Nothing but a Number

"I believe that the word 'life' should not be defined, as it defines itself. Now I know what you're all thinking, what the hell is she talking about-"

"Miss Stanton" my second period english teacher warns me, and I give him a fake apologetic smile, looking back down at my paper.

"Life is just life. As defined in dictionaries, or on google, life is the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter. But I just say life is life. Its pretty much unexplainable in an unscientific matter I guess, but I believe that life is a prize. But to live, doesn't mean you're alive" I smile as my class begins to laugh at the lyrics by Nicki Minaj. "You're life is like a diary, or a journal, which only you can read and write in. But let's say you wrote with a pen or a marker, and made a mistake. You can cross it out, but that mistake will always be there. You can't erase or change it, but what you can do, is start fresh on a whole new page...and make sure to use a pencil this time" the classroom laughs again, and applaud as I bow, and take my seat next to Luke, my best friend.

"That was...interesting" he whispers, and I nudge him with my elbow.

"That was a very great poem Faye. Next up is José Rodriguez".

I watch as José gets up from his seat, and stands in my previous spot, in the front of the classroom. He begins to read his poem, and I have trouble listening as I'm constantly glancing back and forth at the clock, in anticipation. Why isn't this class over yet? I ask myself just as José finishes up and the bell rings.

I quickly get out of my seat and grab my books from the basket at the bottom of the chair. "Wait, Faye" Mr.Jones calls me, and I toss my head back, groaning. "I uh, really liked your poem today and I have an offer for you". I raise my eyebrows, insisting that he continue. "Would you like to write a play for our school's drama club? Principle Warner suggested that we perform something by the end of the month, and so far, it kills me to say it, but the drama students' plays are crap".

I chuckle at his choice of words, and politely decline his offer. "Sorry I don't write plays, it's not really my thing. But good luck" I give him a thumbs up, and join Luke, who had been patiently waiting for me in the hall.

"What was that about?" he asked as I treaded to my locker.

"Nothing important" I say briskly, and put in my locker combination. 22-32-38; I say in my head, and open up the locker.

"Hello my precious babies" I coo, and grab my bag of sour patches, closing the locker door afterwards.

"If you keep eating those, you're going to have your braces on for a 4th year" Luke says.

"For your information, I brush my teeth everyday. So I shall eat as many sour patches as I please" I inform him as we walk into third period; Algebra 2, which as being seniors we should've already taken but since our school is stupid they gave us Algebra 1 in the 9th grade, Geometry in 10th grade and Pre-Calculus in 11th. I seriously use to love math, but ever since the government that controls New Jersey and just the whole world in general, decided to introduce letters and whatnot, everything sorta went downhill for me. I just don't understand the concept of it or how it will help us in the future when we're all working at McDonald's and Burger King wishing to have become NBA stars and Kim Kardashians. As Luke and I are walking through the halls, I struggle to open my bag of sour patches, and I swear if this bag pops open and all of my babies fall on the floor, I'll be devastated, and someone will be sure to call Child Protection Services on me, and that someone will most likely be Luke.

"Here, let me see" he grabs the bag from me, and puts the bag in the corner in his mouth, between his teeth, and easily tears the bag open. "There you go" he says giving me back the bag with a smile.

"Thanks" I say and stride into the classroom, towards my desk, digging through the bag for a green sour patch, which by the way are my favorite.

"Faye" Mr.McAllister, my Algebra 2 teacher calls, and I turn around, chewing on the sour candy.

"No eating in my classroom, lunch is next period" he puts his hand out, and I frown, placing the bag in his hand. "After class" he says.

I walk over to my desk and sit down, pulling out my green notebook. I don't know why, but I have this slight obsession over my books and folders being stacked in size order, and I have specific colors for each class. Algebra is green, English is red or blue, and anything science related is black. Yeah I'm weird, but I wouldn't be so cool if I wasn't.

"Now I'm sure you're all familiar with the order of operations PEMDAS, so I want you to solve these few problems, and when you're done, I need some volunteers to write the answers on the board". He writes some problems up on the white board, and returns to his desk.

I study the first problem, jiggling my leg up and down, and biting on the end of my pencil. I make an ugly face when the medal collides with my braces, and makes my mouth taste weird. How could I seriously have forgotten this? It's like the easiest thing! But I haven't done the PEMDAS method since 9th grade! I look over to my left, ready to ask Luke for help, but my witty hispanic friend has fled the scene and moved all the way across the room sitting next to Genevieve. I guess I'll have to figure it out myself then. I sigh, and study the problem a little harder.

8 x (3 x 2 - 8) + 10

Come on Faye you can do this! I try to encourage myself, and place my fingers on my temples, shutting my eyes really hard until a collision of colors begin to appear. This seriously shouldn't be so hard for me to figure out, I just think that I easily distract myself and become uninterested quickly.

"Is everything okay Faye?" I feel a hand touch my shoulder, and I open my eyes, taking a while to adjust to the classroom light.

"Yea I'm fine" I tell Mr. McAllister as he walks over to the board, and has a few students complete the problems.

After that, he starts on a lesson that I can barely focus on, seeing as he still had my sour patches on his desk. By the time the last problem is solved, and he gives us class work and homework to do, the bell rings, and everybody quickly jumps up from their seats, because we all have lunch next period.

"May I have my sour patches back Mr. McAllister?" I ask politely, and he gives me the bag, just as I left it. "Thank you".

I fish through the bag and grab a hand full of sour patches, dropping them one by one into my mouth. "Thanks for ditching me to sit with Genevieve" I say her name with an ugly face, and a high pitched voice.

"This crush you have on me is getting a little out of hand Faye" he jokes, and opens his water bottle, taking a few drinks from it. I hit the end of the bottle as he holds it up, causing some water to trail down his shirt.

"I don't have a crush on you" I tell him while walking into the lunchroom.

The only thing that I actually admire about this place is the wonderful vending machine, which holds my precious sour patches on the third rack, #124. The food here isn't all that good, but if a chick is hungry, a chick is going to eat.

"Hey Faye" Jaylen, one of the gossip girls at my table, greets me as I walk over to the table with my lunch tray filled with boxed pizza, a fruit cup, and a small carton of fruit juice.

"Hey Jaylen".

"Did you know Andrew and Callie broke up last night?"

She told all the girls that were sitting at our table. Jaylen is practically our school's 'gossip girl', and news on feet. She's the one everyone goes to for the latest breakups so they know who's available and who's not, which is really pathetic and overrated to me. Things like that you'll only see people do on television and in movies, but I guess she's trying to turn our reality into a catastrophe.

"FYI Jaylen, Andrew and Callie both spread that rumor on their own to see how fast it would get out, and from the looks of it, it got out pretty fast" I say, and get up from the table to sit next to Luke. After lunch, we had Chemistry, Physical Education, then African American History, and now I can finally go home, eat some food, and go to sleep.

I quickly exit the classroom and speed walk to my locker. "Slow down there Stanton" Luke says leaning against the locker beside mine.

"Shut up".

He laughs and walks out of the school building beside me as we both stand at the bus stop with a few other students. As the bus pulls up, we swipe our bus passes and sit in the very last seats at the back of the bus, where we sit all the time. Unless its already taken. "So, about the chemistry project-"

"Can we talk about something besides school" I groan and throw my head back.

"Is someone a little stressed?" Luke pouts and pets my head like I'm a dog.

"Very. I'll see you tomorrow" I say, waving goodbye, and stepping off the back of the bus when it's my stop, and walking across the street to my house. I do my everyday routine and open the mailbox, pulling the mail out and walking inside the house.

"Moms!" I yell, checking to see if I had gotten any mail.

"In the kitchen" my mom says and I walk into the dining room throwing my bag on one of the chairs.

"Momma's still at work" she says as I give her a quick kiss on the cheek and grab some chips from the cabinet. That news wasn't really surprising seeing as momma worked at a rehabilitation center, and they always kept her there longer than she's scheduled be, and she doesn't mind since it's extra money, so sometimes my mom puts her dinner in the microwave because she usually comes home when the two of us are asleep.

My mom works at a grocery store, currently struggling to find a better job but is happy that she has one at all. As for me, I would like to get one this summer just so I can rub it in Luke's face. After finishing my chips and homework, I go upstairs, not even bothering to eat dinner, and went straight to bed. Which my mom hates because she cooks and no one ever eats, but with all the work I've been doing in school, I definitely deserved a good nights rest.