interesting’ she said as she read the next sentence of Lily’s story. ‘But it would be much better if this were ELA class, not math’. Lily’s eyes were wide, she didn’t think Mrs. Halley would catch her, she sat at the far end of class, a good ways away from the teachers desk. ‘Well, I, um…” Lily stuttered, covering her page with her arms. ‘can I see?’ Mrs. Halley asked. By now, the entire class was watching. “I-” Lily sighed, she was trapped “ok”. She lifted up her arms and her teacher immediately snatched the paper. Lily looked up as Mrs. Halley read it briefly. She emotionlessly ripped Lily’s paper in two, and then letting them drop to the ground before walking away back to her desk.

A large gasp escaped Lily’s mouth. She bent down to pick up the pieces, her teacher had only ripped it once, so it was still readable. Lily glared at her, and then turned to glance at her friends, who looked at her sympathetically, but knew they shouldn’t say anything. Lily gently put the two pieces into her binder, she could tape them up later, but for now, they would remain separate. She was ever so relieved when the bell rang, signalling the end of class only a few minutes later. Lily packed up and then waited for her friends as per usual. When they were walking out of class and to their lockers, Lily exclaimed “I hate her! That was totally unnecessary!”. ‘Yeah, she may have gone a little bit overboard, she could’ve just told you to put it away’ Eliana said. “Exactly!” said Lily, and Natalia nodded in agreement.

At their lockers, Lily made sure to keep her ELA binder with her, so that she could stitch up her paper in her next class. It was no secret that she hated Mrs. Halley now, her teacher had overreacted, all she was doing, was writing, not playing on her phone in secret like other kids did in class. No one ever dared to do anything other than math in that class though, the teacher was too mean for that, which was proven today. The next two periods were good at least, Science and then P.E. Lily liked both of those things. Surprisingly, Eliana finished before Lily, but Natalia wasn’t ready to leave yet, so the two stood around before making their way to class. Lily wasn’t rushing them right now, her friends assumed she was probably embarrassed from math, which was exactly right.

Chapter 6- Mark

Drew called Mark and Evan over to their next class since the bell was going to ring any second. He sighed, but rushed over to their classroom. Taking his seat in the middle of the classroom, Mark hoped that their teacher would be in a good mood today, otherwise they were in for the worst period of the day. Lily and her friends were already there of course, and Mark noticed that she didn’t look as enthusiastic as usual. Strange for her, she was almost always super happy to be in any class, but he didn’t blame her for disliking math class.
“Ugh this is probably going to suck” Evan said. “Yeah definitely, Mrs. Halley is mean even when she’s not mad at us, which is rare!” Mark replied to his friend. “I know right! She’s so-” Evan got cut off as their teacher approached the front of their class. Of course she’s going to make us start even before the bell Mark thought. As per usual, she was frowning at them already, they hadn’t even had a chance to do anything wrong! Well, in her mind, talking, laughing, really anything but math is wrong, so he guessed they had done something to upset her. He had a long blink, wishing he wasn’t there, and could just somehow teleport home, but her yelling had already started.
“Excuse me! Stop talking, we’re here to do math, not anything else!” Mrs. Halley said to the class so loudly you could hear her voice echoing. Right, because talking is illegal now Mark rolled his eyes. “Get some paper out, though you should have done that already”. Why was she already so irritated? There was really no reason to be. Mark watched in confusion as she wrote on the whiteboard a random equation or two, or three, or four, Mark couldn’t tell because if her awful handwriting. He squinted his eyes, trying to figure out what she had written, but the teacher hadn’t even said anything, how was that supposed to help them learn? He looked over to Drew and Evan, and started asking them if they knew what Mrs. Halley had written, only to be shushed a few moments later, to which Mark rolled his eyes. She was being really annoying today, like more than usual, that really bothered Mark. If she would just write like a normal person then he wouldn’t have to talk. There were some points when she would randomly make shushing noises, even when it didn’t come from anyone in the room, and sometimes he couldn’t hear anything at all.
It was quite hard to work when all he could hear was his crazy teacher shushing, but he was getting somewhere, only eight questions left to go! Math was just so boring though, what was the point in it? Mark wished he had just snuck in his calculator, that would have made everything so much easier. No one actually liked sitting silently in a classroom for an hour working on algebra and calculus, he wished he could just go home, or at least to a better class. He scribbled his pencil along his paper and jumped, startled when Mrs. Halley suddenly started yelling at Lily. “No talking! If I hear another word everyone is staying in an extra ten minutes!”. What?! Mark thought. Seriously? Why is she getting so worked up? He looked over at Lily, who looked embarrassed and angry. He felt bad for her, she was just whispering, just as he was before only to get yelled at. I hate Mrs. Halley he thought.
Mark looked down at his watch, there was only a little bit of time left in class, thank god. He really could not stand being in this boring, annoying class any longer. He still had three questions left to complete, but Mark didn’t feel like doing them, so he didn’t. Mark looked over and saw Lily pulling out her E.L.A binder, at first he was confused, this was math, but then he remembered just how much she loved writing. Lily better hope Mrs. Halley doesn’t see her doing anything else other than math, or else she’d probably go crazy again. He smiled when she was getting away with it, and he could tell just how happy she was to be working in her story. Mark was also probably the first to notice their teacher marching up to Lily’s desk. Uh oh.
Mrs. Halley started reading lines of Lily’s story out loud so that the entire class could hear it. The panic in Lily’s eyes were visible, and the anger in Mark’s. “Very interesting” The teacher said in a snake-like voice. “But it would be much better if this were ELA class, not math” She continued. Mark looked at them, he wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but as the meanest teacher in the school, she definitely wouldn’t be happy. He looked around, everyone was watching the two now, and Lily knew that, stammering to get her words out. Mrs. Halley asked Lily for the paper, which she had been trying to cover, and at first, Lily tried to keep it, but gave in. Mark watched as their evil teacher ripped Lily’s paper in two! Marks eyes widened in shock, and he heard some other kids exclaim, probably just as shocked at him.
Mrs. Halley was obviously mad earlier, but Mark hadn’t expected her to completely rip Lily’s paper, she was acting at least a little bit calm. He glanced over at her, and could immediately tell she was really upset. Lily looked pretty embarrassed, upset, and angry, which were all very reasonable Mark thought. He watched as their teacher walked off back to her desk, acting as if she hadn’t just ripped someone’s hard work into two! But Lily worked really hard on that, just because it’s not math doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter! Mark thought. He really badly wanted to say something, but knew that that would be a dumb move, so he kept his mouth shut.
He hated seeing Lily upset, but there was really nothing her could do about it. Obviously Mrs. Halley was already mad, and now the best option of anything would be to focus on math, and not anything else, unless he wanted to get in trouble next. It also probably wasn’t going to be good if he kept looking over at Lily, he might come off as creepy or something, and no one likes that. He took a quick glance over his shoulder at the clock, even that seemed more depressing here than in other classrooms. Mark was relieved when it said there were only a few minutes left in this awful class, and he didn’t want to chance upsetting the teacher more. He looked up and down his paper, but didn’t really understand most of what he was supposed to do, so he moved his only pencil around pretending to write, and luckily his reached didn’t notice, and it lead him all the way until the end of the period.
When the bell rang Mark popped up from his seat and almost left without his friends, he really didn’t want to be in the presence of Mrs. Halley anymore, Mark was truly done with her now. “Did you see what Mrs. Halley did?” Asked Evan. “No, no one in the room saw. What did she do?” Mark asked sarcastically. “Seriously? Fine whatever. She’s crazy” Drew replied to which both Mark and Evan nodded ferociously, Drew had just said one of the most true statements of the century, maybe even understated.
The boys walked over to their lockers, still talking about how much they hated their math teacher, but Mark really did feel bad for Lily, she still looked super embarrassed. “Science, really?” Evan asked. “Yeah but at least we have gym after” Mark said to him. “That’s true, but I don’t like science, well, at least it’s not as bad as math” Evan commented. They gathered their things before making their way upstairs to the next class, and surprisingly Lily hadn’t left yet, weird.

Chapter 7- Lily

Natalia was taking her time getting ready for the next two periods apparently, but Lily wasn’t really in a rush anymore. “Hey Lils are you alright?” Asked Eliana. “Yeah I guess, but that was so embarrassing, and now my story’s ripped in two!” Lily said, clearly upset by the tone of her voice. “I know I know, but I don’t think anyone actually was judging you, just watching to see what Mrs. Halley was doing, plus, at least she only ripped it once” Eliana spoke again, trying to help out her friend. “Alright sorry, I’m ready to go now!” Natalia said, Lily wondered if she was listening to their conversation at all, or just focused on really slowly getting herself ready.
“Ok, science” Eliana said. They walked up the stairs not talking too much and got to the class. They were some how the last ones there and arrived just on time, the bell went the moment they stepped foot into the lab. Lily hated being the centre of attention, and being the last one in class was a pretty good way to get people to see you. She walked to her desk with her head down, hoping that it signalled to everyone she didn’t want them to look at her, but especially after last period, she wasn’t sure how easy that would be.
“Alright, now that everyone’s here” Their Science teacher, Mrs. Abbot said “please get out your books, binders, and pencils, and get ready for a few notes”. No one really liked notes that much, but everyone liked Mrs. Abbot, so they didn’t really mind it. “I tried to cut it down as much as possible, but if you can manage to summarize it even more, go right ahead!” Their teacher told them. Lily didn’t really care since she liked writing, so she was alright with writing the full amount. She actually liked writing notes in general, no matter what class it was, but science was probably the best for them.

As upset as she already was, well more like embarrassed, Lily just kept on thinking about their skating trip. She was excited to try skating again for the first time in quite a while, but was even more excited because Mark was a hockey player. Maybe they could skate together? No, he wouldn’t. But what if he would? She wasn’t really sure what would happen. Luckily, Lily fairly quickly started forgetting what had happened last period, and started just only focusing on science. She loved science, not as much as E.L.A. but it was still great. “Okay, one more page of notes, and then I’ll introduce a project for you!” Miss Abbot said. The class started cheering, everyone liked a science project, they were always so fun, and their teacher made them even better.
The last few notes were pretty quick, and they got to the project right away. “Alright, so for this project, you’re all going to be working in groups of three” the teacher said. Lily, Eliana, and Natalia all immediately looked at each other and nodded. “I’m aware that you guys are all going on a skating field trip correct?” She asked. The class nodded and she continued, “Perfect! I wanted to base our project on that, hopefully it will keep you all on your toes for next Friday”. This is exactly why Lily liked Miss Abbot, she always knew what they were excited about, and found some way to make it relate to science.
Lily could tell everyone was eager to hear what the project was going to be. “You will be studying Newton’s third law, the law of motion. ‘For every motion, there is an equal and opposite force’, you need to figure out how this relates to skating”. That shouldn’t be too hard then, none of the laws are too difficult to understand Lily thought. “Sound easy enough?” Miss Abbot asked. There were a mix of reactions, but mostly everyone thought it would be fine. “Ok then, if there aren’t any questions you may all get into your groups and get started!”

Lily, who was already sitting right next to her friends, looked over at them again. “Do either of you know Newton’s third law by heart?” She asked. “Lils, of course we don’t, if any of us were to, it would be you” Eliana laughed. “Yeah, I don’t really just study random things for fun” Natalia said with her signature big smile, “studying is not fun”. “What do you mean? Yes it is!” Lily said. “Oh sure sure Lils” Eliana said, while still laughing. It was hard for Lily not to join in with the laughing, Eliana’s was always so contagious, but she wanted to focus. “We seriously need to start now!” She called out. “C’mon, Miss Abbot gave out instructions like, a minute ago! I think we’re fine” Said Natalia. It was true, but Lily liked schoolwork.

She gave them a disapproving look, but had a slight smile on her face, though she was trying to hide it. “Guys! Let’s get going!” Lily said again. “What are you my mom? We have lots of time, chill out would ya?” Eliana said. Lily realized that she was actually being kind of annoying, so she stopped and let herself have a bit of fun with her friends, Miss Abbot always gave them exactly a week to work on projects, which was plenty of time. “Alright fine, but if were not gonna work, what are we going to do?” Lily asked. “Hmm, why don;t we talk about Mark?” Natalia asked. “Seriously? That’s your first thought?” Lily said. “Ooh yes!” Eliana chipped in “Tell us more about him, why you like him you know”. Lily groaned, but knew she couldn’t escape her friends right now. She looked over to him to make sure he was far enough that he wouldn’t hear their conversation. “are you looking at him?” Natalia asked “really?”. “What, no!” Lily said panicked, “I was just making sure he couldn’t hear us!”. “Oh Lils… you love him” Eliana said. “No I don’t!” She exclaimed.

Chapter 8- Mark

Mark, Evan, and Drew all entered their science classroom, not early but at least not late. They all sat down near the back of the classroom next to each other, just like normal, in every class. Science was alright Mark supposed, there was nothing too special about it, but was definitely one of the better subjects. Their teacher Miss. Abbot was great, she always did really fun activities and projects, she wasn’t one of those lame teachers who was just there for the money. Miss Abbot also didn’t usually make them write too many notes, just a few per class, and Mark quote appreciated that.
The three of them walked into the classroom and Mark threw his books and binders down on one of they first tables he saw, around the middle of the room. His friends both took a seat on either side of him, another thing he liked about science class was that each table fit three people, perfect for him. considering one of the only reasons he ever even came to school is because of his friends, getting to sit with them was a pretty goof bonus of the class. He kind of wished that Kevan was in his same class but then again four couldn’t fit one single table. “I hate science” Drew said “it’s so boring, and there’s really no point in it”. Mark actually kind of disagreed with that, but he didn’t think his friend was completely wrong either. “I mean, it can be fun sometimes, and at least we can all sit together” Mark replied. “I guess, but I still hate it” Drew frowned. “Yeah I don’t really like it either” said Evan while looking at Mark. “Well, it really depends” Mark sighed, he didn’t want to argue right now, he was already pretty tired, and he knew that that would take up too much energy that he didn’t have over a stupid topic.
Somehow, Lily and her friends were the last to get there, it’s usually the opposite, but they sat down and Miss. Abbot started talking. “Alright, now that everyone’s here, please get out your books, binders, and pencils, and get ready for a few notes”. Reluctantly, Mark got his stuff out and ready to start. Just because he didn’t mind science didn’t mean he liked it, he didn’t like any subject really, other than electives. He pulled a single loose-leaf page out from his binder and grabbed his only pencil from his pocket. Mark really guarded that thing with his life, it was his only one after all, there was some sort of attachment to it.

Mark wrote down the notes, trying to make them as short as possible, the less writing the better. At least notes weren’t too hard, you could kind of just turn your brain off and copy the words that you saw. Luckily today the notes were pretty simple, none of those super confusing big words that no one actually needs to know. People started to speed up he thought, after his teacher told them there was only one more page until she would introduce a project, which even Drew the biggest science hater usually liked. Everyone actually got through the last bit really quickly, they were done in under ten minutes. Miss. Abbot shut off the TV and called everyone to the back of the room. He pushed his stool back and still holding onto his pencil, walked up to the back.

All of Marks classmates joined together around the back table to hear what their project would be. Miss. Abbot smiled at them and said “Alright, so for this project, you’re all going to be working in groups of three”. Mark noticed lots of friends glance at each other, their groups already decided. Their teacher, still smiling, continued “I’m aware that you guys are all going on a skating field trip correct?” When the class all made signs of ‘yes’, she starting talking again. “Perfect! I wanted to base our project on that, hopefully it will keep you all on your toes for next Friday”. Mark was honestly kind of interested, since it had something to do with skating.

He just wanted to hear what their project would be, he didn’t really care about anything else she was saying, he would need all the time to work in order to not fail. “You will be studying Newton’s third law, the law of motion. ‘For every motion, there is an equal and opposite force’, you need to figure out how this relates to skating”. He guessed that it wouldn’t be that bad, but also he knew nothing about any of Newtons laws, or most laws in general. “Sound easy enough?” Mark silently nodded, he’d figure it out, or at least someone in his group would. “Ok then, if there aren’t any questions you may all get into your groups and get started!”

“We’re working together” Mark said to his friends, and it wasn’t really a question. “Yeah of course, we always do” Drew said. Mark nodded and the three of them walled back to their original table to start. “I don’t get it” Evan said “what’s Newtons law? And how are we supposed to do this, like research what it is then write and essay or something?” Mark didn’t actually know “I guess” he said. He looked around the room to see what other people were doing, it seemed like everyone was Eugene just talking to their friends or researching on their phones. “I think we just use our phones” Mark said. “Oh great!” Evan said, Mark knew what that meant.
The boys didn’t end up doing any research at all, just playing games online, but at least it was a fun class. Mark was pretty sure that Miss. Abbot knew that they weren’t working, no one gets randomly excited or angry at their phones when researching, but she never said anything. Their science teacher never really cared much, if you failed that was your own problem, but Mark always got passing grades, so he was fine. The bell was about to ring, in just under a minute, but the boys didn’t really care, they were going to play on their phones until it went, so they could get as much time as possible! “Well, it was a pretty good period not gonna lie” Drew said “Totally” replied Mark.

Chapter 9- Lily

Gym was next. Lily didn’t hate gym, she was pretty athletic, so she was pretty good at it. Her friends on the other hand didn’t enjoy it nearly as much, so that didn’t make it as fun. They still tried to encourage her to go and play on the competitive teams and stuff, even if they didn’t. The good thing was that Mark was really into sports and all that, so she was often put on his team, or she got to play against him. Right now they were doing volleyball, Lily definitely wasn’t the best at it, but not the complete worst in her class. She still chose to be om the competitive team though, because most people on the friendly team didn’t even try to play at all, and she did her best to.
“Science was fun” Eliana said. Lily nodded. They did a bunch of work, enough to under stand what ‘Newtons third law’ was anyways, but they also just say around and talked. And watched people play games in their phones, it was honestly pretty entertaining, especially since most of them weren’t very good at it. Lily liked just being able to chill in class, she was able to get stuff done still, but would have fun that way. Miss. Abbot and their E.L.A teacher aka their home room teacher was usually like that, unless they were working on a big project, which made sense. “Are you guys actually going to do gym today or just stand around?” Lily asked her friends. “Oh we’re totally gonna play” Eliana said “like, I think I’m going to spike the ball down on the other team, maybe practice my jump serve a little bit!” Natalia giggled a little bit and added on “Oh yes me too, it’s going to be so fun!” “Wow you guys, really?” Lily said with a very slight chuckle. “Oh yes really, I might even try to blindly serve it”. Lily couldn’t help but start giggling with Natalia, Eliana’s sarcasm was so thick it was funny.
They entered the gym. It was a large room with light brown wooden boards, white brick walls, and a super high ceiling you could probably fit the Eiffel Tower in there. The volleyball nets were already set up, and the balls were placed one on each of the seven courts, everything all ready to go. “Everybody get changed let’s go!” Mr. Alec, their P.E. teacher yelled. He could be fun sometimes, but usually he was a little too energetic, it needed to be toned down a little, Lily didn’t even want to be awake yet, so energy wasn’t really something she was looking for right now.
Lily slowly walked over to the change room, a small square shaped room with two benches, a singular wall of tiny lockers that you couldn’t even fit your head into, and a sink, but no bathroom stall somehow. She had no plans of being in there for long, the change room sucked, it was just a quick switch of clothes and get out. She wondered if maybe they had designed it on purpose that way, to make kids not want to be in there, if so it worked, everyone was pretty fast about it. Well, the girls that is, the boys took forever, and you could hear them yelling about random things, just talking until Mr. Alec went to yell at them to come out.
Eliana and Natalia went into the change room with Lily, but didn’t actually change themselves, but Lily liked talking to them. They would talk about whatever, things that went on in previous periods, weekend plans, today it was just more joking about the two actually playing volleyball. When she was done changing, they left as swiftly as possible and sat down with everyone else. As per usual, you could hear all of the yelling from the boys change room, but they had learned to tune it out and just focus on each other. “Did you know, I actually want to be in the Olympics for volleyball” Eliana said to Lily “Wait, is volleyball even in the Olympics?” Natalia asked. Lily and Eliana looked at her with confused looks on their faces “are you serious” Lily asked her with a smile. Natalia nodded, one hundred percent serious. “Oh. My. God” she said. “So is that a yes or no?” Eliana broke out into uncontrollable laughter.
A few more minutes passed and Mr. Alec went over to the boys change room to yell at everyone to get out. They took their time though, and a good five minutes later everyone was ready. He seemed a little bit annoyed but didn’t care too much this time. The last of the people sat down and the teacher started talking. “Competitive stand on court seven, everyone else go to courts one through six and you can decide your own groups”. Most people went to the playful side, including Eliana and Natalia, but like normal, Lily went to competitive. It was mostly boys on the competitive side, which is why Mr. Alec always thought it would be best if he made the teams, so that they were at least semi-even, not all the super good and annoying people together. He started randomly sorting people into team one and two until there were two equal teams.
Lily was team one, and luckily, so was Mark. She was starting as server, Lily and a pretty good overhand serve, but her underhand serve isn’t to be mentioned. She hit it up and it went straight over the net, to the back right corner of the other side. It was a pretty good hit, but the other team played it really nicely. Three hits on third side and it was back on Lily’s. A few people ran up to get it and there were a few really nice rally’s before the ball finally landed on the opposite side. It was Lily’s turn to serve again, the other team must have though that she was going to serve to the same spot in the back right again, so they were all moved closer to there, leaving almost the entire left side open. She hit it fast, so that they didn’t have time to realize where it was going, and landed perfectly on the floor. “Nice job Lily” sad Mark.

Chapter 10- Mark

When they were forced to leave by Miss. Abbot, Mark and his friends were some of the last few, they were having fun on their phones. “Thank, that was one of the best science classes this year” Evan said. Miss. Abbot smiled and said “I’m gad you enjoyed it”. She was really nice, and didn’t care at all what anyone did, but wanted them to pass and be happy. At least they had gym next, their unit was still volleyball. Mark wasn’t the greatest at volleyball but definitely wasn’t that bad, and it was fun. He still liked to play competitive too, otherwise it was no good and boring, and no one even tried. Being athletic and sporty made him pretty competitive by nature, especially since his sport was hockey. He practices being competitive, and had games every week that he always felt he needed to win. “You’re too competitive sometimes ya’ know that?” Drew asked while looking directly at Mark. Mark shrugged, it was normal for him. “I guess, but I don’t really care”. They made sure to walk slowly like normal, although they all liked gym, it was still a class, and none of them liked classes, but gym was for sure the best class out of them all. The boys walked down the stairs into the huge, brick walled, high ceiling, gym. The boys change room was a little farther than the girls, so they had to walk a bit more, but even a good distance away they could already hear the yelling boys. It was annoying until you were in there, then you were yelling about the most random things as well. It was quite chaotic, but he didn’t mind it, all the boys would stay there in the tiny rooms for as long as they could until their gym teacher Mr. Alec made them get out. He didn’t like the change rooms because of how small they were and it would get super crowded, but whatever it’s fine. He wondered if the girls change room was even smaller because of how quickly they left, maybe they needed more space? But seriously, they were teens, and teens take up a lot of space, so they definitely needed better change rooms, not the tiny cubes.

They actually got a nice amount of time before the teacher called them out into the main area of the gym, more time than he usually lets them have. The boys, not wanting to stop talking, took about five extra minutes to get ready, kind of pushing their luck. Yes they liked sports and wanted to play, but conversations were better, every less minute of school counted. “You actually suck man” Evan said “I beat you 13-4 in science, that’s brutal”. “No! I was just going easy on you” Mark replied. “Yeah right. You never ‘go easy’, you’re way to competitive for that Mark, you even said!” Drew replied with a snort. That’s when they heard the teacher calling them out, “Hurry up!” Mr. Alec said and clapped his hands twice, and they three sat down, along with a few others that has also been taking their time. They could tell that their teacher was starting to get pretty impatient with them, so they shut up and listened. “Thank you” Mr. Alec sighed and gave out a fake smile for show.

They were separated into the playful and competitive sides, Mark went to the seventh court with his friends so that they could play competitively. Lily was one of the only girls who went to that side as well, and most people in general went to the playful side. He figured that she was probably used to competitions, since she was a gymnasts. Everyone lined up as per their teachers request, and he made the teams. It was slightly annoying how he always made the teams for the competitive people but let the playful people make their own, but at least in his favour Lily was on the same team as him.

Their team was starting first, and Lily was up to serve. It was a nice serve too, went nicely over. The other team played it well, and there was a few good rally’s before they needed up getting the first point. Although it was good, there wasn’t any action, no dives, no spikes, he hoped someone would do that soon, but Mark himself couldn’t really do either. He fist bumped Evan who was on his team and side-smiled at Drew, to say “I’m better than you”, who was playing against them. Drew shook his head and got into position, so did Mark, it was Lily’s serve again. He was actually impressed with how good she was, and she contributed to the rally’s they had quite a lot. He knew that she wasn’t amazing or anything, but volleyball wasn’t even her sport, gymnastics was, she was just talented at everything.

When Lily was about to serve, she must have noticed that mostly everyone was on the right side of the court this time, because she hit it more to the left. The other team didn’t react quick enough and no one was able to reach the ball before it tapped on the ground, landing perfectly in bounds, an obvious point for them. He turned to Lily, took a deep breath, and then said “good job Lily”. Why would I say that? He asked himself, panicking about talking to her. Because she did good that’s why, I’m just being a good teammate. He looked her in the eye to see her reaction, a slight smile crept up onto her face. “Thanks” she said, and he could kind of spy a very subtle blush in her cheeks. He smiled, why was she blushing? Could she possibly like him too? Or was she just happy someone complimented her? He didn’t know. His feeling had been really confirmed within the past few weeks, he was definitely in love with Lily. She was pretty, smart, talented, and funny, she was the perfect girl.
Once gym class finished, Marks team won 11-8. He smirked at Drew. “I guess we’re just better” Mark said. “Yeah yeah shut up” Drew replied. Mark and Evan laughed. Any time one of them was on a different team, it was very important to win, just so that you could bug them about it later, exactly like right now.