DEJA VU
Chapter 1
My name is Lily Christensen and today was the first day of school in a new town.
I awoke early Monday morning with my alarm clock blaring 30 Seconds to Mars' From Yesterday. I covered my ears with my pillow to drown out the intense sound. Feeling defeated, I rolled over, groaned, and jumped out of bed. After rubbing my eyes, I peered out of my window to see a sea of clouds creating a somber atmosphere. It was early September so I hoped that the sun would come out of hiding.
I entered the shower with hopes of further enticing myself awake. I leaned against the tile groggy and unfocused before scrubbing and shampooing my hair, it didn't help, I was still dead tired. After the steam had dissipated and the water turned cool, I turned off the valve. I stepped out and dried off with a huge Egyptian cotton towel, wrapping myself in it. Peering into the mirror, I saw a small heart shaped face gazing back. The next step was to brush my teeth and put some product in my brown hair to soften the ringlets so it didn't look like a frizzy mess. I applied lip gloss, mascara, and blush for a little color. After a few minutes, I walked back to my room to change. Dressing quickly, I put on a pair of dark jeans, a white short-sleeved blouse with pearl buttons, a pair of black Mary Jane's, and of course my parka, just in case of rain.
I was excited to be starting my senior year of high school, really I was, but I was not a morning person. Mornings for me were usually difficult and consisted of mainly me lying in bed attempting to keep dreaming after being shocked awake. "Whoever decided that school should start at 7:30 in the morning was a master of torture," I muttered to no one in particular as I was practically flying downstairs.
Mom and dad were in the kitchen sitting at the breakfast table. I look at lot like my dad with some of my mom mixed in too. I have mom's brown hair, brown eyes, and heart shaped face, but the rest of me is like dad. I have his nose shape, cheekbones, long lashes, and coloring. Mom, like me, is outgoing, but not overly so. Dad is quiet and speaks only if there is a need for it. He is firm and once he makes up his mind there is no going back.
"Lily, please come and eat something before school," my mother said.
"Um, no thanks, I will grab something at lunch."
Dad frowned at me, so I picked up an apple and took a few bites. I set the apple down on the table, knowing that he would eat the rest, and I smiled at him.
"Dad, I will miss you while you are gone. I will email you as often as I can, promise."
Dad is in the Navy and shipping out overseas for a year, though I am not sure where. I am used to his being gone, but still miss him regardless.
"I'm going to miss you too, sweetpea," he said.
I loved my parents very much. They were a little corny at times, but I didn't mind in the least. We have a great relationship. I hugged and kissed dad on the cheek, turned and hugged my mom before leaving.
Mom frowned at me when she saw my look of nervousness. "Hold it a minute sweetheart, are you sure you are okay with this move and leaving your boyfriend behind?" she asked.
She had mistaken my nerves about my first day at a new school with leaving my old life behind, argh! "Yes, mom! I could have stayed behind, as I am 18, but I wanted to come. Remember I broke up with Jack - I am totally okay with moving here and starting fresh. I'm just nervous about my first day of school." She just smiled in my direction. We moved to Astoria to live close to my grandparents who recently moved into an assisted living facility.
"Drive safely," they both said in unison.
"Love you guys!" I yelled, exiting the kitchen.
My mood had deflated like an old balloon when my ex was mentioned. Jack is almost four years older than me with brown hair, brown eyes, and is very muscular; not a lean kind of muscular, but a burly kind of muscular. He joined the Navy after he got out of high school and that was how we met. He was very chivalrous and funny. We spent so much of our time together when I wasn't in school. That was when everything was perfect - then it all changed.
Jack was a sore subject for me and what my parents didn't know about him was a good thing. Dad would have killed him if he knew the truth. Jack was great at first, but eventually he started to act all possessive. I was too uncomfortable with his calling or texting at all hours of the day or night asking who I was with, why I was not immediately home from school or where my car was, etc. Often times, I would come home from school and find flowers on the porch, even after we broke up. Sometimes the flowers had no note attached, but I knew. Fear had started to grip me in a vise on nearly a daily basis just after he changed and I am glad that we moved across the country. Peace of mind was too wonderful these days. I felt lighter and free. The oppression I felt had vanished the minute I had left the state.
Grabbing my book bag I opened the front door. "Good no rain - well at least not yet", I said aloud.
I ran to my Mini Cooper, opened the door and slid in behind the wheel and turned on the radio, not really caring what was playing.
There was nothing like the feeling of owning your own car. I had babysat and received an allowance as far back as I can remember so when I turned 17, I was finally able to afford my own car. Living on a military base provided many babysitting opportunities. Dad, of course, took me shopping.
Car shopping with dad was a little embarrassing. He would look the car over inside and out, even underneath it, rub his chin, and glare at the salesman. He looked under the hood, asked more questions, and looked at more cars in that same fashion. This went on for an hour and a half just at that particular lot. He was a man of few words and usually grunted at the salesman. I think the salesman was afraid of my dad, which was silly; he was not scary in the least - well at least to me. We test drove the car and he even got the price lowered considerably, probably just by scowling at the poor salesman. From that moment on, I was the proud owner of a red and charcoal colored Mini Cooper - it suited me perfectly. It had charcoal leather seats and the dash lights were neon blue when dark out.
Finally arriving at school, I parked my car and went up to the front office, which looked like most school offices do. I have been to enough of them to know, being a child of a military man. There must have been some sort of unwritten code that insisted upon ugly gray utilitarian carpeting with the same beige walls and neon flyers posted up all over the place and secretary wearing the traditional brown tweed suit.
The woman behind the counter smiled at me. "How can I help you, dear?" she said.
"Um...my name is Lillian Christensen, I'm new here."
"Oh...yes Lillian, please have a seat and I will be right back with everything you will be needing." She gestured to the chair I was supposed to sit in and walked away.
After a few minutes she returned, "Here you are Lillian."
"Please call me Lily," I said.
"Lily, here is your schedule, map of the school, and your locker assignment with the combination. I hope you have a wonderful first day." She smiled warmly at me, so I smiled back, looking at her nameplate sitting on her desk in order to call her by name. "Thank you, uh...Mrs. Boyd."
I walked to my locker just to know where it was located. Having my bag with me, and no books, there wasn't really a need to go there, at least for today. After wandering around, I found a bench nearby, so I sat down looking at my schedule.
First period: Government/Ms. Carver. Room 105
Second period: English/Mr. Olson. Room 110
Third period: Earth Science/Mrs. Reed. Room 216
Fourth period: Media English/Mr. Shields. Room 108
Lunch.
Fifth period: PE/CO-ED/Ms. Damon/Mr. Baxter Gym
Sixth period: Teacher's aide/Mr. Shields. Room 108
Seventh period: Office aide/Mrs. Boyd. Office
The student body was finally arriving and began observing me. Being so used to this, I barely responded. At my last school we could have health class as an alternative for a science prerequisite. Here, science class was mandatory, so I needed to take one and decided upon earth science in order to graduate. Well, at least media English looked like it would be awesome. I had enough credits to graduate other than senior year English, government, and my science class, but decided to take a full course load anyway...yeah; I was a glutton for punishment.
I thought my day was going to go smoothly, until I looked at the schedule again, where at the bottom of the paper it stated that this was a closed campus for lunch.
"What the hell?" I yelled, obviously outraged. Driving off campus for lunch was the highlight of my day. I internally berated myself; everyone was looking at me after my outburst.
The first bell trilled loudly, so I walked to my government class, sitting down near the back of the room. It was nearly impossible to keep a low profile. When the tardy bell rang Ms. Carver called class to order and we quieted down considerably. After roll call, she passed out a syllabus and handed out books for everyone in class. It was really very boring and eventually we were allowed to talk quietly until the end of class. I just sat and waited, looking out of the window trying to be unnoticed, which was next to impossible.
Time was going by at a fast pace. I started recognizing people from my other three classes when I strolled into media English. Mr. Shields called class to order and told us we would be watching movies and the like in this class in order to see how the entertainment industry has influenced societal norms. We would be watching anything from silent films to horror movies and everything in between. He told us Hitchcock would be prevalent throughout our year. I was excited with the news.
During this class I noticed a girl staring at me, and it went on for a while. I started to get nervous, like maybe I had something stuck to my nose. Oh God, could it be...please don't let it be snot...but when I pulled out my compact, my face was fine. She was sitting right across from me. She was short, like me, and had black hair that was spiked in every possible direction. Her skin was pale, but it looked amazing on her. I felt very insignificant at that moment while looking in her direction. Unsure of what to do, I smiled at her. She suddenly looked away, and didn't look back in my direction again, her hand gripping the desk in a stranglehold. "Well, that was odd," I thought. A few moments later class was dismissed.