Waffle high:
Ch. 1: First sights
I looked around and sighed. The rows of metal death traps looked at me, the wave of student body stared condescendingly at me. Yeah, this was just going to be great.
Being a foster child, you got used to new high schools in strange towns, but even with my experience, Waffle Town High seemed to be the strangest I had ever been to. Complete with town landmarks randomly named after food and shops which had so much small town in them it practically juiced out, I could almost sense I would be the abnormality in a town of norm. With my messy brown hair and reading glasses I always preferred to have on, many people told me I was a dead ringer for Anne Hathaway in "The Princess Diaries." However, for this one special new high school day my glasses stayed home and my hair got slightly tamed, minus the one cow lick in the front which never went down no matter what I did. All in all, once again I thought how great this day could get.
I solemnly walked to the high school office and plopped down on the nearest chair across from the administrator desk. If I turned around, I could see students milling by. They bore no resemblance to the city folk I was used to who dressed in the latest trends and designer labels. Instead, these teens were obviously in clothes their mother's had made. Not in a bad, ugly clothes way, but more along the lines of hewn patches on knees and custom outfits which seemed to suit each person who walked by perfectly. Such as a small, homey looking girl who walked by, whose blue prep school outfit was the exact shade of her hair. Or a muscled guy in a black wife-beater and jeans with a chain, just to symbolize a don't-mess-with-me-because-I-can-smash-your-face attitude. Actually, to think of it, he was pretty cute. I straightened in my chair and properly looked at all these guys. To tell the truth, they were all pretty good looking. Maybe this all wasn't such a bad idea in the first place.
"Elizabeth Pilgrim," a voice called. I turned around and looked at my caller, a tall woman with glasses and an extremely kind face. I smoothed my untamable hair, took a deep breath, and walked into the registrar's office.
"Are you Elizabeth?" she asked. I blinked back at her in a momentary daze, and grinned.
"Yes that's me. Well, at least, it was this morning. I do prefer Lizzy though." I continued grinning, more out of pleasing habit than happiness or politeness.
However, it was very evident this woman did not care. In a very straight-forward attitude, she outlined the school map for me, told me where all my classes were, and went over school policies and what not. This was really how I preferred, in which small talk was a minimum. She ended with a quick school spirit greeting, and wished me good luck. I thanked her and walked out the office staring at my map like a fool. I was tracing the way to my history class, and then-
-walked straight into another human being.
Books were dropped, my papers thrown in the air like marching batons. I never was known for my grace, and secretly prided myself in my somewhat unique ability to fall and lose my balance from just standing in a spot. Thus, I was used to running into people quite often. But never had I walked into someone in such an awkward manner. It was made even worse by just how cute he was. Blue messy hair hidden under a flaming bandanna, red vest, and devilish eyes were what I got, when I had expected a less, handsome runner-into. In the moment we collided, I had somehow managed to get it where I perfectly landed in his extremely defined arms. For a second, all we could do was awkwardly look at each other (as I continually opened my mouth to try to say something, in which all I achieved was the look of a dying fish), and he then rightly stood me up and gathered all my things for me.
"Thank you," I somehow managed to say.
He grinned, showing a slight incisor in his tooth, which added to his boy-ish charm. "No problem, I enjoy helping damsels in distress like that." Scratch the charming part.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "I am definitely not a damsel in distress, thank you very much. I am in fact, of the very opposite nature of a damsel, especially one in distress. I am very.. independent, and have my own ranch right off of town, which is not something a damsel would do."
"So you're the culprit of getting the whole town in an upheaval with the purchase of the town lot. I heard it was a girl, but I was not expecting someone like you," he laughed.
I glared; sure he meant to offend me. I bit my bottom lip and started to walk in what I hoped was the correct direction to class, but then he stopped me.
"Your books, Madam Damsel," he smirked. I sighed, reclaimed my fallen property, and then restarted my voyage. Again, the journey was cut short with a gentle hold on my shirt sleeve. "And now where do you exactly think you're going ma'am?"
I turned around. "Class. See, this place we're at, it is called a school. At said school, people like us called students go to classes in order learn about different subjects. And right now, I am currently late for my history class, which I don't know where it is, so I need the time to find it and…" And then I stopped. Not because I didn't have more to say. I definitely had more I could spout out, as around guys I had zero social and tactual skills. But mainly I stopped, because this strange new boy at this point just linked arms with me and continued to lead me through the hall in the exact opposite direction I had been headed earlier.
"You know, I've decided I like having you around chick," he grinned. I could tell he was probably a flirt whom all the girls were desperately in love with, but I knew I was above that, and I could prevail against his almost irresistible charms. However, it was a nice compliment after all, and I did need to be nice to the poor kid, because I could really sense a friendship in the making.
"Well, I can stay around for a while, just as long as you don't call me 'chick.'" I laughed in spite of myself, as this guy was really nigh irresistible.
"Do I get a name from the fair maiden then?" He stopped and held my two arms looking deeply into my dark brown eyes with a gleam.
"It's Elizabeth, but you can just call me Lizzy, I like you well enough that you can do that," I grinned back. "Now, I expect the favor from you sir."
"Psh, the name is Luke. Not nearly as fancy as Elizabeth," he laughed.
"We cannot all be perfect," I tried to say as solemnly as I could, failing miserably. We looked at each other, and just started laughing in the hallway, probably looking like fools to the innocent walker-by. My gut instinct was right; I was definitely going to be good friends with this Luke kid.
He opened the door for me, making me slightly flush, and we walked into the class, in which I quickly introduced myself to the younger teacher, who merely smiled at me. If I had any real complaint about this town, it would be the amount of over smiling achieved by everyone.
She allowed me to sit in a close proximity to Luke, which I was super grateful for because this guy really did amuse me. The lesson was simple, straight forward and a little unexciting, but I guess I was biased due to my absolute love of history.
After class, Luke took me to his group of people he usually hung out with, including the one super buff guy I had seen earlier who was introduced as Owen, a blonde girl who had mile-long legs (which I was semi-jealous of, due to my super short legs in comparison) who was named Kathy, a beach blonde guy who definitely had the body to go with it named Chase, and girl who looked semi-lost, whose name I was informed was Phoebe. All in all, they seemed like a nice group who were easy to talk with and obviously were one of the more popular groups in the small school. As other students passed (especially those with all x-chromosomes), I could almost feel the intensity of some glares as they passed us by. It was very easy to see I somehow single-handedly made friends with one of the most popular guys at the school. This was actually kinda cool on my part, but also, it made me an enemy to others, such as a super sketchy looking girl who just kept glaring at me the whole break.
Besides that though, I was happy to have anyone to really talk to. It was just an added bonus that those people ended up being very nice as well.
Once the bell ring, Luke graciously took me to my Math class, while he headed off to his chemistry class. He gave me a grin at the door, and said he'd come get me after class so he could make sure I ate lunch. I merely laughed at him, mocking his very lame flirting gestures. Math was not a very exciting time, and luckily I didn't have to really go up and introduce myself to the class (a very big plus for me!) We were let out semi-early though, so I went around wandering the halls. I was walking down the hall looking around, but not too looking around in case I looked in a classroom and someone saw me and we made awkward eye contact (which always happened to me). As I was looking, I saw it. It was big. Beautiful. A baby grand, at least. I looked down the hallway, and I walked into the room with it on, as music rooms always had that magic to gravitationally get me into them in some way shape or form. I walked in and breathed it all in, that band room smell of old music, sweat, spit, and hard work. Don't ask me how hard work has a smell, it just does. I glided to the piano, opened the hatch, and sat on the bench.
I plunked a few notes and played out a couple of simple chords. I vocalized my major scales, natural minor, harmonic, myxolodian, lydian, and literally all that jazz. Seemingly I had forgotten how much singing helped just clear my mind and how it just made me happy. I stopped and breathed a little, then started playing a popular love ballad, weaving my voice all throughout it, going high, low, everything. I was in the music, feeling it all, and instead of the song's traditional ending, I instead landed on a perfect 5th chord, reaching the highest I believed I could go. I closed the lid, mainly satisfied, and turned around to see a boy slouching against the wall, obviously listening to me.
Instinct told me to say something very witty or intelligent, but quick thinking had never been my strong point. However, in my defense he looked equally at loss of what to say. He quickly straightened up very awkwardly, and bowed slightly-to probably seem decently polite-, and then he was gone. I opened my mouth in utter confusion, looked at my phone and gasped at how late it had gone. Luke was probably looking for me, or at least I hoped he was looking for me. I jumped up and ran to the cafeteria, the strange new blonde boy completely out of sight.