2. Incognito and Bright Yellow Shoes.
"Try not to embarrass me, 'kay little one? Her brother said, poking a finger through the neat knot of hair at her crown.
She sighed, "one year isn't an excruciatingly long period of time, Sean. You're a junior, I'm a sophomore. We don't collide."
"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Mehreen." Her brows furrowed and the corners of Mehreen's lips sunk, she was flashing him the look.
"It's a horrible thing! Don't you miss California? The sun, the clear skies, the people." Her eyes scanned through La Push's quiet surroundings before glaring up at the grey skies. Not one ray of hope filled sunshine beamed down on her and the pantyhose beneath her jeans kept Mehreen warm, but itched like nothing ever felt before.
"It's a fresh start for all!" He declared, clasping a hand to her back. Mehreen jumped forward, reaching down to give her crying knees a good rub.
"Watch it! I'm smaller than you, too." He smirked, doing nothing to hold back his mocking laughter. "I forgot… You don't have friends to miss." She scorned, hitting on a sensitive nerve.
"Shut up!" He fired, leaking venom into those little words. A knot nested itself into her stomach and she reached down to grab his forearm.
"Sorry, Sean. Dean and Cole are good people." Yeah, right. "I-I didn't mean to hurt your feelings.
"You must really miss home?" He asked, flinging an arm over her shoulder. "You're not usually this bitter." Mehreen saw the concern and understanding woven into his eyes. "Change is a part of life, embrace it, Mehreen." She hated it when Sean went all wise, fortune cookie on her. But it's moments like these (however rare they might be) Mehreen looked up to her brother and not just literally.
Sean cleared his throat and took a step sideward away from Mehreen once they reached the registration office. "Remember what I told you?"
"Yes…Who. Are. You. Sean? I mean stranger I do not know." She rolled her eyes dramatically and smirked up at his six foot two figure. He gritted his teeth, not even appreciating the monotone Mehreen put in. "Look, what's the registration lady going to do with the fact that we are related…? Alert the popularity police?"
Sean blinked his eyes used to the contacts he popped in earlier and gestured toward the door. "Ladies first or whatever you are." He told her, completely ignoring what Mehreen had said earlier.
"Whatever," she muttered, making her way inside.
Compared to Mehreen's old school, La Push High was a refugee center. The lighting was completely off and florescent and the ivory walls were lined with an unflattering shade of orange lockers. But this was the closest thing around; back in California Mehreen attended a private school. Best quality, best knowledge was their favorite and somewhat perverted motto. She itched off the criticism swelling on her thighs and peered down at her schedule.
"Crap…Just perfect!" Mehreen hissed, staring at tomorrow's geometry, geography, physics and chemistry filled day. But thankfully for now, she merely had to follow the map to English.
Feeding her annoyance Mehreen came to realize the class had already started, bringing her to stand smack in the middle and give everyone an introduction of herself. The black turtle neck hugging her throat took on a tighter hold than she thought. And her palms swam in perspiration, a few seconds felt like a million decades.
"My name is Mehreen S-Samad. I came from California and I…" Mehreen searched for the frightened words which clung to her throat. She thanked God for her complicated name as Mehreen had to pause and wait fore people to actually try and say her name before (sadly) continuing… "I like to err," she glanced over at Mr. Bates whose hands gestured for her to carry on… "Swim?" In the inside she burst with laughter. Mehreen hated the water, ironically lived in Santa Monica and came to La Push, where there was again another beach.
"Well thanks for that, just take a seat wherever," he waved his hands and Mehreen blew a sigh of relief. The teacher caught onto her public speaking fear, which was both a good and bad thing.
She sat beside a sloth like kid who eyed her twice over before grunting and continuing the exploration of his nose. The boy reeked of cigarette smoke and intimidated Mehreen to the point where she backed away slowly and leaned over the edge of her desk. Either he lost a few good hours of sleep, smoked weed or just liked picking on his nostrils, "why me?" She uttered below her breath. Despite studying the Merchant of Venice last year Mehreen knew the rest of the lesson and school day would drag on. To infinity and beyond, she thought, wishing she could fly away like Superman!
"Tec…Tenoch." She struggled to pronounce the name of the city depicted in her over sized text book. "Tenoch-titi-lan?" She sighed in defeat, shutting the book and relaxing into her seat.
"Ten-och-tit-lan. Tenochtitlan!" The girl next to her corrected, irritated by Mehreen's endless muttering. The historical subject of the Aztecs was unstudied and foreign to Mehreen's tongue, making the pronunciation of gibberish like words hard.
She blushed into a deep shade of scarlet beneath her stupidity, mumbling a quick "thanks."
The girl was a perfect wavy haired, copper skinned example of the typically beautiful La Push dweller. Mehreen couldn't help but compare the color of her pale flesh to that of the stranger's coffee toned shade. She tucked her loose ironed satin like strands of hair behind her ears before sinking deeper into the seat. She was an interloper, alone and unordinary in this world of endless trees.
A sense of hard rock relief washed over her at the sound of their tinkling bell. It was quickly replaced by an instant eeriness, hitting her gut like a ringed fist.
"Lunch time," Mehreen groaned audibly. Had people suddenly lost sympathy for the dead? Dieing, that's what it felt like here. Being suddenly ripped away from her comfort zone and plopped down here as a lost piece of luggage.
"Stupid piece of shit." She murmured to herself, stuffing the last of her books into the huge bag slung over her shoulder and bent down to quench her knees desire. She scratched and scratched and scratched until her nails nearly ripped through the denim of her jeans. The pantyhose irritated her to the point where she could have run around the cold half naked.
Mehreen was ready to pull herself together and get to the girls bathroom until something tall and bulky knocked her off her feet.
"What the hell?" Spoke a very scary girl. She wore a tattered sweatshirt and tight fitting jeans, real tough like.
"Sorry I-I didn't mean to…Sorry!" Mehreen muttered, rearranging the bun of her hair and scampering away.
"Hold up," called the giant, grabbing Mehreen's messenger bag and lunging her into the locker.
"What's your problem…Oooow?" She frantically rubbed a comforting hand through the extent of her arm and stepped forward, only to get shoved right back.
"You're the new kid?" She said, staring down at Mehreen's bright sunshine yellow converse. "People talk, freak." She told Mehreen, scanning her eyes through the intricate patterns of her hot pink ankle warmers.
"Good for you and those people, I'm kinda hungry…So bye!" She tried to escape but the grip on her shoulders was to strong.
"Let me tell you how things work around here, 'kay?"
Mehreen gulped down the hairy clog in her throat and stared up at the tall Amazon in stark fear. She didn't know how to fight and her mouth tended to get her into a lot of trouble sometimes, so she kept it shut.
"Good…" The bully, Tinnie said, fiddling with Mehreen's nice bracelet encircling her wrist. The bracelet her best friends got her and the only thing she had of them…
A//N: I apologize in advance for anything unclear, spelt wrong or grammatically incorrect. I'm just so not in the mood to read this for the umpteenth time. Thanks to all who reviewed, favoratized (that's not a word but still) and alerted this story…It's been a good 6 days!