The Girl Who Said No

"No. Bobby you can't do that!"
Bobby rolled his eyes as his sister began lecturing him unrelentlessly about roller skating in the house.
"Sis, give it a break. I was just playing. It's not like I'm going to break anything."
"Bobby, I'm telling you one last time and it's a -"
"No. I get it, Sis. You know you can be bossy at times." He shrugged his shoulders and headed out the door.
Lindsey stood fuming over her brother's latest scheme. Obviously, he didn't know what the word no meant. She grabbed her backpack and headed off to school. Hopefully, she wouldn't be late by now.
Once she got there, mobs of students were crowding the halls that she barely managed to get through.
"There is no such thing as crowding the halls!" she shouted. Nobody listened to her but she still lectured about their carelessness.
Suddenly, a foot shot out and tripped Lindsey. She and her books went down to the floor.
"Oomph! I said no tripping", she exclaimed. Still nobody listened to her and only stepped around her.
A boy about her age stopped and stared at her.
"What do you want?" she asked sharply.
"Do you need any help?"
"No!" she yelled. "Nobody has been listening to me when I said no crowding the hallways." Suddenly, the hall went silent and her voice echoed through the walls. Everybody glared at Lindsey while she froze in place.
"Um... Does anybody understand when I said no crowding, no running, and no pushing?" Her voice was but a faint whisper.
The rest of the students stared coldly at her and turned away. Regular routine returned. The boy who offered assistance glared harshly at her one last time before walking away.
"Nobody has respect here", Lindsey thought.
She continued her way and arrived in her first period class. Assembling her materials in an orderly fashion, she glanced around the room.
"Tsk, tsk. No room should look like this. It's all a mess in this room and no teacher should allow it to come out like this", she murmured quietly.
Mr. Engils came in and welcomed the class. He then turned it over to lessons and notes for the rest of the period. Lindsey listened intently to his lesson.
A couple of girls were quietly chatting to each other and this happened to bother Lindsey. She glared at them a couple of times but they ignored her. Finally, she had no choice but to lecture them once more.
"Girls, no talking during class time."
Their looks were very irritated and they were forced to stay quiet throughout the rest of the time. Lindsey sighed in satisfaction.
During lunch, Lindsey decided to buy lunch. A guy strolled up to her.
"Hey, can I borrow 25 cents?"
Lindsey looked up at him with a hard look.
"No. Next time, get your own money."
The guy grimaced and went to another to ask.
After buying her lunch, she sat down at an unoccupied table and read by herself. Nobody dared to sit next to her during lunch but she didn't care. Her life was saying no and that was the most comfortable thing she was good at.
***
The next day, she woke up with a start, only to notice that the clock was only 5:15 in the morning. Grumbling slightly, she slipped out of bed and changed into long pants with a green turtleneck. Glancing decidedly at the mirror, she felt that it was okay and headed down the stairs. Greeting her mom and dad, she sat down next to her younger brother who sat half-asleep.
"No sleeping, Bobby. It's morning now and you need to be awake for school."
"Whatever, Sis. Just leave me alone."
Ignoring her brother's words, she took a glass of milk and splashed it on her brother's face.
"What the-"
"Like I said before, little brother, no sleeping."
"Mom!"
Their mom glanced at the two and shook her head. They always found something to fight about.
"Lindsey dear. Can you be a little less primitive on your brother? He's tired."
Lindsey rolled her eyes. Obviously her mother didn't understand when it meant that you were supposed to be awake in the morning.
"Mom, Bobby needs to know what no means. He doesn't understand a clue. When I say no, I mean no, and that means no. Got that?"
Bobby was now asleep by now. As Lindsey was about to shake him, his eyes flew open and he sat up straight like a pin.
"I thought so, little brother!"
***
At school, everybody continued to crowd the halls once more. As Lindsey pushed and shoved through, she noticed that most people were staring at her. Unable to meet their gazes, she headed towards her homeroom and waited for the teacher to arrive. Like always, she was the first one in the room and liked it that way. Then, nobody would distract her for some time to come.
"I said no this and no that and still that stupid brother of mine still does it. How impossible he is! I can't stand that brother brat of mine!" she muttered.
Just as she finished that, the teacher came in and wasn't surprised to find her to be the first one in.
"Hi Lindsey", he said in a dull tone.
"Hi, Mr. Sanders."
He strolled over to his desk and placed his suitcase on top. Slowly, he drew out the assignments to be handed out and began stacking them in neat piles. Lindsey noticed that some had stains on them. They looked like coffee.
"Mr. Sanders, don't drink too much coffee. First of all, they create horrible stains and also there's too much caffeine in them. You could also manage to hire a housekeeper some day. I think the stains just couldn't help themselves."
He glared at her for a moment before continuing his piles of paper.
"Thank you, Lindsey", he replied curtly.
"Just a reminder for the day", Lindsey said cheerfully.
Mr. Sanders glanced at his watch and noticed that he didn't have much time to run down to the copiers to print a document.
"Lindsey, can you run down to the copiers and print a few documents for me while I go to the meeting?"
Lindsey looked at the clock above and saw that he had about 5 minutes left.
"No Mr. Sanders. You need some excercise and heading down to the copiers doesn't take a long time. Besides, I have some things to do. Why don't you do it?"
Annoyed, Mr. Sanders shook his head and went out.
"Too lazy to work", he muttered angrily.