Angel
"Look at them. over there. Looking like they own the freakin universe. God I hate those snobs." Anica Harper was saying to her best friend Angel Bannen.
"Yeah..they suck." Angel replied distractedly, her eyes turning back to her book.
"Damnit Angel! We're outside, in the courtyard, at our school, it's a beautiful day, guys are givin' us the hairy eyeball, and all you can think about is finishin' that stupid book!" Anica replied exasperatedly. Angel looked up calmly at her best friend, trying not to let aggrivation creep into her tone. "Look. I have better things to do with my time than wonder if some cro-magnon weirdo is giving me the "hairy eyeball" as you like to call it. Face it, Ani. I'm not like you."
"Oh so you'd rather spend your time with your nose stuck in a book, ignoring everyone and everything in the real world." Anica countered.
"Yup." Angel replied, from behind her book
Anica sighed. "You're hopeless."
"I know."
"What am I gonna do with you?"
Don't give up on me Ani."
"Now you're being sarcastic."
"I know."
"It's like eight o' clock in the morning!"
"It's never too early for sarcasm."
Their little one-liner diatribe was cut short by the ringing of the bell signaling the beginining of the school day. "I'll see you later!" Anica called to her friend as she started towards her class, the wind swirling her beautiful russet hair all around her face. She was Botticelli's Venus, earthbound and fully clothed.
"Okay" Angel called back as she started towards her own classes, her own reddish-gold curls and waves tucked neatly into a ponytail. As she started towards her AP English class she felt the tight coil of dread she always felt when she went into that class. It wasn't the work, that was fine. It was the people that inhabited that class with her. All total snobs. The meanest, pushiest girls and the rudest, ass-hole boys. 'Oh well,' she thought grimly. 'today's another day.'
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"Hey, are you going to Caleb's party tonight?" Harry Norris asked his best friend Adam Kagan.
"I don't know, my parents want me to go out to eat with them. I think they think it will help my father's campaign if he seems like a normal typical family guy." Adam replied grimly.
"Oooh using the kids to boost his image. I know what that's like." Harry replied. Both Harry and Adam's fathers were politicians so they both knew what it was like to have parents more wrapped up in themselves than in their children. Both were wrapped in their own thoughts when the bell rang, begining class. "Anyway, if you don't have to go with your parents, stop by Caleb's okay? " Harry said finishing the conversation.
"Okay." Adam said distractedly. Harry's eyebrow's wrinkled in confusion as he tried to figure out what was diverting Adam's attention. Then he followed his friend's gaze to the doorway of the classroom. Angel Bannen had just walked in.
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"Cuttin' it close Ms.Bannen." Mr. James warned, half-serious.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Angel muttered, and quickly scuffled to her seat, head lowered. She could already feel them looking at her studying her, trying to figure out what new insult to bestow upon her that day. Would it be about her clothes? Her hair? Or the fact that she didn't have a father? But before anyone could say anything Mr. James began the lesson. Angel breathed a quick sigh of relief. She didn't think she'd be able to take their crap this early in the morning.
The lesson was about the writer Robert Frost and even though he was one of Angel's favorite authors, Mr. James had the ability to make the most interesting prospects seem dull and boring. Angel found herself slipping away fom her classroom, into the realm of make-believe. She began to make a story about a girl who encounters a vampire. She had just gotten to the part where the Vampire and the girl fight when she dimly heard her name being called. "Ms. Bannen!" Mr. James called again, a little louder.
"Um..Yeah!" Angel replied, sitting straight up in her seat, her face flushing red. Behind her, the sharp giggles of Meagan and Reagan Calloway, the snobbiest twins in the school could be heard.
"Did you hear what I said?" Mr. James asked impatiently.
"Uh...uh...uh..." Angel's mind fumbled for an answer. She couldn't just keep saying 'um'. Just when she thought that she was going to die of embarassment a soft voice cut through the humiliating fog.
"He says we have to do a report on the poet of our choice." Adam Kagan replied softly. " He's gonna assign us partners."
"Oh...thanks." Angel mumbled softly. And when she saw him smile at her she blushed. 'damnit angel!' she thought harshly. 'Stop this! You're not like this!' but even though she tried to fight it, something made her smile back.
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Adam thought he was going to faint when she smiled at him. She never smiled at anyone at that class. She never had a reason to. 'but I made her smile'. He thought to himself, and the thought gave him a warm feeling all over his body.
Harry looked at his best friend smiling at the girl most of their friends considered a freak.
"What the hell are you doin'?" hissed Harry, breaking Adam out of his warm fog.
"Nothing." Adam said softly, his eyes still on angel.
"Nothing? Nothing? You're making googly-eyes at the bastard freak over there." Harry whispered sharply. Adam went cold. He gave Harry a look that could have frozen Niagara Falls and made his best friend recoil. Then he turned around in his seat, refusing to say anything.
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"Reagan Calloway you're with Andrew Lauter, Meagan Calloway you're with Steven Stone, Taylor Cody you're with Harry Norris,..and Angel Bannen you're with Adam Kagan." Mr.James had just called out the list of partners for their poetry projects and Angel couldn't get air into her lungs properly. Ususally she got stuck with some nerd in the class. or someone considered as low as her. Didn't Mr. James know the rules? He had just paired her up with Adam Kagan, king of Jocks, Mr. Moneybags, all-the-girls-swoon-for Adam Kagan. She turned toward Adam's desk to see what his reaction was. She expected him to be sighing in frustration or grumping. But he wasn't. He was looking at her. At her. Before she could register anything in her mind, the bell rang and she quickly scurried toward the door. As she made her way down the hall she thought she could vaguely hear someone calling her name but she quickly continued down the hall.
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"Angel, wait!" Adam called, but she kept on walking. Maybe she hadn't heard him. Adam made his way down the hall towards Angel, leaving his best friend to frown with confusion.
"Adam Kagan's my partner in AP English." Angel told Anica when they met in the courtyard later on that day.
"What?" Anica replied, almost choking on her chocolate milk.
" I know! It's just..so weird." Angel replied thoughtfully "I mean, doesn't Mr. James know the rules? I mean Everyone knows the rules!"
"Speak of the devil" Anica replied. Angel looked up. Just then she saw Adam coming toward their table.
"Oh god." Angel squeaked.