“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Kat mumbled as she ran through her room in her towel. She put her phone on the desk and took a deep breath. How could she have forgotten about her chemistry presentation? She cursed herself,
“This is what I get for handing in my essay too early, now I forgot I have to present it as well,” She groaned, speaking to her friends at the end of the other line.
“Come on, you still have a bit of time to rehearse. We’ll be your audience,” Eva replied.
“Uh, sorry I can’t stay. Gotta catch the bus but you can do this!” Jordi spoke hastily before leaving out of the call.
Kat walked around in her room and collected her uniform and started getting ready for school, “Ok, ok. Good morning, I’m Kat Reyes and today I will be giving my presentation about world war two…” She started with Eva listening and giving her opinion.
With most of the classes being air-conditioned she always got cold and looked through her options of sweaters, hoodies, jackets, and basically anything she can throw over the school’s polo shirt. She picked out an oversized sweater then picked up her bag.
“Gotta go luv, see you at school,” She ended the call and ran downstairs knowing she was running late and Tabitha might leave her if she takes any longer. When she got downstairs she saw her breakfast and lunch all packed up, thanks to her mother who knew she ran late most of the time.
Tabitha was fixing her blond strands and looked over at her little sister who was busy locking the house, "Want to take any longer?" Tabitha teased, her brown eyes focused on backing out of the driveway.
“Sorry sorry,” Kat rolled her eyes, pulling down the visor so she could see herself as she fixed her brown curls up in a ponytail. She then pulled out her sunscreen and applied some over her face.
“Can I have some? I forgot to put on some,” Tabitha stopped at the red light, holding her hand out to Kat.
She hummed and handed her the sunscreen before putting on the lip balm.
Tabitha gently rubbed in the sunscreen while looking into the rearview mirror, “Why are you getting ready just now?”
“Why have you decided to get on my nerves just now?” Kat asked, narrowing her chocolate-colored eyes on her.
Her sister groaned, “God, I can’t wait for you to go to college so I can stop dropping you off.” With their parents leaving for work early most of the time Katallyna always depended on her siblings or friends for a ride. She didn’t want her parents to waste money on a car and would much rather use that money for college.
“And you wonder why Preston gets a little more love than you do?” She bit into the sandwich her mother made for her for breakfast.
Tabitha’s mouth hung open, pouting at her little sister, “Hey! Be nice, I’m sensitive,”
“Okay sorry sorry, I was busy rehearsing a chemistry presentation that I forgot about,” Kat sighed and leaned back into her seat before taking another bite.
She noticed Kat was a little worried about the presentation, “I see, Always last minute but I’m sure you’ll ace it,”
“Mhm, so will you come home after work?” She asked her sister.
"No, I'm going over to Finn's. I think our brother canceled his plans just so you won't be home alone tonight," The blonde-haired responded looking at the road in front of her. Finn, Tabitha’s boyfriend of almost four years. To Kat, he was an ok dude but to Tabitha, he meant so much, she clearly loved him a lot.
Katallyna chuckled, she knew her brother well enough. He was the wildest among those three and surely didn’t cancel all his plans just so she won’t be alone.
“I’m pretty sure he only canceled his plans to hold a party or whatever,” She sighed.
"Just make sure he doesn't trash the house or whatever. Gosh, I can't believe I need to ask my teenage sister to keep an eye on my adult brother," The blonde laughed, taking a left turn, and stopped at Elle’s academy.
Katallyna said her goodbyes then exited the car and started walking towards the benches under the big willow tree.
"Hey girl!" Eva, her best friend greeted loudly as Kat took a seat next to her. Elle academy definitely lacked women. Most students happened to be men so when Kat found out Eva was the only other girl in her class she immediately started talking with her, not wanting to be surrounded by so much testosterone.
"Hey babes! How've you been?" Katallyna greeted her, Eva’s response was just a shrug.
"Oh, so we're not important anymore?" Adreian asked and referred to him, Hardwyn and Jordi. They all wore a fake hurt expression while Katallyna just rolled her eyes at them.
"I suppose you three matter as well," Katallyna sighed dramatically. Though she actually loved all her friends, she shared such a beautiful bond with them and they were such good people.
"Y'know what I shouldn't have gotten you this," Hardwyn complained, but still handed her cookies and creme slush while he and the others had iced coffee. Besides Adre, he was on a coffee cleanse, so strawberry slush it is.
"Awe thanks," Katallyna blew him a kiss, grateful for her friend’s thoughtfulness.
After a few sips, she looked over at Adre.
"Did you read the school group chats? Your buddy is being an ass again," He looked back at her.
Kat frowned for a moment, her buddy? “Voss?” She asked, earning a nod to which she groaned. Oliver Voss, a great-looking guy with a terrible personality. Not many liked him but because of how rich he was some didn’t dare to put him in his place. Except for Katallyna, she didn’t tolerate his behavior and often commented on it. Since the first time they met, they fought like cats and dogs. Thanks to the teachers and friends the physical fights always got broken up.
“When is he not an asshole?” Kat rolled her eyes.
“Girl, I admire you. I can’t imagine barely being 5’6 and picking a fight with a guy who’s 6’3,” Eva chuckled.
“Good thing they both take boxing classes, else I’m pretty sure this class would have one person less,” Jordi joked.
“Anyway, what did Voss do this time?”
Adre took a breath before starting out, “Oh not much, Richard made the presentation on Voss’s laptop because his was broken right? And now when Richie asked for him to send it over Voss said he had deleted it. It escalated into a whole argument to which people were picking sides and such. We don’t know if he deleted it by accident but he doesn’t even feel sorry about it which angered Richie,” He answered.
“Wait, really?” Kat frowned, poor Richie.
“I mean I’m not picking sides but Richard had so much time to get the file back on a USB or backed it up to his cloud,” Eva shrugged.
“True, but he’s still- an asshole,” Katallyna mumbled, looking past her friends and saw a certain green-eyed guy, Oliver. They held strong eye contact for a few moments before looking away when they heard the bell.
“Come on sweetheart, let's go,” Hardy cocked his head for her to follow them inside.
~
After English they had Chemistry and all settled down in class, getting ready for the last half of the class to give their presentation.
Elle Academy is a bit different. The students sitting in a class will remain with each other until the end of the four years, unless they change their course, drop out or fail the year. This high school teaches you the course in both practical work and theoretical. Pursuing your passion is easier and efficient here. It’s a private school that isn't that expensive but to get in the students just need to know the basics about their chosen course and also have certain grades as for these people that define your intelligence and you take a test that determines whether you’re good enough or not.
While they waited for the teacher to come Kat’s friends all talked about going to some restaurant while she was rehearsing her presentation in her head. She knew upfront she’d be the first person to go today.
Three minutes later the teacher walked in and she took a seat at the back and signaled for Kat to start the presentation.
"Goodmorning, I'm Kat Reyes–" the brunette was mid-sentence before being interrupted by Oliver. She rolled her eyes.
“Excuse me miss, but I thought you said we had to use our full name,” When he went forth the teacher had a problem with him only using his last name, it was only fair he called her out on that right?
Mrs. Gisele sighed, "He does have a point. I stated that we use our in presentations," Mrs. Gisele commented, knowing she had to treat every student equally, meaning Katallyna had to follow the rules they laid out for the presentations.
Kat started over with her presentation and proceeded to deliver it to wasn't an A+ but definitely worth an A- it could have been a solid A, but at the end of the presentation the class is allowed to ask questions and Oliver didn’t miss his chance to make her life hell. The question was barely relevant to the subject which resulted in them discussing.
“That’s enough,” Mrs. Gisele narrowed her eyes on Kat then Oliver.
"This isn't even the slightest bit relevant to my subject," She whined.
“Understandable, but I still have to hold you accountable for not being polite to the audience,” Mrs. Gissle sighed as she wrote down something.
“Of course my question gets ignored, she doesn’t know shit,” Oliver complained, crossing his arms like a little child who couldn’t get his way.
“Coming from a guy who couldn’t answer the teacher’s question last week,” Kat retorted, rolling her eyes while she was at it.
“Ah so the bitch does know it all,” He mumbled.
“Keep talking like that and I’ll make you my bi-” Katallyna was mids talking when she got interrupted.
“Enough, both of you stop right now or I’ll lower both of your grades,” She warned, "Thank you, Miss Reyes, who's next?" She looked around the class.
The last few people went and gave their presentation and at the end, the teacher connected the beamer with her laptop and showed us the students their marks. Katallyna had an A- and as expected Oliver had a B- as that was already known. Once Gisele was done with that she started giving them their next project. Nothing major, just a little researching at home and using that knowledge in class and practice working on it. First was Measuring the Amount of Acid in Vinegar by Titration with an Indicator Solution. The last option was measuring how bright glow sticks are and the last one Chemistry of Ice-Cream making use of freeze points. Soon enough Gisele started making groups of two.
“Excuse me but these projects are so random,” Hardy complained as watched the teacher walk to the front of the class.
“You guys need a final grade for this semester and I ran out of ideas. I like neon things and ice cream, oh and the acid one I got from google. I’m making it easy here but if you’d like I can find new projects,” She shrugged to which everyone yelled ‘no’
After everyone settled down again she soon started forming the groups of two herself.
"Kat. Oliver. You two take that table." Mrs. Gisele said, pointing to the table at the middle end.
