I make it in time to my bus stop and I swat the beads of sweat off my forehead. 

 I stumble up the stairs on the bus and sling my dalmatian book bag over my shoulder, walking through the aisles until I saw a familiar face flailing their arms around, waving at me.

"Marinette you made it! I thought that I would have to survive the ride to school without you!" My best friend Julie grins from ear to ear.

"I had to run like there was no tomorrow. That's my exercise for the year." I tie the bow on my flats.

Her real name is Juleka Couffaine but I call her Julie, simply Julie. 

Julie has long black hair with Electric purple highlights on the tips of her hair. She usually wears mascara around her copper eyes along with pale lavender lipstick. 

The average person who takes a glance at her might see a teenage girl who is stuck in the emo phase. If you look under a magnifying glass then you'll see that she is shy and kind like me except she is not afraid to speak her mind, unlike me.

Julie has been my best friend since the sixth grade and she came to my rescue when one of the popular kids named Louis told me "Your designs look like they were made by an alien." Julie poured milk all over his head and he ran away yelling "I've worked on having my hair look like this for months!" It's true Louis had been attempting to recreate the hairstyle of Justin Bieber for three months. 

After the incident, she even told me that she thought that my designs were cool. Ever since then we've been best friends that are inseparable. Now she even helps me promote my designs by wearing them to school every day.

Not that anyone really stops to even look at my designs but two is better than one right? At least that's what Ms. Kelswick says, she even told me that one day that I will be recognized, that I just have to get out there more. I'm not quite sure what she means by that but maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to find out. 

"Ugh, I just wish that I didn't have to present today. I'm going to tell Ms. Kelswhich that I want to be a mime, at least they don't have to do any forms of public speaking." I groan and look out of la Ventura (the window).

Julie shrugs her shoulders and chuckles softly. "I already tried that one the only thing that I got from it was a phone call home and a concerned mom. I peer into her eyes deeply waiting for a magic answer to solve my problem. 

 "Even if you're a mime you'll still have to perform in public Marinette, I thought that you said you wanted to be a fashion designer." Julie smooths down her white-off-the-shoulder-lace-blouse, places one hand on my shoulder.

"Seriously though, you should just try your best and if anyone laughs at you then I'll make sure that they regret it."  She motions as if she was punching someone in their mouth., makes a funny face with her tongue sticking out.

Just as we were about to continue our conversation we pulled up to a large cream-colored three-story building with the words "Mulbain High School" printed across the school. I take a deep breath, put my head in the crook of Julie's neck. 

"You're going to be fine." Julie squeezes my hand tightly.

"How are you not scared?" I ask, walking through the hallway. "Oh, that's right because you are Julie Couffaine," I say, sighing. 

Why couldn't I just be more like Julie for once?

"You know I do get nervous, but when I'm passionate about a topic I don't think about what people think about me I think about what I'm presenting and what message I'm trying to point out." She says, sweeps a piece of her side-swept bang out of her eye.

And the award of Best Motivator of the year goes to Julie Couffaine! 

I'm always a bit nervous before I walk into a school since I have a tad bit of social anxiety. I'm usually worried that someone will judge me or make a comment about me. Just seeing people in general stresses me out.

We walk through the long and narrow halls until we stop at room 1601. 1601 is the English classroom number. I mentally prepare myself to walk into the room, imagine that my mom was with me and telling me that I would be okay.  Slowly but surely I walk into the room and instantly feel my throat start to close up.

One might think that I'm being overly dramatic about presenting but public speaking is my greatest fear. My throat feels like it's closing and my palms get all sweaty, my face turns Tinkerbell red. You would've thought that I was making the worlds hardest decision, well in my brain I was trying to collect up enough courage to even go up to my spot to present.

Ms. K. turns around from writing "presentations due today" on the board in large handwriting, smiles warmly at us. "Well welcome Miss Dupain-Cheng and Miss Couffaine. You two will be the last two to present your slam poems, I hope that you're ready."  

In my head, I yell out "No I'm not ready!," but in reality, I just nod and walk to my seat that was to the right of Julie. 

 I had a gut-wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was going to go horribly wrong.