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After showering twice, once for the stickiness and once to actually get clean, I throw my sticky clothes in my laundry basket and plop myself on my bed. I plug in my headphones to my iPod, searching for a song that matches my mood. I turn on my light on my headboard, and grab my favorite sketchpad and pencils; figuring that it's better to draw out my feelings then leaving them bottled in.

I drew for about an hour, in which Dee had come in, showered, and fell asleep.
Finally, at about 11 o'clock, my masterpiece was finished. It showed an old car factory, which I dubbed "Monocle Motors," with mud and unfinished construction everywhere. It's mood was dark, which matched mine at the moment. I put away my pencils in color order (Much easier to choose and compare colors that way), then found some putty and but my drawing on the wall next to my bed. Feeling sleepy, I brush my teeth and try to tame my hair into something that won't be tangled in the morning, but I give up and just go to bed.

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RINGGG!!!!! I open one eye and slam a fist onto my clock, turning it to sleep mode. 6:00 in the morning is way too early to start school."Ughh..." I yank the covers off of me, embracing the cold morning. I brush my hair and find my jeans from yesterday, digging through a drawer for a shirt. I keep rubbing my eyes as I make it to breakfast. Yawning, I go through the line, getting pancakes, yogurt, milk, and some fruit. First years get first dibs on food and seating, which was awesome. I sit at the same table I did last night. I found out that I was starving because after the accident last night I wasn't really hungry. I ate everything within 5 minutes. I hurried back to my dorm to get my bag and books for today's classes, Etiquette 101 (Ugh), Modern History, Literature, and Calculus. Thanks, Dad, for signing me up for these.

Why you even need a book for Etiquette I have no clue. Since this could be considered a "finishing school" I guess it's required for everybody. I was one of the older students in the class, since it was for first-years. Apparently there's a class every year, no matter how long you've come to CLA. "Good morning, ladies! I'm Missus Reed, and I will be your teacher for Etiquette 101. Let's all go around and introduce ourselves. How 'bout no? A girl on the other side of the room introduced herself as Vanessa Linkin. The girls kept doing it then finally it was my turn. "I'm Rachel Dare, and this school is weird." A lot of girls stare at me like I said a cuss word or something, but a few were suppressing smiles. After we were all introduced, we were made to stand and "formally greet each other as I do." AKA hold someone's hand and don't shake it, for like 5 seconds. After doing this majorly uncomfortable thing, everybody sat back down. "Now if you'll turn to page 394..." I accidentally snicker out loud. "What's so funny, dear?" "You said age 394." "And what's so humorous about that page, dear?" "Harry Potter." I laugh again. Her face turns red, and I can't tell if it's from anger or embarrassment. I try and shutup as quickly as possible. "Sorry," I mutter, and open to the page, still laughing really hard in my head.

Note to self: never host any fancy dinner parties. Why the heck does a person need 3 forks, 2 spoons and 2 knives? All of us students shuffle out of the classroom, turning to whatever one each has next. I look at my schedule, and it's Modern History. "Hey," says a girl, jogging up next to me. "Hi." "What class ya goin' to?" "Modern History." "Really? Me too!" "Great."
We walk together in silence to class. "By the way," the girl says, "I totally got that page thing." "You did." "Yeah!" "Who said it then?" "Uhmm...." "That's what I thought. It was Severus Snape." "Oh, right!" I push open the door to the lecture room. "Do you mind if I sit with you?" "Uh.." I scan the crowd of students looking for anybody I could use as an excuse. Shai! Thank the gods. "Actually, I was going to sit with a friend. Sorry." Her face turns downcast. "Oh, okay. Bye!" She skips over to a seat with some other girls hew age. I go down the steps to the seat next to Shai. "Hey." "Hey yourself, Sticky." "Sticky?" "Yeah Sticky. How was Etiquette 101?" "Awful. Who seriously needs 3 freaking forks?" Shai laughs. "I dunno. Rich people I guess. Shhh... class is starting."

What we covered in class was all about New York City. From the Two Towers (Not Lord of the Rings), to the "earthquake that released sleeping gas" to everybody in Manhattan weeks ago. I couldn't help but smile at that, considering I wasn't asleep and saw what actually caused all the destruction. Titans and Drakons and Kronos, oh my!

The class lasted two hours. Then, wonderfully lunch. Once again first-years got dibs. I got McDonalds this time, and it reminded me of Nico, a son of Hades. Percy had told me that he loves McDonalds. I got my drink before anybody could trip me, and I could see where I was stepping. I was not becoming a human bug attraction again. I sat down and waited for Shai to get here. Since my table had only me sitting there, a few other girls named Camilla, Lora, and Penny came and sat with me. We chatted about random stuff for awhile, but I didn't know where Shai went. Eventually lunch was over, and we went our separate ways.

It turned out that Penny and I both had Literature together. Penny was a tall brunette. Not quite as tall as Empousa Mathilda was, but over 6 feet easily. We had a lot in common, more than I though we would. We sat together through Literature, which was about The Great Gatsby. Honestly I'd never read or seen the movie; just heard about it. We were all issued a copy, and were told to read some chapters and have an essay on them by the end of the week.

I was alone in Calculus. The teacher, Mr. Brown, seemed nice enough. With graying hair and a plaid sweater-vest, he seemed to know how to work with kids and math. He didn't assign us any homework, just have us each a practice sheet with some basic refresher problems on them, saying that if we did them we'd receive extra credit. I decided to do it because I knew that the class would get even harder and I could use all the help possible.

With only 4 classes this semester, I had a large amount of free time. I looked on the school's main bulletin board to see what extracurriculars they had available. Gymnastics? Nope. How about Synchronized Swimming? No. Those pictures are terrifying. Well how about sculpting? Yeah. Sculpting seems like it'd be fun. I sign on the dotted line for sculpting, *Rachel E. Dare.*

Notes