Chapter 2
Seneca High School started its existence at the beginning of the last century. The building had been an old monastery for almost two hundred years, but when the monks left, the local government took over the building, and turned it into the first high school in town. Its centenarian walls had seen dozens of generations come and go, witnessed the events that had marked the country's history, and prided themselves of the great men and women that had started walking in life right from the spot.
Like every single day, the hall was a chaotic mess of voices, whistling and shouts mingled together, as the students filled the place before the beginning of the classes. Lou followed Mr. Ned, the principal, through the crowd. She hugged her books against her chest as she tried to keep up with the man while avoiding bumping into the youngsters in her way. Mr. Ned was a serious-looking man, of few words, quite young, but with an evident keenness to appear older than he was. He had received Louise in his office with cold affability, asking her just the strictly necessary questions, which was something Lou was grateful for. Mrs. Clark, the principal in her old school was a nosy chatterbox and asked too much for Lou's liking, and from time to time, she used to call Lou to her impeccable office to ask her in private how things were at home.
The bell boomed over their heads, and in just a few seconds the mob of students dispersed, running like the flame of a wick in a dynamite stick, as everybody dashed towards the classrooms. Lou kept following Mr. Ned up the stairs and down a long corridor. The man stopped before a door, knocked, and as he opened it, he craned his neck inside. "Excuse me, Mrs. Dunne," Mr. Ned said. "I have a new student for your class." Mr. Ned motioned Lou to get inside with a tilt of his head and she stepped into the classroom after him. "This is Louise Boggs. She's new in Seneca."
"Nice to meet you, Louise, and welcome."
Lou simply nodded as she watched the smiling woman. She was an attractive lady, blonde hair done up in a ponytail, big, blue eyes, and a slender figure wrapped in an elegant skirt and a modern top which highlighted her very noticeable curves. Mr. Ned muttered a soft excuse and left as the teacher said, "Louise, there's an empty seat next to Emily at the back. Why don't you sit there?"
Lou nodded and walked to the end of the room, trying her best to ignore the curious looks of the other students. Even though she did not appear so, she was quite shy. So Louise directed her eyes ahead as she walked and sat down on the empty chair that Mrs. Dunne had told her about.
The teacher asked the students to open their books and started reading a poem by William Wordsworth. Lou followed the lines eagerly, relishing the beauty of the words combined together to form a perfect, harmonious piece of art. She loved literature and English was her favorite subject. It never ceased to amaze her how man had the ability to create worlds of emotions just with words, something so small but at the same time so incredibly powerful.
"Hey…" a whisper by her side drew her attention away from Mrs. Dunne's comments on the poem, and Lou found the smiling face of her desk neighbor. She had a freckled, pretty face, with shoulder-long tricolor hair, hazel eyes and was wearing a strapless, colorful dress, which allowed her boast of her uva tan. "My name's Emily… Emily Metcalfe," the girl said.
"I'm Lou."
"So you're a newbie around here," Emily continued in a whisper stating the obvious.
"Yes, my family and I moved to town last weekend. We used to live in New York."
"Oh God!" Emily exclaimed as quietly as possible. "I can't blame you if you're not in speaking terms with your folks now after making you move to this poor imitation of a town."
"Actually, I like it here," Louise replied vaguely.
Emily stared at her as if she had lost her mind. How could she say she liked this town after living in New York? Nothing, nothing at all could be compared to the big city. Emily could hardly wait to leave her home town, which was the most boring, uneventful place in the whole country, and start living the real life she had always dreamed of. She had hopes to start college in Columbia University next year, which would mean a real change to her boring existence.
"Let me have a look at your schedule," Emily said, taking the paper from Lou without waiting for her permission to do so. "We're together in a few classes… French, math, art. That's good. You'll also see most of the guys here in some of your classes too. They're not a bad lot." Lou nodded as she leafed through her book to find the page Mrs. Dunne was telling them to look at.
"You see the long-haired guy on the left hand side?" Emily asked, patting Lou on her shoulder for her attention.
Louise nodded again and Emily continued explaining, "That's Buck Cross. He's a good friend… very popular among the girls, but Lou, to save you from disappointment, let me tell you that he's already spoken for, so to speak. The blonde next to him is his girlfriend, Kathleen Devlin."
Lou watched the couple Emily was talking about. They made a nice, good-looking pair, but curiously enough they seemed negatives of he same photograph. While Buck had shining, dark hair; Kathleen's was fair. Buck's eyes were black, Kathleen's green and the color of their skin were a clear contrast of their different heritage. "Kathleen is a friendly girl. She's one of my best friends," Emily carried on. "Not like her father, who is a grumpy, unpleasant character. He is the director of a bank near here, and of course he disapproves of Buck. Kathleen, though, doesn't care about her father's opinion and I think it gives her some kind of satisfaction to go against him. I'm not saying that she's with Buck just to rebel against her father, but the notion makes her more intent to stick to her boyfriend."
Louise nodded, not really sure why this girl was telling her all these tales about her friends. She just wanted to be left alone for a moment and focus on the work they were supposed to be doing. Yet, she did not know how to cut Emily off without sounding too rude. In fact, Lou never had problems with speaking her mind, not caring how she might sound or what others might think of her, but for some reason she had taken an immediate liking to Emily, and could not bring herself to stop her.
"I'm telling you this," Emily continued, almost reading Lou's thoughts, "to save you from unnecessary pain. I know it's hard when you fall for a guy whose heart is not free. Look at Jenny." Emily tilted her head to a blonde girl sitting a few desks before them. "Poor Jenny is head over heels in love with Buck, but he only has eyes for Kathleen. Jenny is also a good friend of mine, and I know she isn't having it easy. So, Lou, mind me and forget about the caught fish and throw your line into other waters."
Lou nodded absent-mindedly, hoping Emily would stop talking about all this. As Louise keep watching the people her new friend was telling her about, a boy sitting behind Buck turned on his chair and to Lou's surprise he blew a kiss in their direction. "That's Ike," Emily said with a smile when she noticed Louise's weird expression. "He's my boyfriend. Isn't he handsome?"
Lou made an indistinctive, guttural sound, unsure how to respond to Emily's rhetoric question, but the girl did not give her the opportunity to say anything else and asked, "Do you have a boyfriend, Lou?"
"No, I don't," Louise replied, feeling self-conscious like usual whenever she was asked a personal question. She did not have problems to say that there was nobody special in her life, but she knew that these questions tended to lead to others, and she was not ready to talk about her life to a complete stranger.
"Well, maybe you can have your pick in our school. There are some good specimens, even in this class," Emily replied with a grin, as her mind started working quickly. "Have a look. You see that blonde guy on the left? That's Cody. He's quite attractive and if you like men with a sense of humor, that's Cody. You can't get bored with him, but… on second thought I wouldn't recommend him to you. He's kind of fickle. I don't think I have seen him with the same girl longer than a month."
Emily swept her eyes through the class once again. "That's Jimmy Hickok at the front… the black-haired one. He's a tough guy, you know, hard as nails, but let me tell you a secret, that's just a façade. He's actually kind of sweet, but I'm afraid he's just started dating someone. He's quite secretive about it, and we are all dying to know who the lucky girl is, but he won't talk. I wonder if there's something wrong with her or what." Lou kept nodding politely even though she could not care less about all these details Emily seemed so intent to share with her. "And now we get to our prize catch."
"Listen, Emily, I don't think…"
"Have a look to Jimmy's right," Emily continued, turning a deaf ear to Lou's protests. "That's Samuel Cain Jr., but everybody calls him Kid, funny name, huh?" Lou watched the boy Emily was telling her about. She could just see his profile from where she sat. He was handsome… charming smile, nice eyes, soft-looking hair and harmonious features. Lou could imagine what kind he was … the kind that girls fall for easily… the kind that seduced women, had his way, and then forgot about them. "Kid's a great guy… very clever. He and Jimmy are the stars of our football team." Emily paused and smiled as she saw Lou, watching Kid intensely. "What, Lou? You like him, don't you?"
"Uh… no… of course not!"
"Please don't be shy!" Emily continued. "I can understand what you see. If I weren't with Ike, I would also be interested in him."
"I'm not interested."
"Lou, he's totally free, and not because there aren't candidates that want to be more than a friend to him. You see the black-haired girl with… with the bright-red snout?" Emily said unkindly, and Louise had to suppress laughter at her comment. "That's Samantha and she's been after Kid for the last year or so. I'm so sorry for him because she's a real pest, and he endures her bugging presence stoically. She's kind of pretentious, and even though he has shown her very clearly that he isn't interested in her, she still thinks she can win. Gosh, she even had a boob job last summer to gain points with him. But let me be honest with you, even if she wore a 50 bra size, nobody would notice anything but her very annoying personality."
Emily obviously had more than one issue with this Samantha, thought Lou, smiling politely. "Thanks for the information, Emily. But honestly, I'm not interested in having a boyfriend."
"What? You must be kidding!" Emily exclaimed loudly, which drew all her classmates' attention and, of course, Mrs. Dunne's.
"Emily Metcalfe, could you please focus on Mr. Wordsworth and stop chit-chatting?" Rachel exclaimed, rising to her feet and looking at the girl purposefully.
"Yes, Ma'am," Emily replied, at once lowering her eyes to her book and looking for the page she should already have located.
The rest of the students had momentarily turned their eyes to the end of the classroom, but soon they lost interest and continued with their work. Everybody but Kid, whose eyes lingered longer on the girl sitting next to his friend Emily. Louise met his gaze and smile for a second, but uncomfortable at his open scrutiny, she blushed, sent him an irritated look, and lowered her eyes. It was when Kid felt a nudge on his side that he shifted his attention away from Lou. Jimmy grinned at him and after checking that Mrs. Dunne was not paying attention, he whispered, "So is she the looker you've been bugging me about all weekend?"
"Uh yes," Kid replied reluctantly. "She's my new neighbor."
"I expected her to be a real stunner, but Kid, she's nothing special," Jimmy remarked. "Compared to Samantha, she's too plain."
"First of all, I'm not interested in Samantha," Kid replied, slightly irritated. "And secondly, you shouldn't judge people, considering the girlfriend you have."
"What do you have to say against her?" Jimmy wheezed furiously.
"Nothing, but I just know your mother would have a fit if she knew," Kid said pointedly.
"Nobody knows but you, and I want it to be this way. Nobody will know, all right?"
"Jimmy, I gave you my word, and I hope you can trust me after so many years of friendship."
James Hickok ignored his comment and threw a quick look behind him, trying to assess the girl that had caught his friend's eye better. "Well, I have to admit she has a pretty face. She's not the kind we're used to seeing around here. She isn't even wearing make-up."
"Well, that's a nice change," Kid replied without stopping writing on his notebook.
"What's this, Kid? Love at first sight?"
This time Kid lifted his eyes from the paper as if his friend had touched a raw nerve. "It's not that. I just happen to find her interesting, nothing else."
"Interesting?" Jimmy echoed with a note of amusement in his voice. "And again… what is it you volunteered to do at home yesterday to catch sight of her? Let me remember. Oh yes… wash your old man's car, mow the front lawn…"
"And paint the verandah," Kid finished for his friend.
"And she doesn't even know you exist," Jimmy continued teasingly.
"Oh but she will," Kid replied with a bright smile. "Mark my words, Jimmy. She will."