Dreams of Tomorrow.

Athalya was sitting on the front porch, a plate of cookies beside her, with a glass of homemade ice tea.

She watched as teenagers walked out of their houses, getting ready to hang out with their friends. Her mind was running wild, trying to imagine their lives, what could they be doing after school, hanging out and stuff. She sighed and blinked, looking across the street as a group of teenagers was talking and joking loudly. It was mostly guys but she spotted two girls. One of the girls in the group stopped walking and looked at her, waving. Valary.

Athalya waved back, half-heartedly.

She made hand gesture for her to come over while her friends had stopped walking. Athalya shook her head lightly and pointed at the house, behind her.
Valary dropped her hand, shrugging her shoulder and caught up with her friends, waving at Athalya once again.

She rubbed her neck, grabbed the plate of cookies and her glass before walking back inside. She put everything in the kitchen and was surprised to see her grandmother, a sad expression on her face.

“You don’t have to stay home, you know. You could have gone to the park with your friends.” Said Suzanne, Athalya’s grandmother.

“They’re not my friends Mamie. There is just this girl that helped me find my class this morning, she asked me if I wanted to eat with her friends for lunch and then I saw her again from across the street.” Explained Athalya, putting the cookies back in the metal box.

“What was her name?”

“Who?” asked Athalya, closing the box and going over to the counter, putting the box down.

“The girl’s name.” said her grandmother, as if it was obvious.

“Valary?”Said/asked Athalya, while putting the plate and the glass in the sink.

“She’s a nice kid, with some bad frequentation though.” Said Suzanne, shaking her head to herself.
“She has a sister and a brother. I think their house is a couple of streets down.” She added.

“Ok, thanks Mamie but I don’t think I will show up at their house anytime soon.” She said, rubbing her neck. “I’m going to my room for a while, do you need help?” she asked before going.

“No sweetheart, go ahead.”

She nodded and walked upstairs, putting a CD in her brand new stereo, offered by her grandparents as a welcome present. Green Day started filling the room and she felt slightly better, taking a book from her bedside table, she climbed on the cushions by the window and settled herself.

**

The next morning, she took the bus. The yellow ones, like in the movies she used to watch with her mother.

She asked the bus driver to wait for a short second as a kid started running down the street.
“Thanks!” he said, out of breath. She just smiled faintly and got in, taking a seat by the window. The kid sat down next to her. She said kid, but he seemed to be about her age.

Taking her CD player out of her bag, she put her earphones on and looked out of the window, until they reached the school.

Everyone rushed out while she took her time, head down once again. Once she reached the class, she sat down, took her history book out and started doodling on her notebook, waiting for class to start.
Students started filling the room and she caught sight of Valary. She smiled faintly at her and went back to her doodle when the seat next to her moved.

“Is this seat taken?” she asked. Athalya shook her head. Valary sat down.

“I forgot my book.” She said, “You don’t mind?”

“No, it’s ok.” Replied Athalya, pushing her book slightly so it was in the middle of the table.
The two people in the row in front of them turned around at about the same time. One of them looked at Athalya weirdly.

“Jimmy…” said Valary, in a warning tone. He just grinned back at her and then leaned forward, taking a good look at the new kid.

“You’re Athalya, right?” asked the other guy.

“Y-yes” she stuttered, her cheeks turning pink in embarrassment.

“This is Matt, my boyfriend.” Explained Valary. The guy with the lip ring smiled, showing off his dimples. “And that’s Jimmy, the crazy guy who startled you yesterday.” Explained Valary.

“Startled?” asked Athalya, frowning lightly.

“Surprised you? Frightened you out of nowhere?” said Val, looking slightly surprised.

“Oh!” said Athalya, her eyes widening in understanding as she scribbled the word and underlined it.

“Verb is startle” said Valary. “One T, one L.” she said, pointing at the word on Athalya’s notebook.

“Oh, ok. Thank you.” She whispered, blushing in embarrassment.

“You’re not from here, are you?” asked Matt. While Jimmy kept looking at Athalya.

“No… I…” and the bell rang, cutting off the conversation. Matt turned around, pulling Jimmy with him.
They had double history and then Matt, Val and Jimmy had another class while Athalya had algebra again.

When the bell rang, announcing lunch, she put her stuff in the locker and headed to the cafeteria.
This time she barely had the time to take two steps into the room that Val was already in front of her.
“Will you eat with us today?” she asked. “I promise you’re not intruding.”

Athalya pondered for a second and nodded, shyly.
“Cool!” said Val, clapping her hands together.

She lead the way to the table, smiling.
“Guys, this is Athalya, she just moved here. Please be nice, ok?” said Val as she sat down next to Matt.
Jimmy grinned at her and pulled out a chair, patting it. She sat down, awkwardly, between Jimmy and Val. She felt the heat rising to her cheeks as everyone was looking at her.

“You already met Matt and Jimmy in History class. This is Zacky.” Val said, pointing to the guy sitting next to Matt. He nodded at her. “This is Justin.” She added, pointing at the guy sitting in front of her.
“Hi.” she mumbled, looking at them before focusing back on her plate.

“So, where do you come from?” asked Val, as she glared at Jimmy who was trying to steal her pizza. “The bell rang when you were about to answer this morning.”

“Europe.” Athalya replied, taking a bit of her pizza.

“Really? Which country?” asked Matt, sounding interested.

“France.” She replied, feeling the heat rose to her cheeks once again.

“That’s cool! I’ve always wanted to visit Paris.” Said Val.

“Do you eat frog legs and snails?” asked Jimmy. His voice was louder than the rest of the group and he was speaking fast, and was eating his words. She scrunched up her eyebrows, trying to replay his sentence in her head so she could answer his question.

“Jimmy, try to speak clearly, the poor girl didn’t understand you.” Said Justin, patting Jimmy’s shoulder.

“Do.you.eat.frog.legs.and.snails?” he asked, detaching each word and speaking slowly. Athalya sighed.

“I’m not stupid you know, I can understand you, just speak slower.” She said, a little hurt that he thought she was stupid just because she came from a foreign country. “And yes, we do eat frog and snails, I never tried though… We even eat pigeons, rabbits and horses.” She said carelessly, before taking another bit of pizza. They all made a disgusted face. Athalya knew they would.

“That’s weird…” said Justin, making a face.

“Do you like, have the right to shoot pigeons in the street?” asked Jimmy. Athalya smiled but shook her head. “I don’t think so, I never tried though…”

“That could be a fun thing to do!” said Jimmy, his eyes lightning up. Val rolled her eyes.

“Excuse him, he’s just weird.” Explained Matt, flashing her his dimpled smile which made her smile back.

“That I am, baby!” he said, grinning.

Athalya shook her head, smiling and took the last bite of her pizza before taking her apple.

“What kind of music are you listening to?” asked Justin.

“I don’t know if you have ever heard of them, but they are American.”

“Shout.” Said Zacky. Athalya raised an eyebrow.

“He means tell us.” Said Val with a small smile. Once again, Athalya felt stupid for not knowing that.

“Green Day.” She said, just the mention of the name brought a smile to her face.

“Oh yeah, they’re pretty famous here in the US.” Said Justin, nodding.

“Yeah, we heard about them, just not our kind of music. We’re more into metal and stuff like that.” Explained Val.

“Have you ever heard of Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Guns and Roses, Pantera, Metallica…?” asked Zacky.

“Hum yeah, I know a couple songs but I’m not a fan… I’m more into the punk rock kind. Like The Offspring, Operation Ivy, and most of all Green Day.” She explained, hoping her accent wasn’t too present.
They kept talking about music for the rest of lunch break and soon it was time to go back to class.

The bell rang and Athalya followed everyone out of the cafeteria.

“What’s your next class?” asked Val.

Athalya took her schedule out of her back, “Biology…” she said.

“Cool, I have biology too.” Said Val smiling. “See you guys later!” she said as she led Athalya to their next class.

The rest of the day went by pretty fast and soon the bell rang, signaling the end of the day. Her last lesson had been double biology. She walked out of the classroom with Val by her side.

“I need to grab something in my locker.” Val explained, “And then I’ll meet up with the guys in the parking. Do you need a ride home?” she asked.

Athalya shook her head, shifting her backpack a little.
“No thank you, I’ll take the bus.” She said.

“Oh okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then?” asked Val, looking at her.

Athalya nodded and made her way out of the building and towards the school gates. She waited at the bus stop for the bright yellow bus to show up. She climbed in and took a sit next to the window. She took her CD player out of her bag when a boy took the sit next to her.
It was the same boy as this morning. He smiled at her and she faintly smiled back.
She put the earphones in her ears and pressed play, letting Billie Joe’s voice filled her ears as he started singing ‘At the library’. She smiled slightly, happy that the day went by fast and that she had met some nice persons. She looked out of the window, looking at her surroundings.

Finally it was her stop and they both walked out of the bus. They awkwardly walked together in the same direction for a short while before he turned right.

Once she reached her grandparents’ house, she pretty much did the same as the previous day and sat down outside, munching on some cookies. This time, she had a book in her hand.
The Catcher in the Rye she had found it on the pile on her desk.
She looked at the first page out of habit and saw something scribbled.

For Shania,
Remember : “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” JD Salinger.
With love
B x

Frowning slightly, she wondered what “B” meant when she knew the book obviously belonged to her mother.

“Athalya, hey!” she blinked and looked up, seeing Matt standing in her grandparents’ driveway.

“Hi Matt.”

“What are you doing?” he asked, taking a few steps forwards.

“Reading… and eating.” She said, unsure.

“I was heading to the park, do you want to come with me?” he asked, pointing at the street behind his shoulder. “I’m meeting up with Val and the rest of the gang you met at school.”

“I…”

“It’s not far from here, only for a couple of hours. You can leave anytime.” He said. “If you have other things to do, it’s ok. I just thought you might want to get to know Huntington, you know, since you just moved here. Are your parents’ home? I can tell them exactly where we are going if needed, it’s Huntington central park. A few streets from here.” He said, taking a step forward.

She closed the book and shot to her feet.

“No, it’s ok. Just a moment…” she quickly said, grabbing her stuff and walking inside. Without surprise, her grandmother was in the kitchen, she probably heard the whole exchange as the window was slightly opened, as always.

“You should go sweetie, get to know the other teenagers around. Make some friends.” Said Suzanne.

“But…”

“You heard him, you can come back anytime. The park is not far. It should be good for you to get out of the house.” She said, hoping her granddaughter would finally try and socialize.

“Fine.” She said, glancing at her small watch. She grabbed a hoodie, kept her book in hand and walked back outside.

“So, can you come?” asked Matt, looking hopeful.

“Yeah.”

“Awesome, it’s going to be fun.” He said, leading the way. “Is it your first time in America?”

“I think so.” She said, one hand holding her book while the other was holding her hoodie. “Can’t really remember.” She trailed off, not really going into the specific of how she was born here and then left and then came back.

“Do you like it here so far?” he asked, looking curiously at the girl beside him.

“It’s not bad.” She said, shrugging. “The weather is nice.”

“Did you move here because of your parents’ job?” he asked. She slowed down slightly and clenched her jaw.
“N-no.” she stuttered.

Matt frowned slightly and quickly glanced at her. She looked sad, like really sad. Her whole face changed in a blink of an eye. “I’m sorry if I said something wrong.”

“No, it’s ok.” She quickly said, looking up at him. Her eyes looked slightly red, Matt looked away, frowning.

“Look, we’re here.” After they had walked for a few minutes in silence. Matt led the way further into the park.

“It’s nice.” She said, looking at the surroundings. “This duck is huge.” She mumbled and as if on cue, Jimmy showed up, running around, he didn’t even look at them as he kept running.
She blinked while Matt just laughed.

“That’s Jimmy, you’ll get used to it.” Said Matt.

They kept walking a bit and Athalya could see kids teenagers her age, trying to play baseball while Jimmy kept running after a guy that looked shorter than him.

“Do you wanna play baseball?” asked Matt.

“No, I’m good. I’m just going to sit there and read. Thanks Matt.” She said, stopping at the nearest tree and sitting down.

“Are you sure?” he asked, confused. She nodded and faked a smile.

She crossed her legs Indian style and started reading her book. Her chestnut hair started falling down her eyes and she tried to tie them up with an elastic band. As she did saw, the elastic band broke and flew from her hand. She sighed heavily and dropped her hands.

“Here.” She looked up to see a girl about her age, looking a lot like Val. She must have looked surprised because the girl chuckled.

“I’m Val’s twin sister, Michelle. You can call me ‘Chelle.” She said, handing her a black elastic band.

“Oh I get it, thanks.” She said, trying up her hair.

“You’re Athalya, right?” asked Michelle. She nodded, slightly surprised that she would knew her name.
“Val said you just moved here and that you seemed cool, a bit shy but cool.” She said, smiling warmly at the new girl. Athalya tried to smile back, blushing at the attention. “Jimmy mentioned something also, about French people killing pigeons in the street.”

Athalya chuckled.
“He misunderstood.”

“I guessed so.” Chelle replied, smiling. “Matt brought you here?”

“Yes, I was sitting outside on the porch and he just showed up.” She said. “So I followed.”

“Have you met everyone?” asked Michelle.

Athalya’s eyes scanned the few people playing baseball and messing around. “I’ve met Matt, Val, Justin…” she said, her eyes falling on each of them as she spoke their name. “Zacky, Jimmy.”

“You’re missing Brian and Johnny.” Said Michelle, with a nod to herself. “Johnny is the one being bullied by Jimmy. Brian’s not there today.”

Athalya nodded, repeating the name in her mind, trying to remember them. It wouldn’t look good if she suddenly forgot one.

“Don’t listen to anything they say at school about these guys, they’re sweethearts, really.” Said Michelle. “Sure, the guys skip classes a couple of times, got expelled too but you’ll see by yourself, they’re nice.”

“Okay.” Replied Athalya diligently, not really knowing what to expect.

Notes