Remember Me
Chapter One: I Want You To Want Me
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"Lizzie, it's not going to be that bad." Miranda was trying to calm her friends frazzled nerves as the bus took Lizzie, her and their mutual friend David Gordon, or 'Gordo' on it's route to pick up more high school kids.
"Miranda, already my day has gone horrible. I haven't even taken a shower today." Lizzie said a little too loudly.
"Oh, I thought something smelled a little funky, McGuire!" Kate Sanders, another freshman and also arch enemy to the three friends, sneered at them.
"Shut up Kate!" Miranda said coming to her friends defense. Kate rolled her eyes as Lizzie sank lower in her seat.
"I think you look great." good old Gordo said. Lizzie thought he was always just trying to be nice to her.
"Thanks Gordo. You two are the greatest friends someone could have." Lizzie said as the bus finally came to a stop in front of the high school. Lizzie looked out the window at the intimidating high school as kids began to get off the bus.
"Trust me, Lizzie, it won't be that bad!" Miranda repeated as she, Lizzie and Gordo made their way off the bus.
Once inside the building, the three made their way to the crowd of new freshman gathered around a bulletin board to see where their homerooms would be. Once the three of them got their chance to look, Lizzie scanned through the last names, M.
"Zimmerman. Room 205?" Lizzie read and stepped back.
"I have Brown. Room 201." Miranda's face fell since she wasn't going to be with her best friend.
"Lind." Gordo stated, "I'm next to Lizzie, room 204."
"Just great, all of us are in different home rooms. I told you Miranda, this is going to be a bad day." Lizzie sighed, sitting down on the main lobbies round bench. Gordo and Miranda sat down on either side of her to support their friend.
"It's not the end of the world, Lizzie." Miranda started. "Maybe we'll have some classes together, or at least lunch. And if not, we can all get together afterwards and go to the Digital Bean and have ice cream floats." Miranda smiled, putting her arm around her friend.
"Yeah, and if you think negatively then today is going to be bad. Cheer up!" Gordo, always the thinker of the group.
Lizzie smiled a little. "Thanks guys, I guess it's not so bad." They all stood up.
"That's the spirit!" Miranda said as they made their way in the direction of their home rooms. At least they would be fairly close to each other.
As Lizzie walked into her homeroom, she realized that not only would she be sharing it with Kate Sanders, but it seemed like the only seat left in the room was right next to her. Her home room teacher was a science teacher so she would have to share a two seat lab table with her.
"Have a seat so we can begin." Her teacher, Mr. Zimmerman told her.
"Great" Lizzie mumbled as she sat down next to Kate.
"I'm not too excited about sitting next to you either." Kate told her, although she didn't say it as mean as usual. Neither girls knew any of the other students in their homeroom.
Lizzie's mind was on other things as the teacher went through roll call. She barely said 'here' when something her teacher said caught her attention. Room 205 and 204 shared locker sections and would be able to pick their own lockers. Maybe she could get a locker next to Gordo's.
Lizzie was the first up and out the door when it came time to get their lockers. Once out there she raced over to where Gordo was already standing.
"Hey Lizzie." came Gordo's greeting.
"Cool, I can get a locker next to you." Lizzie smiled at him. He smiled back almost shyly. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad. She got the combination for the locker from her teacher and walked back over to where Gordo was already putting his things away and tried her lock. Nothing.
"Stupid thing." Lizzie said, smacking the still locked door.
"Let me help." Gordo offered as he put the remainder of his things in his locker and shutting the door. Lizzie handed Gordo the piece of paper with her locker combination on it. With ease, the locker opened.
"How did you do that?" Lizzie asked him astonished as she watched the other freshman having problems with their lockers.
"You forget that I went to high school for a short time, Lizzie. I've already done this. The trick to the lockers is to push in and then pull out after putting in your combination." Gordo explained to her like it was nothing. "You try." He closed her locker door and handed the paper back to her. As soon as Lizzie tried, her door opened.
"Hey, thanks." She said hugging her friend lightly. He just smiled and hugged her back.
"Ok! Room 205, time to pass out schedules. Chop chop!" The teacher shouted at his students. Lizzie rolled her eyes and said her quick bye to Gordo and took her seat next to Kate.
After ten minutes of examining her new schedule, the bell rang and kids began to fill the hall. When Lizzie made her way back to her new locker, she already found Miranda and Gordo comparing their schedules.
"Lizzie, ok. Gordo and I have period two English and period five Gym together. What do you have?"
"I have period seven English guys and uh, period five Gym. We all have gym together!" Lizzie squealed. After looking some more she realized she had period one, two, and three alone, period four Spanish with Gordo, period five Gym with Miranda and Gordo, and period six and seven alone.
Period one, which was Science Introduction, she was paired up with a Junior who had failed the class twice already. Although nice, she could tell that her lab partner was way more interested in her social life then the academic one. Period two Algebra and period three Global Insights seemed to go by slowly as Lizzie realized she knew no one in her classes.
As soon as the bell rang, Lizzie made her way to her Spanish class that she'd have with Gordo. Lizzie walked through the door and immediately spotted Gordo who grabbed his books from the desk beside his so she could sit down.
"Saved you a seat. How do you like high school so far?" Gordo asked as Lizzie sat down.
"It's lonely." Lizzie said as she flipped her hair out of her face.
"Now you know how I felt when I came here all by myself, only multiply it by like three." Gordo opened his notebook to a clean page so he could take notes for class as the bell rang. Lizzie turned in her seat and did the same.
Mrs. Gonzolla introduced herself to the class and opened the discussion talking about Spanish traditions. When it came to game traditions Lizzie remembered the time when her, Miranda and Gordo were on a Spanish game show with Miranda's cousin.
"Does anyone know what game is played with boxes and rice pudding?" Mrs. Gonzolla asked.
"Oh, I know this." Lizzie said raising her hand.
Mrs. Gonzolla looked at her seating chart, "Ok, Elizabeth McGuire, stand up and tell us your answer."
"Call me Lizzie, please." Lizzie stood up and was about to answer when she heard snickering coming from behind her. There two freshmen boys, one from her Algebra class named Dustin, and one she didn't know were laughing and pointing at her.
"Um.." A girl sitting beside Dustin looked embarrassed for her. "Your pants." she spoke softly as Lizzie looked down and realized her new white pants were ruined by the start of her monthly. Turning back to her teacher with a red face, her teacher excused her to go to the bathroom.
Lizzie made her way through the empty halls to the bathroom, as soon as she had herself cleaned up as best she could, Lizzie locked herself into a stall as tears poured down her face. When she finally made her way back to the room and was about to open the door, the bell rang. Leaning her back against the nearest locker to hide her embarrassing stain, Lizzie hung her head.
"Lizzie," Gordo came rushing over to his friend taking off his sweater. "Tie it around your waist." he said as he handed it to her. Lizzie did as she was told as they made their way to lunch. Turned out that they had second lunch, and Miranda had third lunch so as they found a place to sit Gordo turned to her. "It could have happened to anyone." He was trying really hard to cheer up his upset friend.
"I know, but what a first impression in front of people I don't know. It wouldn't have been so bad at middle school." Lizzie sniffled, still red in the face. "Stained for life, literally" Lizzie said as she began crying again. Gordo sat there not knowing what to say or do to cheer her up.
"It doesn't matter what they think of you." Gordo said as a freshman walked passed their table saying something about a 'Bloody Mary' and laughing along with their friends.
"How am I ever going to get a boyfriend now." She said, tears running down her cheeks.
"You'll still be able to get a boyfriend. They're stupid. Especially if they don't see how nice and pretty you are. Any fool can see that. I can." Gordo said before he could help it.
Lizzie looked up just in time to see Gordo's pink complexion as he silently cursed himself. That's when it hit Lizzie, Gordo liked her and she'd never seen it before. "Thanks Gordo." Lizzie said as she leaned over and hugged him, mostly to show him that his comment didn't ruin their friendship. She held him a little too long and as they pulled apart, Gordo's lips gently brushed against Lizzies cheek and sent a jolt of electricity throughout Lizzie's body.
"Sorry." Gordo gently apologized pulling away quickly. 'What just happened?' Lizzie silently asked herself. They sat, eating in awkward silence until lunch was over and they made their way back for the remainder of their Spanish class together.
With nothing to say to each other, soon Spanish was over as they walked the short distance to the gym where they met up with Miranda. Noticing her friends silence Miranda looked between Gordo and Lizzie and asked them "Hey guys, what's up?" the normal question showing concern in her voice made it something completely different.
Gordo spoke up for Lizzie. "She had a bad experience in Spanish class" he said as he referred to his sweater tied around Lizzie's waist.
"Oh, OH!" Miranda said letting it sink in. "Well, our Gym teacher's name is Gwen. She's really nice, she'll let you take something from the lost and found. Some of it is fairly nice." Miranda said and took her friends hand leading her over to Gwen.
"Well, hello Miranda it's nice to see you again." Gwen, a petite woman in her early thirties greeted them with a smile.
"Good to see you again, Gwen. I have a favor. This is my friend Lizzie and she has had a little 'accident' and needs to find some new pants." Miranda explained about the still red-faced Lizzie.
"I have just the thing for that." Gwen said putting a comforting arm around Lizzie and nodding at her assistant. She lead the two girls to the locker room and into her office where a lost and found box was. "I can't help with underwear but their are some black jeans in there that might fit you. Just look around in it, all of it is clean. Come back up when both of you are ready and I'll write you a note for your next classes."
"We are in this class." Miranda informed Gwen. Gwen smiled and nodded, leaving the girls alone.
Quietly at first, the two girls set to work on the piles of girls clothing trying to find something suitable that would fit Lizzie. "You seem a little more quiet then you should be. Did something else happen?" Miranda said as Lizzie began to tug on a black pair of bell bottom stretch pants. They were a little tight on her, but loose enough to still be comfortable.
After, Lizzie sat down beside Miranda and sighed she began her story, "Something weird happened at lunch today between Gordo and I." Miranda had already seen and knew of Gordo's crush on Lizzie but never had the heart to tell her best friend. She had wondered when something would happen. She nodded to let Lizzie know to continue. "Some guys walked by and made a comment about my little accident and laughed and Gordo told me that guys are stupid and that I'm pretty and nice and they are fools for not seeing that cause he can." Lizzie almost looked shell-shocked.
"So, Gordo says things like that all the time." Miranda didn't want her friend to know she had known for a long time about Gordo's feelings and hadn't told her.
"I know, except I said thanks, and I hugged him. I guess we hugged for a little bit too long and when we pulled away, Gordo's mouth brushed against my cheek and I felt this like, weird electrical thing go through me." Lizzie was clearly confused about the emotions she was feeling.
"Do you like him? I mean, do you like him, like him?" Miranda asked her.
"I, I don't know." Lizzie paused and sighed. "I mean, you know I had that crush on him in grade school and sometimes I wonder what it'd be like as a boyfriend but I guess I haven't really thought of it. I know he likes me now and I'm just so confused cause I mean, he's one of my best friends and I've known him forever. What do I do?" Lizzie looked up at Miranda, a new set of fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.
"I can't tell you what to do, Lizzie. My only advice is to follow your heart." Miranda said hugging her friend sincerely.
"I guess." Lizzie half agreed, returning the hug.
"Well, we should get back to class." she said standing up. Lizzie threw her stained jeans in the trash and followed her friend out of the locker room and over to where Gwen was already taking roll call.
The rest of the day, Lizzie had a lot to think about so she was thankful that she didn't have classes with either Miranda or Gordo. When the bell for school to end rang, Lizzie made her way to her locker. Silently, she stood beside Gordo and packed her books into her bag. She didn't want him to think she was avoiding him so she closed her locker and waited for him before they found Miranda and made their way to the bus. Once on, the bus was full so Lizzie had no where to sit.
"What now?" she said frustrated as she stood in the isle.
"Young lady," the bus driver yelled to her looking through his mirror at her, "find a seat so we can get going."
Miranda spoke up, "You'll have to sit in Gordo's lap, Lizzie." Gordo said nothing but put his bag down on the floor so that Lizzie could sit down. Sighing, Lizzie carefully sat down on him.
The first half of the bus ride was uneventful and awkward as Gordo's hands rested gently on Lizzie's hips. Although uncomfortable, he found himself enjoying the closeness the two shared. Suddenly the bus stopped quickly causing Lizzie to fall forward slightly but before she could hit her head on the back of the boy in the seat in front of her, Gordo's arms wrapped tightly around her waist to stop her and pulled her to him.
"Thanks." Lizzie spoke softly, not daring to look at either of her friends. Gordo decided to keep his arms wrapped protectively around her waist in case it happened again. Lizzie had to admit that she enjoyed that feeling.
As the bus came to their stop, the three, along with some other kids, got off the bus.
"So, are we still going to the Digital Bean like we planned?" Miranda asked.
"I have to go home and change first." Lizzie said, wanting to get cleaned up and into something of her own.
"I'll walk you there." Gordo said almost a little too quickly. Miranda took a hint.
"Ok, call me when you two are ready and I'll meet you there." She said as she walked in the direction of her house.
"You don't have to walk me home, Gordo." Lizzie said bashfully, her face turning a soft shade of red.
"I want to. I think we should talk." Gordo said as they fell into a short silence on the way to Lizzie's house.
"You know..." "I mean..." both started and then laughed.
"You go first." Lizzie offered.
"I was going to ask you if you knew that the welcome back dance is this Friday night." Gordo said as he looked down at the sidewalk in front of him.
"How could I not know, it's only been the thing everyone has been talking about today." Lizzie had a feeling she knew where this was going.
"Well, I mean, if you wanted to, we could like, you know, go together." Gordo stumbled over his words, still not able to look at her and nervous and a little afraid of her answer.
Lizzie was silent for a short period of time unsure of how to answer. She knew what she wanted to say but didn't want it to come out wrong.