As I walked into the ninth grade history class, nothing spectacular caught my eye. It was my third school this school year. My father's business brings us from city to city, country to country. Living in San Francisco was probably my favourite memory, but now I'm here stuck in Seattle. The teacher was a tall and frail man with rectangular framed glasses. Four students sitting in pairs at the front of the classroom included three boys and a girl. Two of the boys, raised their hands for every question the teacher asked. I assumed they were what they usually call 'nerds'. The other boy, I noticed, was wearing a blue and white snapback and had his phone under the desk texting away. Next to him sat a girl, she had long bleach blonde hair, her eyes were an icy blue, fair skin tone, with a few freckles here and there. She sat in her seat gracefully with her phone in her hands. She was smiling as if she just received a diamond ring, as did the boy sitting next to her. I assumed they were texting each other. A typical high school couple, I thought to myself. The row behind the four students was where the popular crew sat. The third is where the no names sat and the last row is where the rebel's sat. The teacher turned around and realized I was standing in the doorway.
"Ah. Our new student. What is your name again?"
"Me? Uh. Um. Ashley. Uh. Davidson." I stuttered my words.
The teacher turned toward the class. "Everyone this is our new student, Ashley."
I stood there in my peach tank top and my navy blue skinny jeans. I felt as if the whole world was watching me like I did something wrong. I froze and didn't know what to do with myself. "Don't just stand there, Ashley, take a seat." I slowly walked toward an empty seat, clutching my binder in my hands. As I made my way over to the seat, a boy in the second row looked back at me. "Ashley. No don't sit there. Come sit here." He patted the empty seat next to him.
"Um no that's okay. I'm fine here." I said shyly.
He stood up. "No, I insist." He took my wrist and guided me to the seat. As I sat down, a girl two seats to my left glared at me. Fantastic, first five minutes in class and I already managed to have someone hate me.
He had short, dark, spiky hair. His eyes were a soft, muddy brown and a soft moloto skin tone. I wondered why he had picked me to sit with him. After all, I'm nothing special. I have green eyes, brunette hair that reaches down to my waist. I'm too lazy to do anything with my hair so I usually leave it in a long French braid. When I don't braid it, it is straight as a pin. I'm not short, but I'm also not freakishly tall. I call myself, 'average'.
"Hey. My name's Chris." The boy whispered to me startling my thoughts.
"Ashley." I said.
"I know." He whispered right back with a wink.
"Yeah" I muttered under my breath.
I opened my binder to reveal a fresh blank page. I started to doodle in the corners. I turned my head to the right to glance at Chris. He was watching me. I turned away and blushed. I hated when guys watched me. It was just too awkward.
The lunch bell rang and I, amongst all the students in the class sprung out of my seat. It's my first day and I'm already anxious for summer. As I was walking out of class I glanced at my sheet and realized I had doodled an entire page. Oh well. I ripped the page out and closed my binder. As I walked to my new locker and tossed my textbook and binder in, two girls walked up to me. I recognized one, the blonde texting the boy in the first row. She's wearing a light pink tank with a cut-off sleeved jean jacket. Her white sparkly shorts bring out her fake tan legs.
"Hi. I'm Vanessa and like I know you're new and stuff so like I thought maybe you want to like sit with us." She spoke like a traditional snobby slut.
"Um.." I wasn't sure I wanted to "like" sit with them.
"Please. Just for today. It'll be fun." The other girl said. "By the way. I'm Lisa." She smiled.
She seemed outgoing.
"Oh, okay." I returned her smile.
We stepped into the cafeteria. I followed quickly behind the two girls. As we walked up to a table, I realized it was where all the popular kids sat. Too many people, I thought. Before I could talk back my words about sitting with these girls, Lisa grabbed my wrist and yanked me down. Vanessa sat down next to snapback boy and kissed him. HA! I was right, I thought to myself.
"Who's that?" I asked Lisa, nodding my head toward snapback boy.
"Oh him. He's Vanessa's boy toy." She whispered.
"Well, thank you captain obvious." I gave her a look and we both let out a giggle.
"His name is Drew." She rolled her eyes as she said the name.
"What's his story?" I asked. Maybe I'm asking things too soon.
"If you were to ask him how many girlfriends he's had, he would be incapable of answering. He's hooked up with pretty much every girl in this school. Right now he's with Vanessa but she doesn't get that he's going to find a new girl's throat to stick his tongue down soon. Or dick. Either way, he's going to find himself a new girl to use as his sex toy if he hasn't found her already." She said it as if it was a story she explained on a regular basis.
"Wow. How soon is soon?" I wondered out loud.
"Drew has a sort of schedule with his relationships. He usually stays with a girl for about a month. Then he dumps her and moves onto the next girl. He's at two months with Vanessa. It's a record." She answered and gave a crooked smile.
"Hmmm." I had nothing else to say so I began to stare into space.
Chris came out of the blue and slid down beside me.
"Oooooo." Lisa whispered into my ear.
"What!" I gave her a look.
"He's hitting on you. BIG TIME." She returned the look.
"No he isn't! He just sat down beside me." I mumbled so lightly in her ear I don't know if she understood me.
Yeah he was going out of his way to make me feel welcomed but he's not hitting on me. Is he? No. He couldn't be. I'm boring and no one wants to be around me, let alone talk to me. I caught myself looking at Chris giving him a welcoming smile.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked with a smile that reached his eyes.
"You're not like Drew are you?" I blurted and instantly regretted my words.
What the fuck did I just do.