CHAPTER TWO:
Mr. Chiu led me out of the indoor hall that connected his office and the other counselor offices with the main school office. We left the warm air and went straight back into the chilling fog. We passed three dark blue doors on our right, the carved mountain on the left, and at last Mr. Chiu came to a door beside what looked to be another random indoor hallway. I have no idea who the hell designed this school.
Mr. Chiu pulled out keys and unlocked the door to our side, just as a small group of students began to appear from the randomly placed indoor hallway next door. I followed him inside, and took a seat at the fourth table from the door.
In came students, easily identified by their more mature features and confidence as upperclassmen. Suddenly I was feeling a little nervous. I was now not just the new-girl, but the new-girl in a class of seniors. Trying to breathe through it and tough it out, like the new Rachel should, I didn’t notice the two girls boring holes into my side until one of them plopped down in the chair to my left. The girl was tan and plump, with long dark lashes and dangling earrings. She wore a bright yellow shirt and highlighter-purple pants.
She looked at me with the intrigue of a toddler seeing a kitten for the first time and exclaimed, “Hey! You’re new! Wow, we never see ‘new’! Where did you come from? What’s your name?”
Before I had the chance to reply, and right before this florescent girl could run out of breath from the speed at which those words flew out of her mouth, another girl sat down to Bright-Girl’s left. We were now in a half circle.
I tried my best to not look so uncomfortable, while this tall, lean, sunshine-haired girl drawled, “Marsh, don’t attack the girl.” The golden-haired girl next to the literal glow-in-the-dark Marsh beamed at me with a relaxed kindness.
Catching up to the conversation as to not look dumb as all hell, I answered Marsh’s questions.
“I’m Rachel, transferred from P.H.”
Marsh became more interested. And she scooted towards the edge of her seat.
“Your name is Raquel?” Marsh asked, not believing.
“No, uh - it’s ‘Rachel’.” I still have no clue why thirty percent of the population thinks my name is Raquel when I say it for the first time.
“Oh, okay. That’s my cousin’s name is all... Wow, a new girl in our senior year from P.H. Max, I’ve now seen everything,” Marsh looked over at Max, pulling her hair back and nodding with exaggeration.
I felt like I was missing out on an inside joke.
Max smiled at me after breaking eye contact with Marsh and added, “Nice to meet you Rachel, I’m Maxine, that one there is Marsha.”
Mr. Chiu cleared his throat at the front of the classroom and made a few announcements about upcoming school events, including something that sounded delicious called the Food Fair. All the while Marsha continued to go gaa-gaa eyes at me from the corner of my vision. Uncomfortable is a word that couldn’t quite describe it.
We started talking about all crappy things P.H., and they validated all the things I hated about it. Maxine told me about how P.H. hates Pacific in this weird one-way hatred that went back to the time between when the school was a military school and when it became a charter. Apparently when the school was a ‘normal’ high school they had a football team, one that rivaled Piso High’s. Even though Pacific hadn’t had a football team since the eighties, the old hate grew from P.H., while Pacific just stopped caring.
Marsha was in the middle of explaining a really shitty thing P.H. did to the school, involving setting fire to a vending machine, when an incredibly tall guy stood up from the table next to us and walked straight toward me. The guy was so fast, he was across the distance in three milliseconds. He was good looking, with light brown skin and piercing green eyes that contrasted against his incredibly dark lashes. When his eyes connected with mine, I forgot to breathe. It was him, the guy I had glimpsed in the office earlier. The tall guy leaned down a bit and smiled, a wide, toothy grin. He looked unsure of himself all of a sudden, taking a breath in, then just freezing. As if he had planned his whole life to march toward this table and stare me in the eye, but never had bothered to plot his next move.
Marsha and Maxine didn’t make a sound. He broke eye contact for a second, looking at the chair to my right, looked back at me and grinned again. I swallowed hard while he walked behind me, placed a gentle hand on the back of the seat to my right, and slid it out. He plopped down excitedly, and after a brief flicker to where Maxine and Marsha were seated, he leaned toward me. I almost choked. He was so suddenly close, and the charisma rolling off of him set my heart into a frenzy of erratic beating.
“Uh, hi,” he grinned like a fool, making his unsure speech endearing as hell.
“Um.. hey.” I responded just as stupidly. Idiot. Rachel: new school, same love-struck idiot.
He moved his hand by his ear and propped his elbow on the table, now leaning on it with his tilted face. Eyes never leaving mine, “So,” he laughed, “this is a little weird. But uh -” I waited, silent, afraid I would say something idiotic if I said anything to this ridiculously handsome guy.
Then all in one breath he blurted, “Look-my-friend-thinks-you’re-cute-and-wants-to-know-your-name.” He breathed out some sort of small gasp, as if he were simultaneously out of breath and terrified.
His eyes were full of expectation.
My name. I forced myself to unfreeze.
“Rachel,” I responded, adding a moment later, “I’m Rachel. Just transferred from P.H.”
With a once again easy, open grin, he said, “Thanks Rachel, I’m Sean.” He put a hand on the table, pushing up and out of his seat. “I’m sure I’ll see you soon.”
Sean pushed his chair back and waltzed back to the table he had come from. There were three other guys seated there.
I turned to Maxine and Marsha, whose faces were fangirl freaking out. Their internal squeals could almost be heard by how suddenly large their eyes grew, and I became very relieved that they weren’t facing Sean’s table, which I couldn’t help but glance at - briefly making eye contact with Sean.
The guys at his table were all grossly involved in some conversation, all but Sean, who I could feel looking at me until homeroom ended. The sweet torture of pushing myself to not look over, finally ended with the sound of the bell.
The students all began packing up their things and getting ready to shove out of the door. Maxine and Marsha told me where to meet them for lunch later, and I promised to check in with them later. The classroom quickly emptied, and I snatched one more glance of Sean, smiling and laughing at something his shorter, blonder friend had said. He met my gaze for a split second, light reflecting in his striking light eyes, before following his buddies out the door.
“Alright, ready to head back?” Mr. Chu asked, focused on packing up a few books I hadn’t noticed he had brought in with him.
I took a breath, trying to push Sean’s… everything out of my head, “Sure.”
After re-entering his office, I plopped my things back down on the oversized chair, and after a few minutes it looked like I was finally all set.
I followed Mr. Chu toward the front office entrance and out the door, then down a hallway. We approached a door to a classroom with dark windows and flickering light. Mr. Chu opened the door and I followed him inside the dark, warm, classroom. Projector. The light had been coming from a projector.
“BANG!” a figure in the front yelled, making me jump. “And that was the start of the universe! Steven, sit up! Look alive! We’re talking about the start of life as we know it!”
A light flicked on. The figure in the front had flipped on the light switch. A man with bright red hair tucked partly into a gray beanie, wearing a nose ring and a bright blue t-shirt with army green shorts looked at me.
He nodded at us in acknowledgment and quickly said, “One second, I’m in the middle of something amazing.”
The red-headed loud and crazed man pranced to the other side of the classroom, and drew a smiley face on the cheek of a student who had fallen asleep. The class all watched, eyes glued to his doodle, all trying not to laugh too loud. They were all so captivated with this vivacious man, that only a few students had bothered to flick their eyes toward me.
The student with the fresh art now on his right cheek stirred, smearing part of the man’s artistry. The man waited a moment, and when the student still did not wake, he grabbed a feather, from seemingly nowhere and began to tickle the sleeping student’s nose. He woke up.
“STEVEN! GLAD TO HAVE YOU WITH US! You missed the most amazing part of my presentation!”
The whole class shook with laughter, as the formerly sleeping Steven realized he was the mockery of an entire class. I wasn’t sure what to think. I just came from a school where everyone was so obsessed with partying and looking picture-perfect… this would’ve given a P.H. kid a heart attack. But here this Steven guy was, laughing and apologizing to Mr. Lewis.
“ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT,” holy hell how loud was this guy? “Let’s refocus! Teams, back to your original seats!”
The class got up and started moving their chairs to different desks. Mr. Lewis walked back to Mr. Chu and me.
The brightly colored man, with his brightly colored hair, and ecstatic personality smiled broadly at me and put his hand out to shake.
“Hi, I’m Mr. Lewis, but please call me Levi. I hate the name Lewis.” He vigorously shook my hand. He nodded at Mr. Chu while leading me to the opposite side of the classroom, near where he had been standing when he startled me earlier, and guided me to a table with three other girls near the projector screen.
“You’ll join this team for the time being. We change teams every six weeks to shake things up. Next time you’ll have a choice to sit wherever else, but this should work for now.”
I sat at the open chair at the obsidian table he had gestured towards. These appeared to be something like lab benches.
Levi turned to the blond girl seated next to me, “Sarah, get Rachel here as up to speed as you can, as things come up.” Looking at me he added, “Rachel, stick around a few minutes after class so I can catch you up on anything you miss, and I’ll get you a list of supplies needed for the class.”
Alright. Science looked like it was going to be interesting.
CHAPTER THREE: Levi led the class through the rubric of a new project that he had apparently briefly introduced yesterday. We would be working with our teams over the next two or so weeks. Each member would be responsible for part of the project and we would need to meet on our own time to put the whole thing together on a giant poster that we would then need to present to the entire class. After some students passed out different research forms, I got my piece of the assignment. Throughout the class I noticed that the students really liked this teacher. He was strange and excited, in the best way. He was loud and full of knowledge. He was definitely entertaining. Already a thousand times better than the teachers at P.H., who all taught in monotone voices, with dead eyes. I met the other two girls at my table - Lucy and Elizabeth. Both girls seemed to be much closer to each other than to Sarah. Sarah appeared to focus more on Levi. Lucy and Elizabeth seemed to be much more inter
CHAPTER FOUR: I found my way to the nearest bathroom, wetting a paper towel and patting my forehead. I had done way too much sweating today, over some guy, and was probably going to break out as a result. I have always had a bad habit of touching my forehead, a habit puberty tortured me for with litters of little red bumps. Today had been a good skin day and I was probably going to ruin it. After breathing for a moment to center myself, I pulled out my phone while walking out of the bathroom, dialing Ally’s number. She picked up after the third ring. “Rachel! It’s you! Where are you? I didn’t call you, wasn’t sure if you were still with the office people or what,” Ally chirped. “Ally, I really, really need to talk to you. I’ve been here since 9am and I’ve already got a truckload of crap to catch you up on.” Ally found me after a few minutes. In the process I learned that there was another girl’s bathroom on the same side of the building but in the opposite hallway. It really di
CHAPTER FIVE: The bus arrived about ten minutes after the strange encounter with the redhead who had never given his name. I got on and sat next to Ally, receiving plenty of glares from ‘friends’ who still attended Piso High on our way to the back. Well, not all of the eyes had given me glares. I couldn’t name the look Jake gave me. We had been part of the same little group of ‘friends’ who had tried to stick together at lunch time at Piso. We were the six people from the same middle school who didn’t immediately ditch to join drama club or cheer or whatever. The bus took us all first to Melbourne, where most of us unloaded, including me. It would then drop kids off at the border of Drurer City, before at last dropping off Ally and eight other kids in the Northern Hills area of Druer City. I got off the bus in Melbourne, at the one stop the bus made there, at the bottom of the city, at the one and only park. Being in the back of the bus, it took about four minutes of standing behind
CHAPTER SIX: That night I had a horribly vivid nightmare. A series of them. But the one that stood out the most was one where I was in complete darkness while being slowly turned into -something else. I had been standing there, feeling around with my hands trying to figure out where I was - trying to find a light switch or anything really. But there was nothing around. When I felt for the walls, there was air. When I felt up above my head, there was nothing there, and when I tried to feel for the ground, my hands just passed through chilly air. I was in a vacuum in space. There was no light, no sound, and there were no other objects other than myself. Then I felt something on my face, a feather. I reached for it and became attacked by countless birds. There were beaks pecking into my flesh, harsh rough feet grabbing hold of my hair and clothing, digging into my skin and breaking through flesh, making me scream. But I screamed in silence. I couldn’t make a sound as I was attacked. I w
CHAPTER 7: After about ten minutes Ally texted saying the van finally dropped them off. She asked me where I was and I responded. It was now 7:35 and as school didn’t start until 8:05, we had some time to kill. Ally entered the cafeteria and I excused myself to join her at our own table. “Who are they?” Ally asked with interest. “They look familiar…” “They’re from Melbourne, June - the one in the glasses - is a sophomore. We all went to Liveman together. Melanie’s her sister, and the other one is Angela. Melanie and Angela are seniors.” “Ah, okay. Yeah I sort of remember them…” Ally thought aloud. “Yeah, well Angela was weirdly warning me about Maxine and Marsha.” I caught Ally up to date about the strange comment and added that I was going to make up my own mind about them. Ally agreed with my decision. “You know how ridiculous some girls can be. All dramatic or whatever.” She concluded. Suddenly her face changed. “Hey I was hoping we could talk for a second. That okay?” “Of
CHAPTER EIGHT: After class I found Ally in the hall. Sean made a small wave as he walked off. “Oh that’s him isn’t it?” She asked excitedly. Max came up to join us. “Rach you are no fun! I was dying in there!” Max pulls on my arm, “We must chat - bring the smiley one!” Ally laughs and we both follow Max to her locker. Max and Ally formally meet and Max catches Ally up on what happened in her point of view, with me adding mine. “Whew, the vapors!” Ally says with a fake southern accent and fans her face with her hand. “You’ve barely been here one full day and have already made this way more interesting.” She laughs. I stand there smiling, feeling really good. I think this could be really good for me. After coming from Piso, where all I had was this greasy guy literally cornering me in the halls, this already feels so different. There was a brief time I thought Jake could make it different, but the stoic guy never said or did anything after I confessed my feelings for him. But tha
CHAPTER NINE: Break ends with me again in the bathroom splashing some water on my face. Ally had tracked me down after my full freak out. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She asks me, one hand on my shoulder as I look at my face in the mirror. I glance around and notice there is another person in here with us. I don’t want to talk about all this with a random stranger as a witness, so I shrug her off. She looks concerned. I use a paper towel to dab my face fully dry and walk back out to the hall. We should be rushing to class. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. I’ll explain later, okay? We’ve got to get going.” Ally didn’t look quite satisfied, “Okaaay.., but I’ll at least show you where you’re going. Ally led the way to my next class, Humanities. The class was two doors down from Mr. Chu’s Homeroom, where I had started part of my day yesterday. A student opened the door from inside and turned around to face those of us gathered by the door. Ally nudged my arm, “That’s Ms. Del Rios. Our Human
CHAPTER TEN: By the end of class, I don’t think I could’ve told anyone what we had done the whole time. I felt cold after so much discomfort and as soon as class wound down, I frantically started packing things away. I had some handouts in front of me, I noted to myself to look at them later. A few times during class Bella had tried to talk to me but I could barely speak, feeling like there was a huge weight on my chest, and like my throat was squeezed shut. I made small “mhmm” sounds but couldn’t do much beyond that. People started standing up and gathering by the door, waiting for the few seconds before the bell. I forced myself up by the door all the way to the left of the crowd. I still felt eyes on me and needed air.The bell rang, the door was opened, and I walked as fast as I could back towards the courtyard, taking in big breaths of the fresh air. Other students started filing out nearby doors, and several gathered at benches along the courtyard walls. I was so determined to