I followed Henry through the door and out into the hallway. We stood there for a moment, he, looking up and down the hall deciding where to start, me watching him.
Finally he turned back to me, "I think we'll start at the top floor and work our way down. That ok Anna? It is Anna right?"
I nodded, "yeah."
Dutifully I followed him to the staircase and up three flights of stairs. When we reached the top I leaned down over the railing to look below us. I could see the odd student rushing to room home and well, not much else just stairs. Sighing I pushed myself upright off the railing and went to follow Henry. There was just one problem he wasn't there. I looked around frantically, holy shit! This would only happen to me. How many people get lost on a tour with a tour guide? Only me, that's who.
"Henry!" I said, then a little louder, "Henry!" Still no reply. Running my hands over my hair I looked around frustrated, where had he gone? I got ditched on my first day. So nice, I was going to love this place. "HENRY!" I shouted, maybe someone would find him for me. The door marked 'Boys' across the hall swung open and Henry stood there glaring at me, "WHAT?" he shouted back. I flushed red; he'd just gone to the bathroom. "Sorry. I thought I'd gotten lost." I mumbled. He shook his head at me, "I said I was going to the bathroom." I shrugged; I'd been too wrapped up in my own thoughts to pay attention. "Well can you hold on two seconds? If I go back in to finish buttoning my pants you won't think I ditched you will you?" I turned so red I could feel my face burning, now that I was really looking at him, I noticed that he was holding up his pants with one hand. He must have thought I was hurt or something and came right out. I nodded, "Sorry" I mumbled again. "Yeah" he said, "when I come back out we're going to have a chat before we do anything else."
He turned back into the bathroom and I slumped against the wall moaning into my hands. A great start to the first day at a new school. When I got home and Mom asked me how my day went what am I going to say? "Oh yeah mom, it was great. I thought I got lost and I caught my tour guide with his pants down." Yeah. That'll go over well. I can just see it, "What! I thought you were better than that!" my mother would immediately assume the worse, she's like that. She wouldn't believe that it was an accident she would just think that I made out with him instead of touring the school. I swear it's not my fault she thinks like that, my brother, a sophomore in college, caused her to; she caught him getting pretty steamy with his girlfriend when he was 15 and now she thinks that's all every teenager does. Trust me; it's not easy to live with. It was then that I noticed the girl standing at the top of the stairs. She was looking at me open mouthed, "What I would give to see him with his pants down." She said shaking her head at the bathroom door. I just looked at her in disgust, with perfectly dyed blonde hair and a cute tiny mini skirt and very revealing tank top she looked like the kind that would say that. The girl raised her eyebrows suggestively at me and sashayed away.
"Ugh" I said. "Hey, I'm not that bad looking am I?' Henry was standing at the bathroom door an amused smile on his face. I pointed down the hall, "Her." His gaze followed my finger and he nodded, "Yeah, well, she's not the kind of girl you want to hang out with. She's not mean really; she just sleeps with everybody, even taken guys. She tried to get Jack once. Wasn't pretty. Sarah flipped." I blinked, "Huh?" "I'll introduce you to Jack and Sarah later. But right now, we have to lay the groundwork. 1. Never ever call me Henry. The name's Skittery. Only my parents and my stupid sister whose foul mouth I don't even want saying my name call me Henry. Got it?" I nodded, "Sure. It's kind of strange though." Skittery shrugged, "I've been called that since I was 10. The guys I grew up with decided to change our names; you know the newsboys had nicknames like ours so we found it fitting." I chose not to say anything to that, hell, if he wanted me to call him Skittery, I'd call him Skittery.
"2." He continued, "stay far, far away from the Delancey brothers." I stared at him blankly, "Who?" Skittery shook his head at me, "You don't know anything do you?" Wow, a stroke of brilliance for Skittery. I don't know anything! I would've told him that a long time ago, what'd he expect, I was NEW for god's sake! Instead of voicing this opinion out loud I opted for shaking my head. "The Delanceys are Oscar and Morris. Morris is older but he stayed back so now he's a junior with us and his dumbass brother Oscar. They're nothing but trouble, for everyone, they harass the girls and beat up on the guys. Except Jack, they scared shitless of Jack." Yeah. Ok, I thought. I'm going to take your word on that one. Skittery sighed and shook his head at me as though I was some pity case of his, "Well come on, the nurse and guidance counselors are up here." He started to walk away down the hall and I ran to catch up, "that's it?" He pushed open a door and waited for me to go through, "What do you mean 'that's it'?" He walked in letting the door swing shut behind him. I looked around to find my self in a small hall that ended in what as far as I could see looked to be the nurse's office. "You only have 2 rules?" "Well. Those are the only ones you need to know for now…" he abruptly stopped and stared suspiciously at a boy sitting in a chair waiting to go in to the office, "what are you doing in here?"
The boy considerably paled, "uh…heya Skitt." Skittery seemed to grow larger, "you are not sick! Stop trying to play hooky! It's the first day of school, classes haven't even started yet!" The kid nodded, looking at him. I noticed that he looked a tiny bit like Skittery, "But Skittsssss it's my first day as a freshman. It's scary being in a new school." "Damn it Snitch, I don't care! Get to homeroom now!" Snitch glared at him but got out of the chair and slouched out into the main hall slugging Skittery in the arm on his way out. "And if you come in here again I'll tell Mom where you really were two weeks ago!" Skittery called after Snitch causing the boy to practically sprint to his homeroom.
"What is this racket?" I looked over to see a woman dressed in the white of a school nurse standing in her office doorway glaring at us. "Sorry Mrs. Feldman, just getting my brother to class." She raised an eyebrow at him and he smiled innocently at her, pointing to me he said, "Oh yeah, Mrs. Feldman, this is Anna, she's new here. Anna this is the nurse, Mrs. Feldman." Mrs. Feldman smiled at me, "Hello, Anna. I hope I won't have to see you to often. Not much fun being sick or hurt, huh?" I smiled at her, "No Mrs. Feldman." I glanced at Skittery out of the corner of my eye as we left, "Was that your brother?" He rolled his eyes, "Yeah, the wimp, can't even take first day of freshman year. It makes him feel powerful to snitch out on others. It's a wonder he has friends." I smiled, "Snitch." I muttered, what a name to be stuck with.
It took Skittery 10 minuets to show me the guidance counselors, and the Library and offices on the second floor. As we exited the stairs Skittery stopped short and hollered down the hall to a Boy coming out of the other staircase, "Hey, Blink!" Blink turned around and I was startled to notice that he actually only had one eye, the other was covered by a patch. He frantically drew his arms across his throat, shaking his head and held a finger up to his lips. "What?" Skittery mouthed back. Blink looked exasperated at him and pointed at his watch hand, holding it up. Skittery was still confused, "What?" he yelled. Blink sliced his arms through the air mouthing, "NO. SHUT UP" Skittery rolled his eyes, "Ok." He mouthed. Blink continued to point at his watch, himself, walked slowly around, and mimed waking up, looking at an alarm clock and screaming. "You're late!" Skittery mouthed. Blink nodded, and shooed at us, leaving to slip into a room by the back door. I looked at Blink, "He's late on the first day?" Skittery shrugged, "That's Kid Blink for you, almost as hard to get out of bed as Jack." "Don't worry about him," He added, "He's got this crazy little old teacher who sleeps all day, she won't even notice that he wasn't there." I shook my head to myself as Skittery led me down to see the cafeteria and computer lab. "Is he blind in that eye? " I asked hoping that wasn't forbidden territory. Skittery nodded, "Yeah, some jerk threw a sled and the corner got him in the eye when he was really little, like 4 or something. None of us remember it."
Skittery noticed that I still found it weird that someone could be late on the first day, "If you think he's strange, wait till you meet everyone else. I'd say you get used to it, but you don't. I've known all of them all my life and they still freak me out." So, I thought a group of lifelong friends, great, those are the hardest kind to get into, but what did I know about switching schools and friends? Maybe they would take me. "So," I asked conversationally, "how many guys are in your group?" Skittery thought about it for a moment, "One girl. Sarah, she's David's twin and Jack's girlfriend. Then there is like ten other guys not including myself. There used to be eleven but Spot moved when we were thirteen to Brooklyn." Ohmigod. I can do math you know. There are twelve of them! That's a big group. Wow! And they've all known each other forever?
Whoa…….where on earth was I? In a high school built where a Lodging House for Newsboys once stood, with eleven crazy boys with crazy nicknames and a girl who are lifelong best friends. I told Dad we should've stayed in Tolland….