I awake to the sound of my mother, shrieking, "Celestina! You're going to be late!"
I gather my things, take an accelerated shower and dash to my Dad's car.
"Buenos dias, Papa." (Good morning, Dad) I kiss him on his cheek.
"Buenos dias, Mija," (Good morning, my child) he smiles and scratches his unkempt beard, "you were almost late again."
"Lo siento, Papa." (I'm sorry, Dad)
"It's OK, mija, try to be on time more often."
"Yes, Papa."
Within a few quiet minutes, I arrive at school, "Adios, Papa, (Goodbye Dad) I'll see you after after school."
I've grown to love this school. With it's fancy marble stature, gleaming tall and bright in the sun. The flag with our school colors, red, blue and black, blow smoothly in the crisp, fresh wind.
"Bye mija, have a good day."
"Hey, Mr. Emperor!" Cole rushes to my side and offers to take my bag.
"It's Emperador, loco!" (Crazy) Dad angrily corrects Cole and leers at him.
"It's the same thing."
"Cole, you know that ticks him off."
I bend down to tie my shoe and listen to the morning birds chirp their glorious tunes.
"I know, It's fun to mess with him."
We walk into class and take our seats. The classroom is filled with chattering teenagers and clean cherry wood desks with hard metal seats. These seats always hurt my butt. Our teacher can't be serious, putting the cursive alphabet banner atop the white board. We're not learning cursive, we already know how to write it...
"Is Valentine late again?" I ask, taking out my notebook and the week long book report.
"I guess so, Mr. Bianchi had her up all night at the pizza shop."
Cole tightens his ponytail rubber band and smirks when Jinketsu opens the door. Cole's green eyes glint whenever he's about to say something he thinks is witty. Which, less often then more, isn't.
"And here comes Celestina's Samurai in private school armor."
See what I mean?
"Shut it Cole, you said you wouldn't tease me about it anymore."
He raises an eyebrow and lowers his head to accentuate his handsome, chiseled bone structure. He's always doing that, making cute faces to make me forgive him... I always do.
"I did?"
"Yes, you did."
"Was I drunk?"
"You don't drink."
"Was I high?"
"You don't smoke weed!"
"Hi Celestina, Hi Cole." Jin smiles warmly and sits in the desk beside me. His light brown eyes are always so light and captivating during the school day.
"Hey Jin," Cole open his textbook and pretends to read, "how did the book report go?"
"It went well; I just didn't like the ending."
"Well, that's how tragedies go, my friend."
"Hey, It's Friday and my parents are away on business, do you guys want to come over for a few hours? I know how your parents are about sleep overs. I'll invite Valentine too."
"I would like that," I say, doodling on my report, "I want to get out of the house. My Mom and Dad need some grown up time."
"Gross," Cole comments, "I'm up for it, Dad is royally p***ing me off."
"Hey guys!" Valentine hugs me, "I finished my book report!"
"I did too," Jin shows her his beautifully crafted plastic cover with his title and school information, "I was talking to Celestina and Cole about coming to my house after school, would you like to come?" "I'd love to, I don't work on Friday's or the weekend. It would be good to get out. My parents are working me to death at the pizza shop."
"Still?" I look at Valentine. Jinketsu, Cole, Valentine and I have been good friends since Freshman year, but we don't know much about one another. I am a very secretive person, as are my friends. I've always kept almost every detail about myself a secret and I've tried to find acquaintances who are shut ins like me. However, for some reason, I tend to know when something is wrong with any of them.
"Yes, still... I don't know what their problem is..."
"Valentine," Jin fixes his body to sit straight up, he's obviously going to give her a heart felt lecture, "your parents just want you to learn responsibility at a young age, and they're showing you the ropes so one day you can take over the shop in the time of their passing."
"I don't want to run a pizza shop! That's not my dream!"
I haven't the slightest clue as to what Valentine's dream is... It would be nice to know somethings about my friends, though...