As she ran she gripped the sides of her books so tightly her fingers paled. Apprehension slowly coursed through her veins as she approached her first class. Jen stopped briefly to catch her breath, then walked timidly into the invasive florescent lights that flooded the room. The stench of high maintenance flooded her nostrils, and the slightly singed smell of freshly flat ironed hair and Bvlgari perfume poisoned the once tolerable classroom atmosphere. Lex, Julie and Erin sat whispering to one another in the back, prepared ridicule whoever dared to sit in front of them. Jen's eyes darted across the room in desperate search for any other seat, but all were taken. She went rigid as she passed the girls who carefully watched each and every move she made, waiting anxiously to find some flaw in her gait. Julie, the leader of the 7, was surprised by a sudden feeling of discomfort that overcame her. Something about Jen's subtly obvious confidence angered her. She turned to Lex and whispered loudly to her making sure Jen could hear every word she said.
"Aw how cute, she actually found herself a boyfriend! Did you see her walk in this morning like she was the shit? Clearly California surfer trash is something to brag about now a days." She said snidely. Jen dropped her books. Julie and Lex grinned at one another once the realized that even after an entire summer break they still had tremendous power over her. Jen turned bright red due to both her anger and embarrassment then hastily picked up her books and walked to her seat.
"Did you see that girls? She holds onto her books about as well as she holds onto her boyfriends. "she snapped. Jen stared down at her desk trying to hold back tears. She'd promised herself she wouldn't let them see her upset. Lex flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulders then reached into her purse and removed a stick of gum for herself and the two others.
"I'll give them a month…" she said chewing loudly.
"…and even if they're still dating…I'm going to ask him to winter formal. Because honestly, girlfriend or not who'd go with her?" she jeered. Erin took advantage of the situation.
"Go for it Lex! He'll totally be all over you the second you ask him! Honestly it must suck to be dating the Virgin Mary over there." she teased. The four other boys in the class turned and laughed at Jen who sat silently with her head buried in her hands.
"Is she actually crying right now?" Lex said while looking at herself in a small compact mirror. Julie rolled her eyes.
"That's pretty much all she does. I honestly don't know why she even goes here." she sneered. Jen turned around and stared directly at her adversaries.
"Because my 4.0 GPA keeps me here, I don't need my Daddy's trust fund to keep me from failing out and going to the local public school." She snapped. The boys behind her cheered. Julies face turned dark red. Erin and Lex looked nervously from one to the other hoping that Julie would come up with a witty comeback at the last minute but the room remained silent.
"And Lex…don't make the mistake of thinking that Jess would ever go to winter formal with you. He's not interest in STDs. comprende?" Jen fired, putting Lex and the other two girls in their places just as the class began.
At the sound of the 8:30 bell hoards of students bustled about the hallway hurrying to their first classes. Jesse stood hopelessly in the middle of a sea of burgundy blazers and Ralph Lauren polos without a clue or care as to where his first history class would be. Just as he finally managed to unearth his schedule from his bag, four rather athletic looking seniors came rushing down the hall towards him. The largest of the four slammed hard into Jesse right as he passed, sending both his books and papers flying across the floor. Jesse fell backwards to the ground and sat there helplessly as the older boys stood over him laughing.
"You should learn to watch where you're going, surfer boy." said the chestnut haired senior responsible for Jesse's fall.
"What the hell are you talking about? You ran into me asshole!" Jesse said as he jumped to his feet and stood face to face with the leader of the four. The brunette and his friends snickered. "You know you're right I did run into you…and I can do it again." He said snidely then pushed Jesse backwards towards the lockers.
"Don't touch me." Jesse said furiously, then slapped the boy's hand away from him.
"Okay then, he will. Conner take a shot!" he teased as a red head standing behind him grabbed a hold of a hockey stick and hit Jesse full force in the stomach with the blunt end. He sank to his knees and gasped for air, while two of the other seniors kicked his books in different directions down the hall.
"Rory look at this." said Conner who had discovered a picture of Jen and Jesse together from their summer their summer vacation. Rory grabbed the photo from Conner and stared at it.
"Well looky here, this hottie's your girlfriend now? Aww how cute, I guess that makes you the rebound. Pathetic...but hey seeing how she's grown up this summer looks like I'll just have to re-invite her to one of my exclusive backseat tours of my Benz, I bet she's missed it." He said smirking. The three other boys laughed maliciously while Jesse struggled to sit up.
"…Don't you…ever…talk about my girlf…" he stopped mid sentence when Tyler, Rory's right hand man, kicked Jesse in the side of the face.
" Ty! that's not very polite of you…kicking a guy like that when he's down on all fours like a dog…tsk tsk…shame on you." He said sarcastically. Tyler grinned.
"I'm sorry Rory, I just can't take these romantic types, Let me see that picture real quick…" he said as he reached out and took the photo.
"Look at this crap, what kind of guy carries pictures of his girlfriend around, when you can do things with her that are much more memorable than a photo." He said laughing, then ripped it in half. Rory smirked.
"Whoops, so much for sentimental bullshit…lets go, this is getting boring and I'm gunna be later for class than usual, so let's ditch…what's his name here and get to Math." He said uncaringly then suddenly noticed that Jesse was trying to get up for the second time.
"Woah there cowboy we can't be having any untimely comebacks now can we? Sit down." He teased then placed his foot on Jesse's back and forced him back down on to the floor.
" Listen kid, you've gotta learn your place, you see, here at Rockwell, we've got a food chain type of social system. The hockey players are at the top, we get the girls, the grades, the cars, etc. you get the picture. Now underclassmen newbie losers like yourself…basically don't exist. So that means if you ever even tried to tell anyone about our little…oh how shall we say… "misunderstanding" this morning, we'd make sure that nobody believed you or heard from you again. So like I said…watch your step and welcome to my school bro. Later." Rory said as he shoved Jen's half of Jesse's picture into his pocket and headed off to his first class along with his friends. Just before he turned the corner Rory stopped and looked back at Jesse.
"Oh yea, and thanks for the photo! I'll make sure to pay your girlfriend a visit sometime today. We've got some catching up to do!" He said laughing then disappeared into the adjacent hallway.
"Mr.…" shouted his first period history professor from across the room.
"It's Jesse." He said while making a sad attempt at rearranging his uniform so that he looked somewhat presentable.
"Jesse, you do understand that you are 26 minutes late for my class do you not?" she said in a BBC London accent.
"Yea I do, and I'm sorry, I just got…ah…" he suddenly remembered what Rory had said to him in the hallway. "…lost…on the way to class…I misplaced my schedule so I couldn't find the room…I'm sorry it won't happen again." He mumbled.
"That's quite understandable on the first day, but I will expect you to arrive 10 minutes early to my class every day for the rest of the semester. Are we clear?" she said sternly.
Jesse's jaw dropped. "Are you kidding me?" he stuttered. Mrs. Hodgekins glared at him from beneath her glasses.
" I don't believe anyone here found it funny, now did they?" she said as stared down a few individual students who were attempting to disguise their obvious giggles with the occasional cough or sneeze. Jesse sighed heavily and shoved his hands in his pockets.
"No, mam'." He replied.
"Well now that that's sorted out please take your seat." She directed then turned back towards the whiteboard and continued her lesson. Jesse sat down in the row furthest from the front and slammed his notebook on the table. A blonde haired girl sitting across from him briefly looked up from her history text book and smiled at him. He glared at her than put his head back down in his notebook. Letting curiosity and flirtatiousness get the best of her the girl reached over and poked him with the end of her pencil. "Hey, how's your first day so far? You'd better pay attention Mrs. Hodgekins can be a real witch. What's your name?" she whispered politely.
He said nothing.
"Hello?" she said then waited a few seconds for him to respond. He snored loudly and she finally received her long awaited answer. The school year had officially begun.