Life at Westwood High

Chapter 2

Senior, Nathaniel Thornberry, better known as Nell to friends, stood alone outside the entrance doors of Westwood High, waiting for his good friends Rob Van Dam, a senior; and Jeff Hardy, a junior.  He tucked a few strands of his wavy shoulder length chestnut brown hair behind his ear, his black highlights more noticeable in the sunlight.  The students that passed him to get inside gave Nathaniel weird looks, because of his modern medieval clothing style.  Nathaniel ignored their stares, not being a person who much enjoyed being the center of attention, and stared at someone approaching with his own deep blue eyes.  This someone: Stephanie McMahon.  It was no secret among his friends that Nathaniel had feelings for his beautiful classmate, but he never made the attempt to tell her how he felt, though he was exceptionally courteous to her.  Stephanie and her group of friends made their way up the steps, a mere meter from Nathaniel.  He reached for the door handle and opened the door for the girls.  He looked to Stephanie and smiled; she smiled back. 

            "Thanks," she said and continued to walk passed him.

            "Yeah, thanks, dork," Stephanie's friend, Trish Stratus make fun of him.  Nathaniel's smile fell as the rest of the girls giggled and disappeared into the building.  Nathaniel sighed and let the heavy door close.  He turned back around to find Rob standing behind him.

            "So I'm assuming that was another failed attempt at trying to be Mr. Chivalry," Rob smiled.  Nathaniel nodded his head sadly, not being much of a talkative person.  He stared off and thought of Stephanie.

            "Dude Nell, you totally got it bad for her," Rob kidded around, "But I don't see how it would work, man.  I mean you two are like complete opposites."

            "It could work," Nathaniel said, more so trying to convince himself than Rob, "She DID smile at me."  Suddenly the first bell rang, telling the students to get to their classes.

            "Come on, man, we should get going," Rob said taking hold of the door handle.

          "But what about Jeff," Nathaniel remembered, "we're supposed to meet him out here."

          "You know Jeff, he just probably missed the bus again," Rob laughed, "Now let's hurry up.  Mr. Miller said if I was late to homeroom one more time I'd get a detention.  I don't know why he gets so worked up," Rob shrugged, "That man really needs to take a chill pill."  Nathaniel nodded in agreement as the two friends hurried to class.

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          Meanwhile on Main Street, a car accident was causing major traffic and three Westwood High students to be delayed on their way to school.  Dustin McKay, a nineteen-year-old senior, sat behind the wheel of his black 1994 Ford F-350 truck.  Originally a native of Texas, Dustin wore typical cowboy attire, complete with Wrangler jeans, a black button up shirt, cowboy boots, and a black cowboy hat.  Next to him sat his blue and purple haired friend Jeff Hardy, who had missed his bus to school that morning.  Dustin passed Jeff walking on the sidewalk and kindly offered Jeff a ride.  Then the two went on to the house of their friend, a senior, Amy Dumas, where Dustin usually picks her up and brings her to school every morning.  And unknown to Amy or anyone else, Dustin has strong feelings for her, but has yet to make any move.  Amy sat next to Jeff, fidgeting and looking at her watch every other second, as Dustin turned on the radio.  The country tunes of Toby Keith soon filled the riders' ears.

            "Dustin can you find another street to go around or something," Amy said looking at her watch, "we're gonna be late for school."

            "Hey Ames, don't sweat it," Jeff cut in, "I've been late to school almost everyday for the pass two weeks...Of course I've had detention almost everyday too, but uh…" Jeff chuckled cheekily at his failed attempt to cheer Amy up.

            "Well, that makes feel a whole lot better," Amy said sarcastically.

            "Don't worry Amy," Dustin said in a southern drawl, trying to make Amy at ease, "I'm sure you won't hafta worry about a detention if we tell Mr. Galson (Principal of Westwood High) we were late cuz of an accident."

            "I guess you're right," Amy said, but her worry shifted as they came closer to the site of the car accident.  "Oh my God, look," Amy pointed to the scene in the road.  The front left side of a SUV was crunched into the base of a tree, and the rest of the large tree lay across the street.  A young man was standing beside the car arguing with an elderly woman holding a small white poodle in her arms and two police officers.

            "I hope no one got hurt," Dustin said genuinely concerned.

            "Wait a minute," Jeff said to himself, staring at the young man as Dustin inched the truck closer to the scene.  Upon further inspection Jeff realized that the young man did indeed have green hair as he suspected.  "No way…" He laughed.

            "What is it?" Amy asked, looking out of the window to try to find the answer herself.  Dustin looked also with curious whiskey-brown eyes.  Dustin drove up to the accident following the cars in front of him and was halted to a stop by a police officer as an ambulance drove up blocking the only clear area on the road.  He finally got a good look at the young man and his eyes widened with shock when he recognized him to be a fellow student and friend.

            "Shane!?" Dustin yelled through the open window.  Shane Helms, a junior, upon hearing his name stopped his argument with the elderly woman and looked over to Dustin.

            "Don't worry I'm okay!" Shane shouted and began to approach Dustin's truck, but the EMT's rushed around him, gently tugging for him to get into the ambulance.

            "But I'm not hurt!"  Amy, Dustin, and Jeff could hear Shane's protests, "I'm not getting in that thing!"  Shane unfortunately lost the battle as a police officer escorted him to the ambulance.  "But REALLY, I'm not hurt!"  Shane sighed in frustration, realizing that no one was going to listen to him.  He stared accusingly at the little poodle in the old woman's arms, "This is all your fault!  Stupid dog!"  With that the ambulance doors closed and quickly drove off to the hospital, leaving Amy, Dustin, and Jeff in utter confusion to the whole ordeal.

            "Ya know," Dustin said, staring from the smashed up car to the poodle.  "I don't even wanna know," he said shaking his head.  The next few uneventful minutes of driving to school were spent with Jeff making jokes of how 'only Shane would blame a dog for crashing his car.'  They finally arrived at school and with a little sweet-talking from Dustin to Mr. Galson all three students got by without a detention, which Amy was especially thankful for.

Despite Dustin's concern of this morning's bizarre event, he pushed it to the back of his mind and tried to focus on what busy tasks he would have to help out with during and after school that day.  The kind Texan, always willing to lend a hand, always helps out with the grunt work of most of the school's clubs.  And today in one of those clubs, the Drama Club to be exact, where he works on the soundboard and scenery, he plans on asking a very important question to a very important someone.

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