Reliving Your High School Days

"And I binged Lucifer while I ate a whole pizza by myself," Allison says, her smile practically glowing with pride. I nod my head as I try my best not to make a face.  "Wow. Crazy. You crazy girl" plays in my head and a chuckle escapes. 

"Hey, Allison—"

"Why do you keep calling me Allison? It's Ally. You're freaking me out." She frowns at me like I'm an idiot. Without waiting for me, she continues to walk on and I roll my eyes. 

I can remember the conversation that Kate and Ally had on their way to school, so I'm just going to stick with that.

"Ally," I say, deliberately emphasizing her name,"did you hear about all the new kids that are starting today?" She halts, pivoting toward to me while she shakes her head.

“Yeah, apparently fourteen kids. Six are seniors, so they’ll be in our homeroom,” I continue, catching up to her with a wink.

Ally huffs and shakes her head again. “You know I don’t care about gossip. It’s so childish.”

My teeth clamp down on the inside of my cheek to stop the groan threatening to escape. How am I going to survive her? 

When I first read this book, I cringed at Ally’s dialogue. Experiencing it in real life? Somehow worse.

I shake off the stupid thoughts and mentally prepare myself. This is a whole new game, and the stakes are higher. My actual high school was not like this. We did not have overblown stereotypes and cartoonish drama.

“What are you thinking about?” Ally asks, her voice breaking the silence. I bite the inside of my cheek.

“Nothing,” I reply quickly. “How’s my makeup?” The words tumble out before I can stop them. Internally, I slap myself.  Here we go.

She sighs and walks back to me. Is she walking fast or am I walking slowly?

“I don’t wear makeup. It’s too much trouble. And, honestly? You kind of overdid it.”

Kill me now, please. I think Kate does die at some point in the book, so it doesn't matter exactly when. I can take care of that when I get back to Kate's house.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. I glance at the screen:

You have to keep to the basic plotline unless I allow the changes that you make. You also have to do what I tell you, otherwise, embarrassing things will happen to you. And don't spoil anything for the characters. Enjoy xxx

Great. Just great.

As if being trapped in this dumpster fire was not enough.

I sigh as I go to put my phone in my bag, but there is no bag. I feel around and realize I forgot my bag at home in the rush to get ready. How can I forget a bag on the first day of school?

You know what, it doesn't matter. I put the phone back in my pocket and we round a corner.

The school comes into full view and the atmosphere is buzzing with excitement. Wow, this looks like a normal school. Nothing like I imagined, but it is not too shabby.

Ally pulls me back and there is a thin layer of sweat on her forehead. 

"I'm scared," she whispers. From what I can recall, Ally was bullied because she was fat and Kate was part of the popular girls. Ally asked Kate to help her with a makeover. Kate ended up leaving her friends for Ally. 

"Come on. You know they won't mess with you if you're with me." She gives me a grateful nod and I hide Ally behind me, walking to the entrance.

I notice all the posh cars in the parking lot of the school. There were no posh cars when I was in high school, just old cars that were hand-me-downs.

Inside, the hallway is chaos. A small crowd has formed around the new kids, but I push past them.

I walk to the lockers and Ally takes the lead to her locker. She fumbles with her bag when we reach the locker and I look around.

This school starts on a Wednesday, but they only start to work on Monday. I think the alpha (I cannot remember any names) and his friend show up on Thursday.

I try to remember anything else from the story, but it was so bad that my brain didn't even process it. All I can remember is that it was a horrible story and I didn't finish it.

I still don't know how I'm stuck in a bloody awful W*****d book. Is the author some sort of witch? I knew I shouldn't have read that shit, but no. The author must have heard how I complained about Kate.

I was rooting for Kate. She had a great sense of fashion and I am certain that she was more intelligent, but the author made her this superficial dumb best friend to make Allison look better.

Someone bumps into me and I spin around to face them.

Oh hell no, that is one of the things that I hated the most about school.

I cross my arms and raise an eyebrow at the guy. He looks back at me and laughs.

"Babe, chill. It's just me," he says and kisses me. How could I forget that Kate had a boyfriend? That is all Ally ever complained about. I pull back and force a smile.

I had a boyfriend, but it didn't last long. We never spent any time together because I had to study to get into the top universities. I would have been classified as a nerd in this world.

"Well, hello to you too. I see someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," he jokes and throws his arm over me. He completely ignores Ally as he continues talking to me about something. I notice the hall flooding with the other students. 

"You are coming?" he asks as he drags me further into his grip

"To what?" I should probably pay attention. It feels like I'm already succumbing to the ways of the W*****d world. I can feel the last few brain cells melting away.

"There is a party Friday night. You will be there?" He says and he lets go, looking at me. My eyes widen as I have a lightbulb moment.

Wait a minute.

I never thought about this. This is a second chance to do what I wanted to do when I was in high school. I can catch up on everything I missed, like parties and games.

"I'll see," I say with a small smile. The bell rings and he gives me a quick kiss before joining the rest of the jocks.

Ally walks to her homeroom and I follow, but she stops me before we enter the classroom.

"Your homeroom is over there." She giggles and points to the open door on the other end of the hall. I fake a laugh and slap my forehead, pretending that I forgot.

I rush to the classroom and make it just as the second bell rings.

I take a seat at the back of the class. The back of a class is the best place to be seated. You can see everything from here and nobody bothers you.

The teacher walks in. He spits out some form of greeting and mumbles while he takes attendance.

As I say "Here", the sudden realization sets in. I really am back in school.

This high school does things differently than where I was. You can choose the subjects you want to take. Catherine chose the subjects that I wished I had when I was in high school. She has English Literature, History, and best of all, Art. I always wanted to take Art, but my parents told me that it is not going to look good on my application for universities.

In Art class, the teacher seated me in the back row. The tables are long, like what you would find in labs, but it is divided into two. So the tables are against the two walls with a path through the middle. Two boys sit at the table next to me and I have the whole table to myself. This is absolutely ace.