Alamy
Every teenager knows the sinking feeling you get in your stomach when Monday morning rolls round.
Everything hits you at once: the terrible realisation that you haven't done an important piece of homework; that you haven't had a shower the night before and,just because your parents don't think you're in enough of a rush, they decide that they're going to nag you about your school. I mean come on, you're the ones that sent me there!
I have the same quarrel with my mum every morning:
"Oh it looks cold outside, why aren't you taking a coat?"
This argument isn't a very long one because I normally decide that a subtle eye roll is the best comeback.
Every morning when I leave the house I groan inwardly at the fact that I can't wear a coat. I see kids going to other schools, warm and snug, and scowl. But at my school if you want to bring a coat there are just too many obstacles to face.
First there's the fact that if you wore a coat you'd have to wear it on top of your uniform, blazer and all. That means that you have to buy it like seven sizes too big and you'd never wear it for any other occasion. My parents should thank me that I don't want to waste money like that!
And even if you had the loveliest, warmest most stylish coat of all, you have to take it off when you enter the school gates.
Why?! I'm here, freezing outside in morning line-up, because I have to take my coat off 10 minutes in advance when I want to enter the building. What's the point in bringing a coat in at all then? There isn't one.
But the coat situation isn't the most hassling rule at my school. Trust me, the list is endless... One of my favourites is that we're not allowed to hang out in groups of more than five. I don't know what the people that made that rule thought would happen if teens hung out in bigger groups than five.
"Oh my! There are six raucous teenagers standing together, the end of the world must be coming!"
It's just irritating! And why five? That means that there's always an awkward number of people and one reject person. Surely this rule is just promoting bullying.
One rule that I am thankful for having though is our school's no physical contact. This goes from touching (such as a high five) to hugging/kissing. Whenever I mention this rule to anyone there's a sudden uproar "But they can't do that!"
Ummm why not? Does it really effect my education either way? To be honest, I would much rather not be allowed to touch anyone than to walk through a corridor jam packed with kids sucking each others' faces off.
I've had lectures enough times from my mum to know what her least favourite rule is. The bag rule. You have to bring in all your books and text books no matter what. At first this rule's fine: year 7 you come in innocent and cheerful with only a few books in your bag, plus you get a locker. But only year 7s are allowed a locker so by the end of year 8 your patience has run dry.
So think about when you come to year 10 and 11 and you're forced to bring in all your text books which now weigh as much as a baby elephant and you're not allowed a locker because there 'isn't enough space to put them'.
What about that empty room over there? Or my form room where the only thing that takes up all the space are random computers that are never used.
It's not fair that whenever I walk past a group of year 7s (obviously not a very large group, at max five) they're complaining about how heavy their bags are and how unfair the school system is. You don't even know the half of it - and parents know even less!
Emily is a Year 10 pupil in a London school.