It's all about the exposure, the lens I told her, the angles are all wrong now, she's ripping wings off of butterflies, keep your feet on the ground, when your head's in the clouds.
My eyelids drifted open even though my alarm clock was blaring. Oh God. Please no. But there was no avoiding it. First day of school. In a new town. I'd never been the new girl before. All of my instincts were screaming that I wouldn't be very good at it. Of course, I wasn't very good at anything. I slapped my alarm clock before pressing both hands over my eyes. I did not want to get out of bed. I very desperately did not want to get out of bed. Maybe I could play sick? I was so nervous that my stomach started eating itself? That probably wouldn't fly very far. A howler monkey bit me last night? Yeah. That'll work. I rolled my eyes. There was a gentle knock at the door.
"Yeah?" I questioned.
"You don't want to be late."
"Yeah, I'm going Uncle Dustin." I listened as he padded back down the hall. Morning people. They can all go to hell. There was no reason for this torture. Especially not the day that I had laid before me. But then I had to remind myself. It wasn't so bad. I had been through worse. This was my way out of worse. I sighed heavily before sitting up. I climbed out of bed and pulled clothes from the nearest box in rapid succession. I was not giving myself any time to chicken out. In the adjoining bathroom I got ready with the same amount of frantic energy. I could feel my heart beating against my chest and let my hand rest there for just a second before yanking on some shoes and going out the door. I took my bag off the hook in the entryway and grabbed keys out of the bowl on the small table there. My uncle leaned against the doorway, watching me while drinking coffee.
"You're going to be fine Grace." I blew out a sigh.
"There's no way you can know that."
"You're a brilliant, amazing girl, and now you will finally get everything that you deserve. Let the past be the past." I managed a tiny smile.
"Thanks." I half waved before moving out the door.
It was a small town. Aren't they always? Next I'll be saying that I miss the sun and my mom and wah wah wah. I felt utterly predictable and boring as I pulled into the school, but that soon vanished. People stared and I didn't blame them. It wasn't me. It was the car. What can I say? It was my dad's. Other than his choice in women, he had good taste. He had had good taste I reminded myself. Damn. I hadn't meant to think of that. I let my hands rest on the steering wheel for a while before actually getting out of the car. I could do this. I could do this. My stomach performed a small, sickening flip. I had to do this. Yes, that was better. Even if I tried to run, I had nowhere to go. Fantastic.
"Dude, check that out," someone said. I turned towards the voice automatically. Two guys wearing letter jackets stood at the back of my car, staring openly.
"That's gotta be like a…" He drifted off and I rolled my eyes.
"It's a '67."
"Yeah I know," he lied, punching his friend when he laughed.
"Sweet car," his friend said before they drifted off.
"Thanks," I called out. Five seconds here and I was already making friends. Ha. I wished. I blew out yet another sigh and made my way to the main entrance. "I'm new," I said, in response to the secretary's questioning glance. "Grace Shays." She nodded and sifted through a stack of papers.
"Here we are. There's your schedule, locker information, and a map. If you get lost don't hesitate to ask okay honey?" I bit my lip to stop snarky words from piling out of my mouth. This day was going to be mortifying enough. The thought was reinforced when I actually looked at the map. Oh my damn. I was so getting lost.
Luckily, I could go to class without searching out my locker first. I'd do that at the end of the day I decided. When there were less people around. It was a pretty basic schedule. History, English, Pre-Calculus (gag me), Chemistry (ugh), Lunch, Art, and then a free period. At least my mornings would be my favorite classes. Was that a sign? Could things actually, maybe, be good here? I had a hope. It was a vague, dim hope. But still. I couldn't walk around being an emo all the time. That would just get boring. I ducked into the history room and took a desk against the wall where the windows were. It would give me something to look at and I wouldn't be surrounded by people. It was weird but sometimes I got claustrophobic. Especially when I didn't know anyone. Like now. Time seemed to slow down for the last five minutes before class yet people still somehow drifted in. Not all the desks were full, not like my last school. At my last school you were lucky to get a desk. Look at me, reminiscing again. How quaint.
"Hey '67." The voice pulled me out of my thoughts. One of the jocks from before slid into the desk in front of me, someone else taking the seat next to him. He was the nice, non-idiot one I remembered. He turned towards me. "So, you're new here huh?" I nodded, swallowing over the lump in my throat. Yep, that's me the social butterfly.
"Grace," I said after a few moments. He smiled, the skin around his blue eyes crinkling.
"I'm Matt," he said after another moment. "You should see her car man; it might be even cooler than yours." The guy sitting there just chuckled.
"No one's car is cooler than mine." He turned towards me then and my breathing stopped all together. Life was not fair. More than that, it was a cruel unfortunate bitch. No one should be allowed to look like he looked. It should be illegal. It just wasn't fair to the rest of us. The boy sitting there was possibly the most amazing person I'd ever seen. Seriously. I had to work to keep my jaw from dropping on to the desk top. His closely cropped black hair framed his strong features. His eyes were brown and so warm I actually wanted to try and drown in them. He smirked and shoved Matt playfully. There was the most perfect mole on his cheek. Oh God. I was completely screwed. The bell rang then, finally jarring me out of my pathetic fawning. Silence fell over the room as the teacher, Mr. Saltzman, took attendance. I paid strict attention to one name in particular. Tyler Lockwood. I held onto the name as if it was a life preserver. Maybe it was. It was the only thing keeping me from drowning in how dismal I was.
Needless to say, I paid zero attention in history. I couldn't help it. Every time he moved my eyes were drawn there, a moth to a flame. A very, very hot flame. I wanted to cry and hug myself at the same time. Life here was going to be more difficult than I thought. The thought was only reinforced when Matt turned to me as the bell rang.
"So, do you know where you're going?" God. Why did the do gooder have to show up when I actually needed his help? Not to mention I'd already decided that I was in love with his friend.
"Yeah, no," I let out. Matt held out his hand as Tyler shifted impatiently.
"Let me see your schedule." He turned to Tyler after a moment. "She's got English next, you're headed that way right?" Tyler glanced to me and then back at Matt. I may be love struck but they were clearly having a conversation I could not understand. Matt just smiled and slapped my schedule on Tyler's chest.
"Uhm, I'm sure I can-"
"Don't be ridiculous," Matt cut in, smiling at me again, "Tyler will walk you. Right Ty?" Tyler rolled his eyes and my soul died a bit. Or it threw up; at this point I couldn't really tell. My entire body flushed with heat. Someone really needed to create the super power of disappearing on the spot that would really come in handy.
"Yeah," Tyler drawled, "of course."
"See ya '67," Matt said before following the flow of people out of the classroom.
"I'm sure you could just point me in the right direction," I mumbled, tugging at the edge of the paper he still held pressed against his chest.
"Uh, what was it again?"
"What was what?" I questioned, my finger accidentally brushing against fabric.
"Your name," Tyler said, flicking the paper towards me and grimacing. I flinched backwards.
"Grace," I mumbled, horrified to hear my voice shake. I took the paper and shoved it into my bag.
"Right, nice to meet you." His tone said, 'You're something I stepped in on the sidewalk. And this is my favorite pair of shoes.'
"Yeah," I agreed. What else could I say? I mean really. Hello, you're super hot and if you asked me into the janitor's closet I'm pretty sure I'd say yes even though we just met and you apparently can't stand me and can I lick your face? I did not just have that thought. My cheeks burned at an unnatural temperature. I edged around him and made my way to the door. I didn't care if I ended up in a locker; I just had to get out of there.
A/N: I promised myself I wasn't going to do this. We all see how long that lasted. Anyways…it's starting off slow cause I really have no idea where it's going. I'm sure most of you get the basic picture though. Hopefully, this will be an amazing triangle. We shall see. Questions? Comments? Leave me something!