Chapter 2

Time’s going by pretty quickly, and I can’t tell if I like it or not.

On one hand, it’s one day closer to leaving.

On the other hand, it’s one day less that I have to save money for the tripa�� and one day less to convince my parents’ and one day less to “enjoy” whatever it is I have here, I guess.

School’s been the same old routine, except I’m taking a few interesting classes this year. Now that I’m a junior, I have the freedom to choose courses that actually sound like fun: chemistry lab, poetry writing, world history, and- of course- band.

World history has been fun. It’s the perfect blend of learning about the ancient world and the modern one.

We’ve been able to experience cultures firsthand, mainly because I’ve been pushing for more hands-on activities and less textbook reading; I think Mr. Jean, my teacher, sort of digs the activities.

Mom thought I was crazy, but when we were learning about the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East, I went out and bought all the ingredients for making baklava.

I spent all afternoon figuring it out, and I brought my masterpiece into school for the class to eat the next morning.

Mr. Jean was taken aback at first and almost told me off, but then he decided to let me have my fun–that was nice of him.

It’s sad that the closest I’ll get to experiencing other cultures is by making food recipes here in my own little home, under the critical eye of my family and friends.

“Friends.” Haha, even my “friends” don’t even think my plans to study abroad are feasible. They say I’ll never make it on my own if I leave. I’ll prove them wrong.

Wren paused and looked up. She had brought her notebook to school; she started writing at her desk after she had finished her math homework, but now, someone was tapping her shoulder from behind.

Wren whipped her head around, hurriedly closing the Moleskine journal.

It was Colton. He had sat behind Wren in math for the last three years, much to Wren’s dismay. He constantly pestered her, and Wren thought Colton had made it his job to annoy her.

He’s going to tease me about my “diary” now, Wren thought. Great. Just great.

Sure enough, Colton craned his neck to peer over onto Wren’s desk.

“What’s that? Your diary?” Colton taunted, laughing lightly.

Wren’s cheeks burned beet red. She started to say that it was actually a journal, not a diary, but then she realized she didn’t really care what Colton thought of her. “So what if it is?” she countered.

“So what if it is?” she countered.

Colton raised his eyebrows in amusement. “Ooh, Wren’s getting sassy over here!”

Rolling her eyes, Wren turned back to her notebook and started writing again.

The kids in this class are so annoying; they’re actually driving me nuts. Especially Colton, who never leaves me alone. He’s been like this for three years!

I don’t think I’ve ever done anything to provoke him, but he is relentless in his pursuit to make me go crazy. I have a long list of evidence for this:

1- He has sat behind me in every math class. When I tested out of a math class to be in a higher level one- just to get rid of him- he followed suit. So I wasn’t even able to get rid of him!

2- Freshman year, he saw that I had finished my graphing project early. Our teacher asked if anyone wanted to volunteer their finished project to show the class as an example, and I purposely did not raise my hand because I did not want my project up there.

The next day when I walked into class, my slideshow was on the projector at the front of the room. Colton had volunteered my project for me. What a snitch.

3- During our unit where we drew circles with compasses, Colton drew smiley faces on every circle in my notes packet.

4- Sophomore year, we had a really strict teacher who wouldn’t let us talk. I thought that would be a great excuse to shut Colton up, but he found a way around the rule.

He tapped me on the shoulder every day until I turned around; if I tried to ignore him, he would just keep tapping (one time, he tapped my shoulder for five minutes before I finally turned around).

Every time I turned around, our teacher would notice, and she’d come yell at me for talking out of line!

5- We also weren’t allowed to have food in that class, and one day he brought in a whole box of cookies and shoved it in my bag. Our teacher got mad at me (again) because she thought the cookies were mine.

I ended up keeping the cookies in an effort to spite Colton, but he just shrugged and claimed that the cookies were for me in the first place.

6- This year, his original seat wasn’t right behind me; it was all the way across the room! I was ecstatic.

But then, he asked to switch seats with the kid who had sat behind me, claiming he “learned better from this side of the room.” And thus, I still have yet to get rid of him.

I hope he’s reading over my shoulder right now so he knows that I’ve been keeping tabs on every single annoying thing he’s ever done. Ha.

Okay, the bell’s ringing.

-9/30/2017