Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"Ms. Corkey let you set up the greenscreen by yourself?" exclaimed Rachel as she ate her cheese string.

I took a sip from my Kool-Aid jammer.

"Yeah, she told me to do it after she took the attendance".

"But grade nines are not allowed to set up the equipment by themselves; your teacher or a grade 10 should've helped you".

"How come?" I asked, taking out a delicious egg salad sandwich out from a container in my lunch bag.

"Because some grade nines are known to be mischievous at this school and have accidentally broken equipment by doing stupid things".

"Fair enough" I said, after eating the last bit of my sandwich.

"Fortunately, I- ".

"Caleigh, is there salad dressing on that salad?" questioned Rachel, pointing at the salad bowl Caleigh was eating out of on the table behind Rachel's.

With a mouthful of salad, Caleigh shook her head.

"You're telling me that you're eating a salad and didn't even bother to put dressing on it?" she said, narrowing her eyebrows at Caleigh.

"Yeah, I like to have my salad plain," she confessed, as she picked up another forkful of bits of salad and put it in her mouth.

"That is just sad; You're practically eating rabbit food".

"Not everyone has to have dressing on their salad".

"True, but to make it more exciting and flavorful, you should add Ranch or Caesar dressing".

Then Rachel turned back to me again.

"Sorry for interrupting V, I just wanted to make sure I was actually seeing someone eating a dressing-less salad; Please continue".

"As I was saying, fortunately my biological dad runs a camera shop downtown with all kinds of high-tech cameras and he showed me how to set up, operate and properly clean them".

"That's pretty cool".

"I think we should start heading to our afternoon classes; they're going to start in five minutes" pipped up Caleigh, after looking at her fancy white apple watch on her left wrist.

I quickly glanced down at my own battery powered digital watch and realized she was right; it was 11:45am and our classes start at 11:50am.

I collected up my plastic lunch container, chucked them into the lunch bag (not literally) and walked out of our crowded lunchroom, with Rachel leading us out. We all walked into my deserted science class, so I could drop off my lunch bag and water bottle.

"I think we should make your science class our hang out spot at lunch time, since my physics classroom has been crowded with people recently" suggested Rachel, as she started to lightly swing around her black and pink lunch bag. I shrugged my slim shoulders.

"Sure. I don't mind if we eat in here for the rest of the quadmester".

I set my lunch bag with the rest of my stuff and began to follow Rachel and Caleigh down to the sauna temperature basement. My friend Rachel dropped off her bag at her seat in the cooking classroom and came back out to join us.

"I think I should get going; I don't want Mr. Cashol to mark me absent again" I said, as I started to walk away from my friends.

"Fair enough. Will we meet up at my locker again after class is over?" .

"Sure, see you then!".

I rushed up two flights of stairs and into my science class, where there were only a small handful of students waiting in their seats for class to start. There are a lot of students in my class, but only a small handful (including me) are committed to coming to class on time. I sat down in my seat and started to unload my school supplies I packed in my back satchel.

"Hanging out with your friends again, Vanessa?" asked Mr. Cashol, looking up at me from the attendance sheet he was unintentionally staring at.

"Yeah, I ate lunch with them today," I explained, pulling out my health science notes.

In class, we did our usual routine; Mr. Cashol teaches us a lesson in the first slot of class, then he does a fun experiment with us in the second slot, after the fifth teen minute break. Today I made some blue body lotion. I proudly showed it off to my friends as we walked out of the school and into the bus parking lot.

"That's pretty cool. Did you make your lotion perfect?".

I sighed.

"No, my lotion is thicker than everyone else's. Mr. Cashol said I might have put more Benedict's solution than the recipe called for".

"Isn't Benedict's solution a liquid that can cause your cells to mutate if it comes in contact with your skin?" asked Rachel, starting to worry about the lotion.

"Yes and no. The solution can mutate your cells, but fortunately Mr. Cashol reversed the effects of it so it wouldn't mutate us when we apply it on our skin" I explained to her as I walked her to her bus.

"And you trust Cashol that he for sure made your lotion safe to use?".

"Yeah of course. He's a science teacher; he knows what he's doing".

Rachel gave me a look of concern on her face.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine; Nothing strange is going to happen to me overnight. I'll see you tomorrow" I said, with a smile, as I waved goodbye to my friend.

As I confidently started to make my way towards the sidewalk, Rachel stepped up onto her bus and sat in her assigned seat, thinking about my last words.

Damn, I hope she's right.