Chapter One: A New Beginning
Joanne walked through the huge metal front door of her new school, Scarsdale High. A fresh start at a different school was exactly what she needed. No one knew her here. She could be whoever she wanted to be in this place. No one was whispering behind her back or making rude comments to her face. Maybe she could actually make a few friends at this school.
She stared down at her schedule, and then looked around the hallway. Her first class was supposed to start in five minutes and she had no idea where it was located. She watched a few kids disappear around a corner leaving the hall she was standing in empty. So much for asking for help. Folding up her schedule, she decided to start walking in a random direction with the hope of finding someone who could show her to her first class. Before she could even take a step, the front door banged open revealing a girl with curly brown hair and too-red lipstick dragging a tall African-American guy behind her.
"Come on, Collins, we're going to be late! I knew I shouldn't have let you get high before coming to school." She pulled him deeper into the school, huffing and puffing the whole time. "Collins!" She threw her arms up exasperatedly.
"Mo, calm down. You just need to chill-ax!"
The girl laughed. "Chill-ax? Collins- -"
"Excuse me?" Joanne felt this was as a good a time as any to interrupt.
Maureen looked over at the girl who had spoken. She had dark skin and short curly brown hair and was a few inches shorter than Maureen. She was thin with a nice figure, shown off by her jean shorts and tight baby doll tee-shirt. "Yeah?"
"Who are you?" Collins asked.
"I'm Joanne. I just moved here. I was wondering if you could show me where English room 404 is. I really don't want to be late on my first day."
"That's where I'm going! I'm Maureen, by the way, and this is my friend Collins," She gestured to the tall boy who was now slumping down the faded gray lockers, "We'll walk to English together. Bye Collins! Have fun in detention!" She laughed as she looped her arm through Joanne's and pulled her along to their first period class. The bell rang just as they made it through the door.
"C'mon, let's sit over there," Maureen led her to two empty desks in the corner of the room next to a huge window.
The teacher stood in front of the class and began the lesson. Joanne tried to pay attention, but Maureen kept bouncing in her seat and humming quietly to herself. Joanne took this time to get a better look at her new, dare she say it, friend. Maureen had very prominent features. Her cheekbones were well defined and her nose was long. Her eyes were a vibrant green and sparkled with the light. Finally Joanne's gaze landed on her rather large mouth. Those too-red lips were perfect in every way. They were full and nicely shaped and she wondered momentarily if they were as soft as they looked. Maureen's eyes met Joanne's and she flashed her a toothy grin, showing off her straight white teeth. Joanne blushed slightly at being caught staring, but smiled back. To Joanne, Maureen was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen. Mentally, Joanne berated herself. She wouldn't let herself get a crush on Maureen. So far Maureen was her only friend, and she didn't want to ruin her chance at finally having a close friend. She turned her attention back to the teacher.
Maureen was already bored. She hated school, always had. It wasn't that she was stupid; she was actually very smart. She was just lazy. She glanced at Joanne out of the corner of her eye and flashed her a big smile when she caught her staring. Maureen loved attention of any sort, and she was flattered to be getting it from a girl as pretty as Joanne.
As the teacher droned on, Maureen turned to Joanne. "Where did you live before you moved here?" She whispered.
Joanne's eyes moved from Maureen's face to the teacher's. "Chicago," She whispered back.
"Chicago! I've always wanted to go there!" Her voice began to rise with each word as she got more excited. The teacher, Mrs. Jenkins, an older woman with graying hair, turned in their direction.
"Ms. Johnson, it's so great to have you in class again." Her statement was blatantly sarcastic.
"Yeah! For the third year in a row!" Maureen said cheerfully.
"Wonderful. Anyway please stop talking and pay attention." She turned back to the rest of the class.
"Bitch gave me like a gazillion detentions last year," Maureen muttered under her breathe to Joanne. She let out a small laugh and Maureen smiled in response. "Let me see your class schedule." Back to her not-so-whispered whispers. Joanne pulled her schedule out from her pocked and handed it over. "We have fifth period and seventh together! We can go to lunch together!"
"Ms. Johnson, you wouldn't want a detention on the first day of school, would you?" Maureen's attention shifted from the schedule to focus on Mrs. Jenkins.
"No, Ma'am." She replied.
"Okay, then be quiet." Mrs. Jenkins overemphasized each word.
Joanne finally thought she'd be able to concentrate on Mrs. Jenkins after Maureen had been yelled at twice, but it didn't even faze her.
"Were you planning on doing any extra-curriculars?"
"Well, I was thinking about joining the debate team and the mock trial team."
"Bo-ring. I'm president of the drama club! It's the only school organization I'll take part in." She laughed, like that was some kind of private joke for her.
"Ms. Johnson! Last warning. Next time I have to tell you to be quiet you will get a detention."
Maureen pretended to seal her lips and throw away the key. She smirked at Joanne. Shortly after Maureen's last scolding, the bell rang, so the girls gathered their stuff and headed out the door.
Pointing Joanne in the direction of her next class, Maureen waved goodbye. "I'll see you fifth period!" She shouted as the crowd of teenagers pushed her in the opposite direction.
During her second and third period classes Joanne sat alone. She listened to the teachers and took good notes. She had always been a straight 'A' student and took great pride in her schoolwork. She found herself really enjoying her third period class called 'You and the Law'. Her father was a lawyer and had always pushed her toward following in his footsteps. She was always looking for ways to make him proud, so she was very excited when she discovered this particular class. Recently she felt she had been a big disappointment to both her parents, for reasons she didn't like to think about. The whole reason they had had to move was due to her involvement in a small scandal at her previous school.
In fourth period she sat next to a girl named Alison Grey. She was surprised by how quickly Alison had begun talking to her; almost like they had always been friends. She dove right in to telling stories, mostly to do with her new boyfriend, Benny. Joanne thought she was nice enough, but this period was Calculus, and she had always had the most trouble with math. She mostly tuned Alison out and concentrated on what her teacher, Mr. Nolan, was saying. Bits and pieces of what Alison was saying did however slip through and Joanne heard, "We just started dating, really…Liked him for a long time but…His friends were total losers…Didn't want to be associated with them…"
Joanne's stomach was growling as the bell rang, signaling the start of fifth period. Joanne looked around the classroom, but didn't see Maureen anywhere. About five minutes into the lecture, Maureen came skidding in. "Sorry I'm late!" she spoke loudly to Mr. Mansfield, who Joanne had already figured out was hard of hearing. The teacher just nodded and Maureen surveyed the room, eyes landing on the empty chair next to Joanne.
"Hey," she spoke in a normal tone, eyes following Mr. Mansfield around the room. "Guy can barely hear so as long as he doesn't see your mouth moving…" She trailed off. "So how were your last two classes? Did you make anymore friends?"
Joanne sighed and put her pencil down assuming that she wouldn't be able to take too many notes while Maureen was sitting next to her. "I talked to a girl last period. Her name was Alison Grey, I think. She seemed nice."
Maureen's smile faded at the mention of Alison Grey. "No! You cannot be friends with her!" She insisted.
"Why not? I can be friends with whoever I want," Joanne didn't like when people told her what to do, and Alison seemed like a nice, friendly person.
"Oh calm down, you can be friends with her, but I'm not! Let me just say that I will go nowhere near the slut, so while you're hanging out with her, you won't be hanging out with me." Maureen harrumphed, slid down further in her seat and folded her arms across her chest. Then, Joanne experienced for the first time ever, the famous Maureen Johnson pout. "I was just looking out for you, you know," she said softly, "Alison is not a good person, she'll go behind your back so quickly you won't have time to blink."
Joanne stared at Maureen for a few seconds longer before she realized she was done talking. Her gaze was firmly set on Mr. Mansfield, showing no signs of moving back toward Joanne and continuing their conversation. Joanne turned back to Mr. Mansfield and was actually able to take notes for the class, because Maureen did not say another word. Having a silent Maureen was not as pleasing as Joanne had thought it would be earlier in the day.
When the bell rang, however, Maureen seemed back to her normal self and grinned at Joanne. "You wanna eat lunch with me and my friends?"
"Sure, thanks." Joanne replied and sent a wary smile back in the other girl's direction.
They went through the lunch line and bought some food. Maureen led Joanne to a table off in one corner of the cafeteria.
"Hey guys!" Maureen said excitedly placing her tray down on the table. "This is my new friend, Joanne." Maureen went around the table calling off everyone's names.
"You already met Collins," She pointed to the guy from that morning who was sitting on Joanne's left.
"His girlfriend, Angel" A pretty girl with a black bob haircut and a wild bright outfit waved at her with only her pinky finger.
"And that's Mimi," A small Hispanic girl with wavy brown hair smiled.
"Her boyfriend, Roger," The guy next to Mimi nodded at her, his longish blonde hair falling into his eyes.
"And this," she gestured to the skinny blonde boy with glasses sitting to Maureen's right, "is my boyfriend, Mark." He shyly smiled at Joanne and pushed his black glasses up his nose.
Joanne actually thought her heart stopped for a minute when she heard Maureen had a boyfriend. Her smile slipped slightly from her face, but she caught herself. The more she thought about it, the better it was really. Maureen was taken; maybe now the feelings that had started to develop would go away with the knowledge that it could never happen between the two.
"Hi." Joanne said nervously.
"So Collins, did you end up with a detention this morning?" Maureen asked while chomping down on some chips.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?" Roger butted in.
"Bite me." She replied to Roger. "So?" She turned her head to Collins.
"Nope," he laughed, "I have Mrs. Peters first period, and by the time I strolled in fifteen minutes late she was already snoring." They all laughed.
"You're lucky," Mimi chimed in. "Angel and I have Mr. White first period. He kept calling Angel 'Mr. Shunard' and made her take her wig off." It was then that Joanne realized Angel was actually a boy. Her eyes widened a little; she had never seen a drag queen before.
The conversation kept up all through lunch with everyone complaining about their teachers so far. Joanne even began to feel more comfortable and joined into the conversation. She was sad when the bell rang and they all had to part ways to head off to sixth period.
Sixth period went quickly. She had Spanish and her teacher was crazy and very entertaining. Seventh period was the last class of the day and she was looking forward to seeing Maureen again. She was pleasantly surprised when she walked in and found Maureen, Mimi, and Angel all seated at a table together.
"Hey, Joanne, over here, we saved you a seat!" Mimi called as Joanne made her way over to the table.
"Hey chica, we were just discussing having a girl's night at my place this Saturday because my parents will be outta town. You wanna come?" Angel asked Joanne.
"Sure!" Joanne was ecstatic. She had never been invited to do anything before. She had only been at this school a day, but already she had made a few friends. She could already tell that this year would be different.
A/N: So this is my first fic ever, so please R&R! Constructive criticism is welcome just don't be mean. I'm really hoping to improve my writing so if you have any tips or anything please share! Thanks for reading.
Next chapter will have the girl's night party and MoJo will get closer.