Stuck In Quarantine

chapter 2 : weird

   Don't get me wrong, I love my family to bits and pieces, but they're so freaking annoying. Being in one house together for 3 months, 24/7, you start to pick up on things that they do on a daily basis. Like how Maddie calls her best friend Riley on her phone for literally the whole day or Ethan playing his electric guitar at the loudest volume every waking moment until you fall asleep. Those things were starting to irritate me. It was just too loud every single day. Don't get me started with Steve's and mother's fighting. Jesus, get me out of this house now. 

    And not only that, all of us have been getting into arguments almost every day about the pettiest crap. Yesterday during dinner, we got into a full-blown fight about whether a tomato was a jam or fruit. Somehow the conversation shifted into how I'm a picky eater. How the hell did it become about me? I have no idea.

    Not to mention, school is starting tomorrow. Mother and Steve enrolled us in a public school, I heard about Southsea High a couple of times. From what I know, it wasn't that bad of a high school. This was the first time I was going to be attending a public school. I don't really mind though, I'm grateful that I still get to be educated. 

    Olivia and I haven't been talking much these days, for the first month of quarantine we'd text nonstop, now we barely even speak to each other in days. She's found some new friends, good for her. Actually, she invited me to go out with them a couple of times. I declined. So, maybe it was my fault we weren't talking anymore. It's just that I want to follow the guidelines and I wouldn't want anybody in my family to get sick because I went out. Oh well. 

    Ethan barged into my room, his laptop in his hand. Lying down on my bed, he announces. "Dad's gonna call us."

    Dad was from the Philippines, he was there right now. We were supposed to visit him this summer, although due to this virus we weren't able to. That was a total bummer, I was looking forward to spending some time with him. 3 years, it's been 3 years since I last saw him. 

    Ethan's laptop started making noise, clicking on the green button, Dad's familiar face appeared on the screen. He had that big familiar smile planted on his face that always brought me comfort. I miss him like crazy. "Hey, guys!"

    Smiling I wave at the screen, "Hi Papa!" Then Ethan says, "We miss you!"

    A sad look crosses his face, "I miss you too! How are you guys doing?"

    "Oh you know, we've been staying home. Literally, we haven't gone out at all." I tell him.

    "That's good, it's better to be safe than sorry." He comments. 

    "How are you doing over there?" Ethan asks. 

     Dad sighs, "The cases here are pretty high too. The hospital is packed with thousands of patients."

    Right my father was a front liner, he's a doctor. His job was risky, I hope he won't be getting sick. "Be safe, Papa."

    "Always am." 

    A squeal was heard in the background, suddenly the screen of my dad started blurring, then it focused on my Tita's -- that's what we call our aunt's back in the Philippines, face occupying the screen. "Ethan! Ellie! I miss you guys! Nice to see you! You come back here na!" She screams into the phone. 

    I and Ethan burst into a fit of laughter. Tita Marisol is my dad's sister and she's one of the funniest people on Earth. For the rest of the night, we spoke to the two of them, telling each other stories about recent events. It was fun! I can't wait till our next call. 

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    Today was it, the first day of my Junior year. Now, this was obviously so much different from normal school. In front of me was my computer, my nervous face reflecting back at me. Even though we weren't seeing each other in real life, I still made an effort to look nice. 

    My brown long hair was braided into two dutch braids. I even put on some makeup, just mascara, blush, and eyeliner that's it -- nothing too much. I'm not even sure why I am so nervous about this. We're going to be fine. 

    Before joining the call, I turned off my camera. What if everybody else's cameras were off? It would be super embarrassing if it was only me who was seen. Oh no, I'm probably overthinking all of this. 

    As I joined the zoom call, I'm relieved of my decision to switch off my camera seeing that the screen in front of me was just a bunch of black squares with names on them. My first class was homeroom, I think today was only going to be orientation, not actual lessons. Funnily enough, Ethan and I were in the same class. 

    Waiting for it to start, I scroll through i********: on my phone. A squeaky voice starts to talk, making me jump in shock. I had forgotten that I was on a call. A pretty red-headed woman who seemed to be in her 20's, was on the screen. She had a toothy grin on her face. "Good morning everybody! I'm Ms. Stoneheart and I'll be your homeroom adviser for the whole academic year. I would like to request for everybody to turn their cameras on."

    A few students turned on their cameras, me being one of them. What? I don't wanna get in trouble on my first day. You always have to make a good impression on the first day. That's what I was taught. There were only about 10 students that had their cams on, overall were 24 in a class. 

    "Let's try that again. Please turn on your cameras or else you'll be marked absent." At this, everybody followed her orders.

    Looking at the screen, nerves made their way to my stomach. Why is this so scary? "Wow, thank you! It's so nice to see your faces. I'm sure most of you know me already, I am seeing some familiar faces. Anyways, today I want you all to be familiar with each other. We're going to do that by introducing ourselves. Let me start. My name is Gracie Stoneheart, Ms. Stoneheart for you. I'm 22 years old and one of my hobbies is knitting."

    Ms. Stoneheart seemed like a nice teacher. She was young, that's for sure. "Okay, next up is Allan." 

    A boy who had big black square-rimmed glasses squeaked out. "Hi, I-I am um Allan Wrighter, I'm 18 and I l-like t-to r-read." As soon as he started to speak, the chatbox flooded with comments like, 'Look! It's stutter freak." I guess he wasn't a new student. Looking at his face again, he had a frown on his face. Aw, I felt bad for him. These people who were chatting weren't the nicest. Mrs. Stoneheart noticed this too, she announced to everybody to stop, but it didn't make much of a difference.

    More students introduced themselves and the chatbox was now full of positive and negative inputs, it depended on the person who was speaking. The next person was Ethan. Out of the two of us, he was the sociable one. In school, he was that popular jock, while I was the nerdy quiet girl -- I still am. 

    Since Ethan and I had the same last name, it was my turn to speak after he finished with ease. Unmuting my microphone, I clear my throat and softly speak. "Hey, my name is Eleanor, you can call me Ellie. I'm 17 and uh I like to bake?"  I groan in embarrassment. Bake? Where the hell did I get that? I hated anything that had to do with cooking. Ethan's laughter was heard from our thin walls. Kicking the wall with the back of my foot, I curse out in pain when I end up stubbing it on the leg of my wooden chair. 

    A clearing throat makes me look up, my eyes widen as I realize that I wasn't on mute. Slapping my hand over my mouth, I apologize profusely. "I'm so sorry, Ms. Stoneheart. I wasn't aware that my microphone was on." Muting it, I cover my eyes with my hands in embarrassment. 

    Assuring me that it was okay, the next person starts talking. His voice caught my attention, he had a low smooth British voice. This guy who was speaking right now was so unbelievably hot. Like damn, even if it was on camera he was so so handsome. He had light brown fluffy hair, emerald green eyes, a knife-like jawline, and broad shoulders. "I'm Xavier Brown. 18 years old." That's all he says, his tone was bored and uninterested. There was some mysterious aura around him that made me want to get to know him better. Weird.