Trial & Error

Cold, bitter, and sharp winds slice my skin as I try to speed walk as fast as I can to school. Walking to school in the middle of a blizzard isn’t necessarily the smartest idea, but I didn’t have a choice. I had missed the bus and my mom was already at work. Finally, I see the school building coming into view. I take out my phone to see just how late I was.

“15 minutes late. Not too bad.” I murmur to myself.

Walking into the school building, I almost felt as if I were defrosting. I ran into the front office to check myself in before it got any later.

I was greeted by the secretary who looks what I imagine death looks like, pale and sickly. “Name, grade level, and reason for tardiness please.” she said dryly.

“Melody Winters, 12th grade, and missed bus.” I replied.

She wrote the information down on a blue slip and sent me on my way to class. I took out my phone once more to cheek the time. ten thirteen, creative writing. While I was looking on my phone, I almost took a wrong turn onto some hall I haven’t been down since 9th grade. It’s easy to get lost in a school like Winstead, so I try to avoid going anywhere I don’t have to. I reach my classroom and decide to wait outside for five minutes to get my nerves in check. I hate being the center of attention and walking in class 30 minutes late certainly doesn’t help.

I finally psych myself up enough to twist the knob and let myself into class, and to my surprise no one acknowledges my presence. Everyone is too engrossed in some movie my teacher is playing to notice me, so I rush to my seat before that changes. My teacher, Mrs. Grey, notices the sudden movement and shoots me a look saying meet me after class. I respond to her with a swift nod of my head and a slight gulp that I hope wasn’t audible.

The remainder of class flies by faster than I wished. I dreaded this conversation. Mostly because I wasn’t 100% sure what it was going to be about. So, I decided I was going to try to butter her up a little.

“Mrs. Grey, I love that cardigan it really brings your outfit together.”

I did not like her cardigan. At all

“Why were you late again, Melody? I thought we had an understanding.” Mrs. Grey said

A small sigh of relief escaped my lips. Although I’d rather not be having any conversation with her right now, this is slightly better than the other scenarios id imagined.

“I know, I know, but I promise today it wasn’t intentional. I missed the bus, so I had to walk.” I explained.

“Melody I told you that you can’t be late anymore.”

“I know but-”

“You say you know, but you don’t act like you do Melody. Weeks detention. Get to class.”

“Mrs. Gray you can’t be serious!”

“Actually, I’m quite serious Melody. Now get to your next class.”

I hung my head down and walked to my next class. I had never been to detention before. And though I know it’s not some sort of prison filled to the brim with heathens, the thought still scarred me. Hell, I didn’t even know where the detention room was.

On my way to my next class I run into my best friend for as long as I can remember, Meredith Wilkes. Me and Meredith were so similar looking, occasionally people would confuse us as twins. We both had wide, hazel eyes and long silky, thick black tresses. Only difference was mine is a little longer than shoulder length and hers reaches the small of her back. We both have caramel colored skin that glows at just the right angle.

“Where were you his morning? I was looking for you in the comms.” she said, her exhaustion shining through her tone.

“Missed the bus. And I’m going to miss the one home too because guess who caught a weeks’ worth of detention from Grey.” I huffed out.

I was already beyond tired of today and it wasn’t even halfway over yet.

“Jesus Mel. What did you do, piss in her cereal?” She said with slight jiggling

I glared at her. And she must’ve caught the memo because she let out a weak sorry.

“I missed the bus after a told her I wouldn’t be late again.”

“I mean she can’t really punish you for that can she?”

“Apparently she can Mer,” I said exasperatedly, “She’s almost merciless sometimes”

“Well you know how some teachers are. Old, crabby pitiful, hell you’d think they lived in this dump.” Meredith laughed out

I began to laugh with her and somewhere in between breathes I managed to tell her I had to get to class. We parted ways with a tight hug which would once again seal our unspoken agreement to meet at the library during lunch like we normally do.

Next class was gym, so I rushed to the locker room, only to find it mostly empty except a few stragglers like myself. I threw on my gym clothes, a white tank and black leggings, pulled my hair up into a ponytail and made my way into the gym.

Thankfully, my gym teacher didn’t care about his actual classes as much as he cared for his teams. Unless you were stand out, pure asshole kind of misbehaving he just gave us a 100 and kept it moving. But this day, we had to do the pacer test. And if you don’t know what that is, you’re lucky. Basically, we run from one end of the court to the other at a steady pace while matching the rhythm of the music. As the music sped up, so did we. Most only made it to about lap 20 or so. My personal best is 13 and I’m 100% confident that today...Will not be the day I beat it. Sorry.

I ended up stopping at 10 simply because I couldn’t find it in me to care enough to continue on. I practically threw myself onto the bleachers so that I could relax for the first time in ages. But just as I was almost their coach blew his whistle signaling us to get changed.

Across the locker room you heard whispers and laughing. Why? Because what would you do in a locker room other than talk shit about the girl who only ran 10 laps, the least of everyone in my class?

I didn’t care though. I was never really one to be affected by these types of things. And just to clarify, I’m not a slow runner, nor do I have low stamina. As a matter of fact, I run track for a local team and we just made our way to a national conference last month as a reward for our remarkable season. But was I going to waste my breath explaining that to these plebians? No, I was most definitely not. So, I simply finished straightening myself out, grabbed my bag and headed to the library to meet Mer and her boyfriend, Quincy. Quincy was definitely a sight for sore eyes, chocolate skin and eyes, waves, tall. But his personality was never appealing enough to make me crush on him. Quincy was part of the more ‘popular’ clique at Winstead, but at lunch he ditches his jock friends to spend time with Meredith.

“What’s up peoples?” I whisper yell. Just because its lunch doesn’t mean we break the rules of the library.

“Hey Mel!” Meredith says as she rises to hug me.

“What’s up Mel? You know I heard you caught a detention from Mrs. Gray.” Quincy said. He too knew that I’d never gotten detention before, so of course it came as a shock when I told him that not only had I caught a detention, but I had caught five.

“Woah,” was all he could say at first “You must’ve done something pretty badass to get a week’ worth of detention.”

“Nope. I missed a fucking bus and was late.”

“Wait,” he said laughing, “You telling me that you got an entire week of detention because you were late?”

His laughter at the situation began to irritate me but I managed to get out a yes through gritted teeth.

“Damn Winters that’s tragic.”

“Yeah so is your face.” I retorted in a playful manner.

And now let the playful banter begin