Post by LadyRiona on May 11, 2006 19:53:50 GMT -5
Author's Note: Okay. My first contest entry on NW. e.e I'm horrible. Anyway. Don't be kind. If it sucks, tell me in a polite way.
Title: The Englist Test
Rating: T, due to chapter 5
Summary: Victoria Addams is your normal, run of the mill girl. Her life was going smoothly until an English test. She's sent to detention where her whole world turns upside-down. Can she make the right choices when they are presented to her?
Chapter 1: Lunchtime Rush
Lunchtime, the natural enemy of nonsocial status holding students; the new students' worst nightmare, because whomever they sat with would make or break them. If they sat with the bad crowd, they were forever labeled one of "them." If they so happened to be invited to a good table...well it was either good or bad. Even as a regular attending student, the lunch table they sat at depended upon their social status, or the lack thereof.
Victoria Addams was one of those without a status. She dressed nicely, but she wore all black for no apparent reason. When asked why, she would simply reply that it'd been what she'd picked out that morning. Her complexion was pale by her nationality, being German and English, and her eyes were slightly sunken in, casting shadows around the orbs. Her eye color was very light and clear blue. The hair that fell most of the way down her back was very dark, midnight blue-black. It didn't help her at all that, when she'd been in grade school, her father had come on the "bring your parent to school" day.
Her father was one-hundred percent German, with pale skin, blue eyes, and light blond hair. Plus, he was a mortician. Their family had always had careers dealing with death, working as undertakers, embalmers, funeral home/mortuary owners, gravediggers, and, like her father, medical examiners. There were probably more, but that had been all the teacher had allowed him to say.
From that day forward, Victoria had never been able to live down the rumors about her father being a serial killer so they could stay in business.
Her last name of Addams, being spelled just like the Addams Family, did no good for her, either.
Victoria looked to her left at her friends, Meg, Adrian, and Katie. Meg and Adrian were merely just friends, but Katie was Victoria's best friend. The two girls had known each other for years, since the about the middle of grade school. They'd both changed over the past seven or eight years in different ways, but it hadn't pushed them apart. If the changes had done anything, it had brought them closer together. Sure, they had their disagreements because they looked at something differently, but that was just another way that they respected each other and their differences.
Katie came from a big family, and she was stuck directly in the middle of it. Some people tried to make her feel better about her position with six other siblings and tell her that it wasn't true that the middle child was always left out, but Katie shrugged it off. If anything bothered her, it was the people trying to console her; otherwise, she was fine with being in the middle. That meant that she had time to read books and pursue being a pediatrician. Even though she had three younger, obnoxious siblings and her older siblings blamed stuff on her, Katie still loved kids. And having a best friend whose father was a medical examiner, well it was a big plus for her medical career. Though Katie didn't have the reputation Victoria did, Katie was still considered an outcast because she was always reading something.
Meg and Adrian, on the other hand, were more so the remnants of a former posse they'd had in junior high. The four girls had once been a clique of six, the "outcasts," so to speak. But their first year of high school, the other two girls had broken off and joined the mainstream crowd of s*x, drugs, and rock and roll. As Victoria scanned the lunch room, she could see them over at the far corner of the room, where all the stoners and rockers sat. She shrugged it off as their loss. It would also be Meg and Adrian's loss when they were sucked into the complete opposite spectrum of makeup, perms, and shopping. They sat closer together at the other side of the table, pouring over the latest issue of a fashion magazine.
Victoria had nothing against fashion. In fact, she actually took pride in looking nice and presentable. She just didn't obsess about it. If she had a bad hair day, she wore a hat. If she had a zit, she'd cover it up with some makeup. When she needed new clothes, she would go shopping. She just didn't spend an hour in front of her mirror for no reason other than making sure her ponytail was straight, or her makeup matched her clothing. Nor did she shop only for shopping's sake. She had other things to do with her time, such as study. Victoria also wanted a medical career.
That thought made her look down at her lunch with a small sigh. She had a test in English class that she hadn't studied for the previous night. Some people may have called it cramming, but she knew that studying the night before actually helped, in contrast to people thinking that they were just unprepared.
A voice interrupted Victoria's thoughts. She looked up to see Katie smiling a little. "What?" Victoria asked, not having heard her friend a moment before.
"I asked what was wrong. You're frowning," Katie repeated, still smiling.
A small smile spread across Victoria's face. It was a little nervously done, but she couldn't help it. "I'm fine. I just remembered that I have a test in English, that's all," she explained slowly. "I didn't study last night." History and science were not a problem for Victoria. She only had to glance over her note to be able to pass with a high A. Even math wasn't that hard for her. Sure, there were a lot of terms that she sometimes didn't understand, but she was making an A in the class. English, however, took days of preparation for a test or a quiz, simply because there were so many names of each word, it didn't click in her mind. She was happy and proud to be making a C+ or a B- in her English class.
Katie reached out to pat her shoulder. "You'll do fine, hon," she said in her slightly southern accent. Her small smile spread encouragingly. That was just one thing that Victoria loved about her friend - Katie was always so positive.
"Thanks." Victoria smiled a little more in return. "Hopefully I'll get a B or higher; I don't want to have another lecture on whatever I failed, and a lesson in medical examination." She laughed a little, but it was forced. Talking about her dad at school made her nervous. "As it is, he's already planning a series of grammar lessons and a few autopsies for me to assist."
Victoria was in Advanced Biology. She was also taking an eleventh grade class in tenth grade, which was Anatomy and Physiology. She was in those classes because each time she bombed a test or quiz, her father lectured her about failure, tutored her on what she'd failed, and gave her a lesson in medical examination to show he wasn't mad, just disappointed. So she was very advanced when it came to knowing about the human body and its functions.
That wouldn't be so bad for Victoria, since she wanted to be a doctor and help people live, breaking away from her kooky family. But instead, it was usually bad because she would usually end up spewing out the gory details in Advanced Biology and Anatomy and Physiology. The fact she could dissect a pig's chest cavity without getting sick and describe in a writer's envy of detail what the white matter in someones brain looked like only worsened her reputation as "daughter of a serial killer." There were rumors floating around that she helped her father tear apart the victims so the bodies were never found...intact.
"All right everyone!" a shrill and demanding voice shouted, interrupting Katie. "Five minutes! Dump your trays and get to class!"
Victoria and Katie exchanged long-suffering looks of students who had heard that spiel for every weekday for the past few years. The two girls usually waited a few minutes so the initial rush wasn't so bad to leave the cafeteria. They carried what they needed for their next classes in their backpacks to avoid the hallway-locker rush, as well. They were the last to leave the cafeteria usually and one of the first in class. It was a nearly flawless plan, except for the one time someone had tipped Katie's tray on her shirt. That had delayed their exit and entrance to their class on time, but that had only been once.
"Ready?" Katie asked. Adrian and Meg had already left and become lost in the retreating crowd of people.
Victoria nodded. "Ready to roll," she confirmed. 'Ready to roll' was a longtime saying between the girls. That they still had it going was a pretty good record, since they had been in maybe fifth grade when it had been established. With a little smile, Victoria stood and slung her backpack over one shoulder. After balancing and situating her back, she picked up her tray with both hands and started with Katie over to the trashcans.
They had to be very careful on that walk over there. The only flaw in their lunchtime-fleeing plan was that the stoners' tables were right next to the trashcans. The "emo" people were close by, as well. They usually hung around until they were about five minutes late for class. They left other people alone most of the time, choosing to wallow in their self-inflicted grief and imaginary pain instead of bringing it upon others.
But as Victoria was turning away from the trashcans, she heard a voice call her name from behind her.
"Yo, Addams," the male voice said.
Victoria slowly turned and looked at the boy who had called her. He had dark hair that fell into his eyes. Those eyes seemed to be ivy green, set attractively in his nicely shaped face. Victoria couldn't help herself from looking at him before she replied. He had some earrings in both ears and what was probably a faux nose ring. But she could never be too sure with these guys. The boy's clothes were black and red, and very baggy. He was, to be frank, a very interesting person to behold.
"Yes?" she replied at last. She wanted to walk away, to just ignore him, but she was nothing if not polite.
The guy looked her over for a few moments, assessing her in return. "Nice skirt," he said at last, tilting his head back a little. He laughed a little, as did the other members of his group. In that group, Victoria could see the two former members of her group, Rebeccah and Carmen.
Immediately thinking something was wrong with her skirt, though, Victoria checked herself over and felt to make sure it wasn't caught in her backpack, exposing much more of her legs and backside than she'd like. But after a moment, she found that every thing was fine. So she smiled a little hesitantly and warily at the guy. "Thanks, I guess," she replied carefully. She took a few steps backwards, towards Katie, now feeling more than ever the need to retreat. Victoria was never good with people, since she'd been picked on the majority of her life. One could say she was gun shy.
But the guy merely waved a little at her. "See you around," he said to her before turning back to his group. Immediately after he turned away, he was immersed in their own worlds.
Victoria cleared her throat uncomfortably and looked at Katie. "Who was he, anyway?" she asked her friend. Katie was slightly older, if only by a week and a half, and had no problem around people. Sometimes it seemed Katie became annoyed with Victoria for being so shy, but the older girl had never fussed about it, understanding the reasons why. Victoria was an only child; Katie had a big family. More controversy and more people around.
Katie thought for a moment. "Um, Bryan, I think," she replied after a few moments. "Just ignore him, I guess. We need to get to class, anyway."
With a small nod, Victoria followed her friend out of the cafeteria. Still, she couldn't stop thinking. Why had he talked to her? Why had he laughed after he complimented her skirt if something hadn't been wrong? Was she just paranoid of people for no reason now, or did she have a reason to be wary of his motives? What if he really had just wanted to talk to her? What if her skirt really did nice? A small blush touched Victoria's cheeks but she ignored it.
She couldn't afford a distraction right now. Her first class after lunch was English. She had that test to worry about.
Title: The Englist Test
Rating: T, due to chapter 5
Summary: Victoria Addams is your normal, run of the mill girl. Her life was going smoothly until an English test. She's sent to detention where her whole world turns upside-down. Can she make the right choices when they are presented to her?
Chapter 1: Lunchtime Rush
Lunchtime, the natural enemy of nonsocial status holding students; the new students' worst nightmare, because whomever they sat with would make or break them. If they sat with the bad crowd, they were forever labeled one of "them." If they so happened to be invited to a good table...well it was either good or bad. Even as a regular attending student, the lunch table they sat at depended upon their social status, or the lack thereof.
Victoria Addams was one of those without a status. She dressed nicely, but she wore all black for no apparent reason. When asked why, she would simply reply that it'd been what she'd picked out that morning. Her complexion was pale by her nationality, being German and English, and her eyes were slightly sunken in, casting shadows around the orbs. Her eye color was very light and clear blue. The hair that fell most of the way down her back was very dark, midnight blue-black. It didn't help her at all that, when she'd been in grade school, her father had come on the "bring your parent to school" day.
Her father was one-hundred percent German, with pale skin, blue eyes, and light blond hair. Plus, he was a mortician. Their family had always had careers dealing with death, working as undertakers, embalmers, funeral home/mortuary owners, gravediggers, and, like her father, medical examiners. There were probably more, but that had been all the teacher had allowed him to say.
From that day forward, Victoria had never been able to live down the rumors about her father being a serial killer so they could stay in business.
Her last name of Addams, being spelled just like the Addams Family, did no good for her, either.
Victoria looked to her left at her friends, Meg, Adrian, and Katie. Meg and Adrian were merely just friends, but Katie was Victoria's best friend. The two girls had known each other for years, since the about the middle of grade school. They'd both changed over the past seven or eight years in different ways, but it hadn't pushed them apart. If the changes had done anything, it had brought them closer together. Sure, they had their disagreements because they looked at something differently, but that was just another way that they respected each other and their differences.
Katie came from a big family, and she was stuck directly in the middle of it. Some people tried to make her feel better about her position with six other siblings and tell her that it wasn't true that the middle child was always left out, but Katie shrugged it off. If anything bothered her, it was the people trying to console her; otherwise, she was fine with being in the middle. That meant that she had time to read books and pursue being a pediatrician. Even though she had three younger, obnoxious siblings and her older siblings blamed stuff on her, Katie still loved kids. And having a best friend whose father was a medical examiner, well it was a big plus for her medical career. Though Katie didn't have the reputation Victoria did, Katie was still considered an outcast because she was always reading something.
Meg and Adrian, on the other hand, were more so the remnants of a former posse they'd had in junior high. The four girls had once been a clique of six, the "outcasts," so to speak. But their first year of high school, the other two girls had broken off and joined the mainstream crowd of s*x, drugs, and rock and roll. As Victoria scanned the lunch room, she could see them over at the far corner of the room, where all the stoners and rockers sat. She shrugged it off as their loss. It would also be Meg and Adrian's loss when they were sucked into the complete opposite spectrum of makeup, perms, and shopping. They sat closer together at the other side of the table, pouring over the latest issue of a fashion magazine.
Victoria had nothing against fashion. In fact, she actually took pride in looking nice and presentable. She just didn't obsess about it. If she had a bad hair day, she wore a hat. If she had a zit, she'd cover it up with some makeup. When she needed new clothes, she would go shopping. She just didn't spend an hour in front of her mirror for no reason other than making sure her ponytail was straight, or her makeup matched her clothing. Nor did she shop only for shopping's sake. She had other things to do with her time, such as study. Victoria also wanted a medical career.
That thought made her look down at her lunch with a small sigh. She had a test in English class that she hadn't studied for the previous night. Some people may have called it cramming, but she knew that studying the night before actually helped, in contrast to people thinking that they were just unprepared.
A voice interrupted Victoria's thoughts. She looked up to see Katie smiling a little. "What?" Victoria asked, not having heard her friend a moment before.
"I asked what was wrong. You're frowning," Katie repeated, still smiling.
A small smile spread across Victoria's face. It was a little nervously done, but she couldn't help it. "I'm fine. I just remembered that I have a test in English, that's all," she explained slowly. "I didn't study last night." History and science were not a problem for Victoria. She only had to glance over her note to be able to pass with a high A. Even math wasn't that hard for her. Sure, there were a lot of terms that she sometimes didn't understand, but she was making an A in the class. English, however, took days of preparation for a test or a quiz, simply because there were so many names of each word, it didn't click in her mind. She was happy and proud to be making a C+ or a B- in her English class.
Katie reached out to pat her shoulder. "You'll do fine, hon," she said in her slightly southern accent. Her small smile spread encouragingly. That was just one thing that Victoria loved about her friend - Katie was always so positive.
"Thanks." Victoria smiled a little more in return. "Hopefully I'll get a B or higher; I don't want to have another lecture on whatever I failed, and a lesson in medical examination." She laughed a little, but it was forced. Talking about her dad at school made her nervous. "As it is, he's already planning a series of grammar lessons and a few autopsies for me to assist."
Victoria was in Advanced Biology. She was also taking an eleventh grade class in tenth grade, which was Anatomy and Physiology. She was in those classes because each time she bombed a test or quiz, her father lectured her about failure, tutored her on what she'd failed, and gave her a lesson in medical examination to show he wasn't mad, just disappointed. So she was very advanced when it came to knowing about the human body and its functions.
That wouldn't be so bad for Victoria, since she wanted to be a doctor and help people live, breaking away from her kooky family. But instead, it was usually bad because she would usually end up spewing out the gory details in Advanced Biology and Anatomy and Physiology. The fact she could dissect a pig's chest cavity without getting sick and describe in a writer's envy of detail what the white matter in someones brain looked like only worsened her reputation as "daughter of a serial killer." There were rumors floating around that she helped her father tear apart the victims so the bodies were never found...intact.
"All right everyone!" a shrill and demanding voice shouted, interrupting Katie. "Five minutes! Dump your trays and get to class!"
Victoria and Katie exchanged long-suffering looks of students who had heard that spiel for every weekday for the past few years. The two girls usually waited a few minutes so the initial rush wasn't so bad to leave the cafeteria. They carried what they needed for their next classes in their backpacks to avoid the hallway-locker rush, as well. They were the last to leave the cafeteria usually and one of the first in class. It was a nearly flawless plan, except for the one time someone had tipped Katie's tray on her shirt. That had delayed their exit and entrance to their class on time, but that had only been once.
"Ready?" Katie asked. Adrian and Meg had already left and become lost in the retreating crowd of people.
Victoria nodded. "Ready to roll," she confirmed. 'Ready to roll' was a longtime saying between the girls. That they still had it going was a pretty good record, since they had been in maybe fifth grade when it had been established. With a little smile, Victoria stood and slung her backpack over one shoulder. After balancing and situating her back, she picked up her tray with both hands and started with Katie over to the trashcans.
They had to be very careful on that walk over there. The only flaw in their lunchtime-fleeing plan was that the stoners' tables were right next to the trashcans. The "emo" people were close by, as well. They usually hung around until they were about five minutes late for class. They left other people alone most of the time, choosing to wallow in their self-inflicted grief and imaginary pain instead of bringing it upon others.
But as Victoria was turning away from the trashcans, she heard a voice call her name from behind her.
"Yo, Addams," the male voice said.
Victoria slowly turned and looked at the boy who had called her. He had dark hair that fell into his eyes. Those eyes seemed to be ivy green, set attractively in his nicely shaped face. Victoria couldn't help herself from looking at him before she replied. He had some earrings in both ears and what was probably a faux nose ring. But she could never be too sure with these guys. The boy's clothes were black and red, and very baggy. He was, to be frank, a very interesting person to behold.
"Yes?" she replied at last. She wanted to walk away, to just ignore him, but she was nothing if not polite.
The guy looked her over for a few moments, assessing her in return. "Nice skirt," he said at last, tilting his head back a little. He laughed a little, as did the other members of his group. In that group, Victoria could see the two former members of her group, Rebeccah and Carmen.
Immediately thinking something was wrong with her skirt, though, Victoria checked herself over and felt to make sure it wasn't caught in her backpack, exposing much more of her legs and backside than she'd like. But after a moment, she found that every thing was fine. So she smiled a little hesitantly and warily at the guy. "Thanks, I guess," she replied carefully. She took a few steps backwards, towards Katie, now feeling more than ever the need to retreat. Victoria was never good with people, since she'd been picked on the majority of her life. One could say she was gun shy.
But the guy merely waved a little at her. "See you around," he said to her before turning back to his group. Immediately after he turned away, he was immersed in their own worlds.
Victoria cleared her throat uncomfortably and looked at Katie. "Who was he, anyway?" she asked her friend. Katie was slightly older, if only by a week and a half, and had no problem around people. Sometimes it seemed Katie became annoyed with Victoria for being so shy, but the older girl had never fussed about it, understanding the reasons why. Victoria was an only child; Katie had a big family. More controversy and more people around.
Katie thought for a moment. "Um, Bryan, I think," she replied after a few moments. "Just ignore him, I guess. We need to get to class, anyway."
With a small nod, Victoria followed her friend out of the cafeteria. Still, she couldn't stop thinking. Why had he talked to her? Why had he laughed after he complimented her skirt if something hadn't been wrong? Was she just paranoid of people for no reason now, or did she have a reason to be wary of his motives? What if he really had just wanted to talk to her? What if her skirt really did nice? A small blush touched Victoria's cheeks but she ignored it.
She couldn't afford a distraction right now. Her first class after lunch was English. She had that test to worry about.