Double Decker (chapter one)

by EpicNinjaWriter in Oregon

   Chapter One- In which a young girl sets out to conquer adventure

        Tracy had always detested shoelaces. In kindergarten, when the other kids were struggling to tie laces before the last bell rang, Tracy was neatly closing her velcro strapped sneakers. By second grade, everyone wore sneakers with laces, except Tracy. When friends asked for her help while they were putting on coats, she made some excuse to get out of fumbling with the laces. At last, her mother made her get rid of her old velcro sneakers and they went right out to buy a spanking new pair of gym sneakers, complete with long white laces. Tracy's father showed her how to tie the laces, and she did, but Tracy always grumbled when she had to tie her shoelaces in the morning.

         Now Tracy was eleven, and of course she could tie her shoes just fine by now. But she still became annoyed when  they went shopping for a new pair of laced sneakers. It wasn't that she didn't like the looks of shoelaces, Tracy just thought of them as useless and time wasting. And if there was one thing Tracy hated more than shoelaces, it was wasting time. That was why, on November second, Tracy McCallister stood outside the bathroom door, banging on the wall. "Freddy!" She yelled in annoyance. "You've been brushing your teeth for five minutes!" When the door finally swung open, Tracy marched in, grabbed the toothpaste and her brush, and scrubbed her teeth vigorously.

         "Sheesh," Her older brother Freddy muttered as he slipped past her and out into the hall. Tracy finished and bounded outside and into her bedroom. She pulled on clean blue jeans and a bright red sweatshirt with the words: University of Oregon in white lettering on the front. She ran a comb through the black tangles that hung down her shoulders, grabbed her bookbag, and raced out the door. The yellow school bus was just pulling up to the stop a few feet away. Freddy was already boarding the bus, and Tracy was right behind him. When she finally sat down in an empty seat, she took a deep breath and relaxed.

          "It's just another school year," Tracy reminded herself. But it wasn't. This year, Tracy was starting sixth grade at Oak Street Middle School. It was the first year of lockers and seperate classes and more homework. It wasn't that Tracy minded homework; in fact, she thought it was rather necessary to keep her from forgetting the things they learned, but she never liked to have too much of it. Tracy was worried because when Freddy had started middle school last year, his whole outlook on school had changed completely. When he brought home his first report card of the year, there was a lot of hushed conversations. Tracy had even gotten a look at his report card, and it wasn't entirely as awful as she had imagined: his highest score was a b plus and his lowest was a c minus.

            But it was not soon after that that their mother signed him up for math club and extra curricular science to boost his grades. Tracy watched for the rest of the year as her brother turned into a grim A-making machine, double checking his assignments in the morning and even earning a few A plusses. The bus pulled up to her new school and Tracy felt her heart start beating double-time. Oak Street Middle School was large and intimidating, with metal-rimmed windows and three stories of classes and kids. The bell rang and Tracy hopped down the stairs of the bus. To be late on the first day of middle school! Out of breath, she dashed to the front door, yanked it open, and stepped inside the school.