Fiction

I quickly spun around and looked behind the door to see what damage I had caused. The poor guy was on the floor, holding his hand against his bloody nose. He was brunette with his hair up in a Mohawk. From most of what I saw, he was young with brown eyes and a piercing on his right nostril. He looked to be at the most a sophomore.
I bent down to help him gather his stuff, stuttering out a hundred apologies. I picked up an Algebra 1 book, trying to give it back to him. He looked at me like I was crazy, as if the last thing he wanted right now was his math book.
"I am so sorry. Oh God, you have blood on your shirt." I said, looking down at the trail of blood that led to a red stain on his Pantera shirt.
"Yeah, and thanks to you I might have a concussion." He said, trying to stand up, stumbling backwards for a second as he tried to regain his balance. He was only a little bit taller than I was, and the Mohawk added a few inches past that.
I stood too, and helped gather his things, handing him each item I picked up from the floor.
"You can sue me if me if you want, just don’t tell the principal. I can't afford to get into trouble with my parents…not like they’d notice anyway." I said, shaking off the thought.
He gave me a funny look for a second, but then cracked a smile last minute, realizing I was serious. "Chill it’s alright. Just watch what the hell your doing, next time." He said, trying to sound comical but I could hear the anger in his voice.
I chuckled and returned with an apologetic smile. "I’ll try, but no promises."
His smile turned into a grin as he fully looked at me. "I'm Johnny Seward, by the way. I would shake your hand, but as you can see," He said, looking down at his right hand, covered in blood. "I'm kind of a mess right now."
My smile faded. "Yeah, thanks to me. I'm, by the way, Leah Taylor." I waved instead. "As I said, I am so sorry. I'm the biggest klutz you’ll ever meet." I looked at the clock above our heads. We had less than a minute to get to our classes. He followed my gaze and cursed under his breath.
I quickly looked back at him. "Is there any way I can make it up to you?" I said, kind of hoping he’d go for a ‘no, thanks’ so I could get out of here. I was only trying to be polite but I really just wanted to get to class.
"Well actually, yeah." Damn it. "This is my first year here, and because I'm ‘fresh meat’," He said, using his free hand to make quotation marks with his fingers. "I have no idea where the nurse’s office is and I'm definitely not going to class looking like this. Can you show me where it is?"
I glanced back at the clock. "Well actually, it’s just across the hall from the cafeteria. It shouldn’t be too hard to find-"
"Come on, it’s the least you can do. After all, you did slam a door into my face. And besides that, I don’t even know where that is." He said shrugging.
I sighed but agreed. "You’re right. Come on, it’s somewhat far from here. You should make a mental note of its location so next time I see you, or open another door, you’ll know where to go."
He laughed while plugging his nose to stop the bleeding, making it sound weird. "I'll keep that in mind."
The bell rang, echoing in the hall. "This way," I sighed, walking next to him, trying not to walk too fast. He had to tilt his head up a little so the flow wasn’t too heavy coming out of his nose. I looked at him, seeing him struggle to hold his books up with his one arm so I grabbed most of them, leaving just his English book for him to carry and kept walking. He thanked me and followed a lot quicker.
"The cafeteria is basically in the center of the building, and the front office, kitchen and nurse is in the same hall. There’s only one way to get into the cafeteria, so it shouldn’t be too confusing. That entire hall is the main hall. The classes are in the surrounding halls and in either wings of the building." I told him, hoping he could remember all of this.
We entered the main hall and came close to the front office, where across from there was the choir room and on the other side, one of the bathrooms.
"This your second year?" Johnny asked, trying to look at me as he spoke.
I shook my head. "No, um, actually it’s my last year, but I’ve known this building like the back of my hand since my second year. You’ll get used to the way things are once you become a sophomore, too." I said, reminiscing back on what I wouldn’t dare call ‘the good old days’.
He snickered. "Yeah, if I make it that far."
I looked back at him as we continued walking, passing the cafeteria and coming onto the nurses office. "What do you mean?" I asked.
We stopped at the door once we got there. He shrugged again. "I'm pretty sure I'm not smart enough to make it into to college. I'm not even sure if I'll make it past high school. Who knows how far I’ll get."
I gave him a small smile. "I'm sure you can. It hasn’t been that hard for me, and I always used to think I would never graduate. Then I actually made it past my junior year and started becoming more optimistic, knowing I was even closer to getting the hell out of here."
He chuckled but was still frowning. "Yeah, but I'm sure you’re a lot smarter than I am."
I closed my eyes and shook my head briefly. "I wouldn’t say that. I almost failed my math class last year."
He gave me a confused look. "What? How?" He asked, sounding surprised.
"It got too hard and I couldn’t keep up with the rest of my class, but then I just asked for some extra help from the teacher and he helped me with my homework every now and then. You should ask for Mr. Alexander once you get to the 11th grade. He’s a really good teacher, funny too."
He smiled. "Thanks, I'll remember that, too."
I steadied the books in my hands and opened the door. He walked in first and I followed.
We saw the nurse sitting at her little makeshift desk writing down something on a sticky note. I cleared my throat to get her attention since she didn’t notice us while her back was turned. She quickly spun around, surprised. I shut the door behind me as soon as she stood. She looked stunned when she saw Johnny's face.
"Oh dear, what happened to you?" She said, walking over to the towel dispenser, wetting it and bringing it to him. She started wiping off his face when he started to explain.
He glanced at me for a second, seeing I still felt horrible. "I walked into a door." He said smoothly, as if it were no big deal.
She looked unconvinced for a second. "And what about you? Do you need something?" She asked me, seeing I looked fine.
I bowed my head in shame. I opened my mouth to speak but no sound came out except for my stutter. "I-I-"
"I got lost and asked her to show me where your office was. She saw it when it happened and offered her help." Johnny stepped in, saving me the embarrassment.
"Oh," She said, nodding. "Well then, finish cleaning yourself up. You can use the mirror over there if you need to and I'll get your some Tylenol and an ice pack." She said, walking over to a drawer and pulling out the bottle. She handed it all to him after he had cleaned his face and washed his hands.
"Thanks," He mumbled, probably thinking that they weren’t going to be any help. I hoped they would since it was all my fault.
She sighed. "Okay, you’re free to go." She said to the both of us after she realized I wasn’t leaving here without him.
Johnny was heading for the door when I stopped him by speaking. "Um, actually, I was hoping we could get a pass to our classes. He didn’t know where to go so I had to cut class just to show him and I really don’t want the teacher to yell at us for being late." I said, using my shy voice.
She frowned. "No one’s going to be yelled at. I’ll write you both a pass. Now, what are your names and who are your teachers?"
"Leah Taylor. I have Mrs. McGee." I said, glad my innocent voice worked, not that I wasn’t innocent or anything.
She jotted down my name and wrote down my excuse. After that, she looked up at Johnny. "And what about you?"
He looked at me quickly, clueless and shrugged. "Jonathan Seward. Uh, I think I was told I have Mr. Robinson, but I'm not sure. It’s not on my schedule."
She sighed again. "Okay. Well, if your teacher has a problem with the tardy excuse, tell them to page me and I'll tell them that it’s okay." He nodded as a reply.
She ripped out the pieces of paper and handed them to the both to us. "Can you find your class?" She asked him, raising an eyebrow, looking uncertain.
"I'll show him where it’s at." I said, handing him half of his books and carried the rest.
We walked out the door and started down the hall. "So what does it say on your schedule?"
He looked through his books for a minute but finally pulled out the sheet of paper. "It says Am. History, room 421." He said, looking down at it confused.
I tried to hold in a laugh but he caught it. "What?" He asked.
"You mean American History, not Am. History." I said, still trying not to laugh.
He snickered. "I knew that. I was just testing you. I guess you are smarter than you look."
I cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah, uh-huh. Anyway, that’s this way. He goes by Coach Rob. You’ll love him. He’s funny, kind of…perverted, but still cool." I said as we entered the end of the 400 hall. The junior high had three main halls. The 100 hall through the 300 hall and the high school classrooms went from 400 to 800.
He nodded, seeming like he was trying to remember what I was telling him. "So what do you have right now?" Johnny asked as we were getting closer.
"I've got Zoology science." I said, dreading the thought of that class.
"Is that hard?" He asked.
I shrugged. "I heard it was pretty easy. I sure hope so, I don’t want to come even close to failing again."
"I know what you mean," He mumbled.
"Here it is." I said, stopping in front of the open door and handed him his books. "Ever heard of a locker?" I said, looking down at all of them.
He laughed. "Ever heard of a locker jam?"
I laughed too. "Yep, and of course it has to happen on your first day."
He chuckled. "Yep," He turned, about to go inside when he spun back around to look at me.
"Thanks for your help, even if you hurt the shit out of me. You still owe me, you know." He fake glared.
I smirked. "Wasn’t walking you to the nurse’s office and your class enough?"
He shook his head. "Nope, sorry. I'm sure I'll have a big bruise right in the middle of my face by tomorrow. I'll be getting you back for that big time." He laughed.
I grew worried. There was no telling what that kid had in mind. "Nothing too harsh, okay?" I said, trying to sound innocent again.
He grinned evilly. "Like being hit with a door?" Well that plan failed.
I laughed nervously. Great…"Well, I have to go. See you later. Have fun on the rest of your first day." I mocked, knowing what I had done had definitely ruined it already. I started to walk away.
"I’ll try, but no promises." He mocked back, coping me from earlier.
"Very funny," I said over my shoulder and went straight to my class. I didn’t want to be anymore late than I had to. Way to start your first day as a senior, Leah.
It didn’t occur to me until now, walking to my class that the nurse may have written the time I left her office on the paper she gave me, and if I didn’t hurry and get to class the teacher will probably think I was cutting class until last minute. I pulled the slip out of my front pocket and looked for the time that she should have written on it. Luckily, she hadn’t put it down, so I was good for now.

If I really wanted to, I could wait until last minute to show up to class right before the bell rings with a perfect excuse, but that wasn’t something someone like me would do. I was too much of a goody-two-shoe. Besides that, what would I do with the free time, hang out in the bathroom? I don’t think so.
I shoved the note in back in my pocket until I got to my third period. I shuffled down the hall in complete dread but drug my ass until I got to the room number I was supposed to be in. I got there within 20 minutes of class already being started.
I hesitantly swung open the door and walked in, seeing a big room full of kids staring at me with some kind of lab in the back. The teacher was at my very right as I went through the door, sitting at her desk.
She looked up from her computer and at me as the door closed shut. I looked from the other students staring to quickly looking at her, seeing a questioning look. I slowly inched my way forward and handed her the note.
"Sorry I'm late. I was trying to help someone find the nurses office and then helped him find his class." I said in a quiet voice, even though it was all explained on the note.
She nodded and stood from her desk chair. "Well Leah," She said, standing and putting the note in a trashcan that was tucked under her desk. "Welcome to my Zoology class. Go ahead and take a seat." She said, waving a hand towards the desks. There were only few empty ones, which reminded me of second hour. I decided to take one that was closest to the teacher’s desk, feeling safer that way and was one away from the front.
I settled in, sitting my books on top of the desk and waited for instructions or something. She walked over to me with her boots clicking on the tile floor, handing me a few sheets of paper. They were just like the ones I got from every other teacher on the first day, like procedures, rules and expectations. From the looks of it, she had many rules.
"Okay," She said, clicking her pen and pointed out a few things. "This is just a list of rules and procedures for when we will be working with the lab, but I will need your parent’s signature so I know if it is alright for you to work under these conditions. Later this semester we will be using some chemicals that you may be allergic to, so I will need to know if it is safe for you to be using them."
I nodded, still but barely listening. I really didn’t want her standing right next to my desk talking to me as if I had attention deficit disorder or something. I had everyone’s eyes on me, and that wasn’t the kind of attention I wanted right now.
She kept talking and glanced up at me with every other word to make sure I was paying attention. I kept my eyes on the sheet of paper but nodded when she asked me follow up questions.
After she was finished including me in on what the class had just discussed before I got there, she went back to her desk and mentioned we had 10 minutes left of class. That left the rest of the students to being able to talk quietly, and left me sitting there waiting for the damn bell to ring.
There was nothing I dreaded more than going to lunch. I didn’t have any friends to sit with, and sitting with people I didn’t know wasn’t going to happen. I was stuck with being by myself. It wasn’t something I minded, but still it got pretty lonely, like my previous years of high school. I guess I should be used to it by now, so it wasn’t much of a big deal, but it would have been nice to have at least someone to sit with. Besides that, the food was dreadful. I'm sure no one enjoyed tofu burgers and mystery meat casseroles. Even the produce they served tasted old, as if they’d been storing it all in the freezer since the previous year. Well, that was high school for you. Don’t expect gourmet food and good vending machines here at Huntington High, because you aren’t going to get it.
Finally, the bell rang. Just three more hours of class and I was out of here for the day. I already couldn’t wait for the last day of school, and then graduation. I was already so anxious to be handed that diploma. I gathered my things and went for my locker. Like all of the time last year, the damn thing got jammed. I tried at least three different times to get the combination right, and then once I got it, the door was caught on the strap of my backpack. The strap was hanging out of the shut door, making things worse.

They really needed bigger lockers. I banged on the door a couple of times, with no success on getting it open and earning a few stares from random people. I threw my books down and stood on my tippy toes because I was stuck with a top locker. I was too frickin’ short to reach the top shelf most of the time. I just hoped stretching would make it easier to see what I was doing. I threw my fist against it again in frustration after nothing helped.
"Need any help with that?" I heard a female voice from behind me.
I jumped and quickly spun around to see a tall blonde girl with bright green eyes standing behind me. She had her peace sign backpack slung over one shoulder and was wearing a bright green hoodie over a tie dye t-shirt. Her short bleach blonde hair hung in her eyes but highlighted her pretty, pale face. At first glance she seemed very free spirited and nice, but I could have been wrong. I was usually a good judge of character, but sadly, I have been proven wrong before.
I looked from her to my locker and back. "Uh, yeah actually. My stupid locker is jammed again. I've tried just about all I can to get it open." I said as she walked over to it.
She nodded. "Yeah, my locker does that all of the time. It’s just a matter of where you hit it." She said, slamming her fist in just the right spot for the locker to swing open. I felt my eye brows raise. She turned to me and smiled. "There you go."
I smiled politely and picked my stuff off of the floor. "Thanks."
After I put my stuff in and closed my locker shut, she was still standing behind me. I realized I was in her way. I moved to the right for her to get by. She bent down and opened the locker that was directly underneath mine. I smiled as she peaked up at me through her bangs.
"I'm sorry, I didn’t catch your name." She stood and shut her door. My mouth opened to speak but hardly any sound came out. Curse my shyness. "I'm Lacy." She waved, realizing I couldn’t speak. She waited for me to respond after that.
I shook off the shyness for a moment and greeted her back. "I'm Leah."
"Are you new here?" She asked suddenly.
"No, um actually this is my last year here. What about you?" I asked, trying to keep a conversation with her. I would love to make at least one friend this year, and she seemed friendly enough.
"I thought I saw you around before last year, but I wasn’t sure." She nodded. "It’s my last year here too, thank god." She smiled.
I chuckled. "Yeah, I know what you mean."
We continued talking and walked to the cafeteria together. We talked about random things, like how she liked my flats so I said I liked her t-shirt.
We entered the lunchroom and got in line behind a couple of girls talking and giggling. I let her go first as we grabbed our trays. Today’s main menu was chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes. It didn’t sound too bad, and it looked good enough to eat, but after seeing the lunch lady who was serving the potatoes, I decided to go with the salad bar instead. If I grew hungry later, I could always grab the orange out of my backpack that I had stored in there this morning.
Lacy got a plate of nachos and bought a bag of chocolate chip cookies they made. I would have gotten some too if I had the 50 cents. I'm not poor or anything, I just didn’t have the money left from paying for the rest of my lunch.
After I paid and got out of the line, I scanned the room for an empty table to sit at. I found the one where I used to eat my lunch but it was covered in freshmen. Then I saw one of the bigger tables that had a fair sized empty space at the end. There were more people on the other end than on that side, so I decided I would sit there if I were left with no other choice.
Suddenly I felt a shove against my shoulder, almost knocking the food right out of my hands. I quickly clutched it all to my chest to keep it from falling but ended up spilling all over me. Luckily, I didn’t put any dressing on it yet. I heard laughing from all around me. I spun around to see who had pushed me.
Several guys, all of them jocks, stood there while pointing and laughing. I knew the guy closest to me was the one who did it. He had a big smirk on his face. I was so close to pushing right back, but before I could make my move, I finally noticed my brother standing with his group of friends and the guy who shoved me. He wasn’t laughing but at the same time, he made no move to help me out or stick up for me. He just walked away with them to their table, not looking back. I wasn’t surprised by his actions, or should I say his lack of actions, but it still upset me.
"Oh my god, are you okay?" Lacy asked, running up to me and set her tray down. She helped me pick off the pieces of lettuce off my shirt.
I sighed and threw away what was left of my salad in the trash beside me. "I'm fine, I guess." I mumbled, wiping off the rest of the food on me.
"Do you know who those guys were? Or why they did that to you?" She asked, picking up her stuff.
I shook my head. "That was one of my brother’s friends, while he just stood there and watched." I said as I could feel the tears swelling in my eyes. I quickly blinked them away and shrugged. "As far as to why goes, I don’t know why. I didn’t even do anything. I'm not even sure if Kyle told them that I was his sister. He’s probably too embarrassed."
Her eyes grew sympathetic. "Wow, I'm sorry. That must be tough. I have an older sister, and she used to be the same way when she was in high school and I was still in junior high. I would wave at her and she would just turn the other away." She said, babbling for a few more seconds. Then she asked if I was sure that I was okay.
I gave her a half-hearted smile for her trying to be nice, but I didn’t think it was helping any. "Yeah, I'm okay."
She flashed a smile. "Good. Now, where were you going to sit?"
I looked at the table I spotted earlier. People were all over that table now, and there was no possible way I was going to be able to squeeze into it anywhere. My eyes landed on my brother’s table and caught his gaze. He looked like he was trying to say something to me with his eyes but I glared and my eyes shot away.
I shrugged. "I don’t know. There’s no point in me staying in here since I lost my lunch, so I'll probably just hang out by my locker until lunch is over."
She laughed. "No, you should hang out with me and my friends. We always sit over there." She said, pointing at one of the longer tables. She grabbed my arm and led me over to the table before I could even reply. I kept trying to tell her that it was okay, that I didn’t want to intrude her and her friends but she kept insisting.
She pulled me over to group of girls and a few guys sitting at the end of one of the many tables put together. I was so nervous to be meeting even more strangers I started to feel butterflies in my stomach.
"Guys, this is Leah. She doesn’t have anyone to sit with, so she’s gonna hang out with us today." She ordered them, sitting and pulling me down with her. Well thanks for being so blunt, Lacy.
I got a couple of friendly smiles and a few waves. I waved back and flashed a smile. "Okay," Lacy said, pointing at the person who sat at the end of the table, going from my right to across the table and then to her left. "This is Jake, that’s Darbi," She said, pointing to shaggy haired boy and a red headed girl with blonde highlights.

"Next to her is Rainey, then Caiti, and that’s Trenton but we all call him Teeter." Rainey also had red hair but hers was more of a natural looking hair dye than how Darbi had hers. Caiti had short, choppy hair and wore her bangs over her glasses, and then Teeter was at the other end of the table with light, brunette hair and green eyes.
"Then across from him is Austin," She said pointing to another shaggy haired boy, but this time he was blonde and had a friendly smile.

"And right next to me is my bestie, Sunie." Sunie had long, straight black hair and was very petite. She was the total opposite of Lacy. She wore dark clothing, several wristbands and was a little heavy on the eyeliner. I wouldn’t call her gothic, or even punk but she definitely wasn’t girly like Darbi or tom boyish like Caiti.

Darbi wore light colors and even had her makeup and hair in a girly fashion. She had some freckles across her cheeks and nose but that didn’t take away from her good looks.

Caiti wore band a band t-shirt with torn jeans and even more bracelets than Sunie. Rainey was a mixture of them all and fit in the middle of girly and tomboyish somewhere.
"Are you okay? What happened over there? We all saw you jump so high you spilled you salad everywhere." Sunie said in a very high pitched, feminine voice.
I was about to reply with another ‘I'm fine’ but Darbi spoke before I could. "Yeah, who were those guys?"
Great, they’re already starting a conversation with me about me doing something to embarrass myself. My face heated in embarrassment as the boys chuckled. "Well I'm okay. I was just walking and they shoved me, spilling my salad all over myself as I tried not to drop it."
They all nodded as if they understood. "So are you new here? I don’t think I've seen you around." The boy named Austin asked me, leaning over the table to see past the other girls.
I shook my head and Lacy answered for me. "No, she’s been here the whole time, just like all of us." She told Austin, but then turned to me. "Well except for Darbi, she was new here last year."
"Yeah, it was pretty tough, but people were never that mean." Darbi added. "I'm just glad I met you guys before I got stuck with some losers." She said sarcastically, emphasizing that she was actually calling them that.
They all laughed as Austin threw a french fry at her and almost landing in her shirt. She picked it up and ate it, sticking her tongue out at him.
"If you wanted a fry, you could have just asked." Rainey teased, sliding her tray towards Darbi, who in return grabbed a few and ate them.
I laughed and caught their attention. "You want some too? Looks like you are left with nothing to eat." Rainey smiled.
I smiled back and happily grabbed a few, giving her my thanks. A few minutes later of them all talking and me just sitting there listening, not knowing what they were talking about, the bell rang as lunch ended. I was happy for that but yet kind of remorseful that I didn’t get to hang out with them all longer.
I waved goodbye to them, thanked Lacy for letting me sit with them and headed to class. I was hoping I would have at least one of them in some of my classes so we could talk more. They all seemed really nice and funny. I liked them a lot.
I was kind of sad that I didn’t see Johnny where at lunch. I looked for him everywhere when the others were talking and sharing stories about the teachers they got this year. I was only half listening as I looked, but I still couldn’t find him. It wasn’t like I was going to go over to him and ask to hang out or anything, but it would have been nice to see a friendly and familiar face.
My stomach growled as I left the cafeteria and went back to my locker, successfully getting it open this time. I grabbed my bag and decided to take the whole thing with me. Next, I had History class…oh joy, another heavy book to lug around with me all day. Lacy didn’t come back to her locker, which I had expected and I kind of felt disappointed. I was hoping we could talk again. I would really like to become friends with them all. They seemed so friendly, I just felt kind of welcome. They were my kind of friends, I think. I didn’t really know since I didn’t really have any, but I was just guessing.

I slung my bag on one shoulder and headed to my fifth hour, already dreading it. I just hope I didn’t fall asleep, I felt so exhausted from all of the shit that’s happened to me today. Not a good way to start my first day, but hey, why not make an impression that people can remember, good or bad?

Notes