face it. “You want to stick me back with...with sophmores? But I’m a junior!”
“Emily, academically—”
“I won't do it!”
“The school system here is different than back home—”
“I WON'T DO IT!” Honestly, Dru, I hated to make a scene in front of Hottie A. I mean, what would he think of me? But being put back a year on top of everything else...well, I just kind of lost it at that point.
“It's all been settled, sweetling.”
“Do you have any concept of just how much you have ruined my life?” I yelled, really freaking.
Mom came in at that point, which is probably a good thing, because you know, I really didn't want Aidan to see me murder my father—or worse, burst into tears. Either way he’d probably get the wrong idea about me. Anyway, Mom came in and asked with that ignore Emily making a scene face how things were going.
“That man you married has just killed any future I have whatsoever! He wants me to go to school with sophomores!”
Aidan, hunk of my dreams, smiled again. Could he be any more adorable? I think not. “It's not that bad, Emily.” I stopped in mid freak-out. He said my name! My name was on his lips! “Fifth form is all right. You get to swot for whatever subjects you like for the GSCE.”
“But we won't be in the same classes, then, will we?”
“Well, no,” he said, doing the finger-on-the-mustache thing again. “I'll be taking different sorts of classes than you. Sixth formers study for their A levels, while the fifth form studies for the GSCE. That stands for General Certificate of Secondary Education. A levels are what you take to go to university.”
“It sounds like a stupid system,” I muttered, loud enough for Brother to hear. If he thought I was going to let him shove me back with mere children, he could just think again. I decided, however, that it wouldn't be at all a smooth move to make my point in front of Aidan. He probably already thought I was a little weird. So I gritted my loins and girded my teeth and all that.
Then Mom said...
Sorry, had to answer the Parental Call. Like they can't walk in here to talk to me? I have to leave, we're going out shopping for my school uniform before the stores close. I tried what you suggested, but Amnesty International said they don't think being forced to wear a school uniform qualifies as a cruel and unusual punishment.
More later. I'm not through telling you about Aidan yet, and there's tomorrow...must go. Evidently my mother is going to have a heart attack and die if we don't leave right now. Let me know if you've left the house yet, and how the Zombie family maid burned down their house.
Hs and Ks,
~Em
Subject: I am never going to live through this year
From: [email protected]
Date: 3 September 8:50 pm
Maybe it won't be as bad as you think, maybe...oh, what am I saying? Of course it will bad! I can't imagine going back to tenth grade! That would be awful. I think you have grounds to sue your parents for mistreatment.
I'm back. I survived, although just barely, the trip to Valentine's, a scabby old store in glorious downtown Piddlesville that caters to the Indentured School Slaves. The woman who runs the teen area had big poofy pink hair that looked just like cotton candy, and she kept calling me “dearie.” It was awful.
Before I describe the horrors that are now hanging in my wardrobe, let me tell you about POTW. First off, it's very small, which is no surprise, because I can't imagine anyone who wants to live in a city with that name. There's a High Street with a couple of cool shops, and a handful of grotty shops (“grotty” is a local word. It means grotesque. IMHO, there’s a lot about POTW that’s on the grotty side), a Second Street with gas stations and a McDonald's, and that's about it. Valentine's is the local department store, although how anyone can even think of buying anything there is one of those mysteries that will never get solved. The clothes in the window were so eighties I almost heard the theme to Knots Landing. Inside was even worse—it was dim and dusty and the wooden floor creaked, and the whole place smelled like old cabbage and mothballs.
“If this is what my life has come to,” I said, stopping and refusing to go any farther once I saw the school