Chapter 4

"Get up Kat!"
I rolled over and squashed my face against the soft pillow.
"KAT!" Mum screeched at me, kicking my make-shift bed (a matress with a duvet and pillow ontop), shuddering my body.
"Ugh." I moaned.
I creakily got up, my bones aching dreadfully, and wiped the sleep from my eyes.
"It's 8.00am! Get up! Mitchell was awake 2 hours ago! You've got to catch the bus at 8.45am!" Mum scolded me, throwing me a pile of clothes.
I gazed down at them.
A white, crispy blouse; a pair of squeaky clean, solid, leather, practical shoes; some navy socks; some granny underwear; a blazer with PEAR TREE SECONDARY SCHOOL written on it; a yucky old-fashioned, granny-ish pleated grey skirt and a long gold and green tie.
"Mum! I can't wear that!" I groaned.
I thought of my slip-on plastic shoes, my tatty-but-cool blouse, my bright neon pink ankle socks, my tasteful girl-boxers, my mini-skirt-4-school, my tie slung to low, I didn't even WEAR a blazer.
"Its uniform Katrina. Now get dressed. Breakfast in 5 minutes." And she stalked out the door.
"AAARGH!" I HATE her!!!
I got dressed and gazed at myself.
I looked a total nerd.
What about my classmates???
Everyone at my old school thought I was cool. I was one-of-the-gang, I was popular, funky, pretty and now I couldn't even find a hairbrush.
I glanced wearily at my pocket mirror, my hair looked like a tornado had hit it.
It was wild, all over the place, knotted.
I didn't have a brush/
I tried to brush it with my fingers, and then I tied it with yesterdays neon-pink hairband with SUPERSTAR written on it.
I slouched downstairs to find a bowl of Crunchy Nut in my place, everyone eating, except for Mitchell, who was writing in his BE A MATHS GENIUS (FOR YEAR 4-6)
"Kat!" Mum screamed at me. "After all I've told you!"
"What?" I replied, completely puzzled.
"Your hairband! Take it out now!"
"Why?" I asked, flabbergasted.
"NOW!" Mum almost shouted, looking as though she would kill me.
I took it out, almost in tears, and handed it to her.
"Here." She said and pushed her boring brown hair bobble across the table.
BEEP! BEEP!
"God Kat, forget your breakfast, hurry UP!"
She passed me a geeky leather satchel.
I opened my mouth to protest but the bus beeped again.
BEEP! BEEEEEEEEP!
Mum followed me, and just as I was giving the bus driver my school pass I'd found in my satchel, Mum appeared and slopped a great, fat kiss on my cheek, in front of the. Whole. School.
I almost died with embarrassment, and flurry of laughter came over the bus driver.
All the other kids stayed silent.
The silence was like a grave.
I walked, trembling down the aisle, and slipped into the the first seat I could see.
The girl was wearing geeky clothes like me!
She had dark-skin, and the biggest brown eyes, she wore almost exactly the same uniform as me, except she wore her tie properly, her buttons all done up, and her skirt at the proper length.
"Hello. I'm Zara. Who are you?" She asked calmly.
"Katherine....Kat." I stammered.
"Well I'm Zara. Just Zara. What the...." She looked behind me.
A boy was strutting up the aisle.
He had brown hair, in dreadlocks, he wore scruffy jeans and a McFly t-shirt.
I peered closer.
He had beads tied to the ends of his dreadlocks.
I strained my eyes closer still.
OMG.
The beads, on the end of his chocolate brown hair, were the same beads....as the bead in my room.