I stood in the middle of the hallway with my schedule in hand. It was the first day of 9th grade and, unbeknownst to me at the time, the first day of my new life. "Hey, move it bitch!" some girl shouted as she pushed her way past me. I moved over to the side of the hallway in order to look at my schedule which was:
Period 1 English 9 Honours Room 204
Period 2 Algebra 1 Honours Room 111
Period 3 Gym
Period 4 Lunch
Period 5 AP World History Room 134
Period 6 French 1 Room 134
Period 7 AP Biology Room 209
"Okay, room 204" I muttered under my breath. "Where was the damn staircase?" I walked over to some short ginger girl. "Hey, excuse me…" I started to say.
'What do you want?" she snapped as she turned around and looked me straight in the eye.
"Um…do you know how to get to room 204?" I nervously asked.
"First day, eh?" she asked.
"Yep,"
"Let me fill you in on something. I don't associate myself with the Emo crowd" she sneered. "I'm Holly J Sinclair, not Holly, but Holly J. And I run this school. Since it's your first day, I'll let you off with a warning. Don't ever talk to me again. Got that, Hun?"
"Can you at least tell me where the room is?"
"You've got persistence, girl," she said. "I like that. If you can re-vamp your style and prove yourself to be smart, I just might reconsider letting you be seen with me. Anyway" she continued as she pushed a piece of hair behind her ear, "go to the end of the hallway" she said while pointing. "The staircase is on the right. I think you can figure it out from there".
"Thanks a lot". Holly J turned back around and started talking with some other girl. I sighed and made my way down the hall and up the stairs. There was the classroom, right in front of me. I took a seat in the back corner. A minute or so later, a preppy looking girl with straight blonde hair came waltzing in and took a seat next to me.
"Hi, I'm Jenna," she said, extending her hand out.
"Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Kat" I said as we shook hands. "It's my first day here".
"Oh, are you a freshman?" she asked.
"Yep,"
"Don't worry, you'll be just fine" she assured me. "Anyway, I'm in grade 10"
"If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing in a freshman English class?"
"I don't mind you asking," Jenna said with a smile on her face. She looked happy, too happy, especially for 7 a.m. "I transferred here from a school in Tennessee the middle of last year. The 9th grade English class at my old school was like 10th grade English here. So they put me in a 10th grade English class and put me in 9th grade honours this year with the hopes that I wouldn't be totally bored. I know. It makes no sense" she added with a giggle.
"So this class should be a breeze for you then," I said.
"Yep, should be" Jenna chirped as she bent down in order to get something out of her backpack. Just then, a short man wearing rectangular glasses came walking in.
"Hello class," he said as he began to write on the chalkboard. "My name is Mr. Ross and welcome to 9th grade English Honours." He took out a folder and began to take attendance.
"Amy Anderson,"
"Here!"
"Sam Brown,"
"Here!" While Mr. Ross was calling out names I had begun mindlessly doodling on the inside cover of my spiral notebook.
"Kathryn Guthrie?" I looked up. That was me.
"Here!" I said, quickly raising my hand. Jenna turned towards me.
"Eh…Kat?" she asked.
"Yeah?"
"This may sound a bit weird, but do you have a brother named K.C.?" Damn! I forgot he went here. This was going to be extremely complicated for me to explain.
"Yep," I muttered.
"Funny," Jenna said. "He never mentioned anything about having a sister".
"Guess he must be ashamed of me," I said half-jokingly. Jenna shrugged her shoulders.
"Maybe, though I don't understand why. You seem nice enough!" I forced a smile before turning towards the front of the classroom and sat through the remainder of class, not bothering to pay attention. The rest of my morning was pretty uneventful and, before I knew it, it was lunch time.
The line in the cafeteria was a mile long! It snaked around half the perimeter of the lunch room. It didn't matter, though. I didn't feel like eating anyway. I just sat there tapping out a rhythm on the table that matched my boredom. A few minutes and many taps later, I heard someone call out my name. I looked behind me and saw that it was none other than my long-lost brother, K.C.
"Hi," I muttered, quickly shifting my gaze to the floor.
"Wow! Oh my God! I totally didn't expect to see you here".
"It's my first day" I explained. "I'm in grade 9 now."
"Well, you certainly look a lot different from when I last saw you. Did you dye your hair black?"
"Yep," I responded.
"It's been a long time".
"Yep,"
"You don't talk much anymore, do you?" he observed. K.C. was always one for picking up on subtleties.
"Not really," I said as I looked up at him. "So, are you still living in the group home?"
"Nope" he answered. "I'm living with mom now".
"She got out of jail?" I blurted out before I could stop myself. He nodded. "When?"
"About nine months ago" It hurt being the only one in the family out of the loop. Why didn't mom ever try to contact me? Did she not love me like she often told me when she was high? That seemed to be the only plausible explanation at the moment. I debated whether or not to ask this.
"Does she ever mention me?" I finally decided on asking, not quite sure that I wanted to hear the answer.
"All the time" K.C. answered. "She keeps saying that if she were able to afford a Private Investigator in order to find you, she would".
"Oh, that's nice. I guess" I said. I was shocked that he was speaking so highly of our mom. Last time I saw, he loathed her very existence.
"Maybe I can finally leave my foster hell of a home!" I exclaimed.
"Is it really that bad?" K.C. asked. I nodded as tears swelled up in my eyes. K.C. sat down next to me. "What have those fucking bastards done to my baby sister?" I tensed up. I had never told anybody what went on behind those doors. "Come on!" he said getting up and walking. I hesitated. "Kat, come with me!" I took a deep breath nervously followed K.C. out of the cafeteria. "The Computer Lab should be empty now, so we can talk more about this in there". I nodded even though I wasn't so sure that I wanted to talk about it. When we got there, he shut the door, and we sat down. "So, what's going on?"
"Umm…" I sputtered. "Let's just say that there's a reason I'm wearing long sleeves in August". He gave me a quizzical look. I took a deep breath as I pulled up my sleeves and showed him the deep welts and burns scattered about on my arm. "They're on my back and legs too" I explained.
"Fuck!" he said. "I had no idea. Those mother fucking…" He stood up and kicked the trashcan causing it to turn over and spill all of its contents. I walked over and began to clean everything up.
"It's okay," I said. "There was nothing you could do".
"No, it's not okay!" K.C. shouted to no one in particular. "If you want, I can see if mom is able to re-gain custody of you like she has with me. It's up to you, though. I won't even tell her I saw you if you don't want me to".
"How's she doing?" I asked. "You know, with drugs and stuff?"
"She's been clean for three years and, if anything, she'll over coddle you. She'll do just about anything to re-earn your trust. Just don't take advantage of that like I did".
"Believe me, I won't," I said. "I'll just be happy to be somewhere that I don't have to worry about accidentally saying the wrong thing and, you know…" I paused hoping K.C. would be able to fill in the blanks, which he did.
"So, do you want me to ask her if you can come back home?" he interjected. I nodded as I ran over to hug my brother.
"I miss being a family" I confessed before we left the Computer Lab and headed our separate ways.