Chapter four: Friends or Enemies?
Emily tried hard to find her locker, but there seemed to be hundreds of them.
Her eyes glanced at the small piece of yellow paper in her hands.
"187", she muttered quietly and blinked with her eyes. She checked the number a second time and looked around to read the digits written on every locker with deep blue paint.
The girl followed the order of numbers and stopped when she realized a flock of boys walking along the corridor. Almost all of them wore jackets of the high school football team, so Emily knew how they thought about themselves. Those guys belonged to a different species, a kind of disgusting snail without showing any trace of having a brain bigger than an extremely tiny pea.
Emily ignored them as well as possible and went on to concentrate about the locker digits.
"Ah! Found it!", she said happily and attempted to open it with the combination the principal's secretary had written down on her sheet of paper, but it didn't worked.
The group of boys had stopped behind Emily, `cause they believed she couldn't see them where they were standing now, but in fact she could. They always checked the new girls in town and they were used to choose who was worth it to pay their attention to. The guys started to laugh and to give marks on the girl's hair, her eyes, her body and so on.
How dumb can a these boy be?', she asked herself. They seemed to think she was completely deaf and blind, `cause they were speaking loudly enough allowing her to understand every single word.
"Hair: 9 points", a blonde boy leaning on the wall said. He tried to sound like an expert, but his voice reminded Emily of one of these salesmen who'd gone on her nerves for several times. This thought made her grin. She decided to stay and to find out what effect she was having on male Roswellians of her age.
"9 points? I think they're worth more than 9. My rating is 10", another guy replied grinning.
"Yep, it's a clear 10 and nothing else. Coloured like mahagony, long and curly, that's how I like it!"
A wave of laughter followed and then they began to talk about her body.
Emily shook her her head.
"That's so typical for sixteen-year-old males", she whispered when she finally decided to try opening her locker again, "As clever as the homo erectus!"
"Who is like what?", a voice asked next to her.
Emily turned around and looked into the face it belonged to. A boy wearing a football team jacket, too, with dark eyes and hazel coloured hair stood only a few steps away from her.
Emily blushed a bit and hoped he wouldn't have understood exactely what she'd said about the herd of football players over there.
"Nobody, I'm sorry. It's just this damn locker", she said.
He came closer and with a quick move of his arm he bumped his hand against the door of her locker.
It clicked and was open now.
"Thank you!", Emily said giving him a friendly grin. The girl put the stack of books into it which she had carried all the time.
"I'm Kyle Valenti", he said, "I had this locker last year so know how to use this damn thing" He showed her all of his white teeth in a wide grin.
"Emily Frost", she replied and shook his hand. She didn't wanted to be one of these girl guys like him used to play with.
Kyle didn't seem to understand why she kept distance between them, so he said "*Cool* name!" and started to laugh out loudly, "Frost ist such a cool name! Do you understand? Frost ... cool ..."
"As cool as YOU are?", Emily told him seriously. She hated jokes about her name and people who were as sensitive as a rock.
Kyle nodded half-kidding. "Maybe?"
"If you get more cool than now I'll be frozen in half a second. Poor Kyle! There would be no-one who laughs at your *funny* jokes", she said ironically and calmly, but without any trace of humour in her voice.
Emily closed her locker and walked away without waiting for Kyle's reply.
***
Who does he think he is? The most fantastic guy in the world?', the girl thought angrily while seeking her English class.
Suddenly she felt somebody crashing into her. Emily fell backwards and landed painfully on her back.
Wonderful!', she thought, The second time today. Did I invite ev'ryone to a "bump-into-Emily-Frost-party"?'
"Ouch", the voice of a girl said loudly. Emily looked up and found her lying on her back, too.
"Maria?", she asked while jumping on her feet.
"Yeah, it's me. Could you help me standing up or do you want to watch me lying on the dirty floor any longer?", the blonde sixteen-year-old said half-kidding and blinked.
Emily longed for her hand and a few seconds later Maria stood on her feet again.
"Thank you, ... your name is Emily, right?"
The girl nodded and let her fingers went through her mahagony coloured curls.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you coming", Maria added with a smile.
"Never mind, I'm okay. Do you know where Mrs Laurence's English lessons take place?" Her voice was clear and friendly without the sarcasm she'd used when she spoke to Kyle.
"Mrs Laurence's, hum? In the first storey, room 62. You should hurry up, Mrs Laurence turns into a dragon if you're late", Maria advised her and pointed at the stairs next to them.
Emily gave her a grateful grin and wanted to walk away. But suddenly Maria grabbed her arm and refused to let her go. Her face had turned into a mask, without any visible sign showing her emotions, almost like a stone.
An image flashed into the dark-haired student's mind and paralyzed her for a second slpit:
[Max Evans the Crashdown the boy who tried to stop him by holding his arm like this...]
"You know what happened" Maria's voice showed traces of mistrust and her her hand encircled Emily's arm like handcuffs. Emily shook her head slightly to become clear again.
Their eyes met and the glances melted into each other. The blonde girl recognized the serene blue shining like the sky an hour before sunset. She tried hard to focus them, to forget her own reflection and to see the truth behind all that creepy colour.
"I know", Emily finally replied, "But it's not my task to tell you. I'm sure Liz is goin' to tell you ev'rything. She trusts you, believe me"
With these words the blue-eyed girl freed her hand and left Maria where she was hoping that she wouldn't be angry because of the answer she got.
