Wednesday, February 14, 2018

School was driving me insane. It seemed as if all of my teachers conspired together to assign as much work as they could all at the same time. I could almost see them cackling wickedly to themselves in a conference room with Ms. Tucker pointing at their master plan projected onto the board and swearing on her grave that she'd never stop until each student in her class cried themselves to sleep that very eve.

If you knew the teachers that worked at my school then you would understand how believable that scenario would be. Although, it probably would have been done as a joke to scare the kids.

Today, I had woken up and couldn't get out of bed. I was exhausted and the fact that my alarm was screaming right in my ear didn't help. I slapped the snooze button and cursed the person whoever invented school. I didn't try to look decent. I wore sweats, a baggy jacket and no makeup whatsoever. I was lucky I had enough energy to brush my hair. 

I put in my headphones and listened to "Limitless" as I walked onto the school campus and waited for first period to start.

The day went by slower than any other I've experienced. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours. Time hated me and I was starting to reciprocate those feelings. 

P.E. had been the only interesting class so far. A week ago, a student threatened to come to school with a gun. Barely anyone showed up that day and luckily nothing had happened. Unfortunately, everyone got really shaken up about it (especially with all the real shootings that had been happening across America) and the staff decided that the panic was bad enough to be addressed in all P.E. classes. The coaches brought in an officer to teach us specific protocols on how to defend yourself and others during a shooting. They gave a lot of good tips and I made sure to take notes. Most of the kids weren't listening and made sarcastic and offensive comments throughout the lesson. There were so many people at my school that I could not handle being around because of how stupid they were. The guys in my P.E. class were among the first ones on that list.

The bell rang for us to go to lunch and the officer closed his lecture. He seemed like a decent guy and I thanked him personally afterward.

I slowly made my way to the lunch line, exhaustion consuming me with every step I took. I finally made it to my friends, Kira and Sydney, who had already gotten in the lunch line. They noticed how I was dressed and laughed at the look on my face.

"Dang, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Kira smiled teasingly.

I glowered at her, "Shut up."

Sydney snickered, "Did you stay up too late or something?"

"Yeah, doing Ms. Tucker's AP Lang assignment. It killed me."

They cringed together.

"I'm glad I didn't get Ms. Tucker for AP Lang," Kira said.

I simply nodded in agreement and stared at the ground. I didn't want to talk right now. I wanted to get my food and sleep. It was one of those days that not even my friends could keep me energized like they usually did. A few seconds passed by until I felt an awkward sensation. I lifted my head back up to look at my friends.

Kira was smirking at me and Sydney with a knowing look. It took a while before Sydney decided to say something about it.

"You okay, Kira?"

"Yeah, I just have the best news in the history of all news," She looked at me. "But I won't tell until Madison cheers up."

I rolled my eyes and put on a fake smile, "What is it?"

She got a little jumpy and a smile I would almost consider crazed spread out on her face. Her hazel eyes were wide with excitement. Sydney looked at me with a concerned expression and cautiously took a step away from Kira.

"So you know how we've always wanted to go to an NCT concert?"

This caught my attention and I hoped I knew where this was going. I felt my tiredness start to melt away.

"Yeah?" Sydney said.

"Well, our last year of high school is coming pretty soon, and as a senior present, my parents bought me tickets to go see an NCT Dream concert in Seoul, Korea this summer." She almost couldn't contain herself. "Guess how many tickets there are!"

My jaw dropped. Energy surged through me. It was almost like Kira's words replaced those hours of sleep I had lost. My brain kept telling me that there was no way she got us tickets to see NCT Dream in Korea, yet that was exactly what was happening. I started jumping up and down and broke into a smile that could have reached from ear to ear. 

"No way, Kira!! You're kidding!!" I exclaimed.

She smiled at me, "Looks like someone's awake now, and of course I'm not kidding. It's very real. I got three tickets, one for each of us."

Sydney smacked Kira's arm, "Dude! How did you do this? It must have cost a crap ton of money!"

"Well, each of your parents pitched in. They all thought it was a great idea."

I was so happy that I started laughing. 

"When is it?" I asked.

"June 23rd, and get this. There's a fan signing afterward!"

It was hard to describe the level of joy I was feeling. I wanted to scream and shout, but I would rather not get the attention of the security guards, so I decided against it. Suddenly, a thought dawned on me.

"I'm gonna get to talk to Jeno?" I asked.

Sydney laughed, "We're gonna get to talk to all of them!"

We squealed and jumped together. There were some other kids giving us weird looks, but none of us cared. Our dreams had come true. We'd get to meet K-pop idols in real life. No longer through a three-inch screen.

During lunch, Kira continued to further explain that we'd be staying in Korea for a while since this was a once in a lifetime chance. Her uncle had contacted a friend of his in Seoul who would be renting out their summer home and agreed to let us stay there for two weeks. 

"Two weeks?!" Sydney asked.

Kira nodded, "Yep, so we better get crackin' at our Korean."

I sighed, "We all know both of you will be doing most of the talking. Foreign languages aren't my forte."

They laughed. Sydney patted my arm. 

"Don't worry, Maddy. You'll get it eventually. Just do it for Jeno."

I blushed a little. My heart ached that I would have to wait so long to meet the only boy I'd ever obsessed over. Yeah, sure, I had had crushes on guys at school and there were some actors that were pretty stinking hot, but none of them captivated me like Jeno had. I kind of found it embarrassing how much I would think about him, but, I mean, who cares? He doesn't even know I exist, so what's the harm in obsessing? I'm just a fangirl and he's an idol. He was meant to shine bright on the stage and I was meant to stand in the shadows.