Chapter Two

First Day Blues

Savannah finds herself cringing to the sound of her 6:30AM alarm clock.

She had pressed the snooze button every 5 minutes for the last half-hour, apparently 10 hours of sleep was not enough to master the energy to rise from her slumber.

It seems to take all the will-power in her to get up.

"Savannah banana!" Benjamin burst into the room "Up you get; I can't afford to be late to school." He says as he stuffs a pancake in his mouth.

"Okay, Ben, chill bro, you're only in 8th grade," said Savannah groggily as she got up and stretched for what felt like an eternity.

Savannah, feeling more refreshed after washing her face, gets dressed in her summer school uniform of a white, short sleeved, collared top and a blue tartan kilt that fell just above her knees.

She had left the toughest obstacle for last. Her hair.

Savannah searches for her hair-tie in her curly, thick brunette hair.

She unravels her bushy hair and stands staring at it in the mirror, overwhelmed by the wildness of it and the little time she has to tame it.

She brushes her frizzly afro upwards and ties it into a bun. A messy one, but nonetheless, a bun.

Feeling elated about finally taming her hair yet guilty for neglecting it all summer, Savannah grabs her school bag and makes her way down stairs for breakfast.

Ben is tapping away his drum sticks on the dining table while watching cartoons on his laptop, Savannah's father and mother are sitting side-by-side, her father reading the news paper and her mother enjoying her breakfast.

"There you are sleeping beauty," said Anthony smiling up at his daughter, "Oh, hey it only took you two years, but I'm glad you're out of bed!" Ben calls out to Savannah as she makes her way to the fridge to grab a juice box.

"Benjamin be quiet, you'll wake up Michael" said Anita firmly, "Mum, your sasquatch of a son is not easily woken." Said Ben, Savannah snorted so hard she nearly spat out her juice, Ben did his best not to burst into laughter as gets eyeballed by his mother.

Anita is a loving and protective woman who would do anything for her husband and kids, she has kind brown eyes and short curly hair that fell to her shoulders.

Despite her kindness, Anita is the 'tough-love' kind of parent who never shies away from being assertive, whether it was because of her job as a high-school guidance counsellor or the fact that her husband was lenient with their kids, nobody could tell.

"I best be on my way," said Anthony; he kisses his wife on the cheek, grabs his blazer, ruffles Ben's curly hair and kissed Savannah on the forehead.

"Alright you two, got everything sorted? We better get going too before we're late." Said Anita, placing her coffee mug in the sink.

Savannah swings her bag over her shoulder and makes her way to the front door where she is greeted with humid air and weather that was so hot, it was as if the sun was inches away from earth, well Australia anyway.

Panic invades Savannah's mind, she was sure, without a doubt, by the end of this humid day, her hair would look like Medusa's, except wilder.

The journey to school is a short one, Anita pulls up at the school gates where a bunch of nervous looking seventh graders in uniforms that were too big for them and other student were making their way into the giant campus of Holy Cross High.

She kisses Savannah and Ben goodbye and says something about them coming home before dinner.

"Don't get yourself into too much trouble" Savannah says to Ben as they part ways, Savannah making her way to the year 12 building and Ben making his way to the year 8 building.

"Can't promise anything Savannah cabana," said Ben, smirking as he waved his sister goodbye.

Savannah missed the school more than she cared to admit, she walks up stairs and into the hallway of lockers reminiscing about her years at Holy Cross High.

Feeling a mixture of excitement to finally graduate later on the year and heavy-hearted sadness that the year will be her last in a place she had spent 5 years of her life in.

She walks into her homeroom for the year which is filled with rows of unoccupied tables, the walls covered with inspiration quotes and posters discouraging drugs and underage drinking, at the front of the room was an electronic whiteboard.

Savannah takes a seat in the third row and takes out her favourite book which contains poems from her favourite poet and reads away to pass the time.

It is 10 minutes to homeroom and just about all of Savannah's classmates had arrived except for Leon. Where on earth is he?

Just before the bell for homeroom rings, in comes the teacher, Miss Mewdan, whose nasty facial expression was nearly as nasty as she is.

She walks into the room with her nose in the air and pursed lips, hair hair was in a tight bun and her high-heeled shoes clunked every step she took.

Savannah tries desperately to silent her internal groans of misery.

Miss Mewdan gave her and Leon hell ever since their first days in seventh grade, the thought of having to deal with her in her final year makes Savannah want to throw herself out the window.

"Quiet! and all eyes on me," she demands, which was quite unnecessary considering the room fell silent the moment she walked in.

"Your itinerary for today is the same as it has been for the past five years," she begins, eyeballing everyone in class as she speaks.

"And what might that be?" asks a student who Savannah recognises as Mitchell Jones, he is annoyingly attractive, with his dark messy hair and piercing blue eyes.

He had always been kind to Savannah but she liked to keep her distance, Mitchell reminded her of a bad time in her and Leon's friendship.

When Leon and Savannah fell out in 8th grade, Mitchell had replaced Savannah as Leon's new 'bestie'.

Ever since then, Leon and Mitchell remained tight and even though Savannah and Leon resolved their conflict, the thought of Mitchell left a bitter taste on Savannah's mouth.

"Mr Jones this is your sixth year attending this school, if you're still unfamiliar with the yearly first day schedule, I truly worry for you," said Miss Mewdan, staring into Mitchell's soul through her glasses.

"Worry for me? Who knew the woman was capable of emotion?" Mitchell mumbles to his friends as he smirkes, glancing in Savannah's direction.

Savannah fought the smile that was growing on her face, she didn't want to give Mitchell the satisfaction of thinking she had found him funny.

Thankfully Miss Mewdan hadn't heard Mitchell's remark; she sighs and comes around her desk and stands in front of the class.

"There will be a whole school assembly after period four before lunch," she said her eyes scanning each student's face, "where school captains will be announced...."

A spark of excitement shoots up Savannah's spine as she remembers Leon's campaign to win school captaincy last year, without a doubt Leon would've been chosen, Savannah thought to herself.

"And the events that will take place both semester's this school year" she finished, eyeballing Mitchell in particular.

She walks behind her desk and starts taking the roll, "Savannah Brown!" she calls out after a few students.

"Yes, here." Savannah said unenthusiastically. Miss Mewdan looks up at her and Savannah swore she could see a glint of malice in her beady black eyes.

When she's midway through the class roll, the door opens and in walks Leon, fifteen minutes late.

"Mr Thompson, so nice of you to join us" she says condescendingly, every inch of her face etched with complete and utter disgust, "Why are you late?!"

"Sorry, Miss." Said Leon calmly as he takes a seat right beside Savannah.

"Car wouldn't start so I took the bus," Leon whispers in Savannah's ear, "don't worry, you haven't missed anything important," Savannah whispers back.

"Quiet yourselves!" Miss Mewdan hisses.

"Sav, I can't believe we've got to deal with this witch for another year," whispers Leon.

"MR. THOMPSON, THE NERVE YOU HAVE TO DISRUPT MY CLASS NOT ONCE BUT TWICE THIS MORNING IS IMPECCABLE. HAVE YOU NO SELF RESTRAINT?!" Miss Mewdan shouts, her eyes fixated on Leon, as her face begins to redden.

Savannah's surprised, Leon is never one to insult or judge someone's character, the way he felt about Miss Mewdan spoke volumes.

Leon didn't seem too bothered by Miss Mewdan's outburst, he simply shifts in his seat and whispers "Sorry..."

The bell rings and everyone gets prepared to leave for their classes.

"Not so fast, uniform checks are in order," said Miss Mewdan, rising from her seat, "line up in alphabetical order!" she orders "and hurry, I haven't got all morning."

Neither do we, Savannah thinks to herself as she rolls her eyes.

Miss Mewdan seems to take a particularly long time analysing every detail of Savannah in an attempt to find something to get her in trouble for.

Savannah pats down her flyaway hairs in an effort to look like what Miss Mewdan would call 'neat', an impossible task.

"You may go," she says after what felt like eternity, Savannah looks back and there are at least twenty students before Leon in the line of uniform check, exasperated, Savannah waves Leon goodbye, "Meet me at recess by my locker!" he calls out.

As Savannah walks away, she hears Miss Mewdan telling Leon off, again. Why is she so bitter?

The thought of starting school like that, every morning made the hairs on the back of Savannah's neck stand as she made her way to her Literature class.

Despite the rough start to the morning Savannah had the greatest time in her literature class, feeling like an hour and forty-five minutes was not enough to learn and discuss things she was so interested in.

After class she made her way to the lockers where she was supposed to meet Leon.

She remembers him saying something about meeting him by his locker, only she didn't have a clue where his locker was.

After 15 minutes of searching and waiting, Savannah gave up on finding Leon and spent what was left of recess in the library, snacking on her grapes and reading her favourite book of poems.

She let herself be completely engrossed by the works of Mailine Anoch, a talented and inspiration poet who lived a hard yet meaningful life.

She was Savannah's true inspiration.

Her favourite poem was called 'Loving you, Loving me', Savannah had read it so many times she remembers it word for word.

It helped Savannah overcome a lot, in times of great difficulty, Savannah would recite to herself:

I am beautiful, I am powerful and I wont settle for less

My mind, my body, my soul, which cannot be suppressed

My skin is rich, crystallised and as dark as the night sky

I am my own form of beauty, to yours I shall not comply

My kinky hair, full lips and deep brown eyes

I will embrace my roots and my people I will stand by

Try, and try but you'll never change me

For nothing worthwhile is ever easy

I am exactly who I am meant to be

Every flaw, imperfection, I am unapologetically me

Even though it was only just an arrangement of words, they made Savannah feel incredibly at ease, in fact all of Mailine's poems did, it was a shame that Savannah only knew of three, which existed in the book of poems she received for her tenth birthday, that she carried everywhere she went.

She searched for years to find other works of Mailine, but was unsuccessful especially considering Mailine passed away 20 years before Savannah was born and was regrettably an extremely underrated poet.

Savannah can't help but harbour feelings of guilt for the lack of time she had spent with her best friend, being apart always reminded her of their fallout in 8th grade.

On Savannah's 14th birthday, she had a party which was made up of family; her cousins, aunts and uncles, but her only friend, Leon had gone to Natalie Georgevski's birthday party on the same day instead of Savannah's.

Feeling hurt and betrayed that Leon had chosen Natalie over her, Savannah confronted Leon, after hearing the little he had to say on the matter Savannah thought it was best to distance herself from him.

Savannah had never had a problem with Natalie until she started to publicly humiliate and scrutinise everything about Savannah, from her social awkwardness to her frizzy hair.

Savannah had always gotten the impression that Natalie had ulterior motives to come between her and Leon which she successfully did in 8th grade.

But there was something that Natalie did that was so rotten, that it made Savannah's blood boil every time she thought about it.

Savannah had written a poem in 8th grade English, it was so moving, that her teacher at the time, Mr Wilson encouraged Savannah to read it in front of the whole school during assembly.

Savannah hand wrote it in her best hand writing and laminated it after school in the school library where her, Leon and regrettably Natalie were studying the day before the assembly.

Natalie said her goodbyes to Leon while Savannah was on her way to bathroom, after she came back, both her poem and Natalie were gone.

Savannah cried all the way home and cried herself to sleep that night. She had never been recognised for anything before. Thinking back, the poem probably wasn't as great as she remembered it, but it was hers, it came from her mind, written by her and that meant a great deal to Savannah.

The fact that Leon chose to go to Natalie's birthday party instead of Savannah's a week after the theft of her poem, was what aggravated Savannah.

Throughout all of that year, Savannah and Leon grew further and further apart, Savannah would spend her time in the library reading and Leon found a friend in Mitchell Jones.

Avoiding Leon at school was easy, the problem was that Leon's mother Grace Thompson was a psychology teacher at the same school that Savannah's mother was a guidance counsellor.

On Christmas day, Leon and Savannah decided to build bridges as one could not thrive without the other.

Ever since that day, they agreed to pretend as if it never happened between them, however, there was still animosity between Natalie and Savannah, especially because Leon was unable to break his friendship with Natalie and Savannah was incapable of asking him to do so.

The bell rings, startling Savannah, she had once again been so consumed by her thoughts that she had lost track of time and quite frankly space.