“Emilie, come along please,” my best friend Hope Johnson calls out to me. I’m sitting in my seat at my desk waiting for class to start. “Where are we going?” I ask her, getting up from my seat. “Class is about to start.” “Just come along!” Hope insists, trying to drag me out of class as the bell rings. “Ugh. No fun!” she teases as she walks over to her own desk. I can’t help myself but laugh a little bit. Hi. I’m Emilie Ann Sinclair, but more commonly known as Emilie, or Hope’s friend. It kinda bothers me to be referred to as “Hope’s friend” but that doesn’t really matter. Hope is really popular at school, and I’m only known because I’m friends with her. As class starts, I glance over at Hope to see her already staring at me like a hawk, smiling like a creep. I immediately burst out laughing, but then catch myself before our English teacher, Mr. Paeton yells at us. “Alright class. Settle down,” Mr. Paeton strictly demanded. That “settle down” was clearly aimed at me and Hope. It was normal for Mr. Paeton to yell at us since he pretty much hates us. After class ended it was time for lunch. “Is Isa gonna be here today?” I ask Hope as we walk down the hallway. “Not sure. I texted her this morning, but I think she’s still sick,” Hope responds. We soon arrive at our lunch table to see that our friend Isa, who has been sick for the past few days, was still not at school. The people who are at the table are me, Hope, and our friends Lauren, Aaron, Mae, Jayce, and my cousin Riley. Our new friend Juliet is also at the table. “Hey, fun-sized and fun-sized’s friend,” Riley says to me. I had recently introduced him to Hope and my friend group, and he still can’t remember their names. “Her name’s Hope, and stop calling me fun-sized!” I shout at him playfully after me and Hope sit down. Hope and everyone else laughs. “I’m not even that small anymore!” “Yeah yeah,” he teases. “So, Juli-” Hope starts. She is then cut off by a loud shriek coming from behind her. Everyone who wasn’t already facing in the direction of the scream was now looking at it. Behind Hope was two older and larger girls fighting a smaller and probably younger girl. Punches were thrown. The fight lasted a while before the lunch administrators got involved. Right as Ms. Knott, one of the lunch teachers, was right about to reach the three girls, one of the larger girls threw a punch that the smaller girl dodged and it hit Hope right in the face. Knocked out on the floor, nose bloody, I rushed over to her with Riley to my left and Aaron to my right.
