It took darn near an hour for my folks to let me leave the house for the first day o school. Daddy paced around the living room angrily griping about the coloreds while Mama cried. She was scared out of her mind that there would be some sort of riot. Finally my best friend, Emma Hoyt, showed up and they relaxed enough to let me out the front door. The day was beautiful and the walk short as I only lived a few blocks away from the school. I half-heartedly listened as Emma went on and on about all the clothes she bought while school shopping. We talked about band and art class and the new cheerleading uniforms the school had recently purchased. And that's when we saw it. There were policemen everywhere and some of them had dogs like on TV. The front yard of the school looked like a madhouse and quite frankly it was a little scary. Kids were just trying to get by on the walkway as officers tried to restrain angry white parents. Some yelled racial slurs. Some held signs that said things like, "Parents Against Bussing". In all my years I had never seen anything like it. I looked around for Ray in the midst of the chaos but my boyfriend was nowhere to be found.

"Over there", Emma said, grabbing my hand.

It felt good to see a familiar face as Emma and I walked up to Gerry. He was talking to someone and as we approached them I saw that it was a tall, black kid.

"Man, where are my manners? Sorry. Julius, this is my girlfriend Emma Hoyt and her friend, Mary-Courtney Davis. Mary-Courtney is Ray's girl."

"Nice to meet you", Julius said, offering a huge hand.

I smiled and shook it. He extended his hand to Emma as well who rolled her eyes and quickly dragged me away.

"Emma, that wasn't very polite", I said as soon as we were away from the guys.

"Who cares? What's gotten into Gerry anyway? Like I would really shake that colored boy's hand."

"He's a regular kid just like you and I", shrugged.

"Oh come on. Not you too, Mary-Courtney."

"What? You sound just like my father and Ray. I don't see what the big deal is."

"The big deal? Mary-Courtney, are you serious? Look around. Look at them."

I looked around at all the people around us. They may have looked different on the outside but we were all alike on the inside. Why couldn't people see and understand that.

"What, Emma?"

"Look at them. They hate us!"

She scoffed at a group of black girls standing near us. They did have mean looks on their faces but who could blame them? They were probably frightened, probably thinking the same way about us that some thought about them.

"They don't hate us, they just don't know us. This will all blow over soon. Everything is going to be okay." I said the words but I wasn't quite sure if I meant them. It was a crazy scene.

"We don't want no colored kids here!" one man screamed.

As he said a boy walked by I had never seen before and the man pushed up against him.

"We don't want you here neither, hippie boy", the man snarled again.

The young man he was referring to gave him a disgusted look and pushed back showing no fear as he continued his way inside the school.

"God, it's a madhouse out here."

Emma and I turned around and there was Ray.

"I know", I agreed. "It's crazy."

"Come on. Let's get you girls inside."

We filed behind the other students and waited our turn to enter the building. A few feet away in front was the "hippie boy" the angry father had insulted. Just one look and you could tell he wasn't from around our parts. He had longish blonde hair that almost touched his shoulders and bright blue eyes. He dressed different too. I couldn't stop staring. There was just something about him.

"Ray? Who is that boy in front of us over there? The one with the blonde hair. I haven't seen him around before."

Ray rolled his eyes. "That's Ronnie Bass. He's a military kid that just transferred here from California. He joined us up at camp. He is the backup for quarterback."

"Oh", I said. "Is he nice?"

"He's a faggot."

"A what?"

"You heard me."

"That's not very nice. Besides, how do you know?"

"Because he kissed Gerry."

Emma and I both looked at Ray with raised eyebrows.

"It happened up at camp and it's a long story. I'll tell you guys later. Anyway, Bass is a weirdo, plain and simple. He's one of them hippies."

Ray said the word with such disgust. I hated how he could be so judgmental at times. Hippies weren't bad people and how did Ray know for sure that Ronnie Bass was one? Just because he had longer hair and was from California it was unfair for people to jump to conclusions. He was probably a nice boy. He certainly looked like a nice boy. And then as if reading my mind, he turned and faced me. He gave me a shy smile before turning back around. I blushed and looked at the ground hoping neither Ray nor Emma had just witnessed our little "interaction". They didn't seem to notice and pretty soon we were inside the school. I quickly found my locker and stuffed a few books inside before saying goodbye to Emma and Ray. The first bell rang shortly thereafter and it was off to homeroom. There were quite a few blacks in my class and I made a point to nod and smile as I passed each one of them on my way to my seat. There were familiar faces to and I was just happy to have Mrs. Johnson for English class.

"Okay ladies and gentlemen, please take a seat and settle down so we can begin class. I am Mrs. Johnson and welcome to eleventh grade English. I will be your teacher for this school year. Right now we are going to take roll and then we'll each stand up and get to know each other a little bit more."

I took out my notebook and began absently doodling on the pad.

"John Andrews...Ann Barber...Ronald Bass..."

The name instantly grabbed my attention as my eyes searched the room.

"Ronald Bass?" Mrs. Johnson said again.

And once more like clockwork he appeared again as if on cue. The door to the classroom opened and there he was.

"Sorry ma'am, I got lost."

"Not a problem, dear. Please take a seat."

There was only one available and it happened to be right next to me. My cheeks burned crimson as he made his way to the back.

"Is this seat taken?"

"Huh?"

I had never seen eyes so blue before.

"I asked if anyone was sitting here."

"Uh...no. Um, go ahead."

He nodded and smiled and sat beside me. I must have sounded like a total dork talking to him. Oh how I wanted to slowly disappear inside myself. How would I make it through the whole year sitting next to that guy? I'd have to get used to it as Ronnie Bass showed up in three of my seven period classes. In addition to Homeroom/English, he joined me in Art and Algebra, a class that looked like a football practice session as there were so many Titan players there. Throughout the course of that first day Ronnie looked over and smiled at me a few times. Something told me that this was going to be a year to remember.