Hello!! I've been working on this story since late August of last year ^^ It's not much though, because I keep re-writing it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I have so far =) Constructive criticism would be appreciated ^^


I stared numbly at my Science teacher, Mrs. Stinch, as she walked back and forth at the front of the classroom. She was explaining for the umpteenth time how to properly label homework. 30 minutes had passed since the beginning of class and she was still going on about it. God, Science was supposed to be interesting! Looking around the dank classroom, it was easy to tell that all the other students felt the same way as I did.
Kill me. Someone please come and end my misery! How about a polar bear? Alaska's supposed to be choked full of them, so why doesn't one come an-- my thoughts where cut off by an angry Mrs. Stinch, who was towering over my desk. They way her eyes would cross slightly and lips would pucker up into a pout reminded me of a pissed-off fish. Her shallow cheeks weren't helping much either.
"Miss Stewart?" she asked, leaning so close over me so that her breath brushed my face, "Do you know the answer?"
"What was the question?" I inquired coolly, trying not to gag. The way her breath smelt of sour coffee and eggs-gone-bad made it hard not to wrinkle me nose. Maybe the bad smell was the reason Mrs. Stinch was so ogre-esc.
"What was the question?" she fumed, "The question was why do I take points off your homework if it's not properly labeled, but now it's why aren't you paying attention in class?"
Shrugging, I refused to answer. The look on her face was priceless.
"For now you will pull out a piece of paper and take notes. After class, however, you will need to see me so we can discuss your punishment." After she had finished, Mrs. Stinch stalked up to the front of the classroom, her footsteps followed by the chorus of "Ooooh!"s sang by most of the boys in the classroom, including a guy situated in the seat next to me. But he was soon silenced by the glare I shot at him.
During the rest of class I doodled on the piece of paper that was supposed to be for notes. A week or two of detention was probably in my future so I guessed that another week couldn't make anything worse.

*****************
Hanging back in my seat, I waited the several minutes necessary for the class to empty out of the room. Wordlessly, I eased out of the chair and sauntered up to the teacher's desk. Just as silently, I pulled up the nearest plastic seat, shoved it in front of the cluttered, pine desk, and plopped down into it.
There I waited some more as she finished up a friendly conversation with her star pupil, Mindy. No one called her that though, her class nick-name was "Fee-Fee the Teacher's Pet." Cruel? Maybe. Funny? Hell yeah!
"Ah," Mrs. Stinch sat down in her black cushioned chair, a look of distaste and contempt replacing the one of quite respect that had been playing across her face a few moments before. "Miss Stewart. May I see the notes you took during class?" She held out her hand expectantly.
Reaching into the left-hand pocket of my mud brown hoody, I soon produced a crumpled piece of lined paper. The teacher's eyes squinted as she took the trash out of my hand and smoothed it out on, what seemed to be, the only clean part of her desk. "This, this is what you did during class?" she demanded, her gaze not leaving the paper as her knuckles turned white with anger.
"Yep," was my answer. Okay, maybe the doodles had been a bad idea, especially since they where of broken skulls, bleeding eyes, and some other crude things. Slouching down until my butt was almost slipping out of the chair, I looked out the row of windows, not so eagerly awaiting the coming wrath of a teacher who was at the end of her rope.
"That's it," she breathed, almost as if she was whispering to a baby. My confusion must have shown when I looked at her because she laughed. It sounded a little shaky but it smoothed out after a few seconds. "That's it, I'm done. I'm done trying to teach you. I try and try and try to get you to learn things, to pay attention in class, but it's like you don't care. But you know what kills me the most?" Mrs. Stinch asked me, leaning on a pile of paper that was colonizing more than half of her desk.
"What?" I answered, apathy overflowing from that one word.
"Your smart," she leaned in closer. "You should be an A student but your not. You don't put the effort into anything! That's what kills me. You could be like Mindy!"
"Ha!" I snorted. "Mindy?" That was too much. Me? Like Mindy? Anyone could understand how stupid that sounded.
"What's so funny?" Mrs. Stinch almost growled. The message in her tone was clear. Anyone mess with Mindy and your head was going to be lacerated in the same fashion as a low budget horror flick. But I wasn't threatened.
"Fee-Fee the Teacher's Pet? You got to be f*cking kidding me!" Nothing was more fun than goading on a teacher with anger issues, not that I'm in any position to speak.
"Watch your language!" she slammed her hands on the desk and sprang up from her chair, her face a brilliant red, matching her tomato colored hair. "Mindy is a better student than you'll ever be! How dare you call her that and use such a vulgar word?!" She began to huff and puff like a bull ready to kick some poor matador's ass. Now this actually scared me.
Before I could plead for forgiveness (And my life,) Mrs. Stinch realized her error and sat down, taking in a few deep breaths to calm herself.
"Sorry," she sighed after a few minutes before pushing her glasses back into place on the bridge of her nose. They had slipped down past her chin while she had been shouting.
"No, it's fine. I was out of place," I apologized as sincerely as I could; didn't want to write an letter saying 'sorry I insulted you, will you please forgive me,' or anything like that. Leaning back wearily in my chair plastic chair, I waited for her response. I had got her pretty pissed so it was probably gonna take awhile. Damn, I was going to miss lunch.
"You probably don't want to spend the whole lunch period with me," Mrs. Stinch chuckled lightly, and I joined in just so she wouldn't hate me more, "So I'll get straight onto the point. Since you don't seem to be able to put any effort into anything, I'm assigning you a project." She paused as if to let me respond, but when I opened my mouth to say something, she began again. Okay, now she was pissing me off.
"This special project will be sort of like a college thesis. Except you won't be able to pick what your going to be writing about. Now, your will have to make five new friends and write a five hundred words about each new friend," this time she did give me a chance to voice my outrage.
"FIVE NEW FRIENDS?!" I exclaimed, jumping up from my chair, my fists clenched so tightly that my nails began to dig into the flesh of my palms and make them bleed. "HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?! NOBODY LIKES ME! I'M AN OUTCAST!" It wasn't until Mrs. Stinch stood up and faced me that I stopped shouting.
"I understand your social status, Rin," she began calmly but I cut her off.
"I don't think you do! It's clear just by the way you treat me! It's clear by the way that everyone treats me! I've been here for two years, TWO YEARS, and guess how many friends I have? ONE! One f*cking friend!" Tears began to swell up at the corner of my eyes and if I hadn't have been so angry, I would have felt stupid and wiped them away. Mrs. Stinch let me blow off the steam, which in the long run, kept the whole thing from getting any worse.
"What your doing should be considered as abuse! If you truly knew what was going on, you wouldn't torture me with this! Do you think I like the fact that everyone thinks I'm a guy trying to pass as a girl? Or that I'm a problem kid because I get into fights? When really those SOBs where the ones who started it?" I could have gone on. All of it was true too, I was one of the most hated kids at school. And one of the most feared, thanks to my uncontrollable tempers and freakish hight. After a minute of tense silence, I finally sat down, directing my blinking red eyes towards the windows. It was snowing.
Mrs. Stinch followed me down, clasped her hands on a pile of ungraded homework, and waited until I seemed to have calmed down before speaking again, "I know this will be hard for you, Rin."
"No shit," I muttered, adjusting my slouched position in the chair and crossing my arms over my chest, still not making any eye contact.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see her smile gently before continuing, "But I'm confident that you'll be able to do this. Your stubborn, full of tact, and can be a very hard worker, given the right circumstances. I know this will be hard, and if this turns out to be too much of a challenge for you, we can always think of something else to do."
It felt weird having someone be so kind to me. Even my own mother never acted so sweetly. All her attention and love was devoted to her latest fling and beating her previous score on Tetris. Through blurry eyes, I looked at her. She was still smiling that smile only moms gave their depressed children. A smile full of comfort and understanding. It felt so out of place for her to be like this, so I wiped my arms and frowned.
"Please don't smile like that," I muttered.
She seemed to get what I was talking about and let her lips straighten out.
"So, will you try?" she asked, her eyes pleading and wide. The expression on her face reminded me of my mothers before she turned bitter and that made me feel more uncomfortable than ever.
"Fine," I sighed, exasperated.
"Great! See me tomorrow after class so I can give you some printed directions," she grinned like Christmas had come early. God, did she know how to manipulate people! "Now get onto whatever lefts of Lunch. I bet your hungry."
Instantly after she finished her sentence I sprang up from my chair, picked up my skull pattern backpack all in one fluid motion. Without a word, I sped out of the class and down the several hallways towards the Cafeteria.