The worst morning...ever

Eleven fifteen and twenty seconds. That was the time that Lucky Dae arrived at school on Friday. She didn't plan on being late, she just was, and judging by the state of her, she wasn't too happy about it either. Her hair was deshevelled, her blue school skirt torn and her woollen jumper riddled with holes and so sodden it hung about her shins like a dress. Most kids would have been delighted to miss half the mornings lessons, but Lucky wasn't.
She schlepped, exhausted and defeated into the girls locker room.
"Woah, you're lookin' a bit...rough," quipped her best friend, who was dragging a paddle brush through her long blonde hair.
"Don't even dare to make another comment, Ange," snapped Lucky as she threw her rucksack onto the floor. Water dripped from the straps, forming a small puddle of water that spread out across the grey linoleum. "I'm so not in the mood."
"You know the teachers are looking for you? I think they've been on the phone to your mum, wondering where you are."
"Typical," she spat and plopped herself down on the bench beneath her locker.
"How come you're so late anyway?" asked Ange as she peered into a mirror and diligently applied layer after layer of deep red lipstick.
Lucky leaned forward and with her elbows on her knees she rested her heavy head in the palms of her hands.
"It's the last day of that 'walk to school week' competition today. You know the one the Rector talked about in assembly last week, where you could win an ipod if you completed it," Lucky said. She pulled the shoe off her right foot and poured out a trickle of dirty water.
"Oh, yeah."
"Every day I've walked to school."
"That's five miles!" exclaimed Ange.
"I know!"
"You never said you were gonna to do that."
"You never listen. Anyway, I was doing great until today."
"I can see," said Ange.
Lucky could feel Ange's eyes scrutinising her appearance. She was used to it. Ange scrutinised anyone that wasn't as well turned out as her; sometimes with pity but mostly with derision.
"So what happened? Or shouldn't I ask?" asked Ange.
Lucky took a deep breath and then let out a long drawn out self-pitying sigh. "I knew I should never have left the house," she said. "As soon as I saw the heavens open this morning and the rain beat off the road I should have just gotten a lift in with mum."
"But you had your eye on the prize."
"Yeah at a cost though. I completely forgot the main road into town was closed for resurfacing. It wasn't until I got to the Chapel and saw the roadsigns that I realised."
"So then what did you do?"
"Tried to take a shortcut. Stupid idea."
"I didn't know there was a shortcut from your place. It's so far out, in the middle of nowhere, you'd have to cut through the fields to take a short cut."
Lucky gave her a knowing stare.
"Oh you didn't do that did you?"
"I tried, but I got lost when I came to Bishop's Woods."
"What did you do?"
"Nothing. I just stood there looking around, trying to get my bearings while the rain beat down all around me. Fortunately Mr Orr spotted me. You know, the farmer. He was trying to round up his sheep himself cos his dog was sick. I told him I was trying to walk to town, with the road being out, so he gave me directions. Of course I couldn't just walk off, what with him struggling an' all so I tried to catch a couple of his sheep. I climbed over the wall and almost rounded one up when I stood in a damn muddy patch," said Lucky, holding up her muddy sodden shoeless left foot. "I sank down over my ankles in the stuff. But when I managed to pull my foot out my shoe didn't come with it."
Ange clamped a hand to her mouth and sniggered.
"You can laugh. It was awful. I was so embarrassed I hid my foot behind my leg so he didn't see. I scuttled off, out of the field and hobbled along the path down to the river. I was so fed up. Soaking wet with only one shoe. But to get to the river path I had to cut through another field."
"Not more mud," Ange giggled.
"No. A bull," said Lucky.
Ange clutched her stomach and bent over laughing. "You got chased by a bull, in a field."
Lucky leapt up and thrust her hands upon her hips. "It ain't funny, Ange. You wouldn't have liked it."
Lucky paced the locker room. "I was terrified. That damn thing was tearing after me. It's nose snorting, it's hooves pounding the ground. Tbought I was gonna die."
"But you didn't."
"No, I tore my clothes instead," said Lucky. She pointed to holes in her jumper, and the torn threads of her skirt. "Tryin' to get over the damn fence."
"Could have been worse."
"It was. When I reached the road a bus screeched past me. Drove straight through a muddy puddle and soaked me to the skin. At that point I'd really had enough. I screamed at the top of my voice as that bus drove off. I grabbed a stone and threw it at it. Probably shouldn't have but I was so mad. Only problem was I startled a gaggle of geese."
"A what?"
"Geese. A whole damn flock of them. They flew up, out from behind a wall. All around me they were. All beaks and white wings. One flew right at me. So heavy it knocked me off my feet. I fell to the ground, out cold. The next thing I knew I felt something rough and wet rubbing the side of my face. When I came to there was a cow's face right beside my head. It's huge pink tongue was licking me."
"Euew," Ange said recoiling. "That's gross."
"Yeah, well. I took a look at my watch and saw it was just before eleven," said Lucky, shaking her head. "Couldn't believe it. After all that I never made it to school in time."
No sooner than she said it but Mrs Gillory, the Rector, appeared in the doorway of the locker room.
"Lucky," she said. "You're here. You had the teachers worried. I was just about to call your mother."
"Yeah, well, no need. I'm here...of sorts," said Lucky.
"And a little worse for wear."
Lucky looked down at her mud splattered, sodden and torn uniform. "That'll teach me for walking to school in crappy weather."
"I believe you completed the five days then."
Lucky gave a dejected nod. The mere mention of why she walked in the first place made her jaw clench. Self-inflicted torture. Never again, she thought.
"I'm glad I found you as I have something for you. You're name was drawn out of the hat."
Lucky looked up as Mrs Gillory dug her hand into her trouser pocket and pulled out a clear plastic box. Lucky's eyes opened so wide she thought her eyeballs might fall out. There in Mrs Gillory's hands was the prize she'd been hoping for; the reason she put herself through what was most definintely the worst morning ever. An Ipod.