-Edna St. Vincent Millay
The incident with the necklace had left Koby so shaken that her whole normal morning schedule had been completely thrown off. To get back on track, Koby had to cut her normal shower time by more than half and eat only a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. Not even that could be eaten at a leisurely pace though.
Koby barely had time to put the cream cheese back in the fridge before her mother began to drag her out of the house. At the last second, Koby remembered to grab her soccer bag and her briefcase-like satchel containing all of her schoolbooks and papers.
Five minutes later she was seated in the front seat of her mother�s Mercedes Benz sport utility vehicle, hair still slightly damp, frantically trying to finish off her bagel and comb her long hair out.
Her mother was chatting away importantly on her cell phone, discussing the previous night�s meeting with an important colleague. In the background, Koby�s mother�s favorite radio station, 88.5 WJBR, was playing softly.
As she hastily chewed and swallowed her bagel, Koby did a quick mental review of her morning to see if she had forgotten anything. �Shower, hair, teeth, face, schoolwork, food,� she thought, briefly going over the most important details of the morning. �Yep, that�s everything.�
Shortly after her mental replay of her past actions, Koby�s mom pulled up to the front of the towering building that was the high school portion of the Richmond School of the Fine Arts. The high school was a wide and towering 3 floor stone building. The first floor was where all of the specialized art classes took place. The second floor was for regular courses, such as math and science. Finally, the third floor held all of the teachers� offices, a greenhouse, the planetarium, and the lecture hall. There was also a large basement where the library, cafeteria, and locker rooms could be found.
As a freshman, Koby had been intimidated by the school�s immense size. Although she had gone to middle school with the RSFA, which was located on the same grounds as the high school, Koby had been unprepared for the extensive size difference. After all, the middle school only had 2 floors and far less classes to offer.
Stepping gracefully from the SUV, Koby grabbed her bag and waved goodbye to her mother, who wasn�t paying one bit of attention to her. Before ascending the grand cement stairs to the main door, Koby brushed the crumbs off of her long black pleated skirt and straightened her dark blue long-sleeved dress shirt. Koby despised the girls� uniform at Richmond, but she put up with it reluctantly. The administrators were severely strict on issues regarding the uniform policy, so Koby knew that there was no way out of wearing it. �I�d rather wear pants,� Koby grumbled as she smoothed out her skirt for a final time. Then she climbed up the stairs, waving to a few of her fellow peers as she went, entered the school, and headed up to her locker and then to her homeroom with Mr. Allens on the second floor.
�Koby Simmons.�
�Here,� Koby answered Mr. Allens� dry voice dully. Her mind was currently elsewhere. Surprisingly, her dream was not the source of her preoccupation. The upcoming day � which was most likely going to be quite stressful � had forced the dream and the appearance of the necklace from her mind and was currently ruling her thoughts.
�College Level Composition, Algebra II, Latin II, Poetry, lunch, Biology, World History, English II, and Creative and Modern Writing,� Koby recited her course schedule mentally. Some cruel twist of fate had placed her favorite class at the end of the day and her least favorite class second.
At Richmond, the average school day was about 45 minutes longer than other Delaware high schools. Students attended eight 45-minute classes a day, with a 30-minute lunch after the first four classes and a 10-minute homeroom at the start of the day. Students were given 5 minutes between class periods. If you entered your classroom even one second after the bell had gone off, you were swiftly awarded detention.
So far, the classes that were threatening to give her trouble today were Algebra II and Biology. Koby always had problems in Algebra II. For some reason she just couldn�t seem to grasp the complex formulas and equations. She longed for next year when she would take Geometry, a much more logical course. As for Biology, that class normally went well. Today, however, she was scheduled to present the report that she had put the finishing touches on the night before. Although it had gotten easier as each year passed, presenting oral reports was a chore Koby hated to go through.
�Why do I always get so damn nervous up there anyway?� Koby wondered as she stood for the pledge of allegiance. �It�s not like I�m the only one that has to get up there and talk.�
�It�s the Kobe-ster, gracing us with her presence,� a male voice joked as Koby set her lunch tray down at a relatively empty table.
Koby rolled her eyes. �I hate it when you call me that Pete,� she said to the boy with short brown hair. �You know that.�
�I do and that�s why I call you it. Do you prefer �Honey Babe� or �Sweet Cheeks�?� Pete asked innocently as he braced himself for a smack on the arm. Painful things like that tended to happen with surprising regularity when you sat beside Koby and provoked her.
The expected attack on Pete�s arm came, but not as the light smack he was anticipating. This time Koby jabbed her elbow into Pete�s upper arm. �Don�t toy with me boy,� she warned while opening her small container of salad. �This is not the best day to attempt such risky comments. I�ve got to do a presentation for Biology next period and I�m none to thrilled over that. Plus I got an abnormally large homework assignment in Algebra II and to top it all off I had the world�s strangest dream last night!�
�I see,� Pete said, rubbing his arm. �How�d your game go last night?�
�Oh, the game was great,� Koby told him distractedly while nibbling at some french-fries off of her plate. �Both teams put those damn Spartans in their place.�
�So Varsity won?� Jane�s voice wandered into their conversation, curious as to the outcome of the previous night�s game.
Koby nodded and took a bite of her burger. In her opinion, Richmond�s cafeteria food was top of the line. She figured that they could afford to buy their food from the better providers with the hefty price tag that came along with admittance to the school. After swallowing, Koby told Jane, �Yeah, we won 3-1. Beth had 2 goals. Jess got the other one. Erin made about 10 amazing saves in goal. That girl can really fly. The ref was a bit biased though, making calls for St. Peter�s more than for us. In fact, they got their only goal off of a penalty kick that should have been an indirect kick if anything. I mean, the �penalty� wasn�t even in the box,� Koby grumbled. �I hope they have better refs for the state championship.�
Jane shook her head and started on her own hamburger. �All referees have it out for Richmond.�
�Yeah!� Pete interjected, looking slightly hurt that Koby had turned her attention away from him. �You should have seen what that jerk-off of a ref called me for in the basketball state championships last year!�
�Pete,� Koby said lightly, �I did. I was there, remember?�
�Oh yeah,� Pete said in a small voice. Koby couldn�t help laughing. He looked like a lost little boy wearing black pants, a blue work shirt, and a black tie, the boys� uniform at Richmond, that he seemed almost vulnerable. Affectionately, Koby reached up and patted his soft hair.
The conversation lulled momentarily and picked up again when the rest of Koby�s normal lunch group took their seats around the wooden table, their plastic trays being set down loudly and the sound of cutlery scraping against their plates filling the air.
Koby found that lunch ended far too soon, and glumly, she made a quick stop at her locker before heading up to her Biology class, silently going over all of the fine details of the human circulatory system in her head. She had to do this presentation from memory, no note cards allowed at all.
Nervously, she sat through her Biology class, listening attentively to the speeches of those scheduled before her. To her delight, she noted that most of her peers looked and sounded as if they were as terrified as Koby was about going up there.
However, when the boy scheduled to go before her took his place at the front of the class, Koby�s heart began to flutter quickly and her palms became quite sweaty. Then, as if fate smiled upon her that day, time ran out.
Chris, the boy who was scheduled before, was probably one of the brightest in the class and he had fortunately prepared a report that took him up to the final five minutes of class time to present. Koby breathed a silent sigh of relief as her teacher, Mrs. Cooper, checked the clock above the door and announced that she would have to give her presentation the next day at the start of class.
�I�m sorry for this setback Koby. But I expect that a bright girl like you will need more than five minutes to explain the mysteries of the human circulatory system to the rest of us.� Mrs. Cooper smiled at Koby as she put her notebook away in her case.
Koby smiled weakly back at her and said, �Don�t worry, I don�t mind. Now I�ll have more time to straighten everything out and see if there�s anything that I forgot to cover.� Inside, however, Koby�s mind was screaming �Yes! Oh, Chris, I love you! Thank you for being so damn smart!�
The bell rang a moment later and Koby bustled out of the class before she could wake up from the wonderful dream that she was having.
�Speaking of dreams,� Koby thought suddenly, �what did I do with that freaky necklace anyway?� As she carefully navigated her way through the hallways to her World History class, Koby retraced her steps in the morning mentally. �I think I put it under my pillow� who knows? Maybe I was still dreaming when I saw it there because afterwards I didn�t see it at all.�
�What do you mean you can�t pick me up today? Mom, how am I supposed to get home? All of the other players have already left!� Koby moaned into the pay phone by the front office in her school. Soccer practice had finished about fifteen minutes ago and Koby, feeling quite abandoned after all the other players had either driven home or been picked up, had called her mother�s cell phone for an explanation for her lateness.
�I can pick you up today, but not for an hour. I told you already. I�m putting the finishing touches on an important report that I need to have in by 8 �o clock. You�ll just have to wait. Do your homework or something.�
�It�s only 6 though!� Koby protested. �I can�t hang around here for an hour, even if I am doing my homework. The library�s closed, and soon the school will be too. It�s going to be dark out before you know it and I don�t have enough homework to keep me occupied for an hour!�
�Too bad! Now I have to go or you�ll be waiting even longer.� The line went dead and Koby slammed the pay phone back down in its receiver.
�I can�t believe her,� Koby hissed as she stormed out of the school to sit on the front steps. �What does she expect me to do? Walk? This is crazy!� Angrily she sat down on the steps and began digging around in her school bag for some work to occupy her. �I should have expected this,� she muttered as she pulled out an Algebra worksheet and a pencil. �She always picks me up late. Maybe I should arrange to have rides with Jane or something.�
Sighing, she started to work on the confusing sheet, squinting to see the little numbers in the quickly dimming light.
Barely fifteen minutes had passed since her phone call to her mother when a car pulled into the almost deserted parking lot and 2 figures got out. Koby barely raised her gaze to see who they were. She knew that it couldn�t be her mother. Her mother would have pulled up to the front steps and honked angrily if Koby wasn�t at the door in less than five seconds.
So Koby continued to work out her problems and ignored the people in the car that had pulled up. A minute later, still ignoring the people from the car, she was disturbed from her work when she started suddenly when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
Looking up to see who was demanding her attention, Koby saw Haruka and Michiru staring down at her, light smiles on their faces.
Chapter 5
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