“Bre! Hurry up or we’ll miss the bus!” my older brother, Leon, screamed at me from the foyer. Half of his 6 foot body was out of the door by the time I raced out of the kitchen. I took one last look in the hallway mirror before going outside.
“I’m coming, Leon. Chill, we have plenty of time.” I told him. “Bye Mom!” I yelled
“Have fun at school!” she said in her cheeriest voice, but I could tell it was totally fake.
It was our first day at West Lincoln High. At my old school, it was known for having a lot of upper-class white people. Either way it was better for a new start for me and my family. My parents had separated and my friends stopped speaking to me. My mom was in a depressed state, and she’d always try to put up this front of how happy she was, but Leon and I knew the truth. We never spoke about the separation or our dad. He was out of our lives forever.
The bus ride to the school was long and quiet. Leon found a seat in the back with the seniors, although he was a junior. I sat in the very first seat, so I wouldn’t be noticed and so I’d be the first person off of the bus. I waited for Leon to walk with inside of the school, but he ditched me, of course. I entered the school in anticipation to find my homeroom. I got lost on the way and was still roaming the halls minutes after the bell rang. Finally, I had found it.
“You must be Brenda?” A tall woman with red hair said loudly as I came into the room. She stared at me behind her thick glasses. “I suppose you were lost and not just walking around?” The whole class snickered.
For some reason, I couldn’t talk. My mouth dried up, like cotton. I nodded.
She nodded and pushed her classes up her nose. “Very well, Brenda. Your seat will be next to Kyle. Kyle, please raise your hand.” I looked at the most amazing boy I’d ever seen. The first thing I had noticed was his eyes. They were icy blue and twinkled, like stars.
At the same time, my homeroom teacher gave me my schedule, this girl came in. “Sorry, I’m late, Mrs. Turner.”
“Oh, Kristina, it’s very nice of you to join us.” She said, sarcastically. “How was your summer?” Mrs. Turner said.
“It was great! But, I really missed history with you last year.” She gave Mrs. Turner the sweetest, most innocent smile.
Mrs. Turner smiled back. “Take your seat next to…Benson.”
Kristina took her seat and chatted with everyone around her. Then, I heard her say, “Hi, Kyle.”
He sighed, “Hey, Kristy. How was your summer?”
Kristina’s voice seemed to have a hint of flirtation in it, but Kyle wasn’t paying her any attention at all. For some reason that I had had, I felt him looking at me. But, I was too afraid to even look at him. I didn’t want his eyes turning me into stone.
“Will you walk with me to English?” She was saying when I started to listen again.
I saw him shrug out of the corner of my eye. “Sure.”
The bell rang and as I watched them leave, I saw her link her arm into his.
“That’s Kyle Erhart and Kristy Spyke.” This girl said from behind me. I turned around to see if she was talking to me. She was taller than I was and very beautiful. Her hair was long, brown and thick. She was wearing a pink sundress with white flip-flops. “They’re not even together. She’s such a sl**.” She said with disgust, still watching them.
I smiled, “Thanks for that information.” It came out sarcastic, so I added, “What’s your name?
“I saw him looking at you, while Kristy was flirting with him.” She said, totally ignoring my question.
My heart skipped a beat. “Are you sure he wasn’t just looking out into the hall? Maybe he saw one of his friends. I don’t think he was looking at me.”
“I’m sure he was looking right at you.” She smiled and walked away. “Oh, I’m Abel Hanson, no relation to the Hansons.” She giggled and walked away.
The only class that I had been excited for was theater. Being on the stage was the only place I could be somebody different, someone unlike my boring, self. The bell rang and my teacher began her monologue. “Welcome to your second year of acting. You’ve grown since last year and this class is not an easy one. You will be memorizing lots of scripts, monologues, and you will be performing a major production at the end of the year. So, if this isn’t what you want to do, then please drop this class as soon as possible. Please don’t waste your time or mine.”
Mrs. Dennis’ speech ended up taking the entire class period. My next class was geometry. I took a seat in the very back and watched my classmates come in. Then, Kyle arrived. He saw me and smiled. I almost melted.
“We weren’t properly introduced in homeroom, but I’m Kyle.” He smiled again, flashing his blindingly white teeth.
I couldn’t help but smile back. “I’m Brenda, but I prefer Bre.”
“So, how’s your first day going? You are new, right?”
“It’s going great and yes, I am new.”
“Do you want to be my math partner? I kind of suck in math and I need a pretty girl with a smart brain to help me.”
I shook my head, “Well, you might want to find someone else.” We laughed.
“Well, be my partner anyway. Please?” His begging mixed with his smile made me weak.
I said sure, continuing to listen to him talk and laugh even when our math teacher tried to explain the curriculum. I could’ve listened to him talk forever. We walked to lunch together and he invited me to sit with his friends.
“Hi, Bre, I’m Cassandra, but everyone calls me Cherry.” This girl with bright Kool-Aid red hair said as I sat down. “This is Jess, Amanda, and Tasha.” The girls all said hi to me and began gossiping about everyone in the lunchroom, except for our table. Then, Kristy came over, talking to Kyle and his friend, Big Easy. The looks Kristy started to get from Cherry and her friends made me uncomfortable. They’re about to start drama on the first day of school? I thought to myself. I wanted to leave, but there wasn’t enough room to even move my legs. I was stuck between Cherry and Kristy.
“Excuse me, Kyle?” Amanda said. “Can you please remove your trash from this table? It’s starting to smell.” She covered up her nose to emphasize the “smell”. All of her friends laughed, including the boys.
Kyle sighed, “Please Amanda, don’t start this crap today.”
“No, Kyle, let Amanda talk. It’s the only thing she’s good at, other than laying on her back!” Kristy retorted back. The boys let out a low “Oh!” for the good comeback.
Amanda sat quietly as Cherry spoke for her. “Please, ho! We know what you tried to do with Brian last summer and he denied you every single time. Now…be gone.”
And with that, Kristy walked out of the lunchroom. I asked Kyle where the bathroom was and I followed her, just to see if she was okay. She was in the last stall, sniffling.
“Kristy? It’s me, Bre. Are you okay?”
“Go away, please.” She said, calmly.
“Well, I just wanted to see if you were okay.” I said. I was about to walk out of the bathroom, when the stall door opened.
She walked over to the mirror, re-applying her make-up. I stood and watched her, waiting for her to tell me if she was going to be fine or not. But, for some reason, I knew she would. The bell rang, as she finished putting on her eye shadow. She wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed it to me. “Call me this weekend if you want to hang out. And I’ll be okay, don’t worry about me.” She smiled and walked out into the hallway.
My last period of the day was gym class. I was in no way an athlete. I had no muscles and wasn’t to strong. The only reason I smiled when I walked into gym was because Kyle was waiting…for me.
“Bre! Where’d you go to after lunch? You went to the bathroom and like disappeared.”
“I actually went to see if Kristy was okay.” I told him, looking down shamefully. I knew he didn’t like Kristy, but I couldn’t see someone humiliated like Kristy had been.
He lifted up my chin, meeting my eyes. “I’m glad you checked on her. But, you don’t have to feel some kind of way just because I don’t like her.”
“Kyle, dude, I need something from you, bro.” Brian walked up to us, breaking the look Kyle was giving me.
Kyle and Brian walked off, and then Kyle walked back by himself.
“Can I ask what that was about?” I wished I wasn’t so nosey.
He shrugged, “Brian just wanted to know if I could bring him his weed to his house today.”
“You’re a dealer?” I squealed.
He laughed at my expression. “I deal it and I smoke it.” My expression changed into disappointment. He must have noticed, even though I tried to hide it. “Sorry.”
“You know, that’s cool and everything.”
“By the look on your face just now, it’s not.”
I shook my head, disagreeing with him. But, I was lying. And I think he could tell. The perfect image that I had of Kyle was completely shattered. But, I was still thinking about him when I got home.