Chapter 2: My New Adventure Begins

Beep, beep, beep, beep!

Groaning, I rolled over and slapped the snooze button on my alarm clock. I couldn't believe I had to get up so early just to go to school. I had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning so that I could be all dressed and ready by 6:30 when school started. What kind of school started at 6:30 IN THE MORNING? 

To be honest, I didn't even want to go to this stupid school. Apparently, my mother enrolled my sister Alya and I in this school because she thought we were "talented" and "special", but the only thing I felt that I was talented at was staring at the clock, waiting for something to be over. 

I was just about to roll over and try to fall back to sleep when Alya, my crazy sister, came running into the room screaming, "WAKE UP VALENTINE!" as she jumped on top of me. 

"Geroff me!" I growled, my voice muffled by my pillow. Alya bounced lightly off of my bed and onto the ground, dusting herself off and skipping towards the door. 

"You're going to be la-ate!" she sang as she skipped down my hallway and towards the kitchen. I sighed. I swear, everyone on my family was a nutcase. My mom, who thought it was a good idea to enroll me in a school for the talented, my sister, who skipped everywhere she went and was always singing, and my dad, who left his family to fend for themselves. Nutcases. Every single one of them.

Finally I managed to pull my tired limbs out of bed, my eyes barely staying open and my brain feeling weighed down with the thought of another whole school day ahead of me. 7 hours of sitting through what felt like billions of boring classes, staring at the clock like I did best. Skipping and singing wouldn't get me anywhere, and it wouldn't get Alya anywhere either.

After pulling on a pair of dark-denim skinny jeans and throwing on a bubblegum pink hoodie, I walked down our small hallway to our small kitchen, where I sat down at our small dining-room table. I slouched waaay down into my chair, resting my chin on my palms and staring miserably into the distance, not sure what I was even looking at. I thought about all of the things that had taken place recently. My dad leaving us, the move to Miami, and finally, the first day of school which took place just the day before. Everything had seemed just fine. It seemed like a regular middle school to me. There were the usual ugly school uniforms, the dirty bathrooms littered with stray toilet paper, and there was of course the gum stuck on the bottoms of the gym bleachers. Everything seemed just fine to me. Everything should seem just fine to me. 

But there was something about the school that I couldn't shake off. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I knew there was something there that shouldn't be there, like a shadow flitting around among the sunlight. Something was wrong.

I jumped as a voice behind me said, "Sit up straight Valentine. Sheesh, I'm surprised you haven't snapped your spine in half." I looked up right into my mother's fierce blue eyes, trying my best to slouch even lower than I had been a moment ago. My mother was always telling me what to do, where to go, blah blah blah blah blah, and I was sick of it. Telling me that we were moving to Miami was the last straw. I tried my best to ignore her nowadays. 

I watched her with my dull tired eyes as she walked into the kitchen, grabbed a granola bar out of the kitchen cabinets, and threw it at me. I didn't even try to catch it. I just let it bounce off of my face and land on the table in front of me. 

"Eat up kiddo. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" I eyeballed the granola bar, my stomach churning at the thought of trying to stomach that thing. I'd been trying to eat organic for a while now, and this granola bar did not fit into my diet. 

"I'm not hungry," I mumbled, pushing my small breakfast away with one finger. 

"Eat it anyways," my mom replied. "You need the energy. You've been moping around ever since we got here." 

HONK HONK!

I jumped at the sound coming from outside. It was the bus, waiting impatiently for Alya and I at the end of our driveway. I jumped up from the table, grabbed my backpack, stepped into my leopard-print Sperries, and ran out the door, Alya close on my heels.

And another day begins. I thought to myself. A whole new adventure.