4.
~ After attending such a monstrous high school in Florida and a succession of forgettable, generic middle schools and grade schools of her youth, Norma didn't think she'd be nervous about starting her sophomore year at White Pine Bay.
It looked so small and unassuming. It didn't even have its' own football field. Just an athletic field for general sports when the sun came out, and an ancient gymnasium for when it was raining.
Back in Florida, with heavily packed neighborhoods and many students to provide for, it was normal for schools to swell into enormous compounds of several buildings. So much so that they looked liked their own communities from an arial picture.
Inside, they were built like sports stadiums. Designed to herd its' masses in and out effectively for classes, fire or any other situation. Norma had been washed away by the sheer number of her fellow classmates. Their brightly colored clothes and striking diversity made Norma feel like the monochromatic paint on the walls.
The girls back home all dressed to impress; in vibrant colors of reds and yellows and pinks. They wore these colors with a certain boldness, like badges of honor. Not to be fashionable, or God forbid trendy, but to show how fearless they were. To be the ones who stood out when lesser creatures just wanted to fade away.
Last night, Norma worried her 'new' clothes would be too boring. She was supposed to be starting over wasn't she? Supposed to fit in and look the part. She'd picked out sweaters and jeans a middle aged woman would have selected for herself. Practical things and nothing a high school girl would find fun or cute.
Still, it was too late now, she'd have to make the best of it and see what the other girls wore. She had no idea what they were like at all.
There was a chill in the air and it was foggy outside when Norma's alarm clock buzzed angrily at her. It seemed like the fall weather had picked the first day of school to roll in and cast a shadow dampness all over the village.
Norma got up, washed her face, carefully applied the make-up she'd practiced putting on the night before in her little mirror. She hadn't had much practice at it and felt less might be more in this case.
The apartment was already cold and Norma fleetingly thought it might be too cold for them in the winter time. It was only September after all and their blood was thinned from the muggy Florida humidity. She noticed her mother was still snoring away in bed. A pile of debris somehow growing in just a few short hours around her. Fanny Calhoun wasn't one to pick up after herself and empty boxes, cans and dirty clothes tended to stay wherever she'd last left them with the hope and promise of one day being properly disposed of.
Norma dressed quickly with jeans, a simple blouse and a powder blue sweater to top it off. Back in Florida, she'd be laughed off campus for such a look; but now, she thought she appeared more grown up. Like she could catch a glimpse of the woman she would become if she caught herself at just the right angles.
Her neck was longer than it had been last year. Maybe her cheeks weren't as puffy since Caleb wasn't at home. He'd always been the one to treat her to surgery drinks and even ice cream at the dollar theater once a week. That whole summer, her brother wasn't there to provide them both with the occasional stash of potato chips, snack cakes and other goodies he always had money for. With his absence, Norma had subsisted on a summer diet of cheap fresh fruit and vegetables, steamed rice, water and canned tuna with light mayo. As a result, her skin cleared up and she felt like a normal appetite had returned. Her body had finally given up the puppy fat it had held onto for so long and reveled a slender stomach, hips and graceful arms that Norma thought made her look like a ballerina.
She didn't want to think she looked beautiful, but she certainly didn't think she looked bad.
~ All her fears about being under dressed were alleviated as soon as she walked into the front doors of the high school. With her power blue sweater, Norma was easily the most brightly dressed creature there. Some girls even stopping in their tracks to observe the 'New Girl' who'd ventured into their ecosystem. Threatening to destabilize their delicate hierarchy.
The other girls looked drab and washed out in black and faded flannel shirts over old rock t-shirts. They wore what looked like army boots and heavy eye makeup. Their jeans were ripped with fishnet stalking sticking out from under the glaring holes.
The alternative crowd, those dressed in flannel and in army boots, seemed to dominate the population here, but even those who didn't take part, were not as smartly dressed as Norma seemed to be. She looked practically snobbish in her second hand but pristine sweater, clean and rent free jeans and women's boots.
"You look very nice, Miss Calhoun." Shirley purred from her perch at the front desk. She looked like a cat who just ate the canary on that perch and wasn't a bit sorry for it. "Your classes are all ready. Study hall for Sophomores is first period in the library. I've enclosed a map, but the school isn't very big as you can see. Your locker is number 50 on the sophomore hall.
"I have my own locker?" Norma questioned with shock.
Back home, none of the students had lockers. Or books. A safety and money issue she was always told. Instead, they all had one large empty binder that, by the end of the year was hopefully filled with photocopied handouts, study aides and reading assignments. No one even carried backpacks because of concerns of gang violence but now that Norma looked, she saw that all the girls had purses as well as backpacks.
"Umm…" Norma floundered feeling ready to drown. "It's alright." Shirley said. "You'll go to class now, take your textbooks back to your locker for each class and leave them there. Then take them home with you as needed. I saw which high school you went to. Might as well have been a prison. No wonder your family moved."
Norma nodded, worrying now if she even knew how to open a locker combination. She just knew she wouldn't fit in.
~ Alex caught her. A flash of light blue in a sea of blacks, browns and other dead colors. It was like seeing a glimpse of the long forgotten sky, this mystery girl. She looked lost in the hustle of retuning students. None of whom were keen on saying hello to her, just intent on openly staring at her as though she were an interesting tourist attraction.
He watched her pull her arms around her chest when a senior in a letterman's jacket was jokingly pushed towards her. An eruption of laughter making the girl's face flush red as the senior moved away from her quickly, as though he wouldn't want anything to do with her.
She had to be a sophomore. She was on her way to the library where all the sophomores were taking the intro to the internet as their study hall. First bell rang it's warning. It pained him a little to know this girl wouldn't be in his class. He wondered what classes she was in. What she liked to do. What her parents did for a living. He couldn't explain to himself or anyone else why he was so fascinated with her. Why seeing her up in that window that night had enchanted him so much.
She was always so close to him but he couldn't get to her. Even now, she was so close, but she might as well be on the moon with second bell ringing.
"Alex!" Bob Paris was snapping at him. "Come on, we're gonna be late."
Alex rolled his eyes. First period was math and it was right next door to the library. Maybe he could catch his mystery girl when she left for her next class.
~ "Study Hall is being replaced with computer class." the head librarian said in a winded tone. "We got all this last year from a government grants and there will be a sign up sheet available to each of you. You can use the internet during class hours only with a teacher's permission. On Thursday nights, you may come to the school, and use the computers until 8 O'clock. It's first come first serve then. Printing is five cents a page, no color. When you sign in, you have to write down your name, your grade and what you're searching for." she explained holding up the sign in sheet.
"This is weird." Norma heard a girl say behind her.
Her entire sophomore class was only about fifty kids and they were all squeezed uncomfortably into a row of tables with darkened computer screens. The large, hulking things looked terribly expensive and Norma just knew she was going to break the stupid thing and have to move when presented with a horrific bill. Besides, what could this thing do that a typewriter couldn't?
"My mom was worried the government will track our every move now." one girl whispered.
"My mom said that if I used them too much they would rot out my uterus and I couldn't have babies." another girl whispered and they both laughed.
"Quite!" the librarian called for attention. She turned on an overhead projector and which showed a simple drawing of how to turn the computers on.
"Let's begin." she said.
~ Norma had been used to schools being poor. She'd never really had textbooks before. Only folders with photocopies and workbooks for her to fill out. Here, she had new textbooks in each class and was required to signed them out. She was given a school library card and permission to use their shiny new computer lab as though she wasn't some trailer trash who was only pretending to belong here. She felt like an imposter. As if she was committing a crime. Deceiving everyone into thinking she deserved to be here with them. No wonder everyone avoided looking at her. They probably knew she didn't belong here. Her second hand clothes almost making her look well to do in the mass of weathered black clothed and muted colors of her classmates.
Who was she kidding? She wouldn't fit in. Her english class had a reading list of books she'd never heard of, and what if everyone saw right through her?
She was marching, head down and intent on going to her dance class when she collided into something. All day she'd felt the eyes of others on her. One group of boys even shoving their friend at her that morning. So much so she'd stayed out of everyone's way and focused on getting to her next class. Avoiding the congested hallways, and other students, as much as possible.
"Sorry." a voice said. "Sorry."
Norma said nothing and tried to move past him. Just another jock having a laugh for his friends. Daring each other to feel up the new girl. Norma held her arms close to her chest, her notebooks providing a barrier for her chest.
"I don't know you." the young man said and blocked her path to get away from him.
Norma finally stopped and took a good look at him. She was possessed with the sudden urge to tell him off. This day had been a total disaster and she still had the loneliness of lunch to look forward to.
He wasn't terrible to look at. Not like the other boys she'd seen in school who were overly confident about their appearance, but her horrific crops of ache and lanky bodies. He was strikingly handsome in a natural way, but seemed unconcerned about it. His dark hair and eyes were alarming, and in the sea of normal looking students; he stood out.
She didn't want to look at him. She knew what boys like him were like. He wore a letterman's jacket, had those good looks, boldness and was no doubt talking to her on a dare. He and his friends would hall have a good laugh about her later on.
"I'm Alex." he said carefully examining her face. Norma thought that was odd. The eye contact. Most boys her age went strait for the body when looking her over. As if sizing her up. Appraising her as if she were something to buy.
He waited awkwardly for her to give him her name. His gaze never leaving hers.
"Norma?" she said. It sounded like an odd, uncomfortable lie for some reason.
Alex laughed.
"Norma." he said as though he didn't believe her. "You're new here?"
She nodded.
"What's your next class, Norma?" he asked congenially.
"Um… it's a… dance class." she said suddenly wondering why he was so interested.
Alex looked behind him at the gym. His expression clear and bright.
"You're a dancer?" he asked with enthusiasm.
"No." she said sharply and moved past him, filled with a new aggression to be done with this conversation. In Florida, 'dancer' usually meant stripper. At least in Norma's small world. She had gone to school with many kids who's mother's made a living as 'dancers' and didn't want people to lump her into that type.
She thought she felt this Alex person make a grab for her arm but it might have been her imagination. The memory of how boys were back home and how she expected them to be here was still fresh in her mind.
~ Alex watched his mystery girl flit away from him and disappear into the gym. She wasn't nearly as friendly as he would have hoped. Most girls he'd met were very nice to him. All smiles and always glad to listen and talk to him. He wasn't one of the rich kids, but he'd lived here all his life, played ball and was popular enough.
'Dance class?' he thought. He wasn't sure White Pine Bay even had a dance class. There just weren't that many students. It was while walking to his art class that he remembered Keith Summers laughing at the news of additional enrichment programs last year. They had mocked the new theater class and ballroom dancing and said that they were for these new kids showing up from California with all their new money.
'Ballroom dancing?' Alex thought with a sudden stroke of inspiration. A whole period of time where he could be with this Norma girl. Away from his normal group of friends and away from the heavy course load of school work he was burdened with that year.
He had signed up for art class as an easy A that year, but be didn't care about art. It was a blow off class anyway and he knew their was a waiting list to get in it. He could hear the final bell ring and he made up his mind to switch classes.
Everyone needs to keep in mind this story is set in the mid 90's and that's what learning the internet was like back then. We actually weren't allowed to use the computer lab unless it was for school work and I had to go to school on Thursday nights if I wanted to use the internet freely. It was nice.