19This chapter dedicated to Caitlin... She made me get my butt in gear. With her serious face.
(Sorry this is up later than I said, Caitlin – had stuff to do.)
Hic!
There's Alanna – hic! – her mom gave her a ride, I think – hic! – I should go greet her.
"Morning – hic! – Alanna." I said, adjusting my backpack strap.
She clutched bag tightly. "M-morning, mis- Ashling," she answered quietly.
"I – hic! – I'm glad we both got here – hic! – early enough for me to show you – hic! – around. I've made arrangements to give a tour to – HIC! – another new student as well, so we'll just have to wait for – HIC! Argh, stupid HICCUPS!" I clamped my mouth shut, but that didn't stop me from bouncing every few seconds. Alanna giggled softly.
It wasn't long before Jasper approached, a knapsack on his back and what appeared to be a trumpet case in his hand.
"'Morning – HIC! AAAAGH – Jasper," I piped.
He started to laugh. "Good morning, HIC AAAAGH Ashling."
I grumbled at him, but I couldn't be mad. It had actually been rather amusing. "Hic! – Jasper this is Alanna Alanna this is Jasper!" I yelped, talking as quickly as I could in an attempt to get through a sentence without interruption. Jasper raised a hand in greeting, and Alanna nodded shyly. "Okay we're all here so come on let's go! Hic!"
Hiccupping loudly, I led them into the school. Few people aside from staff ever arrived this early. After quickly dropping my things at my locker, I took them to the main office. The secretary welcomed them and found their timetables and locker numbers.
"It's a good thing you kids moved here at the beginning of the year. It's always tough when people come in later on," she told them. They nodded, thanked her, and then we left.
"We've got – hic! – half an hour until classes start so why – hic! – don't we look at your schedules and I'll – hic! – show you where your classrooms and your lockers are?" I suggested.
Jasper and Alanna handed me their papers. I glanced at the identification sticker on each of them as I set off toward the hall where my own locker was. "We're all in the same grade, which puts us – hic! – in the same wing," I explained as we walked. "And both of your lockers start with the number - hic! – one, which means you're downstairs. Hic! I, uh, don't know how it's done at other schools – hic! – but it's not complicated – hic! The rooms and lockers are all numbered in either – hic! – the one hundreds or two hundreds. One – hic! – hundreds are downstairs, and two hundreds – hic! – up."
We found each of their lockers and they tucked away their things. Jasper kept his trumpet out. As they finished, I studied their schedules for first semester. Alanna was in my gym class, Jasper in my science and French classes, and we all had third-period lunch. "Hmmn. Hic!" I said to myself. Looking up, I told the other two, "Come on, I'll show you your – hic! – downstairs classes first. We're in the English – hic! – hall right now – every classroom in the corridor is – hic! – for English, except for those two at the end – those're – hic! – media and drama rooms."
I showed Alanna her English classroom. Her teacher, Mrs. Fraser – an excellent teacher, I may add – was there, and I introduced them before we moved on. I showed my friends where to find the cafeteria, the gymnasiums, the Science hall and the Languages hall (French, Spanish, German, Latin – fascinating teachers you meet down there). Finally we reached one of my favourite classrooms in the entire school: the music room.
Jasper grinned. "Excellent," he chuckled, hefting his trumpet case and looking around the large room appraisingly.
I opened my mouth to reply, but instead hiccupped loudly. "HIC!"
Suddenly, a man's voice sounded from behind us. "BOO!"
All three of us jumped, and Alanna let out a little squeak. I swung around and saw the music teacher leaning against the wall, laughing uncontrollably. He wiped a tear from his eye, struggling to speak.
"Mr. Ferrell!" I said accusingly. He calmed slightly.
"Are they gone?" he asked, still laughing.
"What?"
"Your hiccups! Are they gone?"
We waited in silence for a moment. I didn't hiccup. "They are!"
"There you go, then." He'd calmed down by now. A short, wiry man with glasses and close-cropped brown hair and beard, he was my favourite teacher. Always very casual, he's a lot of fun to work with. "And who're these two? New recruits?"
"Well, he is, anyway," I answered, jabbing a thumb at Jasper, who was chuckling.
"Wonderful," the teacher said with a wide grin. He rubbed his hands together. "I'm Mr. Ferrell. And you are...?"
"Jasper Hutchins," Jasper answered, shaking the man's hand. I noticed – not without some amusement – that Jasper was taller than Mr. Ferrell was. "Good to meet you, sir."
"Good to meet you too! Whaddaya play, Jasper?"
The boy lifted his trumpet case. "Trumpet. And saxophone. I love both."
"Excellent! I love a kid who can play instruments that are so different. And I could definitely use a little extra volume in each of those sections, so you can play either. When're you in here?"
"Uh..." Jasper consulted his timetable, which I had quickly handed back to him. "Fourth period, this semester."
"Fantastic. It looks like our Ashling here is hoping to finish showing you around before first period starts, so I'll leave you to it. See you in fourth!" With that, the small man set about straightening music stands.
As we laughed, Jasper bumped my shoulder. "I like 'im," he said quietly, grinning.
I grinned back. "Isn't he great?"
Then Jasper paused. "How'd he know you were giving us a tour?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure, actually. He just kind of knows things. It'd be creepy if he weren't so impossible to dislike."
The rest of our tour was relatively uneventful, other than introducing Jasper and Alanna to a few more teachers. Students gradually filtered into the building. When we had only ten minutes left until class began, we went back to our lockers. After mumbling a quiet goodbye to me, Alanna scurried off to her English classroom. Since Jasper and I had science first, he waited by my locker for me.
Just as I was closing the locker door, a girl's voice sounded down the hallway.
"Hey! Ashling!" I spun around, my back to Jasper. He peered past my shoulder and I smiled when I saw Fauna waving. She battled her way through the masses of people toward me. "How was your- oh!" she saw Jasper. "Oh, I'm so sorry, am I interrupting?" she asked worriedly, her light brown hair swishing as she looked back and forth between us.
"Not at all," I answered as Jasper came out from behind me. "Jasper, this is Fauna – Fauna, this is my new friend Jasper."
"It's nice to meet you!" she said, as friendly as ever. "Um, I don't think I recognise you – are you new here?"
"Sure am," he replied cheerfully. "It's nice to meet you too."
"So, um, I started to ask, how was your weekend, Ashling?"
"It was pretty good," I responded. "I met two new neighbourhood residents – Jasper here and a girl named Alanna – and of course helped out with Arlette's fundraiser. How about you, Fauna?"
"It was fine. Nothing special, but I thought a lot about what you said. I discussed it with my brother, too... He's going to help me improve my marks in all my science classes." She glanced at the clock. "Speaking of, I gotta get to biology. See you in French!" With that, she dashed away.
"We should get to class, too," I pointed out to Jasper.
As we set off down the hall, navigating between large and noisy clusters of students, he asked me, "What did you say to her that's got her so fired up?"
"Uh." I bit my lip, trying to decide how to go about explaining it. "I told her she should be a doctor, basically. She said she's wanted to be one for a long time, but she wasn't sure she could do it. I told her she could, and that she should go for gold."
He looked me in the eye. "That's good advice."
Oh ew. Sorry for the not-so-amazing chapter guys, I promise to do better on number five. Which will be soon, if Caitlin keeps up this bizarre motivation that she seems to have inspired in me.
Spare a review, perhaps? (You included, Caitlin! :D)