*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*

‘’Arghhh’’ A hand reached out to slam the alarm clock to stop it’s annoying ringing.

The person shuffled about underneath the blanket until they realised it was probably useless trying to get back to sleep. Two dainty feet made an appearance, slipping themselves into a cute pair of bunny slippers.

The blanket fell off, slowly revealing a messy-haired teenaged girl, her hair dyed an ash blonde.

‘’Chaeyeon! You’re going to be late for your first day if you don’t hurry up!’’ Her mother yelled from downstairs.

Chaeyeon groaned and dragged herself to the shared bathroom, her sister was still inside, touching up her make up.

‘’Hurry up Chaeryeong, you’re a middle schooler, you don’t need make up….’’ She leaned on the door way, yawning as her sister hurried up.

‘’You don’t understand Unnie, I have this boy I like, he only likes girls with makeup.’’ Her little sister puckered her lips in the mirror and put away her things, letting the oldest inside.

Chaeyeon wanted to say how shallow this boy was but then she thought again and it was better for Chaeryeong to learn who to avoid when she properly dated in the future.

The oldest sibling sighed as she got ready for her first day at school. Chaeyeon had previously been studying at a dance specialising academy and even though she was enjoying the dance aspect, she wasn’t getting along with any of her classmates. They shunned her, outcasted her, leaving her no friends to interact with. It took a very big toll on her mental health and her mother decided it would be best to transfer to a normal high school. One that wasn’t filled with uppity ballerinas.

She washed her face, opening her eyes to stare at herself in the mirror. Chaeyeon touched her cheeks with her finger tips, poking at the chubbiness in them. People didn’t like how she looked……

‘So why should I?’ She thought.

The dancer’s mood became sour, she wasn’t feeling the sudden move as she tried to convince her mum she was fine and that she could’ve held out until graduation. But mother bear wasn’t having any of that and went ahead with the paper work anyways.

She shuffled back into her room to find her uniform already ironed and neatly laid out on top of her bed. She couldn’t deny that her mother was the best in the world. She smiled to herself as she got changed, taking a little more care into tying her patterned bow tie.

When she got downstairs, her mother was already in the midst of cleaning up the dishes. On the island was a single plate, stacked with pancakes and covered in glistening syrup and paired with a glass of orange juice.

‘’Eat up honey, I’m going to leave for work in a minute.’’ Mother bear came around and placed a chaste kiss on her daughter’s forehead.

‘’Have a good day at work!’’ And then the door was locked.

Chaeyeon dug into her breakfast, nerves slowly building up as it was nearing the time to leave the house. Her dog, Chaeri, jumped up onto her lap trying to get to the left over pancakes.

‘’Hey, you had yours already fatty!’’ She put him back on the ground, patting him on the head before washing the dishes and grabbing her bag to head out.

‘’I wish I could be a dog….then I wouldn’t have to go to school.’’ Muttered the 17-year-old.

Their house wasn’t that far from the school, only about a 10-minute walk from the front gate. When she got there, there were still a couple of groups of students just hanging around by the gate, gossiping and sharing facts about the latest baseball game.

‘That’s good….I’m not late.’

However, when she neared them, they all stopped. Their heads turning as their conversations shifted into hushed whispers about the new girl. Chaeyeon felt her cheeks flare up, even though she had danced in front of hundreds of people, this was the type of attention she hated.

She half-jogged to the front building where the reception was, the lady behind the desk was relatively young, she had trendy round glasses and she was playing on her phone until she saw Chaeyeon walk in.

‘’Uhm, hi, I’m new….could I have my schedule please?’’

The lady smiled and started to type on the slightly outdated computer.

‘’What’s your name dear?’’ She asked as she peeked from behind her glasses.

‘’Lee Chaeyeon.’’

Some more typing and clicking went on before a paper was printed in front of her and handed over. ‘’Here you go, my name is Sunny, I’m the main receptionist around here so if you need anything just come to me.’’

Chaeyeon nodded and bid farewell to the friendly lady. She looked at the piece of paper, she had math first. She felt her feet get heavy, she never liked any of the main subjects like math and science but not that she wasn’t good at them, she just found them to be a drag.

It was still early, and the starting bell had yet to ring, so the dancer decided to just sit in the empty classroom until class started. What she didn’t expect was a student in the far corner at the back next to the window with their head down and covered with their blazer.

She saw how the person’s back was heaving up and down slowly, concluding that the girl was most likely asleep. Chaeyeon didn’t want to wake them up in case they had a bad night’s sleep and was merely trying to get some rest before a long day. She took the seat on the same row but right at the front since no-one’s name plate was on it. It was a bonus that she enjoyed looking out of the window at the caretakers as they tended the flower beds.

Suddenly a shrill bell rang and the girl at the back jumped awake, her blazer flinging off her. Chaeyeon turned around just in time to see the girl in a mess, her shoulder length hair was all over the place, but she had a fringe. Her thick rectangular rimmed glasses were crooked on her face, a little drool trailed down to her chin and her tie was crinkled.

They made eye contact. Neither of them moved as they studied each other, that was until they were interrupted by the rest of the class filing in. The mysterious girl fixed her appearance before the teacher walked in.

The female teacher immediately grinned and gestured for Chaeyeon to go up to the front to introduced herself.

‘’Why do I have to do this…’’ She muttered. The dancer clasped her hands in front of her out of habit and she eyed the class, taking in completely new faces, especially the girl at the back who wasn’t even paying attention. Chaeyeon felt herself huff because of that.

‘’My name is Lee Chaeyeon, I transferred from a dance school and I thought a change would be nice.’’ She lied about that last part, nobody had to know about the