Chapter 4: First Day of School
Suddenly Paige's alarm clock went off, breaking through the silence like a knife. Paige groaned and rolled over to hit the off button. Paige starred at the ceiling for a couple of minutes before getting up and starting her morning routine. Soon she was dressed in some jeans that, surprisingly, had no rips or tears and a tight form fitting black turtle neck sweater. That sweater was by far Paige's favorite, it was always so soft, even after it's been washed. She wore small silver hoop earrings, and some light make-up. Blackish silver eyeshadow, that was lightly put on. She did want to look nice on the first day, but not over due it, that's why she wasn't wearing a skirt.
"Hmm... hair up or down? Up... Down." Paige said contemplating her choices. Finally she decided to let her hair down. After that was all solved, she went back into her room and put on her black heeled boots, it completed the outfit. She grabbed her book bag and headed downstairs. Elizabeth was already waiting for Paige in the kitchen.
"Mornin', Ma." Paige said sliding into her seat.
"Good morning, honey. What do you want for breakfast?" Elizabeth asked. Paige thought about it.
"Jelly toast." Paige said. Elizabeth nodded and went to make it. She started humming a little tuned, Paige thought her mother didn't even know she was doing it. Soon the toast was done and was set in front of Paige, who quickly ate it all.
"Aren't you gonna eat breakfast?" Paige asked.
"Already ate. Come on, we don't want to be late for my first day of work and your first day of school." Elizabeth said. Paige rolled her eyes, but grabbed her backpack and walked out to the car. They drove to the school in silence. Paige didn't want to talk, she was wondering how school was going to turn out.
Soon they were close enough to the school that Paige could hear the angry shouts from the white people. Maybe this whole movin' thing ain't such a good idea... Paige thought when she saw the protesters. She glanced over the crowd holding picket signs. This is gonna be one of those days...
Once they finally found a parking spot. Paige looked over at her mom in confusion.
"How are we gonna get to the school? If ya haven't notice, there is a huge mob of people standing in the way of the school." Paige said. Elizabeth just looked at her daughter, then got out of the car. Paige sighed angrily and got out of the car, too.
What a great way to start off the day. Paige thought angrily. Paige and her mom managed to get through the crowd, but not without being pushed, shoved and yelled at. Once they got passed the crowd, Paige was glad. She didn't think that even Moses could part that crowd. Paige glanced around at the students on the steps, everyone was separated except for some. She noticed Gerry was introducing Julius to a girl, Paige guessed it was Gerry's girlfriend, but the girl walked off not shaking Julius hand. I was right. This is gonna suck.
"Come on, Paige." Elizabeth said, jolting Paige out of her thoughts. Paige jogged to catch up, she was thankful that her mom wasn't going to call her any embarrassing names.
"Yeah." Paige replied. Her mother didn't say anything until they were in the school.
"You need to go to the office. Tell the secretary your new and need your books, locker and schedule. I have to get to my classroom and set up. So, are you going to be alright on your own?" Elizabeth asked. Paige rolled her eyes at the protectiveness of her mother and nodded her head.
"I'll be fine." Paige answered. Elizabeth nodded and walked away. Paige looked around before heading towards the office. She got lost a couple of times before she finally found the office. Paige walked up to the secretary. The secretary looked up with a scowl on her face.
"Yes?" the secretary said looking over her half moon glasses.
"Um... I'm new here and I need my schedule, locker number and books." Paige said resisting the urge to be sarcastic. The secretary narrowed her eyes for a moment before looking down at a list.
"Summers, Paige?" the secretary asked not looking up.
"Yeah." Paige answered. The secretary got up from her seat and went to grab Paige's school books. Paige waiting looking around, the office was very plain. When the secretary came back carrying two books.
"This is your calculus and history books. And here's your schedule, which has your locker number and combination. This is a pass from your first class. Now off with you." the secretary said shoving the books and papers at Paige.
"Thanks." Paige said and left the office. Right when she left the warning bell went off. She sighed and went to find her locker. Once she found it, she stuffed all the stuff she wouldn't need into it. Paige walked towards her history class the bell rang when she was a couple of doors down, she didn't really care cause she had a pass.
As Paige walked into the class, everyone starred at her and some started whispering to the friends. The teacher looked up from the roll call to glare at Paige. Paige resisted rolling her eyes, it seemed that everyone wanted to glared at her today. She reached in her jean pockets and pulled out her pass, which she gave to the teacher. He looked at it for a moment, then motioned she could sit down. Paige looked around and spotted an open seat in front of Gerry, who was motioning her over. She lightly shook her head at his antics, but took the seat.
"Hey, New York." Gerry said leaning over his desk. Paige glanced back at him and flashed him a rare smile.
"How did ya know?" Paige asked.
"Accent." Gerry stated. Paige rolled her eyes and turned back to face the teacher.
History class was boring, the teacher just droned on about the French Revolution. Paige had to admit that she almost fell asleep, but then the bell decided to ring. Paige grabbed her notebook and book, and walked out of the class. She was walking towards her locker, when Gerry caught up to her.
"Hey, New York." Gerry said walking next to Paige, who rolled her eyes.
"My name is Paige. If ya call me New York, I'm gonna ignore you." Paige said. Gerry laughed and raised his hands in defense. He motioned to three guys who was walking behind him.
"That's Alan, Blue and Petey. Guys this is Paige." Gerry introduced. Paige turned around and shook their hands. Paige remember these guys from class, passing football shaped notes to each other. Petey also was making jokes about the teacher to people sitting near him.
"Nice to meetcha." Paige said. Petey walked on the other side of her with his arm around her shoulders. Paige raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything.
Later that Day
The school day seemed to drag by for Paige. Gerry had introduced her to most of the football team at lunch. She realized that she had some classes with different players which was cool, but other than that it was a horrible day for Paige. Art was okay, only because her mother was the teacher, but that's it. Most of the teachers didn't like her to begin with, why, Paige didn't know, but they did.
As soon as the last bell rang, Paige was out of the classroom and at her locker, she didn't have no homework, so there wasn't any need to bring home her book bag. Paige shut her locker and went to her mom's classroom. Paige walked in on her mother talking to a student, Paige smiled embarrassed.
"Sorry... Um... I'll just wait out in the hall..." Paige stuttered, shutting the door. She sat a little ways off to the side of the door waiting from her mother to get done talking to that student. The student looked oddly familiar. I know I've seen him before... what's his name... Paige thought, trying to think of the guy's name. Rev... Yeah, that's it! Well, that's what the football team called him.
Suddenly the classroom door opened and out stepped Rev. Paige looked up and smiled softly as she stood up. He smiled back and held the door open for Paige as she walked in. She watched him until the door closed. Paige heard a cough behind her, she turned around to face her mother.
"So how was your first day of school?" Elizabeth asked. That question caused Paige to frown again.
"It was horrible. But that's not why I'm here." Paige started. Elizabeth frowned at the school statement, but motioned for Paige to go on. "I wanted a set of keys to the house. Also I wanted to tell you that I'm goin' out. See the town and all that. I'll be back at dinner."
"Sure. Here's your set of keys to the house. I'm going to stay a little late." Elizabeth said. Paige took the keys and left, not waiting for anything else. Paige took off running from school towards the house. Once she all the way to her house, she went up to her room and sat on the bed to catch her breath.
Paige got off her bed and went over to the trunk below the window. She opened it up and pulled out a pair of black ice skates and a small black gym bag. She shut the trunk and went back over to her bed. Paige stuffed the ice skates in the gym bag, then zip the bag up and walked back out of the house.
I wonder if they have an ice rink around here... Paige thought. She knew she was in the Berg, she heard Julius and Gerry talking about it. Paige looked around not seeing any visible signs of an ice rink, so she decided to go in a diner and ask someone. Paige walked into a diner most of the people starred at her, Paige ignored them and walked up to the bar.
"So, kid, what will you have?" the waitress asked. She looked Paige up and down.
"I'll have a coke." Paige started, but before she could say anything else the waitress left to go get the coke and came back.
"Um... excuse me, Miss. I know your busy, but I was wondering if you could tell me where an ice rink is." Paige asked politely. The waitress looked shocked for a moment before a smile crept onto her face.
"You skate?" the waitress asked.
"Yes, ma'am." Paige replied.
"Hmm... There's a rink a couple of blocks down. Most people don't use it, but the owner keeps it around." the waitress said. Paige could feel a smile cross her face, she stood up and gave the money for the coke to the waitress.
"Thanks." Paige said. The waitress just shook her head.
"You look like a good kid, you can come in here anytime." the waitress said. Paige smiled and nodded. She headed out of the diner and down the street. Soon the ice rink came into view. Paige walked up to the door and knocked. Soon Paige could here footsteps coming towards the door.
"What do you want?" the black man said looking at Paige.
"Um... I talk to a waitress at the diner and she said this was the only ice rink in Alexandria. So... I was wondering if I could skate." Paige said, shifting from foot to foot. The man looked hard at Paige for a moment.
"The rink is a mess." the man replied. Paige shook her head.
"I could clean it up. Please... I just moved here and skatin' takes my mind off problems." Paige said getting desperate. The man sighed and walked out of the small house and towards the rink building, Paige followed him. Once he open the doors to the rink and flipped the lights on, Paige grimaced.
Trash litter the benches. Some of the benches were rooted up out of the cement or gone. The ice looked the worst, cuts and scrapes, pieces of flakes. It looked like someone took an ice pick to it or didn't use the Zamboni in a long, long time. A little fog was covering the ice, something was wrong with the dehumidifiers. That can be easily fix. Paige thought. She could also see the locker room doors on the other side of the building.
"Are you sure you want to fix all this?" the man asked. Paige looked around, even in the bad condition, the rink seemed to calm her.
"Yeah. I can clean all this up." Paige said. The man shrugged.
"There's trash bags and a tool box in the manager's station. The Zamboni is in the back room." he replied pointing both the rooms out. Paige looked and nodded. "Well, anything else you need I'll be in the house."
He left Paige to her work. She walked into the manager's office and noticed that it was clean. She set her gym bag down, grabbed some trash bags and went to work.
Several Hours Later
Paige sat back on one of the top benches and admired her handiwork, everything was clean. Not entirely spotless, but clean. No trash was on the floor, all the benches that were up rooted were nailed back down. The locker rooms were spotless, Paige went crazy with the disinfectant. The Dehumidifiers work, it was only a two wires that were crossed. The ice was by far the hardest thing to fix, but she managed to do it. The ice was level, shaven, no cracks and crystal clean, it practically sparkled. Paige was so proud of herself.
Suddenly the man, Joe, came in carrying a sandwich. He almost dropped the plate when he saw the state of his ice arena. He walked up to where Paige was sitting and sat down next to her. Handing her the plate. Paige waited for Joe to say something, anything about the job she did. Please let him like it... Paige prayed.
"Wow." Joe muttered, looking around in awe.
"Ya like it?" Paige asked.
"Like it! It looks almost brand new. How did you do this?" Joe asked. Paige went to explain, but he cut her off saying, "No, no, no. I mean where did you learn how to do all this?"
Paige paused, thinking it over before starting her story. "My dad, god bless is heart, used to play hockey up in Manhattan. I grew up in ice arenas, my dad taught me everything about the rinks. I wanted to play hockey, but I was a girl so figure skating was the closes I could get. After he died... I kinda quit, then my mom and I moved here."
"If you don't mind me askin' why did ya decide to skate now?" Joe asked.
"Had a bad first day at school." Paige said. Joe nodded, and motioned to the sandwich.
"Eat up. You deserve it." Joe said standing up, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys, well it was a ring with different keys attached. He handed it to Paige, who looked at him in confusion. "Here. There the set of keys to the building, manager's office and the backroom."
"I can't..." Paige started. Joe shook his head and handed the keys to Paige.
"You deserve it. Plus you look like a good kid. Who knows you might have another bad day." he said. Paige smiled and handed him the empty plate. She ate the sandwich, sometime during the conversation.
"Just remember to lock up after your done. Have a good night." Joe said walking out of the arena. Paige looked at her watch, noticing she had forty-five minutes before she had leave. That's plenty of time to get some skating in. She jogged into the manager's office, grabbed her gym bag and went back to the arena. She took off her boots and put on her skates, then tightly laced them up. She walked onto the ice, instantly she felt at home.