My entire life I dreamt of one thing, one of the most simple things you could ask for in life. All I wanted to do was . . . make breakfast without spilling anything. I woke up late already and still needed to get ready, but I managed to spill an entire box of cereal, almost half the gallon of milk, spill dad’s coffee, drop two eggs and the pepper. My hair got stuck in the fridge when I tried to walk away and slipped on the coffee. Zack was laughing at me as I wiped the coffee off my arms. Dad walked in and sneezed when he breathed in the pepper.

Why am I such a clutz in the morning?

His black-brown hair was a replica of mine and Zack’s. Dad said our blue eyes were like our mother’s, but we resembled our dad in every other way. Me and Zack are twins, if we weren’t opposite genders, we couldn’t be told apart. Dad saw his empty coffee cup and the sink and smirked. He leaned against the wall and sighed dramatically.

This faker.

“Maybe I should make breakfast kiddo.” He smiled, Then he moved to sit next to Zack at the counter.

“Then it’d all burn.” I snapped, Dad grinned and Zack chuckled.

“Easy there Tiger, You don’t want to snap before the school trip, do you?” Zack said, putting his cereal bowl in the sink.

Ugh, Zack, don’t remind me.

Every year, the freshmen at Willow University do a national continental competition for academic election, my friends and I were apart of the select few across the continent for the competition. We made it to the semi-finals but lost due to what I’m pretty sure is referred to as sabotage. Of course we had no proof so we ended up being the semi-finalist. But the prize for the semi-finalist was a trip to London for their entire class. Me and my friends have been planning what to do for weeks. It’s a brand new week and we leave on thursday. If I snapped at dad before the trip, I would feel bad the entire time.

I got to go get ready, it’s almost time to go. I already wasted too much time in the kitchen.

I finished cleaning up and went upstairs to change. I showered and pulled on a clean uniform. I brushed my hair and just tossed it over my shoulder.

I threw my sketch pad, my school books, and my phone into my bag. I kissed the picture of my mom and grabbed my bag, jacket. I was holding my tie in my mouth when I felt the stomping before I heard it echoing down the hall. Zack burst into my room just as I was grabbing my shoes.

Doesn’t this guy know how to knock?

“Tiger were gonna be late for the meeting!!” he shouted. I made a muffled “Hmm?” sound.

I couldn’t laugh because my hands were full and my tie was in my mouth so I just rolled my eyes, me and Zack are apart of the student council. I’m the president and Zack’s my treasturer, he’s good with money, he saved Dad hundreds of dollars from his work, he’s been sent offers and letter from all kinds of places, offering him a spot in their company, but he turned them all down because he wanted us to stick together.

I stomped downstairs to the door and dropped to the floor. I took the tie out of my mouth and looked up at Zack, “Dude, it’s 7:45, chill, we’ll be fine.” I heard Dad snort and turned and stared at him. “What?” I asked when he started laughing. Zack spun me to face him.

“Tiger,” he explained, “We have an emergency meeting today to discuss the cleaning schedule!!!”.

Crap, I totally forgot.

We need a meeting since the school’s entire student body president is leaving for the trip, we needed to figure out who would watch take care of the school while we were gone. Student council meeting start an hour before the university opens and the school opens at 8:00. The janitors get there when we do so they let us in before they close the gate. I turned and glared at Dad.

Dad, your such a jerk!

“You knew, you jerk!” I pulled on my socks and shoved my shoes on my feet. I ran to the fridge and grabbed mine and Zack’s lunch’s. Zack grabbed his bike and I grabbed my skateboard.

“Love you!” Dad called when we ran out the door to the street. I leapt onto my board and Zack peadled beside me. We rocketed down the street only to be stopped by a cross guard escorting preschoolers. I checked my phone and it was 6:47.

“Damn it, Zack, we still have to cut through the park, pass the soccer fields, and make a couple turns.” Zack could tell that I was stressing out just a little bit so he tugged me around the traffic and we just went with preschoolers, that delayed us a little but once we were out of the traffic, we raced through the park waving to joggers and our elders. We passed the empty soccer fields and made a couple of turns. As I turned a corner, my phone buzzed. I held onto Zacks bike so he could pull me while I checked my phone.

                                                                            Bells

where r u tiger?

on my way

😰

Shoot, we not gonna make it.

“Zack we gotta hurry!” I shouted.

“Trying!” He shouted back breathlessly, I realized we were on the last hill and let go of his bike. We turned right and there was our school. Willow University.

The university is just as small as the other one in town. We live in a semi-remote area in Texas. The university is medium and mediocre, but not as big as a normal one.

Me and Zack slipped the the gate the janitors leave unlocked for council members and race into the courtyard. Me and Zack ditched out things in our classes and headed up to the third floor. We sprinted past offices and boardrooms to the student council room. We opened the door and found them waiting for us.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and slumped down on my couch. “This meeting may begin!”

Our student council room was basically a heaven in school. We had a TV, for school purposes only, but the principal lets us use it for games too, two couches, three bean bags, a pantry for snacks, and a mini-fridge for drinks and sodas. Bella was already waiting for me on my couch wrapped in a blanket.

Bella’s my secretary, and my best friend. You know Zack is the treasurer and Issac is my Vice-president. When I ran for president, no ran against me, but when Zack ran for Vice-president, Issac ran against him and Zack lost, but he won treasurer instead.

“Tiger, you know you can’t be late or you get kicked off the council right?” Issac smirked from the boy’s couch, Zack smiled and plopped himself next to Issac.

I’d like to see them try.

“Yeah right,” Bella snorted, “They wouldn’t kick Tiger off unless they had a death wish.”

“They could always call the authorities,” Issac mumbled.

“Seems like they aren’t the only ones with a death wish.” I said.

Issac shut up and I smiled.

“Onto the trip, we are gonna have to cancel Wednesday’s campus clean up,” I cringed waiting for Issac to blow. I was right.

“TIGER!” Issac exploded. “We made a deal with my dad to have the campus clean before June, it’s December and we haven’t even started, we don’t have a lot of time left for this campus get cleaned.”

Issac, your so cute when your being dramatic.

“Don’t get your panties in a knot.” I shushed Issac. “We have to, students going on the trip on Thursday need to pack and rest for the flight on Thursday.”

Issac sighed, He was going on the trip as well and he knew, but his father is the Principal and we made a deal that if we could get the school cleaned up by the end of the year. We didn’t count on winning to the semi-finals so when we got the information of the trip and the two weeks we would be gone, we had to elect students who would be in charge while we were gone, fortunately, we didn’t have any school activities or events while we would be gone but we still have to deal with students or emergencies, and teacher complaints.

“So we will cancel cleaning for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Today, we will clean as scheduled, We have to attend these two days since we will be gone.”

“I will round up the clean-up crew and well start after the school is cleared of students who aren’t participating.” Zack offered.

“Great, I have to talk to dad about cancelling the cleaning days.” Issac grumped.

Bella laughed, “It’ll be fine, I will talk to you dad with you and I will bring cookie’s.”

Bella made the best cookie’s I have ever tasted. Literally. Principal Ark would have to forgive us for in exchange for her cookie’s.

I may have to steal a few of those cookies . . .

“So, since we cleared that up, what do you have planned for the trip?” Issac asked. He snapped me right out of food and right into vacation plans.

“Well, I wanted to go to the beach, but the closest beach to london is an hour and twenty minutes away. So i’ll just have to go sightseeing.” I sighed.

“Good, I would hate for anyone to see you in a bikini,” Zack huffed. Issac laughed and Bella just shook her head.

Zack, you’d make a great bodyguard.

“I would hate for anyone to see Bella in a bikini.” I said. “If they tried to touch you, I would break their arm.” I said. I was extremely serious, but Issac slowly reached his hand towards Bella and I glared at him, and he froze.

Just try it.

“Jeez Tiger, I was just playing around,” Issac with drew his hand. “I wouldn’t have touched her and you know that. I’m too young to die.” Issac joked.

“I know but It was still fun to see your reaction.” I grinned. Bella laughed.

There was a knock on the door and Principal Ark walked in. The hallways behind them were bustling with teachers preparing classes and students delivering papers to teachers. School was about to start.

“Hey guys, time to go!” Principal Ark said cheerfully.

“How can someone be so cheerful at 8:00 in the morning?” Zack asked.

“It’s called coffee,” Principal Ark answered. I laughed.

Me and Zack had left our things in our classes so we were waiting for Bella and Issac to get their things. I made my way down stairs and onto the second floor to Zacks class. It was empty so I waited for the other since we waited with Zack. Bella appeared shortly after dropping off her stuff and Zack and Issac came together. Issac, Bella and I all had the same class together.

Today was Monday so Zack had Gym right after homeroom, Issac is team captain of the football team, and Zack is team captain of the soccer team. I was team captain of the volleyball team but I handed it over to Jessica, Isaac’s sister, when I became student body president.

“I gotta go guys,” Zack said when he grabbed his gym bag and left.” I groaned. “Did I just come down here for nothing?”

“Pretty much.” Bella said.

Waste of my youth.

I grabbed Zacks stuff and went to his next period and dropped it off. The I went outside to the courtyard to relax a bit. Issac and Bella followed me and we went to a bench near the school garden. Everyone who was already in the courtyard quieted down because they knew I liked the peace of it and would hate to make me angry.

“You know, Buckingham Palace will be nice,” Bella commented.

“It will probably be the best part of our vacation. Big Ben will have to be the finisher for our exploring on the way to New Palace Yard.” I smiled.

“Wow, you two really planned this out well huh?” Issac chuckled.

“Well, yeah, but we still need to find one more boy for our group There’s only you and Zack, but we have me, Bella, and Jessica.” I explained.

Issac stared at me for the longest time and sighed,

“We still need to figure that out, hmm.” He asked. “What if we asked, Marcus. To be in our group?” He turned and grinned at Bella. She turned red and laughed nervously. I laughed and closed my eyes when the wind blew.

“W-why would we a-ask him? T-that’s crazy.” She faked laughed and sighed.

Your a bad actor Bells.

Bella has had a crush on Marcus since third grade, The four of us, Bella, Issac, Zack, and I have been friends since childhood. Zack and Issac were friends, Bella and I were friends.

“Bella, we know you and it’s so obvious it’s sad.” Issac said.

He’s not wrong, Bella.

The bell rang and we all jumped of the bench.

“Weather I like him or not doesn’t matter, everybody only has eyes for Tiger.” Bella said.

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” I said, we joked and laughed all the way to class.

Bella, Issac and I made our way to our first class just in time to have Livia piss me off. Bella giggled and headed to her seat. The entire class turned to see me and my cold look frozen them like ice. I tried to slip to my seat without drawing Livia’s attention. It didn’t work.

“Tiger Lily!” She sang. " Do you like my new outfit? I designed it myself.” She purred those last words because she knew she was lying.

You really wanna die don’t you?

Livia was wearing black heel boots with a black miniskirt with a unique pattern that took me weeks to make and a white crop-top with a similar pattern on it. I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore her. That was my work. I loved art, that how me and Bella met when we were kids, we were at the art table and hit it off when we showed each other the art we made.

I use to want to be a fashion designer when I was in 7th grade and I made some beautiful designs. Me and Livia used to be friends before she hit what I called “Snuberty”. Snob - Puberty. She stole my designs and her dad has a fashion designer make them for her. Then she flaunts them in my face telling the world she made them. I smirked and reached into my bag and pulled out a hall pass for the Principal’s office.

Livia read the pass and snorted.

“What did I do? Offend your eyes with my beauty?” She laughed.

“Nope,” I grinned, “Failed to follow school dress code.”

Finally, I can get rid of this headache.

Livia’s smile vanished and looked around the class remembering we wear a school uniform. She stomped out of the classroom. Jason and Nolan were laughing with Bella, and Issac just shook his head. I sat down and everyone else settled into their seats just as the final bell rang. I sit in the very back middle seat with Bella on my left and Issac on my right. The other seat next to Issac is empty and Jessica sits in the other one next to Bella. The row in front of me is all boys. I may be a girl but Bella and Jessica are my only female friends. The teacher walked in and the class sat up to pay attention.

“Yello! Today we got a new student! Please be nice, and Tiger? Try not to scare them to death.” Everybody started laughing, but quieted when the student opened the door.

“Hope it’s a girl,” Liam said. He loosened his tie and pulled his hair back.

“Dude, no girl is gonna find that attractive,” Jessica said. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was pulled into a braid today, which meant she had a volleyball meet today. I chuckled and the new girl walked in.

Hmmm . . . she doesn’t look too bad.

She seemed to be around 5’5”. She has blue-green eyes and deep brown hair that goes to her elbows. She is skinny and tall with a well sized figure and she has pale skin.

“She’s not prettier than Tiger though.” Jason sighed.

“Nobody will ever be prettier than Tiger.” Nolan complained.

“Will you shut up already?” I snarled.

“Don’t worry you guys, we will find a girl prettier than Tiger someday.” Marcus said.

You guys do realize I am here right?

I rolled my eyes but the new girl didn’t seem to like the information about the prettier girl named Tiger. The teacher had her stand in front of the class and introduced her.

“Everyone, this is Hannah, she is a student from London. She only came to our school for this time of year for our trip since she knows London quite well.” The teacher explained. He turned to Hannah. “Do you have any questions?”

Hannah smiled, “Just one, who is Tiger? She has such a weird name, were her parents some kind of furries?” She laughed. No one was even smiling. “Tough crowd huh? What kind of name even is Tiger?”

Bella spoke up for. “It’s short for Tiger Lily, you jerk.” Hannah stared at Bella for what seemed like an eternity until she started laughing.

“Your . . . not even . . . that . . . pretty!!” she could barely speak between her laughter. Everyone was silent with their head down. Marcus and Nolan snuck peeks at me to see my reaction and whipped around when they saw how furious I was. Hannah moved down the aisle to the empty seat next to Issac who didn’t even look at her. “What’s your name, handsome?”

I could tell Bella was trying not to cry but sniffles where slowly coming out. Issac sighed, stood up and stepped firmly between Me and Hannah.

She was so dead.