I looked in the mirror and watched my face crinkle into frustration as I struggled with my bowtie. Today was my first day of high school at Lake Edge Preparatory School and already I was facing obstacles, mainly the uniform: Freshly ironed black pants, crisp long sleeved button down white shirt, and a dark green bowtie. I felt like some sort of miniature butler. Also my name was a little weird- Rusty. Okay, my full name was Russell Hallan Phillips, but nobody called me that. My best friend, Joey, had come up with his own nickname (Smudge) to make me feel not so out of place, but still.
"Rusty!" I heard my mom call from downstairs. "Hurry up! Smudge is waiting for you to come down!" Along with being my best friend, Smudge was also my next-door neighbor. I took one last look at myself in the mirror before I left the bathroom to make sure my light brown hair was combed neatly enough to pass my mother's inspection.
I opened the door and hurried down the stairs as quickly as I could. I grabbed my satchel from its peg on the coatrack and waved goodbye to my parents and baby sister before meeting Smudge out on the sidewalk. My sister, Princess, was only four years old and wouldn't be joining me at Lake Edge any time soon, thankfully.
"Hey, man, how's it going?" Smudge asked me as we began our first walk to school. I sighed and shook my head, not looking at him. Smudge echoed my sigh, "Okay, what's wrong? D'you have that dream again?" Occasionally I would have this dream where I was all tied up in this weird string. Constantly, I'd try to break free, but no matter how hard I tried I was always stuck. In the distance there'd always be some white light that I could never reach and the dream always left me gasping for breath when I woke up. I remained silent. "Oh my God," Smudge shook his head, "Dude, you gotta stop getting all weird about that. It's just a dream."
"Yeah, I know," I replied, kicking a loose pebble on the sidewalk. "But, I mean, what if it means something?"
"You gettin' all hippie on me now?" Smudge laughed and playfully punched my shoulder. I smiled back a little and was about to punch him back when he suddenly stopped short, all of the laughter deserting his eyes.
"What is it?" I asked. I followed his gaze; way down the street I could faintly make out the shapes of what looked to be three kids, all about our age. They didn't seem to see us, but Smudge wanted to make sure they never did. Without warning, he grabbed my shoulder and pulled me behind the closest neighbor's fence. I fell down with a huff and scrambled to my knees to look between the cracks of the white picket fence. "What's wrong?" I asked Smudge as I looked back at him. Smudge shook his head.
"Those guys were from Thunderson High. They're thugs," my friend replied as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. In a way, I could kind of understand where he was coming from. Smudge was nice, but he wasn't really in the best shape and his level of courage wasn't the highest. I'd heard stuff about students from Thunderson, but I'd never really met them. A couple of years ago, some younger kid from Lake Edge's middle school had gotten beaten up by a sophomore from Thunderson, but otherwise I hadn't seen any evidence of their supposed "malevolence". I looked back through the cracks in the fence to see that they'd gone.
"Smudge, I think we can get back up now," I stood up and helped my friend up before picking up my fallen satchel. I started back down the sidewalk and, after taking a brief look around, Smudge followed me. We walked in silence until the school came into sight. "What was the name of that kid who got attacked or something by some guy from Thunderson?" I asked as we entered the front doors. Smudge shrugged nonchalantly, obviously recovered from this morning's drama.
"I don't know. I don't think he goes here anymore though. Pretty sure he goes to one of those 'special' schools for kids hooked on drugs and shit." I nodded, not wanting to delve into that any more.
"Hey, Rusty," I turned around as a lilting feminine voice reached my ear. Standing behind me was a smiling girl I didn't recognize, but who apparently recognized me.
"Uh, hi," I replied, hoping I'd remember who she was before things got too awkward.
"It's good to see you back here. Some of us were afraid you'd go off to Thunderson." She said as she shifted from foot to foot. Taken a bit by surprise, I let out a nervous laugh.
"Yeah, well… here I am!" I said with an odd show of holding my arms out in as if to say "ta-da". I could feel Smudge rolling his eyes behind me.
"Well… I'll see you!" The girl walked past me and I waved to her just as she turned around.
"Who was that?" I asked Smudge as soon as she was out of earshot.
"Forget that," Smudge dismissed my question, "What did she mean by 'we thought you'd go off to Thunderson'? Are you?"
"No!" I shook my head, slightly taken a back. "I was just as surprised to hear that as you were."
To put it straight, classes were boring. But then again, what was I expecting? Freshman year at a prep school isn't exactly soap opera material. I did find out the name of that girl- Megan Nutte, who I guess I'd given a valentine to last year. The one thing I could think of the whole day was what she'd said about me going to Thunderson. Looking at a reflection of myself, I couldn't help but laugh at the idea. There was nothing about me that looked anything like the Thunderson stereotypes of dyed hair, tattooed bodies, and weird names (then again, how does someone look like they have a weird name?) My hair was a light brown, cut just below my ears and rather clingy to my head, and my body was completely ink free. The only thing about my outward appearance that was a little different was my set of green eyes that had once been described as "striking". Still, as I sat there in my bowtie, listening to a talk on the differences between frequencies, periods, and lambdas, Megan's innocent comment wouldn't leave my head.
Smudge would be staying after school tonight. The lovable idiot had gotten caught jerking off in the boy's bathroom by the janitor, and since this violated Lake Edge's sanitation rules, the guy had earned himself a detention on the first day. I smiled and shook my head at the thought of him coming home to his parents and telling them what had happened.
I promptly stopped smiling as I realized that this meant I'd have to walk home alone in the dark. Lake Edge's hours were somewhat of a mystery. Classes began at 11:00 and ended at 6:00, so the sun was already going down. I hated this arrangement, as did everyone else, but no matter how much we questioned it we were never given a straight answer. A couple of street lamps illuminated the sidewalk, but that was it. The sun was pretty much gone by now and an autumn breeze ruffled my hair, sending shivers down my spine. My own footsteps scared me, I kept on thinking they belonged to someone else behind me. But every time I turned around, I saw no one. Once, I even thought I heard someone say something just a few feet from my back, but no one was there. The town of Thunderson, despite their public school's students, wasn't particularly dangerous. If anything, it was a quiet collection of gated neighborhoods. My parents weren't rich enough to live inside these gates, but most of my friends were.
As soon as I got with a couple blocks of my house, I started to relax. I was pretty much in the same spot that the kids that Smudge and I had seen earlier were in, so I knew it couldn't take that long to get to my house. I considered sprinting back when all of a sudden my heart leapt out of my chest as something hit me from behind and I fell to the ground, hard. I twisted around as fast as I could and saw a looming black mass of a person standing in front of me, their face shrouded in shadow. I got up and threw my satchel to the ground so that it couldn't choke me. As soon as I was back on my feet I realized that this person wasn't too much taller than me. I grabbed their collar and attempted to punch them in the face, but they blocked my fist with their arm and shoved me back with the other. Feeling frustrated and scared, I lunged at them again, but they ducked out of the way and grabbed both my arms, pulling them back. I screamed and yanked myself free. My attacker, caught up in the rush, took a run at me and without thinking I plunged my knee into his stomach as soon as he was in range. With a gasp of surprise and pain, the person fell to the ground and curled up as they tried to catch their breath.
Still tense, I stared down at my attacker, waiting for him to get up. Now my shadow loomed over him and my hands were still set in fists. After a while, I started to feel a little more worried for him than for me. He was still in a curled up position, but he wasn't gasping as much anymore. Slowly, I made my way over to my satchel, picked it up, and prepared to run back home
"Wait!" He said before I could leave. He got up and shook some hair out of his face before holding out his hand and giving me a big smile. "My name's Graystripe. What's yours?" I stared at him, then down at his hand, and then back to him. He looked at me expectantly and reached out his hand even more.
"What?" I replied, both of my hands gripping tightly to my satchel strap.
"It's cool, man, you can shake my hand. Don't worry, the fight's over!" Hesitantly, I reached out my hand and shook his. "Cool." Graystripe replied with a nod of his head. "Sorry I attacked you like that," he said, seeing my still tense body, "It wasn't anything bad or anything, it's just that a couple of my friends saw you this morning and dared me to hit you. So I did!"
"What friends?" I asked, thinking back to the people Smudge and I had seen earlier.
"Them," Graystripe pointed down the street where I could faintly make out two masculine shapes before they ran away after they saw their friend pointing. "My friends Lionheart and Whitestorm- they're both seniors. Well, it was actually just Lionheart's idea. Whitestorm thought it was stupid but decided to come along just in case I got in trouble."
"Okay, what's going on?" I asked, still scared and having no idea about what this guy was talking about.
"Oh, God, I'm sorry!" Graystripe slapped his forehead and shook his head, "Graystripe, Lionheart, and Whitestorm are just the names we call ourselves since we're in the-" Graystripe stopped and smiled. "I can't tell you. But, if you came to Thunderson I'm sure Bluestar would let you join."
"Let me join what? What's Bluestar?" I wished Smudge were with me now.
"Hey, man, listen," Graystripe's bubbly attitude was replaced by one of seriousness, "You go to Lake Edge, right? I would never make this offer to anyone from there, but you've got some guts and some skills. You just beat me in a fight and you were on the defense! If I'm reading you right, you're not happy at Lake Edge- I mean, is anyone? But seriously, if you want more freedom, better friends, and an exciting life, come over to Thunderson. We could use you."
"Graystripe!" Someone (Lionheart or Whitestorm, I guessed) called him from the end of the block.
"I'm coming!" Graystripe yelled back before turning to me. "Just think about it, okay?" With one last smile, the other boy ran off. I stared at him until he disappeared around the bend. After he was gone, I continued to stare, mesmerized. About five minutes passed before my legs decided to work again and I slowly made my way back home.