Untitled Story

The sound of my alarm clock sucks! Alex's first thought of the day wasn't a pleasant one, which is a problem most 16 year old boys seem to suffer from. He sighed heavily and, reaching over, smashed the snooze button so hard that it tipped over and lay on the carpet, still ringing. He moaned and pushed back the blankets, toppling out of his bed onto the floor and on top of his alarm clock. Once he'd sufficiently silenced it (by smashing the thing on the floor) he heaved himself up and headed downstairs to the kitchen. There, he took a piece of toast from the toaster and spread jam on it, causing his sister to snap,
"That was my toast!"
"Soz", he mumbled, offering it to her. Kelly frostily pushed it away, muttering that she didn't like jam anyway, and poured a bowl of cornflakes instead. Her usually cool and calm demeanour was red and flustered and Alex didn't even bother to ask why. A completely open book, she's left her maths notes on the table the night before.
"You'll ace it, like always", he mumbled through the toast. She rolled her eyes and snatched the notes, glaring at them like they were demons from hell. Alex tuned her out, turning instead to his own thoughts. He had to develop some photos before third period, so he'd better hurry to get to school early. A keen photographer, he was planning to enter in some competitions soon. Once he finished eating he stood up and stretched. Kelly broke into his reverie by commenting,
"Are you even going to brush your teeth?" Alex smirked and bared the offending objects with relish.
"Real men only brush on Sundays".
"Real men wear boxers, not knickers like you". Deciding to ignore the jibe, he picked up his bag, blew a sarcastic kiss to his sister and left, banging the door behind him.

~*~*~

Kelly watched him go with a pang of envy. She wished she were him at that moment, carefree and unhindered by expectations. Instead, she was stuck at home; eating cornflakes and frantically poring over calculus notes she had a test for and had to pass well if she was going to hold her head up that night at the weekly calculus meeting. Kelly was involved in all of the extra-curricular activities the school offered, the maths club included. Sometimes, the pressure of her classmates and parents got to the point of almost driving her mad. It's all very well and good to do well at schoolwork, but once your parents start announcing to the world that your plan for the future is to be a surgeon when you hadn't even considered the possibility, it changes from fun to sheer hell. Sometimes, Kelly thought about failing a test for once, just to see everyone's reactions. But she could never bring herself to do it. She breathed out heavily through her nose and pushed away the bowl. Heading up the stairs, Kelly brushed her teeth and made her bed before heading back down, taking an apple and leaving the house, carefully locking the door behind her.
Once Kelly reached Ellie's place, she stopped and leant up against a tree. She could see into the bathroom window-Ellie was straightening her hair. She waved and Ellie waved back, mouthing "two minutes!" before shutting the window. Kelly did up a loose shoelace, and when she looked up, Ellie was there. Her perfect blonde hair hung down over her shoulder, and for a moment, Kelly felt inadequate with her brown ringlets and slightly squashed nose paling next to Ellie's beauty. But she smiled and the two girls began to walk down the pavement. Ellie looked grieved.
"And so I said to Kim, what does it matter if Tom likes me? You dumped him ages ago! Then she started on this long rave about how friends come first... It's not like she even liked him, anyway". She sighed dramatically. "You're so lucky you've got Andrew". Kelly smiled vaguely. She hadn't listened to a word.

~*~*~

"Shit" Alex muttered. He picked up the fallen pot of glue and tried to wipe it off his photograph. Most of it came off, but not all of it. Oh well, he thought gloomily. It'd give it some extra sheen. He stuffed all his gear in his bag and headed out into the early morning sunshine. Once he got to his locker, Alex felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around.
"Alex", grinned Robbie, giving him a high five. "Ready to kick some butt in basketball today?" Alex gave a cocky grin and pulled out his books.
"You bet".
"Gonna be some hot cheerleaders there, too".
"Nah, they don't really interest me..." Robbie gasped in mock dismay.
"Don't tell me you don't want to pick up a chick tonight?" Friday was always when the cheerleaders went out with the team players, to parties or to secluded car parks in their cars.
"I don't like any of them, I guess..." His voice trailed off as Robbie gave him a punch on the arm.
"Shame on you, man!" he grinned. "I'm gonna get me some, even if you're too frigid to make a move!" He smirked and left, whistling as he walked.
Alex rolled his eyes, slammed his locker door shut and walked into his English room, hoping that they wouldn't do too much work; English wasn't his strong subject. But life's unfair, and the first thing that his teacher announced to a dismayed class was that they had a project to do in pairs about an issue faced in society. It contributed to their NCEA credits, and, to top it all off with a big cherry, was that it was due in three weeks. Alex groaned, along with the rest of the class. He didn't have the time for this! He looked around for Ray, who was his usual English pal, but all he got was a sheepish grin as Ray gestured to a pretty girl sitting next to him, who's nabbed him first. So, in the end, he got lumped with Richard, the new guy who'd moved from the school across town. He didn't look like much, Alex mused. With black hair and grey eyes, he practically faded into the background. Richard smiled shyly at Alex before whispering that they should study stereotypes. Alex shrugged non-committedly, fiddling with a pen. Man, this sucked.

~*~*~

Meanwhile, Kelly was having a good day, if that was possible. She's flown through her calculus test and was now at the weekly chess club meeting.
"I don't think we should", Ellie cautioned. "The other team's pretty good, and if we lose then we'll lose a lot of dignity along with it. These guys are way more experienced than we are". You had to hand it to her, Kelly mused. Boy crazy, bitchy and perfect she was, she sure knew her way around a chess table.
Once the meeting was over and they'd agreed to postpone the game, Kelly and Ellie got up and left for the cafeteria for a morning snack before they went back to first period, meeting up with some other friends along the way.
"Ugh", complained Carmel, a pretty brunette with a heart shaped face. "Cheerleading last night sucked. You should have come, Kelly". Kelly was the team leader.
"Yeah, well, I had netball on", she replied absently. Talle, a red-head, snorted.
"You've always got something on. Is there anything you're not in?" Kelly was about to answer when she was lifted up into the air and received a loud kiss on the cheek.
"How's my gal?" Andrew smiles before putting her back down carefully. He slipped an arm around her waist and, without waiting for a reply, asked,
"Are you coming to calculus tonight?" She assured him she was.
"Good", he nodded. "Because I think I may need some private tuition after". His hand crept down her back before she wrenched out of his grasp, giggling.
"Stop it!" she cried. "PDAs are off-limits!" He pouted.
"All right, all right, I give up. Can I at least hold your hand?" Kelly reluctantly allowed him to grasp her right one before they entered the cafeteria, her smile pasted firmly on.